Elect Jesus?

I have to take a moment to vent:

In my opinion, it can be dangerous for a church to have a marquee sign, especially if it's used to be catchy and cute. Too often, biblical and theological soundness are thrown aside for the sake of catchy and cute. Not good. One of my favorite "catchy & cute" sign sayings that immediately comes to mind reads "sign broken. come inside for message." Cute and memorable, but totally incorrect. The marquee sign was never meant to herald the gospel - that's the church's job. Furthermore, people should not have to walk into a church building to hear the message. The church (meaning the followers of Jesus) should be going OUT and sharing the message.

Recently, one of our local churches has displayed the quote "elect Jesus as Lord of your life" on their church marquee. Now I realize that the purpose of this message is to grab attention using the "election" theme. But really, there are some major problems here. First of all, in Calhoun, the offices currently open for election are local offices such as sheriff, clerk of court, magistrate judge, etc. While these are important offices, do we really want to put Jesus on the same level? Secondly, Jesus does not need to be elected, and he's not waiting on my vote. The office of Lord of Lords is already filled, regardless of any poll results. Jesus is already Lord, whether I elect (choose) Him or not. Now, I can decide whether or not to recognize his Lordship in my life, but that choice doesn't affect the reality of His pre-existant Lordship. He's already Lord, whether I "elect" him or not. And really, if we dare to take it a step further, it's Jesus/God/Holy Spirit who does the electing and choosing... but that's a can of worms for another day. :)

So... regardless of this year's election results, one day...
at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
Philippians 2:10-11


Okay. Venting session over. And if you think I'm being ridiculous, you're not the only one. When I shared these thoughts with Jacin tonight, he begged me not to blog about it. "You're just thinking way too much!" was his critique. Maybe so. But I'm an English major with a seminary masters. This issue combines theology with semantics - right up my alley!!! :)