How Jesus Was A Millenial

I just read this article titled “5 Ways Jesus Was a Millennial” by Mark Osler, a Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas. It is found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-osler/millennial-jesus_b_3762381.html?utm_hp_ref=christianity.

I have to agree with all five ways Mark describes that Jesus was a millennial. I want to comment especially about two of them, as I think they are unique to our own Episcopal Christian faith worship and experience.

The first one is #2: Churches are unwelcoming to those with doubts. I have found in my belonging to a handful of Episcopal churches here in our Diocese over the past 37 years that having doubts about our faith and many aspects of our lives with Christ is very normal--and healthy! It might be difficult to convince those outside our churches (the buildings and communities) that this is so, but I think this is a most important thing for us to think about when we want to invite others to become part of our faith. Claiming we somehow know all the answers or even implying that the answers are here for the taking is not being forthright and honest. I know there are probably some people looking for simple answers to life and faith, but I believe Christianity is not simple and most everyone has doubts and most also do not want the answers just handed to them. So we need to think in terms of messages that are clear about this, and talk about our struggles as well as our joys with our faith.

The second one is #5: The Church is too shallow. This actually relates to #2 above, because Jesus did charge those religious leaders in his time and even his apostles of being shallow in thoughts and experience. No messages with meaning to our lives and faith, no dealing with doubts—just laws and judgment. As the author writes, “When people encountered Jesus they always walked away angry or amazed or crying out in thanksgiving. Our churches very rarely give us that. It takes too much boldness.” If all we’re interested in is finding people to join our churches who are just like us, to join and help pay for our buildings and fancy worship and music programs and the like, we are really missing out on what the point of sharing our faith is, and we also are missing the full experience of what our faith can be. We as the Episcopal Church have a lot to offer (with our ways of worship and our emphasis on study of the Bible and other religious materials and sharing our faith and experiences in small groups), if we can get to the boldness part of action going forward!

Jim