Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Nativity Battle

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NativityIt is the middle of December and the time for email notifications lamenting that a community or business does not allow the display of the Nativity scene or other religious symbols.

In the past, I thought that my lack of concern about this was an indication of lack of spiritual fervor. Yet, in spite of trying to dial up my fervor, I still find it difficult to burn calories over these cases.

Last week, I had some windshield time in a car that is not iPod compliant which gave me some time to think. Here are some thoughts on the move to ban religious displays:

  1. The church has always survived persecutions. I’m not sure that I would categorize a ban on religious symbols as persecution, but even so, we will not be hurt by this. As Ravi Zacharias has stated, “the Church has always outlived her pall bearers.” Even in communist states where no religion could be openly practiced, the Church survived.
  2. The trend against display of religious symbols is a symptom of the decline of the organized church, not the cause of it. In other words, the fact that much of the church lost its theological way through the 20th century is the reason for the decline in acceptance of Christianity.
  3. Does the Church (all believers) suffer because the distinction between believers and unbelievers is made more clear? The fact that unbelievers no longer revere religious symbols has no impact on the truth of Jesus Christ.
  4. We still have the freedom to be the Church and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I question how much value a Nativity Scene in a park has in bringing people to consider the claims of Jesus.

My conclusion is that we should be living Nativity Scenes. We should live our lives in such a way that we demonstrate that God has indeed come among us and brought real change. We should stop whining about the loss of a veneer of respectability and be willing to do the hard work of living out the claims of Christ before a watching (and sometimes hostile) world.

Comments are welcome . . .

Church the way it used to be?

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Abandoned ChurchI recently had a road trip through the Bible belt and saw a billboard advertisement for a church that read, “Church the way it used to be . . .”

I think that I get what they are trying to convey, but I can’t say that I agree with it. My guess is that they are attempting to portray a place where the values and message are consistent with what could be expected decades ago in the average church.

The problem with this approach is that this church will be a safe haven for those who are fleeing other churches who have allowed change (good or bad) into their body. This will be a church that grows by defection rather than infection. In other words, growth will come from stealing sheep from other sheepfolds rather than by setting conditions for sheep to reproduce.

In Matthew 9:17 Jesus reminds us of the futility of trying to recycle wineskins. We should not seek to contain a fresh work of the Spirit in old forms and rituals.

If our church demographic looks much different than the demographic at the local mall, we should ask ourselves if we are missing something that God wants to do. I see weird (to me) hairdos, piercings, tattoos and various fashion statements on the young people at the mall. If this is a group of people for whom Jesus died, then it would stand to reason that if we are doing our job of making disciples, some of those pierced and tattooed people should be showing up on Sunday.

The point is not whether piercing or tattooing is a good idea, the point is that it’s already done for a lot of young people who Jesus loves just as much as the ones who have steered clear of these practices. My personal opinion on fashion choices has nothing to do with how these folks are to be received by me or by my church. God loves them the way they are.

As a band from the 70’s encouraged us, “don’t look back.” Even if we could, it would be foolish to try to recapture what was happening 5, 10 or 20 years ago. We must press on and be what God wants us to be . . . today.

If it is spoiled, throw it out

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SpoiledThis evening I read 1 Kings 9 where God answers Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the Temple. In 1 Kings 9:8 God tells Solomon that the Temple will become a heap of ruins if Israel and her kings go after other gods and serve them.

The thought struck me this evening that the Temple, as opulent as it was, only had value if it helped the Israelites focus on their God. The Temple was a symbol to remind the nation of the God they were to serve and worship.

Contrary to what the Israelites may have thought, God did not value the building, he valued the response that the Temple was supposed to elicit in the worshippers. God wanted their hearts fully tuned to himself. When the Israelites no longer were affected by the Temple in this way, the Temple had to go. At best it then became a distraction. At worst, it gave a veneer of legitimacy to their spiritual misdeeds.

In the same way, we in the Church, have struggled to throw out the practices that no longer bring us closer to God. We cling to types of music, styles of dress, hair styles, programs and even Bible translations as though we loose a piece of God if we let these things go. I doubt that God cares about the style of music or dress with which we approach him; he wants our hearts, and he wants them in their entirety.

In business there is a proverb, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” When our methods and traditions no longer deepen our relationship with God and no longer assist us in our commission to make disciples, then they should be tossed. To keep repeating the same action and expecting a different result is insane. Let us choose sanity.

High Places and Alliances – 1 Kings 3

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1 Kings 3:1, 3 (ESV)

1 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem.

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.

High PlacesI always had the impression as I grew up that something nefarious was going on when Israel sacrificed at the high places. I assumed that some pagan ritual such as human sacrifice or ritual prostitution was happening. It was not that long ago that I learned that they were not sacrificing to some pagan deity, they were sacrificing to the LORD, the God of the Bible.

The problem is that by sacrificing on the high places, they were not worshiping God in the prescribed manner. While to our 21st Century ears, this does not seem to be a large compromise, it is a deviation from God’s plan for Israel.

Solomon also compromised in the area of matrimony. He was not to marry a Gentile, nor was he to rely on anyone or anything other than God for his support. Through his marriage Solomon allied himself with Pharaoh, trusting in Egypt for support against Israel’s enemies.

Before I am too hard on Solomon and Israel, I have to examine myself to see in what ways I am allowing the culture around me to push me toward compromise. The question is not if I compromise but how and where it happens —and what am I willing to do about it.

Am I willing to be called out by God, Scripture or my friends on those areas where I knowingly or unknowingly go against Scripture? Am I willing to step out in faith and be counter-cultural, whether it be against the culture of established religion or against agnostic society?

I have failed in this and I have also seen progress. By God’s grace, I keep pressing on, trusting in the promise of Philippians 1:6.

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