What is a Christian?
“I took a course in art last winter. I learnt the difference between a fine oil painting, and a mechanical thing, like a photograph. The photograph shows only the reality. The painting shows not only the reality, but the dream behind it. It's our dreams, doctor, that carry us on. They separate us from the beasts. I wouldn't want to go on living if I thought it was all just eating, and sleeping, and taking my clothes off, I mean putting them on... “
-Verta Louis Simmons character from Harvey
“Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.”
-Elwood P. Dowd, character from Harvey
“Fly specks, fly specks! I've been spending my life among fly specks while miracles have been leaning on lampposts at 18th and Fairfax!”
-Dr. Chumley, character from Harvey
Someone very close to me was talking about Kanye’s candidacy for president. “At least he’s a Christian,” they said. Hearing this statement prompted me to ask- “what does that even mean?” How are we portraying Christ and His teachings to our young people (or all people for that matter)? Is someone a Christian because they say they are (thereby making it a self-determinant). Are they a Christian because other people say they are (group-think determinant)? If so, what determinants are used for evaluation? Dr Howard Thurman called Christianity the “Jesus Religion” in his explanation of the “love-ethic” as a contrast to the systems oppressing the very humanity Jesus loves. It seems a reasonable assertion that to be a disciple of Jesus is to have Jesus determine what you love, how you love, and what is valuable. Is this what is meant by being a Christian?
If someone says they are Christian, the phrase is often used to suggest, not that I walk with the living Jesus, but that my values align with the predominantly white-evangelical groups of the Western world and its concomitant groups or institutions. All of our thinking is done for us. This immediately classifies the possessor as “one of us” and not “one of them.”
I often hear it used in reference to politicians. Prayer breakfasts, anti-abortion statements, church services, holding a Bible, acknowledging religious holidays or religious people- things like these are used to define who is Christian and who is not. These activities are the determinants of “who is in” and “who is out.” The issues of importance are also defined. Are they against women’s reproductive rights? Are they against homosexual unions? Are they against insurance provided birth control (but for male virility drugs)? Are they against health care for all? Do they support women in roles of leadership? Do they refute the idea of systemic racism? Are they for or against separation of church and state? What about the treatment of immigrants? What about health disparities? Do they support the teaching of evolution? Do they acknowledge climate change? What about gun control? Now, even nationalism is thrown in there. Recently, some mega-churches waved American flags in their services and sang patriotic songs. Do these things define Christianity or the “Jesus Religion?
“Well”, they proffer, “we use the Bible as our guide, that makes us Christian.” This baffles me. Recently, an African-American preacher endured a man’s insistence, using scripture, that those of her race are subhuman. Women endure scripture as a means to silence and subjugate them. I have heard it taught by popular Christian media that gun ownership is a natural law employed by God and God wants us to own and use guns. I have heard it taught that the United States’ treatment of slaves and Native Americans is completely justifiable “in accordance with scripture.” Ostensibly, this thinking justifies the mistreatment of immigrants who look to us to embody the welcome Emma Lazarus penned in "The New Colossus" and is prominently displayed on The Statue of Liberty.
How scripture is read is so important. It cannot be cut apart in pieces and fully understood. It must be read with the due scholarship and integrity of any other book - in original order, in original context of culture and time, in original genre, and from start to finish (rather than a piecemeal approach that cannot offer true understanding). It must be read prayerfully, questioningly, and meditatively. The “Jesus Religion” reads it is a unified story pointing to Jesus with wisdom for our time (from thebibleproject). But does scripture make us Christians? The early Christians did not walk around with pocket Bibles or whatever. As far from reality as this seems, perhaps to be a Christian is walking, talking, and listening to Jesus, just as the original humans walked and talked with God in the Garden “during the cool of the day.” This is now a relationship that affects all other relationships. Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship of Israel “making God a law, and the law god.” Christianity is apt to the same error. Jesus says this in Matthew 7: yes, you did a lot of important sounding religious stuff, but “I never knew you.” So then, what does it mean to be a Christian? How are we to know Christ?
The movie Harvey is an oddly sweet movie that explores such themes as what is real and what is unreal, what is functional and what is dysfunctional, and, in the array of characters, who is foolish and who is wise. Scripture itself paints such an image. It recasts our vision back to our origin, reshapes our purpose in the present, and crystallizes a future unlike what we know. It grapples with this world. Elwood P. Dowd grapples with reality after the loss of his mother (inferred). It can also be inferred that Elwood was responsible and dutiful for a time. But at some point he met Harvey, the leporine pooka. How did Elwood’s life change upon meeting him?
“Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar.”
The first significant thing I notice in this scene is the pronoun “us.” It is Elwood and Harvey together, it is their relationship that draws people to them. Unlike the sanatorium, where people are forced against their will, people eagerly come to Elwood and Harvey to unload their burdens. They are so very unusual, but oh so very pleasant and inviting. People intuitively know that they will be accepted by them. Whatever it is that makes Elwood so care-free and gentle, they want to know it.
“Nobody ever brings anything small into a bar” also stands out. Elwood brings his six-foot, three-and-a half-inch pooka into the bar, a very large animal spirit, trickster friend. Large problems, large hopes, large regrets, …all of it requires something large to lift the burden. Harvey has very large ears with which to listen. Harvey is magical and fantastical. The weight of their burden is lifted by such a presence as the relationship between Elwood and Harvey.
“Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ - she always called me Elwood - ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.“
Wrestling with reality, Elwood at some point tried the “smart” route; after all, reality often pins people to the ground in this way. The movie implies that this way is pragmatic, expected, responsible, and traditional. There is no relationship to something “large.” This underscores the reason people usually leave Elwood and Harvey without coming back- their envy. They are compelled to carry their large burdens alone. Elwood’s relationship to Harvey has changed his life. But there has been a price to pay. Most are unwilling to pay it because it makes them look foolish. They choose to be smart.
Elwood is taken to the sanitarium to be involuntarily committed and treated. The offense seems to be his behavior related to Harvey. No one else sees Harvey, they only see how Elwood relates to others as a result of knowing Harvey. His behavior is unusual. He walks around unhurried, does not seem eager to get this or sell that. He smells flowers, notices sunsets, really notices people and engages them. He picks flowers for strangers. He readily compliments them, lifting their spirits. He discerns their longings and their hopes. Dr Chumley criticizes his lack of self-indignation. Rather than anger at his sister for trying to lock him up, Elwood simply remarks at how prodigious she has been- “She did all that this afternoon? That Verta is a whirlwind!” He is with Harvey and none of this concerns him. His lens of reality is completely altered.
Wilson responds violently to Elwood as a suspicious danger. The sanatorium, ironically named Chumley’s Rest, eventually aims to take Harvey away from him so that he can return to “reality.” The movie demonstrates the varied responses to Elwood’s manner. Some see a threat, some see a madman, some see a fool, and others see an unusual friend. Who saw what depended mostly on what they were looking to find. Was Elwood a fool divorced from the way things are, or a “wise-fool” (Medieval archetype) that operates in an unusual way with wisdom perceived only by the truly observant. Jesus’ experience was similar: the institutions, the comfortable, those in power, those content…they saw a dangerous and foolish man. To those longing for hope, they saw someone large and magical, someone whose foolishness was the living wisdom of God.
Elwood sincerely wants to introduce people to Harvey, though they do not see him. However, he has “won out” over reality. The cab driver has seen those who wrestled with “reality” and lost. The cabbie drives people to Chumley’s Rest. They are pleasant and relaxed. They look at sunsets, smell flowers, talk to him, and enjoy the ride. After their treatment, they are changed. The institution aims to take away all that is magical and fantastical. It aims to inject responsibility, obligation, and “reality” into their life. As Dr Sanderson and Ms Kelley prepare Elwood for his injection, the cab driver tells Verta , “After this, he'll be a perfectly normal human being, and you know what stinkers they are!”
So what does this have to do with being a Christian? Tony Campolo described being a Christian as “being made alive by the Spirit of God.” He goes on to describe how you laugh and cry like never before. CS Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters of the Spirit freeing our personality to be more real, not removing or dulling our personality. How does this happen? The promise of Jeremiah and Ezekiel is “a new heart and a new spirit.” Jesus tells us more about this in John. The first fruits of Jesus’ resurrection happens during Shavu’ot, as the Holy Spirit is given to those who are hoping in Him. We are promised this “new heart and new spirit” as the very personal Presence of Christ. Bonhoeffer writes in The Cost of Discipleship that we now regard one another through Christ. Not as friend, not as enemy, not as Greek, not as Jew, not as man, not as woman ,… our relationships are to Christ and through Christ. Being Christian is more like Elwood longing to introduce others to his friend than it is the sanatorium trying to mold people into a broken and dysfunctional form of reality. To be a Christian is to be in relationship with a large and magical friend that frees us from cares, opens us up to other people, awakens us to beauty all around us, and infuses us with the hope that it only gets better. Such a relationship seems foolish, but it is the way of the “wise-fool.” The wisdom of God is foolishness to the world. It is the realization that much of our time has been spent with fly specks while miracles have awaited us unnoticed.
