dreadlock Jesus

wading through david gill's excellent book doing right, and finding john piper is to theology what david gill is to ethics. john piper's works are so heady that they are, to me, like brussel sprouts: good for me, i know i must get them down but it is a struggle. david gill's work is like brussel sprouts with cheese, in that he is so funny in his footnotes, it keeps me snickering through a very serious subject.

i found this in one of david gill's footnotes (makes me think i'm not so crazy after all):

I find most artistic representations of "Jesus" appalling. A Palestinian Jew could not possibly have looked anything like the Euro-Jesuses often depicted. They are deeply alienating and offensive, especially to many people of non-European origin (to say nothing of what the real Jesus must think, looking at this stuff). Jesus could have posed for a sculptor way back when if he thought it was important for us to see him represented this way. He chose not to. Do you want to disagree with his choice? Do you want people to have to accept your preferred image of Jesus, however historically impossible and culturally alienating it may be to others?

now of course if i had said it that way, i might have offended no one, and there is something to not being offensive. but my works and thoughts don't seem to come out that pretty. this book is the fodder of some twenty-years thought on gill's part. mine, the fruit of five minutes labor. ah, well. i guess i could let stuff ferment a while, but maybe it's the wineskins?

i flicked on the t.v. to get the brussel sprouts with cheese off my brain (i am doddling, i confess!). what do i see, prince. purple rain. ah, i watched the very end and loved it. flick the channel to vh1 classics, and there is lenny kravitz, are you gonna go my way? flayling those long medusaesque dreadlocks around to the rhythms of those drums, while grinding out a riff on his guitar. it is all so beautiful to me. i can't help but say, if that were Jesus, i'd sure as heck be saying, YEAH! so it makes me think. Jesus must at least be half as talented as lenny kravitz. or prince. hmm, let's see. He did create the sun and moon and stars.

He created lenny kravitz and prince. that makes me think again about what kind of music God would enjoy. what kind of message would He have for His church today. I can't help but sing along with lenny, are you gonna go My way?