Christianity Should Sound Like Jesus, Right?

In which I analyze the sermon given by Rev Mariann Budde at the Service of Prayer for the Nation.

Remember Toys “R” Us?

Growing up, Toys “R” Us was the mecca of toy stores. We didn’t have one in our town (we had to settle for K-B Toys, the Temu knockoff of Toys “R” Us), but I’ll never forget the first time I walked in to the glory that was the Toys “R” Us in the big city north of my small town.

Ceilings up to the sky. Shelves just as high. Sections of toys and video games divided in to different categories that each consumed my attention and desire, going on forever and ever and ever.

Now, imagine as an adult walking through a Toys “R” Us (which is harder to do nowadays since most of the stores closed a few years ago; but they’re slowing re-building! Yay!). Imagine walking through the store, exiting to the parking lot, returning to your car and saying to your friend (who also weirdly walked through teh store with you as an adult) and saying,

“Meh, that wasn’t actually a toy store.”

That level of disconnect from reality is what I experienced last week when people listened to Rev Mariann Budde’s sermon at the Service of Prayer for the Nation and at best said, “That wasn’t very Christian,” and at worst called it propaganda and heretical.

In the words of one guy (whom I refuse to name or link to), he said it was: “good that America got to witness what the subversion of the church and our Christian institutions looks like—in all its ugly glory—in live time and on a mass scale.”

Not a toy store?!

Bro… what are you smoking?

---

Analyzing Mariann Budde’s Sermon

If you missed it, yesterday I did an analysis of Rev Franklin Graham’s prayer at the Presidential Inauguration. In it I made the claim that while it sounded very much like Christianity (or at least, as the religion is often espoused in America today), it didn’t sound anything like Jesus.

Today I want to run a similar analysis of the message that Mariann Budde gave not 24 ours after Graham’s prayer.

As a reminder, here are the four categories guiding my analysis:

1. Bible Passages Used

2. Themes Employed

3. Their Big Idea

4. Resonance with Jesus