Wow. Where do I begin?

Let’s start with a dead cellphone battery…

Today my phone was blown up with text messages, private Facebook messages, and public Facebook and Instagram comments about a Facebook post I made today. I guess that’s what I get when I post a censored photo of a nude Donald Trump statue that was erected in Seattle (pun intended). Did I really just type those words? What is going on in our world!?

Okay, okay, let me just state the obvious… we live in a polarized nation – any political posting I make will draw both cheers and jeers. I knew what I was getting into; I just didn’t know how far it would go.

There are so many angles of response to which I could give that it has taken me all day to decide how I was going to respond. And I’ve decided to respond, not personally, but generally to those who have provided the strongest criticism – many of which happen to be those who I consider my brothers and sisters in Christ, Christians.

When I first saw the Donald Trump statue I laughed out loud. I mean c’mon, it’s hilarious, and I think most people who don’t take themselves too seriously can find it funny, even if they support Trump.

However, after laughing I was immediately struck with the profundity of this piece of art.

Here is a man who has achieved all the worldly success one could imagine.

This man who had accumulated great wealth and power is being exposed as a naked old man with nothing to hide behind.

The ancient Hebrews spoke of the Tower of Babel, today we could speak of Trump Tower.

In a culture that doesn’t like to dwell on our own mortality and limitations, this statue reminds us that even the most powerful and successful will be exposed.

It reminds us that,

Someday we will all be exposed.

Someday we will all be hit with that fact that “from dust we came and to dust we shall return”.

The emperor has no clothes and neither do we.

In fact, Jesus was stripped of all his clothes, showing us the only way to spiritual maturity was through nakedness and exposure.

 

So as weird as what I’m about to say will sound,

Thank you Donald.

Thank you, that in the midst of your fear mongering, bigotry, and racism, you have created a caricature of “the false self” so big and in our face that we can’t miss it.

Thank you for being such an extreme example of an egotistical narcissist that feeding my large ego no longer seems palatable.

 

And lastly,

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May we not take ourselves so seriously that we miss the profundity of life lessons all around us,

May we learn to be good students of art, even art that makes us uncomfortable,

May we learn to read the scripture stories as the raw, real, and often X rated stories they really are,

May we learn to drop the puritanical, religious, and legalistic façade,

And may we learn to live exposed so that we can be clothed with grace.

 

So there you have it…

Waking up this morning I never thought I would end my evening posting a blog about naked Donald Trump.

What a crazy, wonderful world we live in.

 

Oh ya, and by the way, #NeverTrump