The conversation emanating from our house church's common interest: "The Next Christians," by Gabe Lyons was so inspiring last night. Really great discussion about the marriage of social justice to following Jesus, and declaring the entire gospel narrative in what we teach, and even more pressing - how we live. Since reviewing the book here at culchur, it has not disappointed in the hopes I had for it and our group.
Kari is one of our friends who comes over on Wednesday nights. She is in advertising, and is really great at what she does. The agency she works for had produced a spot for one of their clients for the super bowl, so our conversation turned to the highs and lows of this year's super bowl commercials. As a side note- we had the privilege of celebrating with Kari as she had just found out they would be working with this really amazing children's hospital. As she described the hospital I imagined it would be a lot easier to get out of bed tomorrow morning knowing she was working with such a redeeming cause, and this made me very happy for her.
The commercial that has certainly generated the most buzz in our community (and nationally for that matter) came from Chrysler. Chrysler's two-minute spot not only did a brilliant job of branding their product, it created a very stunning and resonating image of the city of Detroit. Whether it's our monthly trips to serve at the rescue mission or taking in a Tigers or Red Wings game, I spend a lot of time in the city and have an equal love and burden for it. Detroit rarely gets mentioned in a positive manner...wait that's a brutal understatement - Detroit gets pummeled by everyone - from national talking-heads to comedians looking for a cheap joke. In a two-minute advertisement during the super bowl Chrysler galvanized a community. No one is so blindly naive to believe that a commercial solves anything, but how do you quantify an intangible like pride?
There is so much power in image. Genesis tells us that we were created in God's image - I'm pretty sure we have no idea how wonderful that truth is. This brings me full circle to the conversation we had last night. The next Christians, as Lyons describes, need to be restorers of the imago dei in every human being. I'm currently reading "Generous Justice" by Timothy Keller (review coming). Keller is the kind of person/pastor I want to be. In this book he makes the argument that experiencing God's grace and doing justice are so intertwined, it's impossible to separate the two. As I think about the crater like impact Chrysler left on the city of Detroit, I can only imagine the exponential impact of restoring the image of God in every one of his children. As I let the passages of Scripture that deal with orphans, widows, and the oppressed marinate, I can't help but think the injustice we see originates in a great deficit of that blessed image in which we were all created to live and move, and have our being. When we do justice, we are doing repair-work on the imago dei within those God has entrusted to our care.
Image restoration: liberating people from the image given to them by society, and replacing it with the pride that comes with their true image as sons and daughters of God. How do you quantify an intangible like pride?
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