Jesus and Milkshakes

I can honestly say that one of the reasons I love Jesus has to do with McDonald’s milkshakes.

If you ask anyone in my family, they will tell you that I have a horrible memory. There are movies I don’t remember seeing, childhood songs my sister and I used to sing that don’t even sound familiar, and entire family vacations that I can’t recall. However, the few memories I do have are very vivid, and two in particular continue to shape me.

The first took place in the basement of a Baptist church, or as we church people like to call it, the “Fellowship Hall.” I was about five at the time, and there I sat next to my mom on a metal folding chair surrounded by thirty or forty others who faithfully attended the Wednesday night prayer meetings. Once a month, members would stay after the weekly gathering to conduct official church business such as voting on whether someone could become a member of the church. Even back then I thought that was strange because membership in my home church was also tied to baptism. I couldn’t find any stories in my Children’s Bible depicting the disciples asking for a show of hands before agreeing to dunk someone. Maybe it was just too hard to depict in an illustration.

Well, this particular church business meeting had an important agenda item on the docket: voting on who would hold positions of leadership on the church’s governing board for the coming year.

I can still feel the confusion, sadness, and anger that welled up in my five-year-old heart as I watched one gentleman in the church, let’s call him Bob, stand up to give a passionate speech as to why a particular woman in the church, let’s name her Jill, did not meet the qualifications for leadership. Why he chose to air his concerns publicly rather than privately to the pastor or even to Jill herself, I’ll never understand. But there he was outlining his case in a public display of bravado, while everyone else in the room seemed to be squirming. His speech was forceful yet unemotional at the same time. I wasn’t surprised by that. As a kid, Bob was someone you tried to avoid if you could. He wasn’t physically intimidating, but the way he marched around the church grounds and the sternness with which he spoke made me want to keep my distance. I wouldn’t say he was mean; it’s just that he wasn’t warm.

I guess the reason I remember the speech Bob gave that night so vividly is that Jill was sitting just a few seats away from me with no one in between. I watched her face as Bob cited Scripture and laid out his argument. Tears welled up in her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t move. She didn’t speak. And no one else spoke up for her either.

When the roll call was finished, Jill was voted down. And I can still cry five-year-old tears when I think about it. My guess is many people have left churches or even Christianity after similar experiences, both the Jill’s in the world and the watching five-year-old’s. We inflict so much pain on each other.

Fortunately for me, there is another memory that sticks out from around the same time period that shaped me in a much more positive way.

We all called him Uncle Elmer. Well, us kids anyway. He was “Pastor Strauss” to the adults in our church, but deep down I always suspected that he would have rather been leading Sunday School than preaching his sermons. He settled for including a time in the service where he’d have all the kids join him on stage, and he’d tell us a story from the Bible in his animated, engaging way.

Uncle Elmer was a kind, lively soul. In my memory, he was always smiling. There was something about his spirit that made me feel both valued and safe. He and his wife became fast friends with my parents so there were occasions when we’d go over to their house or they would visit ours.

There is one memory I have of Uncle Elmer in particular, however, that impacted me more than any other. I’m not sure what ailment I had, but I remember being home sick from school one day, tucked under blankets on the couch, when the doorbell rang. It was Uncle Elmer carrying a McDonald’s milkshake. He explained that he had talked to my mom on the phone that morning and had heard that I was sick. Now, not many people knew this, he said, but one of the best cures for my current condition was a McDonald’s milkshake. He’d found out that vanilla was my preferred flavor so he’d rushed right over to bring me the medicine.

I loved Uncle Elmer. Yet, my young heart was crushed again when just a couple years later a few other Bob-like people said he had the wrong theology and wrote a letter asking him to resign. I didn’t understand what they meant by words such as “Calvinism” and “Armenian” back then, or why all of that mattered so much. Uncle Elmer chose not to fight and read his resignation letter to us a few weeks later.

Looking back on those memories, I feel my five-year-old self intuitively knowing that there were ways that were “good” and ways that were “wrong.” What was confusing to me back then was that all of the people carrying out these ways called themselves “Christian.” How could that be?

What I didn’t know then, I know well now. My own duplicity of kindness and coldness, grace and judgment, love and anger has taught me just how easy it is for me to be Bob-like, even when I want to be Uncle Elmer.

And the truth is I believe Bob loved Jesus, like Uncle Elmer loved Jesus, like I love Jesus. I’m not wrestling here with determining who is a “Christian” and who is not. I think we do best to leave that to God to sort out.

Still, isn’t there some sort of way that is the right way?

I believe there is. It is The Jesus Way. And while holding us in grace and love and mercy, I believe Jesus also calls us to learn and internalize and live out his Way.

I’m starting this blog because I believe the Word of God provides the wisdom we need to follow Jesus in his Way of human flourishing. I’d like to share what I’m learning as I study his written Word and how it challenges me to live out The Jesus Way in our 21st century world.

Fair warning: I’ve been particularly obsessed with two sections of Scripture of late, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the book of Revelation, so many of my posts will likely be grounded in those two sections in the Bible. However, I hope to share reflections from other passages too as the Spirit leads. I’d be honored if you choose to join me as we work out: What does it look like to live The Jesus Way in our time, in our world?

Of course, we are not after just knowledge here. The Jesus Way is just that, a way of life. Every step of the journey we must ask ourselves: Will we actually do what Jesus says?

How we respond to his Word might very well impact how others in our orbit come to see our Savior.

And I don’t know about you, but I can picture him holding a McDonald’s milkshake.