“Selfie, ergo sum.”
It wasn’t so long ago that the word “selfie” (self-portrait) did not exist. Now, it’s cool and fun to take a selfie.
Last summer, Pope Francis, the cool pope, posed for a selfie taken by some kids down from the diocese of Piacenza on a pilgrimage. He didn’t actually take the selfie, but he was in the photo as part of the group. It was hailed as the first papal selfie in the history of the church.
Other high-profile people are taking selfies. International Space Station astronaut Aki Hoshide took a selfie while in space last fall. Space station astronaut Luca Parmitano took one on a spacewalk. The Obama kids took selfies at the president’s last swearing in.
But the selfie that shook the world was the one President Obama took at Nelson Mandela’s massive funeral ceremony in Johannesburg last December. His selfie-mates were Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Britain’s David Cameron.
Actually, the selfie has been around for a long, long time. Go back 500 years, give or take, and you’ll find famous people like Durer, van Eck, and Rembrandt mixing oils and doing selfies. At first they were sneaky. They’d paint a biblical scene and then paint themselves in the face of a bystander in the background. Like Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi. Take a look at it sometime. See that guy on the far right edge looking right at you? Botticelli himself. A selfie. Piero della Francesca depicts himself as a sleeping soldier in his painting The Resurrection. Jan van Eyck even used a mirror for his selfie. In his famous painting, The Arnolfini Portrait, he inserts himself into the image in the mirror. Very clever and very 21st century.
I bring this up because I’ve heard some observers citing the selfie as yet another example of the extreme narcissism of the “M” generation, i.e. the ME-llennial Generation or the Moodle-gensters. Many of these children are functionally deaf and blind—they have earplugs inserted and cannot hear you; their eyes are nano-focused on a smartphone screen the size of hockey puck so they cannot see you; they’re so focused on the screen they cannot talk to you; and they’re thumb-twitching on a teeny keyboard and cannot touch you.
Okay, so I exaggerate. I also don’t think it’s fair to suggest that just because they get a kick out of taking selfies that, ipso facto, they’re self-absorbed ego-freaks. Yes, narcissism might be involved. Some kids not only take a selfie but do so in front of a mirror so that the selfie includes the image of them taking the selfie!
Truth is, taking a selfie is simply fun, and it’s fun because often it’s NOT about just me but me and someone else. I take selfies because:
Is there anyone—anyone, I ask you—who has a smartphone or a cool little digital camera who has NOT at some point engaged in self-digitization?
Even God has taken a selfie. The selfie is called Jesus Christ. It happened in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is God’s self-portrait. Jesus Christ is God’s selfie—an Instagram shot of what God is like; a visual representation that answers the question: “If God were to be visible and active on earth, what would that look like?” It would look like Jesus Christ.
But then, Jesus Christ took a selfie, too. It’s called the church. What would it look like if Jesus were alive today and active in the world? It would—or should—look like the church. The church is Jesus’ selfie. There’s a mirror-in-the-mirror thing going on. We in the church are Jesus’ selfie, i.e. we show the world what Jesus looks like. At the same time, Jesus is God’s selfie, i.e. He shows the world what God “looks” like. The apostle Paul tries to explain this in 2 Corinthians: “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself...and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (5:19-20).
So, really, we—the church—are the self-image of Jesus and God, on display for the world to see. “Hey, look at this! This is God working at the Helping Hands headquarters in Peru!” “Hey, look at this shot! Here’s Jesus comforting someone at our Free Meal Ministry who just lost their job.” “Wow, check this out! It’s God weeping over children in Honduras who scavenge all day instead of breaking the cycle and getting more education.” Get the picture?
I want to ask you to respond to this writing by taking seflies of yourself and sending them to me. We are going to put these up on a bulletin board and show others what it looks like to do God’s work. So, take a selfie at the Free Meal Ministry, Youth Group, small group, Sunday School, or worship. Selfies from any of those places show us when we are building the Lord’s kingdom.
Here’s a hint: hug someone as you do it, and it shows how we all spread God’s joy as we do His work. And it reminds us of what church is all about as well.
Email your selfies to PastorDwight@AmboyFriends.org or just give them to me next time you see me at worship.
Blessings,
Pastor Dwight
It wasn’t so long ago that the word “selfie” (self-portrait) did not exist. Now, it’s cool and fun to take a selfie.