Institutions are not privy to miracles. They function properly and with rudimentary principles to which all its values must point. Institutions cannot be Christian or make something Christian. Calling yourself Christian means nothing. I can call myself a library, but that does not make it so. The only thing that weds us to the “Jesus Religion” is Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus is with you and so you interact with others alongside Jesus. How did Jesus interact with the world? He accepted those rejected by the religious community. He did not cling to power or privilege, but readily gave them up for the benefit of others. Though literally God, He humbled himself as a servant. To the rich young ruler, He told him wisdom is in giving all that up. But there was a touch of envy in him as well, and he did not come back. “Reality won out” in his case. To those burdened with guilt and shame, He gave pardon and acceptance. To those burdened with sickness, He gave healing. To the comfortable, He asked how can you rest in your comfort while your brother suffers? The khata, pesha, and avon that destroy relationships and communities were lifted by Jesus. A strange New Kingdom emerged. Nothing Jesus said or did made sense to those in religious power or to the Roman culture. What does it mean to be a Christian then? To be Christian is to be in relationship with Christ in such a way that His Presence transforms what you love, how you love, and what you value to conform to the image of Christ.
The problems of this world, as khata (sin), pesha (transgression), and avon (iniquity) stem from a breach of trust and relationship. I will not cite all the scripture at this time, but starting with the Torah and moving through the Writings and the Prophets, there are very concrete themes. We (all humans) are God’s image and are made to relate with Him and each other as such. Idolatry is not just a sin, but it is a transgression (“breach of trust”) and an iniquity (“bent”). Looking to wealth, national pride, alliances, power, economy, war machinery to give us what we want is the reality formed when idols emerge. No longer relating to God, we forget how to relate to one another. Rather than humility and wisdom from knowing God (Job and Psalms describe this well), we become arrogant, proud, and entitled. Reality changes from the “unseen” to the “seen.” Leaders become like pharaoh. Nations become proud and justify oppression. Ultimately, our appetites (for power, privilege, possession, pleasure, position) govern us and transform us into beasts. This is the story told by the Torah, the Writings, and the Prophets. Recently, I read this clearly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jesus summed up the whole of scripture well: “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (“muchness”) and love your neighbor as yourself.” To do less is idolatry, which always leads to injustice. To fulfill this is to see the Kingdom of God in full here on Earth. So, to be Christian, people must come to know Jesus. It is Jesus that restores this love to humanity. To inject another reality is to make people into “real stinkers.”
But what about abortion, homosexuality, guns and all of that? I have carefully considered positions on these things. I will not share them at this time since that is precisely not the point. I would challenge us all to remember Jesus heals and restores people, not topics. (Yes, His teachings inform topics, but Christians rarely go to Jesus on such matters.) The kind of people that know Jesus act more like Elwood P. Dowd than Mr Wilson. Yet, too many Christians act like Mr Wilson. “And that is too bad.”
Recently I spent some time with a good friend whose political views differ from mine. How do I interact with this person? I can say scripture says…and they would respond “yes, but it also says…” and the hostility grows. I do not apologize or back down from my positions, but in such occasions “ I can be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” I asked Jesus to relate to my friend through me, not to their position on a topic, though we should be able to articulate our hopes and the reason for them. (After all, our “painting” must show the dream behind the “reality.”) There was no tension, though there was opportunity. Because of Jesus, I was more grateful just to know them. I experienced briefly what Will Campbell meant by “love them all.” I was able to leave in Christ’s hands what belonged to Christ. I do intend to get involved politically and articulate my position, but when it comes to people, I hope I can be pleasant, invite them over for a drink, listen to their “large” stuff, and say “I’d like you to meet someone...”
This song by The Call, featuring Bono, conveys the message that knowing Christ looks noticeably different than the reality we knew before encountering him.
