2 posts tagged “christianity”
Sorry I have been gone for...about 4 months. School this semester is much more time than I expected, and an xbox in my dorm room...doesn't exactly help my productivity. But I'm back, for now.
One thing that really has caught my attention as of late is the prevalence of tv shows and commercials promising salvation and redemption. It is as if everyone is allowed to talk about their hells, but Christians can't talk about the real Hell because it would offend people.
The first place I noticed this theme was on a commercial for people who were going bald. But let me do a quick rabbit trail. The opposite of Christianity is not atheism. It is idolatry. And in idolatry, we define for ourselves a hell. For instance, in this example, bald hell. You don't want to be in bald hell. No one will like you, you will have to buy your kids sunglasses if you live in California, because your head is SO shiny. You have to spend more money on hats because you are so embarrassed. Bald hell is a BAD place. And so what is the savior for this hell? Well, some hair product that will give you thicker hair, and cover up all those bald spots of course. And so that becomes your functional savior. You sacrifice time for it. You ascribe glory to it. You worship it and tell all your friends how great HAIRY hair worked for you (I made up the name, just as a place filler). Because it gives you salvation from bald hell.
And the commercials are just ridiculous. People claiming that their life is so much better because of this or that product, and that they have more peace and joy now that they aren't bald. The thing is that they aren't too far off the mark. They are praising a god for saving them, and giving them peace and joy. What they don't realize is that God has died for their salvation, if they would have it, and that He waits with opens hands, peace in one and joy in another.
Or take the tv show MADE on MTV (yes, sometimes I watch MTV...deep dark secret of mine). They take people who are unpopular and different from others. Then they make them into popular kids and people like them and one guy won the prom king crown, others have lost tons of weight. And they say that Eddie George, the host trainer ex-NFL running back, has just changed their life for the better forever. But they are essentially, at the core of it, still the same. Just as I am a wretched sinner, so are they. We are all wretched sinners. The Liberals who cry out for equality have it in Christianity. We are all equally horrible people, at our very core. We seek redemption. We seek improvement of life. We seek true "life-change," just like all the people on the show Beauty and the Geek and every other reality show, especially ones that are competing for money, where all the contestants claim that the million dollar prize will change their life forever.
Reading over this, it isn't very coherent. So I figure I will be coherent here instead. We seek salvation: let us seek Jesus. We seek peace: let us run after Jesus. We seek joy: let us long for communion with Jesus. For true salvation lies at his feet. Every other pursuit of a savior, outside of Jesus, is a form of idolatry. So let us fall to Jesus' feet, and worship him, for he is worthy to be praised. The him to be the glory for ever and ever, Amen.
This may sound like me ranting, but I am not. This is my true hope for Christianity in the future.
In Portland, there is this amazing church, that has been there for one hundred and ten years. It has a gorgeous steeple, and takes up an entire city block, half of which is a garden, half which is the cathedral. The inside is amazing too. An organ takes up the entire front of the church, there are gorgeous stained glass windows, and the designs in the rafters are amazing. It truly takes my breath away, and every time I get a chance, I go inside. I went to a service, not because I am a fan of traditional churches, but because I wanted to see a service go on in this amazing building. It is the home of First Presbyterian Church in Portland, and I have a deep respect for the church and the preacher, who is actually a very good speaker and teacher of the Word.
I tell this story to make a point: Christianity has lost its place in culture, particularly in art. Not saying the Christianity ought to be strictly cultural; indeed, many heresies have from immersing the church in culture. But the Church has forgotten how to inspire the awe of the Lord through art. Many of the churches I see now meet in warehouses and old supermarkets. Although it is very functional, so were cathedrals. I am not saying that we should return to cathedrals; instead, we need a new generation of Christian-led architecture. A great example is the chapel on Seattle University's campus, as seen below. It isn't old and stuffy, like old chapels. It is new. It redefines architecture
But this doesn't stop with art. It goes to science as well. Christian culture has created this rift with it and science, and so many Christians, even if they have the aptitude, turn their nose up to science, because it is a "godless study." But in history, it was Christians who defined science. Galileo was a devout Catholic. We hold him up as this victim of the Catholic Church, but it was the Catholic Church, and God, to which he bowed. Christians used to be at the forefront of almost every discipline. Great writers were produced, with insightful novels and theological works; now we have Your Best Life Now and Purpose-Driven Life, not exactly a Chesterton or Lewis or Tozer.
I ask, and admonish Christians, to push to the forefront of their disciplines. Glorify God in your work. In your church buildings. Help us soon forget when we built church malls instead of a new kind of cathedral. Let everything we do smell and appear of Christ. Let people stand in awe of churches, and then fall on their knees to the God being worshipped there.
