Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Jesus Throws the Best Parties (Jonathan Storment)

Jesus Throws the Best Parties (Jonathan Storment)

Last updated on: April 23, 2014 at 5:10 am by Scot McKnight

Jesus Throws the Best Parties (Jonathan Storment) 2014-04-21T14:19:51-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This past Sunday at the church I [Jonathan Storment, @Stormented] serve, we started a new Easter series called “Jesus Throws the Best Parties”

For many people, partying is seen as a way to escape reality or it is reduced to something for 5th grade birthdays or college students with over-active hormones and their parents’ credit cards.

But there are better parties than these. And Jesus knows how to throw them.

As strange as it may sound, parties are one of the primary ways Jesus changed the world. Let me explain…

My favorite hymn of all time is hands down, “O Holy Night.” It is easily one of the most profound, powerful songs that the world has ever sung. Even the lyrics recognize this. “Fall on your knees” is not written as a request, it is as if those who sing this have no choice, in the light of the gospel, but to worship.

Because Heaven has entered earth and now “the soul feels its worth.”

What a great line. The chains are released and the slave is our brother…because the soul feels its worth.

It is one of the best hymns that has ever been written.. And from a historical standpoint it is incredibly accurate.

When most of us think of human rights, when we think of equity and justice and mercy, what we think is almost entirely influenced by the Jesus story. Heaven has intersected earth and changed everything. The soul has felt its worth.

Rene Girard was a French philosopher who taught at Stanford University. He was a brilliant anthropologist who was fascinated with one single question: “Why, in modern times, does the marginalized person have moral authority?” This trend was confusing to Girard because there was nothing comparable to it in ancient literature. In fact, everything was really the exact opposite. The ancient world, celebrates the strong, the heroic, not the vulnerable and weak. And this fascinated Girard, because he noticed that this movement was picking up steam. Liberation movements working for minorities, people working against modern day slavery were growing more and more popular. But where did this way of thinking come from? And that is where Girard’s life began to change. He traced this social phenomenon all the way back to the life of Jesus. He discovered that with Jesus’ birth and death, Jesus introduced a new plot to human history. The victim mattered. The people who were oppressed mattered. And to the confusion of his peers at Stanford University, Rene Girard, this great thinker and secular humanist, started following Jesus.

We live in a world that thinks the most important thing that you can do in your life is take the right position on the right issues. Jesus reminds us that the most important thing is to be standing with the right people. This is how Jesus’ ministry worked. It slowly created a new ethic. God came and celebrated life among the least of these, until everyone else started to realize that they mattered too.

And slowly it worked.

Who would have ever thought that sharing water with a Samaritan divorcee, or having a party with a tax collector would have such far reaching significance. Who would have thought that a Judean carpenter, who never wrote a word, never travelled extensively, would so radically alter the world? Jesus’ life slowly deconstructed an economy 1500 years later that was built on slave trading, and after two thousand years impacts sex-trade and human trafficking. And He did it primarily, not by writing books or blogs or preaching sermons.

He did it with parties.

That may sound strange, but it happens all the time. Jesus has awakened us to the reality that the worst lie that someone can believe is that some lives matter more than others. And He does it by standing with all the wrong people. More to the point, he parties with all the wrong people. In fact, here is a good rule of thumb for Jesus’ kind of parties. If you find yourself at a party with all the wrong people, you’re probably in the right party.

A few months ago, the church I serve had a party for Martha. Martha had been in prison for over a decade, and after she was released she had to spend years on probation and parole. On the day her parole finally ended, we threw a party to celebrate Martha’s freedom. She was re-entering society fully, and the church thought that was worth a bit of cake and punch. So we threw a Jesus kind of party and for an evening, people celebrated something really significant. There were tears and hugs and high-fives and junk food.

But Martha’s party really started a few years earlier. When Martha first entered prison, she was incredibly lonely. The other inmates around her were receiving letters from friends and family, but Martha didn’t really have a support group. She was more than incarcerated, she was alone. One day a prison chaplain was talking to her, and suggested that she read the New Testament. Paul wrote lots of letters, just consider those God’s letter to you. And then the chaplain gave Martha a Bible.

Martha, not one for sentimentality, ignored the chaplain. 2000 year old letters couldn’t replace ones from a friend. But a few weeks went by, and eventually Martha picked up the Bible. Initially she was just going to skim through it to justify why she should dismiss it. But one word caught her attention and got her to read the whole letter, which eventually got her to read the whole Bible, and eventually Martha gave her life to Jesus.

The word was in the Apostle Paul’s letters to the Ephesians. The word was in verse one, of chapter one, when Paul was telling them who he was and why he was writing.

“I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus…”

And the soul feels its worth.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 23, 2014

The Perfect Storm against the Faith

Next Post

April 23, 2014 Every Praise

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How old was David when he became king over Israel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

30 years old 25 years old 20 years old 40 years old