A friend invited me to listen to and reflect upon Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" where, in the third verse, he rhymes:
"Jesus can't save you;
Life won't begin 'til the Church ends."
An observation, a question, and a challenge...
An observation:
Jay-Z, rightly, links Jesus and the Church.
A question:
What kind of Church, and therefore, what kind of Jesus has Jay-Z encountered? If it's anything like the irrelevant, locally and globally ignorant and indifferent Church in the West that my friends in SF with a soul craving for Jesus are experiencing, then sadly, he has a point.
A challenge:
To the Church: wake up! This is what the world thinks of us. It's time to live a different, true Story. It's time to live the saving Story of Jesus in a language that our world can understand.
If and when we do, I wonder how the lyrics will change...
1 comment:
Jer,
Thanks for writing. I love your thoughts on this. I've had similar thoughts about the song. Ironically, my thoughts were spurred on by a Christian taking offense to the lyrics and calling for a Jay-Z ban through a Facebook update.
I think I took more offense to the Christian than to Jay-Z. The lyrics are fair, I think, and that's unfortunate. But fortunately, Jesus is bigger - not to mention more loving - than the church. And that's why I have continued to try sticking around. The only way to change the lyrics is the embody a different message. And in Jesus, we find a pretty-darn perfect model. And a saving one, at that.
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