Travelling Salvation Show
Dear Eugene,
We all worship something, don't we? (With atheists being worshipers with the greatest faith--or, shall I say, the greatest suspension of disbelief. But that's a topic for another day.)
Social media like Facebook is really a shrine, a temple replete with our small concerns presented to our even smaller gods, cacophony of summoning chant to convoke a closer look at our own selves, a self-appointed, polished aspect of it, to rouse admiration maybe, sympathy maybe, pity and jealousy of equal parts perhaps and often, approval for sure, honesty and intimacy close to never, (incense) smoke gets in your eyes.
Those who worship pleasure and comfort would document their pilgrimage to travel destination and eatery, often with pornographic close-up of things and people to attest their devotion. Those who worship sex would post selfies taken with various objects of desire, inanimate items personified, people dehumanized. You really want to be HERE!! You really gotta try THIS!!! Darwin would be overjoyed if he did live to see this day, glad to report how the game of survival plays out with so much bloodless violence and mannered civility.
Not too long ago I heard a worship pastor proclaiming on the stage: If you give your life to God, he's going to give you the career of your dream.
I walked out.
I couldn't take it; I just walked out before I would do something stupid.
Indignation, yes. But no, it wasn't about me or where I stood theologically. Anyone (I hope) could tell he was propagating a false gospel, fake news.
I was thinking about, seeing the face of a lady with whom I did and will continue to share the Gospel, how she had been to church before but now resisted doing it again like a plague, all because of the hypocrisy she had experienced. She told me, I can never be like these people. They have good families, dress well, talk good, many of them really wealthy, much better than I am anyway. I could never be like them.
Literally every branch on her family tree is broken, and she often wrongly blames herself for that. She is travelling "back home" this summer but won't be seeing anyone. She said it is "fate," her "lot" to be so alone. She actually thought those wholesome church-people weren't putting on a show. She couldn't even name hypocrisy for what it is. Since she is working the worst shift in the worst department of a big-box store, she believes she must be either too far from grace to "give her life to God" or God must really hate her.
So I wonder, when Christians post on Facebook all the good things happening in our lives, with latent or vague reference to our half-baked theology about God's providence and grace, out-of-context scripture thrown in for good measure, do we know we are setting up a shrine of idol-worship, reeks of the worst stinking smoke and muddled mirrors?
Often we would even deceive ourselves and say we are doing this for God's sake, good publicity for Him, a favor he might need. There is a very fine line (and a huge gorge) between gathering people to worship God and invoking them to worship our spirituality, our prosperity, our healthy lifestyle, our good church-going experience, our political leaning, our artistic acumen, our beautiful family, our Travelling Salvation Show. You really want to be like ME and get a piece of MY God!
The world look at us and shake their head, the same old Darwinian narrative they see.
Once you taught me this:
"Jesus’ metaphor, kingdom of God, defines the world in which we live. We live in a world where Christ is king. If Christ is king, every thing, quite literally, every thing and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus. A total renovation of our imagination, our way of looking at things—what Jesus commanded in his no-nonsense imperative, “Repent!”—is required.
Yours, Alex
We all worship something, don't we? (With atheists being worshipers with the greatest faith--or, shall I say, the greatest suspension of disbelief. But that's a topic for another day.)
Social media like Facebook is really a shrine, a temple replete with our small concerns presented to our even smaller gods, cacophony of summoning chant to convoke a closer look at our own selves, a self-appointed, polished aspect of it, to rouse admiration maybe, sympathy maybe, pity and jealousy of equal parts perhaps and often, approval for sure, honesty and intimacy close to never, (incense) smoke gets in your eyes.
Those who worship pleasure and comfort would document their pilgrimage to travel destination and eatery, often with pornographic close-up of things and people to attest their devotion. Those who worship sex would post selfies taken with various objects of desire, inanimate items personified, people dehumanized. You really want to be HERE!! You really gotta try THIS!!! Darwin would be overjoyed if he did live to see this day, glad to report how the game of survival plays out with so much bloodless violence and mannered civility.
Not too long ago I heard a worship pastor proclaiming on the stage: If you give your life to God, he's going to give you the career of your dream.
I walked out.
I couldn't take it; I just walked out before I would do something stupid.
Indignation, yes. But no, it wasn't about me or where I stood theologically. Anyone (I hope) could tell he was propagating a false gospel, fake news.
I was thinking about, seeing the face of a lady with whom I did and will continue to share the Gospel, how she had been to church before but now resisted doing it again like a plague, all because of the hypocrisy she had experienced. She told me, I can never be like these people. They have good families, dress well, talk good, many of them really wealthy, much better than I am anyway. I could never be like them.
Literally every branch on her family tree is broken, and she often wrongly blames herself for that. She is travelling "back home" this summer but won't be seeing anyone. She said it is "fate," her "lot" to be so alone. She actually thought those wholesome church-people weren't putting on a show. She couldn't even name hypocrisy for what it is. Since she is working the worst shift in the worst department of a big-box store, she believes she must be either too far from grace to "give her life to God" or God must really hate her.
So I wonder, when Christians post on Facebook all the good things happening in our lives, with latent or vague reference to our half-baked theology about God's providence and grace, out-of-context scripture thrown in for good measure, do we know we are setting up a shrine of idol-worship, reeks of the worst stinking smoke and muddled mirrors?
Often we would even deceive ourselves and say we are doing this for God's sake, good publicity for Him, a favor he might need. There is a very fine line (and a huge gorge) between gathering people to worship God and invoking them to worship our spirituality, our prosperity, our healthy lifestyle, our good church-going experience, our political leaning, our artistic acumen, our beautiful family, our Travelling Salvation Show. You really want to be like ME and get a piece of MY God!
The world look at us and shake their head, the same old Darwinian narrative they see.
Once you taught me this:
"Jesus’ metaphor, kingdom of God, defines the world in which we live. We live in a world where Christ is king. If Christ is king, every thing, quite literally, every thing and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus. A total renovation of our imagination, our way of looking at things—what Jesus commanded in his no-nonsense imperative, “Repent!”—is required.
We can—we must!—take responsibility for the way we live and work in our homes and neighborhoods, workplaces and public squares. We can refuse to permit the culture to dictate the way we go about our lives.
Ways and means that are removed or abstracted from Jesus and the Scriptures that give witness to him amount sooner or later to a betrayal of Jesus. In this kingdom-of-God world, the person that we follow is the primary shaping influence on the person that we become. Christians follow Jesus."
Yes, how we need a new, re-imagined Kingdom language to talk about God and our lives in Him even on Facebook! How we need to pray for a set of new lens to take pictures that would glorify Him and reveal His Way when posted online for the world to see!Yours, Alex
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