Wednesday, March 07, 2007

De-centering #1

You, Oh Lord are a harbor.
A harbor from the storm,
Oh Lord, You are my calm.
You, Oh Lord are a harbor.
A harbor from the storm,
Oh Lord, You are my calm.

Shelter me.
Wrap your loving arms around me
Shelter me.
Let Your wings of mercy cover me....
Shelter me.
Let your loving arms surround me.
Shelter me.
Let your wings of mercy cover me.

I've been thinking about something that was talked about in my Multicultural Evangelism class - about how all of this centering language (as in "Jesus, Be the Center") sends out the wrong signals. A move to the center is actually a move away from Jesus, because Jesus is out on the margins. A move to the center is to stay in our comfortable spirituality, much like the praise song posted above suggests.

I think we might be in trouble when we think Jesus is our "shelter." I'm not sure what about the gospel account of Jesus suggests this image in any way. And what would he be protecting us from? Christians are hardly called to be an insular people.

I'm still mulling this over in my mind...perhaps more thoughts will come later.

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