{"id":100,"date":"2009-07-15T08:11:36","date_gmt":"2009-07-15T08:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html"},"modified":"2009-07-15T08:11:36","modified_gmt":"2009-07-15T08:11:36","slug":"strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html","title":{"rendered":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Here's another installment from my current writing project)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Loveliest
\nLynchee Was Our Lord[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a difficult question, isn't
\nit?  How do you follow strange fruit?<\/p>\n

Perhaps you\u2019ve never thought of it
\nthis way before, but\u2014as followers of Christ\u2014we have wrestled with that for
\ncenturies.  How do we follow strange\u2014unnatural\u2014fruit?  <\/span>After seeing a lynch victim, one author
\nwrote, "He had been stripped of all his clothing but what appeared to be a
\nloin cloth positioned below his hip.  The figure was eerily reminiscent of
\nthe image of Christ being crucified on the cross."[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a>  <\/span> <\/span>This is a comparison that many have seen, Ida B. Wells being
\none of them.  <\/span>A former slave and orphaned
\nby a yellow fever epidemic that took her parents, she was left with five
\nsiblings to raise on her own.  In the 1890\u2019s Ida launched a campaign
\nagainst lynching after a friend of hers died at the hands of a lynch mob.  <\/span>Putting her skills as a writer to use
\nshe chronicled the practice for a larger audience.  Her campaign against
\nlynching often made reference to the lynching of our Lord for the comparisons
\nbetween the two forms of execution are obvious.<\/p>\n

Like Frank Embree and countless
\nothers, Jesus was kidnapped in the dead of night by a lynch mob, put through mock
\ntrials and found guilty without proper procedure.  His execution on the
\ncross was a scandal–the ultimate in degradation.  While the Romans didn't
\ninvent crucifixion, they perfected it through practice.  Untold thousands
\nof victims had hung to their deaths with humiliation and torture also the chief
\ngoal in the excruciating process reserved for non-citizens of the empire. \n<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The cross\u2026a scandal\u2014the ultimate of
\ndisgrace\u2014a curse.  Jesus was stripped bare and hung in dishonor. 
\nImpaled with unfathomable brutality and unable to swat a fly, his nail inflamed
\nnerves pulsated.  He hung there, mocked, lips chapped, tongue swollen, family
\ndisgraced.  <\/p>\n

He was strange fruit.<\/p>\n

Robert Lewis wrote, "We could
\nnot make sense of the New Testament in particular, or Christianity in general,
\nwithout its central figure\u2014Jesus Christ.  Christianity is not a philosophy
\nor an ethic, but a person:  Christianity is Christ.  But neither can
\nwe make sense of Christ himself without his cross."[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a>  <\/span>Christ was strange fruit indeed as he
\nhung on that cross-formed tree.  It was the Apostle Paul who said,
\n"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,
\nfor it was written:  'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."[4]<\/span><\/span><\/a> 
\nBut the question still remains: 
\n<\/span>How do we follow strange fruit?<\/p>\n

By becoming strange fruit!  <\/p>\n

To be a disciple of Christ is to
\nfollow Jesus, even to the cross, for the cross is core to knowing Christ. 
\nThe goal is for us to be able to say, "I have been crucified with Christ
\nand I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."[5]<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nThe Apostle Peter understood that we are to become strange fruit.  <\/span>Jesus told Peter that he himself was
\ngoing to have his arms stretched out and led where he didn\u2019t want to go.[6]<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n <\/span>Legend says that he was crucified,
\nliterally, upside-down and then he in turn calls us all to see the cross as a
\npattern for our lives:  <\/span>\u201cTo this
\nyou were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that
\nyou should follow in his steps.\u201d[7]<\/span><\/span><\/a>  <\/span>To be a disciple of Christ is to follow
\nJesus\u2026even to the cross.  <\/span>The cross
\nis core to us knowing Christ.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Title
\nborrowed from Paula Giddings\u2019 Ida: 
\n<\/span>A Sword Among Lions<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Giddings,
\nPaula J., Ida:  <\/span>A Sword Among Lions<\/em>, (New York:  <\/span>Amistad, 2008), p275<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Lewis,
\nRobert, The Glory of Christ<\/em>
\n(Chicago:  <\/span>Moody Press, 1997),
\npp291-292<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[4]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Galatians
\n3.13<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[5]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Galatians
\n2.20<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[6]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Jn. 21.18<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[7]<\/span><\/span><\/a> I Pet. 2.24<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Here's another installment from my current writing project) The Loveliest Lynchee Was Our Lord[1] That\u2019s a difficult question, isn't it?  How do you follow strange fruit? Perhaps you\u2019ve never thought of it this way before, but\u2014as followers of Christ\u2014we have wrestled with that for centuries.  How do we follow strange\u2014unnatural\u2014fruit?  After seeing a lynch victim,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strange-fruit"],"yoast_head":"\nStrange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2 - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2 - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Here's another installment from my current writing project) The Loveliest Lynchee Was Our Lord[1] That\u2019s a difficult question, isn't it?  How do you follow strange fruit? Perhaps you\u2019ve never thought of it this way before, but\u2014as followers of Christ\u2014we have wrestled with that for centuries.  How do we follow strange\u2014unnatural\u2014fruit?  After seeing a lynch victim,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-15T08:11:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2 - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2 - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"(Here's another installment from my current writing project) The Loveliest Lynchee Was Our Lord[1] That\u2019s a difficult question, isn't it?  How do you follow strange fruit? Perhaps you\u2019ve never thought of it this way before, but\u2014as followers of Christ\u2014we have wrestled with that for centuries.  How do we follow strange\u2014unnatural\u2014fruit?  After seeing a lynch victim,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2009-07-15T08:11:36+00:00","author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html","name":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2 - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-15T08:11:36+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-15T08:11:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2009\/07\/strange-fruit-the-cross-as-a-way-of-life-due-out-2010-p2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (Due out 2010) p2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}