Back in the late 60s and early 70s I was privileged to be a ‘campus minister’, wandering around the tertiary institutions of Australia and elsewhere listening/talking to people about Jesus.

Those were the hippie/anti-Vietnam/Jesus Revolution days, and here’s a broadsheet I wrote, using contemporary idioms, reflecting what I experienced…

The question ‘Why did the Jesus Revolution happen?’ is more easily answered than ‘Why did it fizzle – or metamorphoze into the charismatic/pentecostal movements or right-wing evangelicalism’? More on that later (we were all a bit naive/idealistic back then

~~~

The //JESUS// Revolution

The search is over

Jesus is where it’s at, the rest of the world is wrong

‘Right on, brother!’

There are three elements

love and peace

the Holy Spirit and joy

Jesus is coming back again

Soon

‘IF GOD IS LIKE JESUS, NOTHING IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!’

Frantic search for meaning

astrology

Eastern religions

drugs

meditation

copping out

sex

But the Age of Aquarius is finding immorality boring, materialism deadening.

JESUS

wasn’t interested in status symbols like

owning a neat suburban house

writing books

getting a PhD

setting up an institution with a constitution

holding office on important committees

or traveling the world

Jesus was single-minded but not narrow-minded

Prayer for him was as vital as breath

He had a profound respect for his Bible – The Old Testament had the ‘words of God’

He was relaxed, confident

never in a hurry

compassionate

hearing seeing and feeling human injustice

sorrow

death

No wonder they either hated him

or were terrified of him

or adored him

(fools or idiots were neutral)

He’s become the key to history

changed our almanacs from BC to AD

Told the truth in spite of risks (eg crucifixion)

He was no-one else’s puppet

dealt viciously with hypocrisy

Quite unlike the ‘soft music, soft pews, and soft soap’ of his followers
today

Only a strong person can love his enemies or pray for his murderers

~~~

Just ‘religious vibrations’?

They’re the best-educated generation in history and they’ll question church
habits and creeds

In theology, as in metereology, when two fronts meet there’s turbulence

Here’s it’s the fresh winds of the Spirit storming across the arid waste of
decadent religion

(Every revolution involves a break with a conservative past)

~~~

‘Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,

Who are you?

What have you sacrificed?

Jesus Christ Superstar

Do you think you’re what they say you are?’

‘I am’

– Shalom! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/

Related Articles:

• Jesus is all you need!
• Book Review: Simply Jesus
• The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity with Jesus
• Jesus’ disciples
• JESUS AS LIBERATOR (Richard Rohr)

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