Honk if you love Jesus.

"Jesus loves you, but I am his favorite."
I saw this a while back on a bumpersticker in Berkeley and must admit it may be one of my all time favorites. Being stuck in massive amounts of traffic while driving in the Bay Area for the past eight years I have become a connoisseur of bumperstickers and what I call bumpersticker theology. Perhaps you have seen a few as you have maneuvered your way through traffic or found yourself unconsciously meditating on while sitting at a red light. It is almost like getting a song in your head that you don’t like, yet can’t seem to stop yourself from humming. Maybe you have seen them: "What part of ‘Thou Shalt Not’ didn't you understand? " "I don't question your existence." —God." Then there’s the most famous of all, "Honk if you love Jesus."

Have you ever wondered why people seem to like to take what they perceive to be Jesus’ message and reduce it to something we can put on a bumpersticker? I wonder what Jesus thinks about all these bumperstickers? Especially those that make him out to be a sugar-coated messiah who came to free people from their need to cuss and have sex before marriage.

What about the Jesus who said, "I have not come to bring peace but a sword"? Honk, honk? I don’t hear too many horns blowing on this statement. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure there are some folks who honk because they love Jesus who want a God with a huge sword to kill everything they fear, don’t like, or misunderstand. This passage has been abused for centuries by some hateful Christians to attempt to justify evil. (Can there be such a thing as a "hateful Christian"?) Isn’t that the same mentality that killed Jesus? Jesus did bring a huge sword, the sword of truth and love and he proceeded to slay the dragons of hate, exclusion, oppression, persecution, fear, ignorance and intolerance for those who are different because of their religion, race, eye color or sexuality by speaking the truth of God’s love for all humanity and the present reign of God. He tells us that the way to slay the dragons is not by killing everything we dislike or misunderstand in an effort to create a perfect "people" but to love in the manner he did-- to slay hate by love. To slay injustice by loving enough to take a stand and "honk loudly". To love enough to speak the truth about God’s love for all humanity, not just those who share the same bumpersticker theology. Perhaps if I was willing honk with my heart, honk with my faith, and honk with my life in the same manner Jesus did we wouldn't need bumperstickers.

So go ahead and honk if you love Jesus, but honk with your life and dare to make such a loud noise that the religious and politcal powers want to silence you. See you at the cross, beep beep.