I was recently reminded of what was a popular trend several years ago: you may remember seeing people and celebrities walking around with t-shirts proclaiming “Jesus is my Homeboy” (or something of a similar effect).  This also gives me a partial memory of a movie in the early 2000s with one of the popular comedians at the time who walked into the White House and upon seeing the President, went up to him, greeting with a fancy jive kind of handshake, “Whaz up, my man; my homie . . . ”  You can imagine the reactions of the strained faces, side glances and discomfort of everyone in the room.  It was a comedy.  We were supposed to laugh at the man’s casualness and lack of awareness and familiarity with the President of the United States.  Almost everyone knows that you would greet him with a “Hello. . . ,” or “Thank you for having me, Mr. President.”  Jesus is not my Homie.  He is not my brother who I may walk up to and greet with a soft (or little harder), bump on the shoulder.  He is the Son of God, my savior and Savior of the World, the Word made flesh, who in the beginning was God and was with God.

There has been a trend, possibly beginning with the Homeboy t-sheets of reducing Jesus to one who is one of us, ‘just a slave like one of us,” to quote a popular song from the 90s.  While I understand the idea behind them, and there is a nugget of truth in recognizing the poverty of His birth and He humbled Himself beyond our imagination in becoming man, this is also a reason why we have become so comfortable in wearing shorts and flip-flops, or even pajamas to church.

Jesus is not my Homeboy because He is not a Homeboy, He is not a slave.  He is not like one of us—And thank God that He is not like us, in the most sincerest ways.  While He has deigned to call us his friends and brothers and sisters, it is a friendship of  intimacy, strength and laughter.  He is like the President who always has his door open for anyone and would not turn anyone away because they were dressed dirty or hadn’t made the proper appointment.  But Jesus is also the friend who is the Son of God.

Something also worth noting is that the movement to reduce Him to our images of a homeboy, is about raising us up by reducing Him.  Greeting the President with a jive handshake is about that person making themselves the center of attention, whereas a respectful greeting is respectful because it places attention on who the other is.

This Sunday, we recall the Baptism of the Lord, the first public introduction of Christ to the world.  And John names Him the Lamb of God, the one who was to come into the world, the Savior of the World.  In His friendship, Do not lose the awe and wonder of who He is that has come into the world and welcomes us.