New year eccentricity

By Jeff Long

I've never used this space to promote a book and will not start now. I am intrigued, however, by a book from an eccentric author who is just this side of brilliant. Leonard Sweet, who advertises himself as a Christian futurist, is out with his latest, "The Bad Habits of Jesus: Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong."

Dr. Sweet is an interesting fellow. I met him more than 20 years ago. My assignment, eagerly accepted, was to pick him up at Lambert Airport and drive him to Eden Theological Seminary, where he was slated to speak to clergy already serving their first congregations. People like me, in other words.

This flamboyantly dressed theologian, bearing a striking resemblance to pop musician Kenny Loggins, stepped out of the jetway wearing a purple suit under which was a lavender shirt with ruffles. It seemed as if Dr. Sweet might be heading to the prom. It was soon clear that the oddball behavior had just begun. After we introduced ourselves, Sweet began to sniff the air. "I smell Starbucks!" and off we went with alacrity in search of not his luggage but a triple skinny grande. He walked pretty fast and yours truly struggled to keep up.

He continually jotted down notes on slips of paper as we drove. An idea would occur to him or perhaps one of my remarks was found provocative. Perhaps this is how genius works. As a young man, faced with obtaining a master's degree in divinity to be followed by Ph.D. work, Sweet short-circuited the process. Doing these degrees in sequence was going to take too long, so ignoring seminary rules, he did both his master's work and doctoral work at the same time. Leonard Sweet had his M.Div. and his Ph.D. by the age of 21.

He became dean of the Drew Theological School in New Jersey while living in Seattle. When asked how he accomplished this, Sweet replied, "In our postmodern age, thanks to advances in technology, I can be the dean of a seminary while living 3,000 miles away." It's a headscratcher for sure.

Perhaps only a strange guy with a peculiar sartorial sense and a penchant for flouting rules can come up with a book title suggesting that the man in whose name the largest religion in the world was built had bad habits. Yet Sweet makes these compelling points -- to which I find it hard to argue:

• Did Jesus disappear when people needed him the most? (Uh, I'm afraid the answer is yes, according to the New Testament.)
• Did he refuse to answer questions directly? (Almost always he avoided the straight-on reply, utilizing what politicians might call a "pivot.")
• Did Jesus offend the people of his day? (It seemed he went out of his way to do so sometimes.)

For Sweet, Jesus was a rebellious rabbi, and the author encourages Christians to see him the way the New Testament paints him, not for what we may imagine him to be. Chapter titles include these eye-openers: "Jesus Spit," "Jesus Procrastinated," "Jesus Loves to Party."

And as for the old saw "What Would Jesus Do?", Leonard Sweet would seem to answer that query this way: "Oh, you'd probably be surprised."

Sweet's ideas are causing me to take stock of and view the New Testament Jesus with different eyes in this new year of 2017. I give thanks for the wisdom the eccentric ones bring us. Happy New Year.