The Oracle of Pink Jesus

I’m holding a Christmas gift I just received. It’s 12 inches tall, molded plastic that has a ceramic feel and a nice weight. It feels good in my hand. It’s a pink Jesus with long flowing hair and robes. His right hand with two fingers extended in the sign of blessing is touching the exterior sign of his sacred heart. His left hand rests upon the sash draped across his shoulders. There is some temptation to not take this figurine seriously. However, I want to take note of certain aspects of this statue that suggest otherwise.

First, pink, often a color associated with Mary (as well as blue) is usually used to represent God’s love and forgiveness. Second, the devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus symbolizes Jesus’ love and his wounded heart, broken by our suffering.

The most fascinating part of this figurine of Jesus is when I turn it upside down. In the base is a clear plastic circle revealing blue fluid. Inside the figure is floating a multisided dice with messages like, Hallelujah, I would, Wait for a sign, for Christ’s sake, The holy water will sting, Have a little faith, let me ask dad, ye of little faith, I forgive you, yes my child, have a nice afterlife, watch out for the lightening, hypocrite, resist the devil, sinner, no chance in hell, it is not righteous, I still love you, pray harder.

Need an answer? Consult the pink Jesus. Sounds funny, odd, maybe a little sacrilegious, I guess that’s why I like it.

Finding answers from the pink Jesus, may be easy, but most likely not always reliable. It seems a lot of folks would like to find the answers of God the easy way. I mean, seriously, wouldn’t we like to have the oracle of the pink Jesus setting on the mantle at home.

But, as we all know, finding trustworthy answers that sustain our life can only come from the hard work of spiritual formation.

In this morning’s epistle (I Thessalonians 5:16-24) we hear these admonitions, “rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise the words of the prophets, abstain from evil.” This is, indeed, our part in the hard work of spiritual formation. God’s part, the epistle says, is to sanctify us. Sanctification means we are in the process of being made holy by God. We yield ourselves to the process by doing the work - praying, listening to the Spirit of God, reading the words of the prophets, and avoiding evil; and while we are doing our part, God forming us into the image of Christ.

What is that going to look like for us? St. Paul who wrote the letter to the church at Thessalonica, says that God’s process of making us into the image of Christ will take place in our spirit, our soul and our body. God’s work is a holistic act. And our work of spirituality is also the complete work in the spirit, soul and body.
(I Thessalonians 5:16-24)

Our spirit, the pneuma, is the essence of our life and a gift from God. Like the wind, our spirit is invisible, immaterial and powerful. Our spirit comes alive in the creation of our life – it is the power of our being created in the image of God. We are responsible to be stewards of the gift of our life from God.

Our soul, the psuche, which is the root word of psyche, is the totality of our mind, the conscious and the unconscious. We are responsible for the development of our soul, our psyche. The work of the soul is difficult because it encompasses that which is not tangible, concrete or visible. For most people, the work of the soul goes against their nature because the work can be, at times, daunting. In the work of the soul we must study the scripture, encounter spiritual reading, take on spiritual practices and disciplines of prayer, we must consider the importance of our unconscious through dream work, and we must be about the work of reflecting upon our experiences with God (usually through journaling).

Our bodies, soma, is the instrument of life, the complete person. St. Paul makes at least two references to the value of physical training. While Paul makes it clear that the work of the soul supersedes the exercise of the body, he also wants us to know that we are to be good stewards of our physical health as well as our soul.

We are holistic beings who are gifted with life. We are expected to be good stewards of the gift of life by participating with God in our ongoing creation. We are co-creators with God in the maturation of our life. our whole life, complete life, spirit, soul, and body. We cannot ignore our responsibility of the stewardship of our life.

I have an example of how this formation process works. Thursday night at our St. Brigid’s gathering we celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. The gospel for the evening was the story of children coming to Jesus. In the story, the disciples intend to dismiss the children but, instead, Jesus draws the children into the middle of the circle and tells his disciples that in order for adults to enter the kingdom of God they must become like the children.

For Thursday night’s sermon, I invited the children, ages 4 to 11, to sit with me on the floor. I asked them three questions, “Who is Jesus? What is your favorite story about Jesus? And, give me one word to describe Jesus.”

Nine children sat with me and told me the stories of Jesus, the message of Jesus and of their conversations with God. The air was holy.

I have always been convinced that the methods of Godly Play will bring the children to deeply hear the Bible stories and the make them their own stories by asking the “I wonder” question – now I have upped the ante. After sitting on the floor with our children and listening to them tell me about the life, story and teachings of Jesus – I am convicted that even if the church were to die, the word of God will exist in the life of these children for all time. The children’s relationship with God and their understanding of the stories of Jesus are mature beyond their years.

Of course, as soon as this powerful, holy, sanctifying moment was over, the kids were outside running and playing.

In a nutshell, this is the message of Jesus and Paul – You can know God by knowing the stories of Jesus in your spirit and your soul - and then go outside and run and play. It will do your spirit, soul, and body a whole lot of good. And you’ll get better answers than from the Pink Jesus, who says, “The Holy water will sting”.