Last summer, Pope Francis, the cool pope, posed for a selfie taken by some kids down from the diocese of Piacenza on a pilgrimage. He didn’t actually take the selfie, but he was in the photo as part of the group. It was hailed as the first papal selfie in the history of the church.
Other high-profile people are taking selfies. International Space Station astronaut Aki Hoshide took a selfie while in space last fall. Space station astronaut Luca Parmitano took one on a spacewalk. The Obama kids took selfies at the president’s last swearing in.
But the selfie that shook the world was the one President Obama took at Nelson Mandela’s massive funeral ceremony in Johannesburg last December. His selfie-mates were Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Britain’s David Cameron.
Actually, the selfie has been around for a long, long time. Go back 500 years, give or take, and you’ll find famous people like Durer, van Eck, and Rembrandt mixing oils and doing selfies. At first they were sneaky. They’d paint a biblical scene and then paint themselves in the face of a bystander in the background. Like Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi. Take a look at it sometime. See that guy on the far right edge looking right at you? Botticelli himself. A selfie. Piero della Francesca depicts himself as a sleeping soldier in his painting The Resurrection. Jan van Eyck even used a mirror for his selfie. In his famous painting, The Arnolfini Portrait, he inserts himself into the image in the mirror. Very clever and very 21st century.
I bring this up because I’ve heard some observers citing the selfie as yet another example of the extreme narcissism of the “M” generation, i.e. the ME-llennial Generation or the Moodle-gensters. Many of these children are functionally deaf and blind—they have earplugs inserted and cannot hear you; their eyes are nano-focused on a smartphone screen the size of hockey puck so they cannot see you; they’re so focused on the screen they cannot talk to you; and they’re thumb-twitching on a teeny keyboard and cannot touch you.
Okay, so I exaggerate. I also don’t think it’s fair to suggest that just because they get a kick out of taking selfies that, ipso facto, they’re self-absorbed ego-freaks. Yes, narcissism might be involved. Some kids not only take a selfie but do so in front of a mirror so that the selfie includes the image of them taking the selfie!
Truth is, taking a selfie is simply fun, and it’s fun because often it’s NOT about just me but me and someone else. I take selfies because:
- There’s no one else to help me insert my face into a shot of the Great Wall of China
- It “eternalizes” a special moment, especially if the selfie includes someone else.
Is there anyone—anyone, I ask you—who has a smartphone or a cool little digital camera who has NOT at some point engaged in self-digitization?
Even God has taken a selfie. The selfie is called Jesus Christ. It happened in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is God’s self-portrait. Jesus Christ is God’s selfie—an Instagram shot of what God is like; a visual representation that answers the question: “If God were to be visible and active on earth, what would that look like?” It would look like Jesus Christ.
But then, Jesus Christ took a selfie, too. It’s called the church. What would it look like if Jesus were alive today and active in the world? It would—or should—look like the church. The church is Jesus’ selfie. There’s a mirror-in-the-mirror thing going on. We in the church are Jesus’ selfie, i.e. we show the world what Jesus looks like. At the same time, Jesus is God’s selfie, i.e. He shows the world what God “looks” like. The apostle Paul tries to explain this in 2 Corinthians: “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself...and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (5:19-20).
So, really, we—the church—are the self-image of Jesus and God, on display for the world to see. “Hey, look at this! This is God working at the Helping Hands headquarters in Peru!” “Hey, look at this shot! Here’s Jesus comforting someone at our Free Meal Ministry who just lost their job.” “Wow, check this out! It’s God weeping over children in Honduras who scavenge all day instead of breaking the cycle and getting more education.” Get the picture?
I want to ask you to respond to this writing by taking seflies of yourself and sending them to me. We are going to put these up on a bulletin board and show others what it looks like to do God’s work. So, take a selfie at the Free Meal Ministry, Youth Group, small group, Sunday School, or worship. Selfies from any of those places show us when we are building the Lord’s kingdom.
Here’s a hint: hug someone as you do it, and it shows how we all spread God’s joy as we do His work. And it reminds us of what church is all about as well.
Email your selfies to PastorDwight@AmboyFriends.org or just give them to me next time you see me at worship.
Blessings,
Pastor Dwight
