Just who are we kidding here?

I may not be the brightest or the best but am I the only one who gets ticked off with some of the advertising we get these days? My latest mob to gripe about is the Woolworths organisation. Now we are regular Woolworth shoppers and I am wondering just why I am supposed to be impressed by the large signs through the store advertising ‘LOWER SHELF PRICES.’ In fact they brag that many prices are less now than they were twelve months ago.

So I am supposed to be thrilled with the knowledge that Mr Woolworths has been reaping a large profit over the past year and now – having ripped me off all this time – they are ‘generously’ reducing their prices. Well, excuse me for being completely under whelmed and just a little bit cynical.

Last week we drove back from Coffs Harbour and between Kempsey and Port Macquarie passed my least favourite piece of Christian advertising. The sign said: ‘Jesus is the answer.’ That is all that’s on the large billboard just four words. I’m a member of the Christian family but can’t help wanting to ask as I drive by, ‘What’s the blooming question?’

As Christians we still have this unnerving habit of pulling out our favourite Christian cliché, or even get all Biblical and use a favoured verse from the gospels to impress people into considering following Jesus. For those who think that this is an effective way of communicating matters of faith, please, please tell me where on earth you got this idea!

There are some wonderful verses in the Scriptures that show just how significantly Jesus touched the lives of people, and there is the number one clue. People didn’t write these verses down because of what they knew; but rather it was a matter of WHO they knew. It took the relationship to blossom long before the words were able to express it. We grab these words as if they have been anointed with magic dust and only have to be sprinkled liberally over our target and all will be well.

John wrote about the time of the Last Supper when he and Thomas were chatting with Jesus: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Nowadays we can tend to trot out the underlined verses as proof of just who Jesus is and actually expect people to be impressed! I believe that verse with all of my heart but would be very reluctant to use it as a proof of Jesus’ divinity in a spiritual debate. It is a style of advertising not all that far removed from the best efforts of secular advertising agencies. The Woolworths campaign for me proves that those agencies are convinced we are gullible fools. It doesn’t mean the church has to endorse the theory.

I talk about journey a lot. Over three years Jesus picked up a large bunch of people and they hung out together through a variety of situations. It would have been easy to call it quits and obviously many did along the way. However many chose to stay and the longer they did and the more transparent they became and the more vulnerable they became, something powerful began to grow. In fact something unstoppable was birthed.

This is Christianity 101. It is a commitment to journey together. I believe that God can do anything including working through a big Billboard in the middle of a paddock on the Pacific Highway. For me Jesus is the answer but this is best discovered / experienced through a bunch of people on a journey together with Jesus. It takes time and is often frustrating and painful and I call to mind that our faith is symbolised by a cross, an instrument of pain and death.

Do I want to be part of a Woolworths style of the faith? Let me think about that for a second – Nah!