Blue Like Jazz

Last night I was so blessed to hear an incredible speaker named Donald Miller. Two years ago he wrote a book called Blue Like Jazz which really took off among believers as well as non-believers. He presents an amazingly real view of Christianity. He doesn't profess to be any sort of preacher-- just a "man in the pew" like the rest of us.

His talk last night was "Romeo, Juliet, and Jesus". I can't count how many times I have taught this play to students-- some like it, some don't. But, last night, I was shown a side of the story that I had NEVER considered-- that the entire story mirrors our relationship with Christ. We are the Romeo who has no power to change our name or nature apart from Juliet (Christ). Then and only then can we be "newly baptized" and share in a real relationship with Him. I can't do the entire talk justice-- but it truly was eye-opening for me. At the end, he showed a clip from Baz Lurhmann's remake of the film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. He pointed out that surprisingly, Baz made Biblical/spiritual references throughout the movie-- with a cross in almost every scene. And in the final death scene, he stages it in a church, with Juliet (Christ) laid out as a sacrifice on an altar. Romeo must walk down the aisle and then join Juliet in Death, then Lurhmann pans out to show that Romeo and Juliet are lying within a huge cross made from thousands of candles. - much like Paul talks about us dying with Christ to rise again in a new relationship with Him.

Another great point that he made was how our Americanized culture has stripped the power of the gospel--- that as good consumers, we are always on the look out for the miracle product that will change our life and bring us happiness and fulfillment.... and that we have done the same with Jesus. We want a 5 step plan on how to have a relationship with him that we can easily implement and that, if pursued correctly, will bring us the fulfillment we long for.... He says that it is a complete distortion of Christ's message. That if it were some type of formula, Jesus would have laid it out for us in scripture-- He didn't... Instead he presented everything in terms of relationship metaphors-- Father to child, Shepherd to sheep, King to servant, etc.

Miller's bottom line point was that the very nature of finding Christ resides in that relationship and NOTHING else.... that our "Age of Enlightenment" mentality has robbed us from seeing the amazing beauty of the love relationship He wants to have with each of us-- that we have lost the artistry and beauty of the story, and we have tried to reduce it to something we can prove or measure. He argues that it cannot be done-- which is so hard to accept in our "see it to believe it" world. He says it is simply a beautiful mystery which cannot be explained any more than you can walk up to a blackboard and define the steps it takes for a man and woman to fall in love.

A great example he gave of how our logical minds hear and interpret Christ-- When we read Jesus' claim that we must reject mother and father, etc. to follow Him, we think, "That is so harsh! He was such a by the book kind of guy. How can I ever do that?" But when we read Shakespeare's Juliet say to Romeo deny thy father and reject your family, we think, "Oh how beautiful! What a love story!" We need to reorient our view of Christ in relationship terms so that we don't miss out on the amazing obsession and love He has for us.

Anyway-- it was a SUPER talk that I wish all of you could have heard! It really made me think, and I went home and read half of Blue Like Jazz last night!

I thrive on people who can challenge me to see things in a way I have never thought of, and Miller did just that!

Check out his site for some excerpts from his books!

http://www.bluelikejazz.com/