The Dali-ization of the Gospel and Bible
May 11th, 2009 by John
Take a moment and reflect on Salvador Dali’s artistic, if not unusual depiction of the watches. What strikes you? For me (and I am no art critic), I am taken by the limpness of the watch cases. Something that I know is supposed to be sturdy and house intricate mechanisms that mark time aren’t really limp like deflated balloons.
The way Dali depicts watches is how USAmerican evangelism depicts the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the Bible, and the Gospels in particular, depict as a sturdy, captivating reality, the USAmerican Church has made as appealing as a banana peel. A revelation in Jesus Christ of dynamic energies driving the missional story of God’s redemptive actions can’t get most Christians off their couches. Why? Oh, I know that many Christians go to church and some do some ‘convenient-to-their-schedules’ servant-like stuff, but overall a majority in the USAmerican church limps along waiting for Jesus to come back so they won’t be “left behind.”
Just imagine USAmerican Bibles–all those KJVs and NIVs and TLBs and TNIVs. I’d love to see a skilled artist paint Bibles the way Dali painted the watches. Bibles might be best sellers, but they aren’t read much. They lie limp on the bedroom dresser or backseat of the car waiting until next Sunday. What is sturdy reading for USAmerican Christians? Lucado? McArthur? Piper? Our Daily Bread? Oswald Chambers? Joyce Meyer? Beth Moore? I have nothing against these fine people, just like I have nothing against taking vitamins. The Bible is the wholesome meal; all other writers are mere vitamins, even N.T. Wright and Scot McKnight. And these two men would agree.
John Wycliffe died for putting the Bible into English and into the hands of the common man and woman, even the plough boy. For all the rants against the “Catholics” in past eras because they couldn’t read the Bible for themselves, we USAmerican evangelicals now have our Protestant “popes” filling the pulpits telling us that we are not trained well enough to get at the wonderful “systems” hidden within the messy, messy stories of the Bible. Pastors of a certain bent toward insecurity do not want their “crowd” reading the Bible on their own in small groups. Heresy may erupt and mutiny might break out. I feel the need to apologize to John Wycliffe because perhaps he died in vain after all for what he dared to do.
Lazy Christians run around crying, “Feed me! Feed me! My pastor is supposed to feed me.” And there is a kind of pastor who is suckered right into this whining because it gives him or her a sense of value and a place in the lives of those needy folk. Most parents teach their kids to feed themselves. Might not pastors learn a thing or two from parents?
[Dali picture from Google images]
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Wow,
So very very true unfortunately. May I never endeavor to be the Pastor that fills a hungry spirit. May I be the one that leads them to the life giving bread and then teaches them to eat it and make it on their own.
Personally, I am looking for good leadership, not good eatership. The church needs leaders, and leaders should be inspirational, influencial, and exemplary. Neil Cole stated “we are educated beyond obedience”. We need leaders who will lead us in obedience to the expansion of the Kingdom. Don’t tell us what to think, lead us in how to serve.
I’m seriously looking!
Carl,
I’m with you. What if the pastor’s role was to raise more questions in the minds of his people than they could ever formulate and then release them into a passionate journey? The pastor as “answer man” is very unlike Jesus the Pastor(Shepherd).
Ken,
You got em–leadership, not eatership. Great line! If we educate Christians until they are “ready” for obedience, then guess what? They will NEVER be ready. That is not the way Jesus trained his 12.
Great post, but………….How DO we get Christians to start reading and engaging their Bible?
Mich,
I hinted at it–serve appetizers rather than meals…ask more questions that drive people to the Bible rather than give ‘answers.’
serve
good point
i think that questions call and gather rather than drive.
questions are good.
take out the pews and set up some round tables.
pews stink.
[...] by ruach on May 23, 2009 John Frye at Jesus the Radical Preacher uses Dali’s 1931 Persistence of Memory to talk about Christians and their limp Bible reading habits…“Bibles might be best sellers, but they aren’t read much. They lie limp on the bedroom [...]
[...] few posts back I wrote about “the Dali-ization of the Gospel and the Bible.” I mentioned a visual remake of Dali’s painting. Connie did [...]
Great post! I stumbled through from a friends blog. I’m new here, but will have a look around!
A friend once told me that the problem with the church is that there’s no graduation. Not that people should graduate like they do form school and never have to return. Church life should be an on-going reality in the life of every believer. But it should probably look a bit different.
There’s generally not any indication in the mind of a pastor that on some level his/her job is to become obsolete… that people would eventually be able to not only pastor themselves but others as well. Its a seriously co-dependent relationship where pastors need parishioners to need them.
[...] From a May 11, 2009 blog entry on The Dali-ization of the Gospel and Bible: [...]