“My” Jesus

"My" Jesus is a collection of twenty-three sermons--that is to say, good news twenty-three times, twenty-three jets of freedom--preached in French Protestant parishes or on the radio. I say "my" Jesus, not out of pride, but with humility. For I know well that this Jesus is not the Jesus of everyone, and moreover, that it is not a question of imposing it on anyone. This Jesus is not the Jesus of the historians or the scholars, neither the Jesus of the ecclesiastical hierarchies and other guardians of "theological correctness." He certainly is disputable and impertinent, but this Jesus is mine and I live from him. The sermons ask four questions that are unsettling for any preacher and congregation. How can the message of Jesus still address us today? What does Jesus teach us about God that is truly new? How should we receive the gospel of non-violence of the Sermon on the Mount? How can we remain a Church of Easter Day? It may appear that I am proposing answers to these four questions. In fact, my deepest desire is that the pertinence of their challenge not be forgotten; beyond that, it is up to each one to live with these difficult questions as he or she understands them. -Louis Simon