My friend David, who died
two years ago yesterday, despised religion. But he also had two young sons,
so I know he celebrated Christmas, after a fashion. Well, his partner was
Jewish—maybe the light sabers the boys got one year were for Hanukkah (which
also began last night). I dunno.
Regardless, I think David would appreciate today’s Advent piece, “The
Rebel Jesus”. Jackson Browne wrote it for the Chieftains’ 1991 Christmas CD, The
Bells of Dublin.
The lyrics certainly apply to the state of Christmas and evangelical Christianity today—where the money-changers that Jesus threw out of the temple
have taken over mega-churches to preach the gospel of prosperity. Well,
prosperity for them, at least. Guarding the world with locks and guns—check.
Guarding fine possessions—yepper. The kill shot, though, is the line about
anyone interfering with the business of why the poor are poor: “they get the
same as the rebel Jesus.”
If anything, that’s only got worse in the decades since this song
was released. That gospel of prosperity’s added an amendment: if I can’t be
prosperous, please, God, at least make someone else worse off than me.
David understood that acutely.
Well, here’s the cut from that Chieftains album.
And I’m still grateful for my friendship with David. What a grace that was.
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