I Write This from the Boat

I Write This from the Boat

Chris Cox
Weekly Lectionary

I don't know if I could really do it. In my heart of hearts, I hope I would. If white supremacists marched into town, would I stand in their way? Would I boldly andnon-violently protest their hatred? If Charlottesville happened in Nashville, would I stand arm in arm with my brothers and sisters of all races?

Showing that solidarity is what Jesus calls us to do. There is no doubt about it. Racism is a scourge and a lie. It has taken the lives of countless people and held down exponentially more. Its evil is alive and well in this country. Watching Virginia today has stomped on my heart. Yet then I remember that so many African-Americans see this ugly side of the country every day. More than that, I know that I have benefitted where others have not because of this ugly side.

I hope I would do the right thing. God, I want to do the right thing.

I Don't Recognize Your Jesus

I Don't Recognize Your Jesus

Chris Cox

Sir,
I don't recognize your Jesus. That is the simplest way for me to say this. You say that God has given the leader of our country the authority to wipe another person off the earth by whatever means necessary. You acknowledge that this includes means that would annihilate millions of lives. Eliminating exponential scores of people alongside the man who has cruelly punished them is no sort of justice. It surely isn't in the realm of anything one would call pro-life. The act is evil, pure and simple and you are saying that God is blessing this: a means of death and destruction, tools full of utter disregard for humanity, and weapons that could wipe life from the face of God's good creation.

I do not recognize your Jesus. I don't hear your Jesus blessing peacemakers or loving his enemies. I don't see him offering forgiveness or weeping over the lost. I don't see him laying down his life for others. And I'm sure you might point out that Jesus once said that he would bring a sword. But this, nuclear destruction, is not what he was talking about and let's not pretend you think that was what he was talking about either.

Your Jesus is not the Prince of Peace and Son of God I see in the Bible. He is a cartoon cowboy riding a weapon of mass devastation in a Kubrickian farce. Your Jesus screams "MAGA!" and reigns over the Kingdom of the U.S.A. rather than the borderless Kingdom of God. Your Jesus blesses excruciating death rather than being one who overcame it.

Dancing in the Dark

Dancing in the Dark

Chris Cox

The ABBA-evoking piano swells in the background as Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler sings out in a staccato groove "Every room in my house is full of s--- I couldn't live without out." The juxstaposition is pronounced. There is trump and tragedy in Butler's declaration. The music makes you want to dance while the words make you want to make you mourn the consumerism that has swallowed culture whole.

That's Everything Now in a nutshell. Musically Arcade Fire continues to dance in the direction they started with previous release Reflektor. And the lyrics rummage through the complicated, broken world. There are moments that touch on a darkness the band hasn't hit since Neon Bible. Of course, Arcade Fire is not the first band to sing about the darkness while trying to dance. They won't be the last either, but this band is talented enough that it makes for an interesting, rewarding, if not perfect listen.

Wrestlepalooza

Wrestlepalooza

Chris Cox
Weekly Lectionary

Dusty: Welcome back to Wrestlepalooza א! Joe, this event has been nonstop, bone-crushing action!

Joe: That’s right, Dusty. The crowd is still going bonkers after the Nephilim destroyed EVERYONE in the Steel Cage Match!

Dusty: Well, those half-human, half-angel giants are not to be messed with! But even that catastrophic beatdown will be nothing compared to the upcoming Main Event!

Joe: That’s right! It’s Jacob “The Heel” Isaacs versus his brother Esau “The Red Storm” Isaacs! These two have a history and it’s full of bad blood.

12 Years

12 Years

Chris Cox

Words will fail here. I should get that out of the way at the start. Whenever I write something, I always feel like someone who underestimated the distance of a jump, but only realized it midair. But I know that these words are never going to cross the gap. It's not possible.

12 years ago, EA and I were married and time has done a weird thing. It doesn't feel like we have been married for that long, but at the same time, it's hard to remember a time before EA was in my life. A dozen years doesn't seem that long ago. 2005 doesn't seem like it was eons in the past. Then I remember that 12 years before I started falling for this woman, I was seven years old just like our oldest son is now.

In Darkest Night

In Darkest Night

Chris Cox

"They told me this tale. A story about a creature that was born at the beginning of sentience. A yellow entity that was made of living fear. It created terror into anything it came in contact with. Caused entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia. Their fear was eaten by this creature....

[It] threatened to consume the entire universe. It wanted to infect every living creature with fear, and fear leads to violence. Violence leads to fear. Like an endless loop of death and destruction."
-from Green Lantern: Rebirth #3 by Geoff Johns

Still With Me

Still With Me

Chris Cox
Weekly Lectionary

"Oh Lord, You have searched me and known me."

That can be a terrifying statement. It seems pretty innocuous at first. God has searched us and known us. That's what God does; knowing is one of the things the Divine just does. But then I consider the reality of God searching and knowing me. Not the front that I put up. Not the version of myself with my best foot forward. Not Writer Chris. Not Youth Minister Chris. Not even Husband or Father Chris. Sure all of those are part of me.

But the me that God has searched and known contains a tangle of insecurities, failures and screw-ups too numerous to mention, a heart that wants to follow God, but often veers from that path in a single beat. I read that first verse and sometimes I am flooded with every mistake I've made, every person I've hurt, every bit of myself that I wish were better in some way and I feel like the stoner at high school who feels nervous when the drug dogs come around. Please God, don't search me.

Death and All of His Friends

Death and All of His Friends

Chris Cox

Earlier today, the oldest and I were riding in a car to an appointment. He was having a rough morning of his own doing and I wanted him to get re-grounded before we set off on the day. So I plugged in my phone and I played the Coldplay song "Strawberry Swing." I told him the story about how this was the song that his mom and I listened to when we brought him home from the hospital and it will always be one of my favorites because it reminds me of how lucky we are to have him. In the span of 4 minutes and 10 seconds, his entire demeanor brightened and we were ready to take on the day.

The song after that is "Death and All of His Friends." It's probably been a year or two since I've heard this song, but the escalating refrain at the end has been in my head all day long:

I don't want to battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't want to follow death and all of his friends

Say Their Names (Luke 16:19-31)

Say Their Names (Luke 16:19-31)

Chris Cox
Sermon Manuscript

My name is William Christopher Cox. The William is after my dad who goes by Bill, my Granddad who also goes by Bill—which, side note: my granddad’s name is Bill Williams and it absolutely blew my six year old mind when I figured out that his name was William Williams—and also my dad’s maternal grandfather. The Christopher in my name is because I was born in the early 1980s and it was federal law at the time that every fifth male child born in the United States would be named Christopher. Seriously, though, part of the reason my mom and dad gave me that name is because of what it means. Anyone who has rifled through those name bookmarks at Cracker Barrel can tell you that Christopher means “bearer or follower of Christ.” Faith has always been important to my family and my parents put that value into my very name.

There are bits and pieces of our parents and their histories in the name of myself and my siblings. My brother Taylor shares a middle name with my dad and his first name is a tribute to the South Carolina town where my parents met, fell in love, and served in a church. My sister Shari is named because it is a combination of Sharon and Mary—our two grandmothers—and her middle name Katherine is our mom’s name. We have the legacy of our parents’ lives in our very names, but it is remixed and rearranged into something that is unique. 

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