I’ve heard it said that we spend our whole lives working to pay for all the labor-saving devices that we buy. It’s a silly thought, but one that carries a good deal of truth to it. How many things do we buy that we really don’t use all that often? And how many things do we buy that don’t last all that long, or don’t give us lasting value? How many things do we buy simply because it is what everyone else is doing, and we somehow convince ourselves that therefore it must be good and we should have it too?
Sometimes I get
the feeling that societies are like cattle on a cattle drive. They’re all moving in a group without any
real sense of where they’re going. I
suppose we could then ask who are the cowboys?
Some would blame “influencers” or major corporations, or government
leaders, or (in the past) religions. But
I think people just have a restlessness that wants cool new things and also,
acceptance from peers.
Never
underestimate how powerful peer pressure is, at just about every age. We are a social species. We want to have a group and be accepted by
it. Psychologist Gurwinder Bhogal brings
up the idea of FIBs- Fashionably Irrational Beliefs. (YouTube – Why Smart People Believe Stupid
Things). These aren’t believing outright
lies. But they are the way we shape our
beliefs and values so that we can fit in with our social group or tribe. We generally chose to fit in rather than
critically examining evidence.
That takes us to
our gospel reading, and the reading from Acts 2 where the Holy Spirit
dramatically comes upon the crowd of disciples with tongues of fire and a sound
of wind. Think critically about what’s
going on in the gospel and in the Acts text.
Then imagine having a casual conversation about that stuff in
public. These are not ordinary
conversation topics of polite and cultured people!:
-miraculously understanding
different languages,
-tongues of fire,
-sounds of wind,
-Jesus sending 70
followers out on a door-to-door missionary trip without any provisions
whatsoever and warning them it will be dangerous,
-Jesus speaking
woes to various cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and even Capernaum, which was his
home base for most of his ministry,
-demon possession
and exorcisms
-treading on
snakes and scorpions and not being harmed,
-seeing Satan fall
from heaven like a flash of lightning,
-and wrapping it
all up by Jesus thanking the Father for hiding all these things from the wise
and intelligent and revealing it to infants because it was the Father’s will.
If you go to a restaurant for lunch
after worship and have a somewhat loud conversation about these things and
people would think you are a nut!
All of this is in scripture, which
we call true and authoritative for faith.
And none of this fits into what polite cultured church goers do.
So we don’t do it. And we
don’t talk about it!
Perhaps there is some evangelism
savvy to our reluctance. We are smart
enough to know that saying and doing things like this is unlikely to bring
people to know the love of God. You’ll
come off as some out of touch mystical weirdo!
So I don’t think we should be too harsh on ourselves. And yet, we do well to not lose our nerve.
Earlier I said about society being
like cattle and not really engaging in critical thinking. People often don’t know what’s best for them,
or if they do they still don’t do it.
Here’s a silly
example I’ve used before, but it’s one of my favorites. You may remember the Coke vs. Pepsi taste
tests years ago. People were invited to
taste each without knowing which was which and then choosing their
favorite. If I remember correctly Pepsi
won, but Coke solidly kept market dominance despite not being the preferred
product. That’s odd. But it gets worse. Retired biblical scholar David Lose liked to
point out that in an across-the-board taste test of various colas people’s
favorite was not Coke, nor Pepsi, but actually RC Cola. So why does the brand with the best product
remain so obscure?
It’s about
marketing and having the right perception of your product in public.
As we have the Pentecost text and
the gospel reading in the back of our minds let us think about all of this and
the public perception of the church.
Whether true or not, the perception
is that 50 years ago American society largely revolved around the church. It seemed that most everyone belonged to a
church. It seemed that most everyone
went to church almost every week.
Churches built big buildings that would be regularly filled with
people. Nothing except church things
were scheduled on Sundays. Often a week
night, Wednesday, was reserved by society for church events. Church denominations and church leaders held
political and business authority. Corporations
with unethical business practices were often called out by churches, boycotted,
and then changed their ways. Children
went to Sunday school, got confirmed, did things in youth group; and when they
grew up they got married in the church, started their own family, and the cycle
continued.
But somehow societal perceptions
shifted. The church went from the center
to the sidelines. It wasn’t exactly
sudden, but it was pretty rapid. Though
many people raise all sorts of theories, I find most of those theories fall
into the category of “fashionably irrational beliefs”. They suit the agenda of the person or group
promoting them. The unfashionable
rational truth is what no one wants to hear.
I’ve mentioned this before. I
find hints of it in biblical commentaries published right after World War
2. There they say that the widespread
post war prosperity that was arising was so antithetical to the teachings of
Jesus that the church is in serious trouble.
I feel like the church has become
like RC Cola in society. We have the
best overall product out there, but people aren’t interested. True, we have biblical texts like those we
read today, that are filled with ideas and concepts that sound like they’ve
come from some ignorant past. And true,
the world view of the authors of scripture is very different from our own. That does not make them wrong at all,
however. It just means there’s a gap in
the world views.
That should not frighten us off from
the task of evangelism. We have a great
product in faith and the church. Though
largely ignored, the church is the best place to raise children and give them a
foundation of basic morality. The church
teaches all ages who they are, what their place in the world is, what their
value is, and what God’s promises for the future are. The church is a place where people of all
political persuasions and all sorts of beliefs can come together regularly and
respectfully. The church teaches healthy
priorities for life. The church is
intergenerational, and gives value to all.
The church is accepting, knowing that all people are sinners in need of
God’s grace. The church continues to
bring good things to the poor, the neglected, the dispossessed, and the
hopeless. The church provides: quality,
truth, authenticity, and hope. And
finally, the church gives everything the perspective of eternal life. This life is important. That is true.
But Christianity teaches to shape it in light of God’s promises of
eternity. That provides healthy living,
mental health, and emotional robustness.
There is every reason for us to be
evangelists for the gospel. The church
may be fashionably out of date, but that does not mean it lacks health and
truth. The truth is, yes, the church is
not perfect. Like all institutions it
has its problems and errors. But it is
the healthiest, most well rounded, best prioritied thing you can make a
commitment to. Jesus’ teachings are
sound and universal. We should not fear
them.
And, if I can mix faith with the
cola taste test, if people laugh at you or scorn you because Christian faith is
like drinking RC Cola while they drink whatever fashionably irrational thing
they drink, then so what? You’re still
drinking the best tasting thing out there!
So work, pray, play, and do all
things through Christ our Lord. You will
enjoy a full and fulfilling life now, have strength to face whatever problems
come along, and die with the promise of God’s eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment