CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

February 22, 2009

25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373

www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm

PRAY FOR:

God’s will for our congregation Various relatives, friends, and co-workers

God’s wisdom for our leaders, military, and nation Peace

SGT. JOE FRIDAY MEETS SEINFELD

“While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there” (Acts 17:16-17).

Depending on your age, you might or might not be familiar with the names in the title. Sgt. Joe Friday was played by Jack Webb on the television show Dragnet from the 1950s and 60s. He had a couple of famous lines like the introduction: “This is the city…and I was working out of…with my partner…” as a Los Angeles police detective. His most famous line was, “Just the facts ma’am, just the facts.” Seinfeld was a television sit-com of the 1990s based on the comedy act of Jerry Seinfeld. It took place in New York City and was a show about nothing. That view comes from a number of observers who saw the philosophy of Seinfeld as relativism. These two shows represent the two cultural philosophies of today (1).

Sgt. Joe Friday represents the modernistic point of view. “Just the facts” is what modernism has been interested in. There are many modernists still around and the older you are the more likely you are a modernist. We want the facts, well reasoned if possible. We think that if we argue well and logically we can convince people of what is right and wrong. Conservative talk radio would be one example of this type of thinking. Another would be found in the church among those who I would call traditionalists. Our particular phrase is that “we speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent.” We have our “five acts of worship,” our “plan of salvation,” our organization for the church, and our identity as churches of Christ. All of these have been reasoned out over the years and everything is settled. When we preach, we want sermons that have points that lead to a solid conclusion. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” is the working idea. We are the mind and strength of the love for God. “Just the facts.”

Seinfeld represents postmodernism. This idea is that truth is what an individual makes it. You might have facts but they are your facts. “I feel” becomes the working idea in postmodernism. This view has difficulty understanding good and evil, right and wrong, at least from a modernist perspective. Many in this group grew up in modernism but saw the harshness and abuse of power in that philosophy, including in the church, and have rejected it. They or someone they love has been hurt by modernism, and so they refuse to be a part of such an attitude. In the church, this is the group that wants to be more emotional in the assembly with the raising of hands, handclapping, standing in praise, etc. We like to gather around the baptistery to watch a baptism, to come as a group when someone responds and share in their joy or pain. We ask questions of traditions and ask why we have to do something one way instead of another. We are the heart and soul of the love for God.

Needless to say this has brought conflict within the body of Christ as well as in culture. Many are looking for a solution. For the modernist, the solution is simply doing the same thing in the same way expecting different results, a classic definition of insanity. We refuse to see that the modernist philosophy is not working well if at all, and hence, we are losing the young. Jay Guinn, on his website, states that the youth of traditionalists churches are leaving the church altogether and no longer are involved in religion. Some of us deny that there is a cultural shift and state that people are just not interested in truth.

Postmodernists are attempting to connect with the postmodern generation but at what cost? There is a movement called “the Emerging Church.” These are postmodernists who are trying to find ways to bring people to Jesus. While there are a number of views in this effort, the radicals are compromising on scripture to the point of denying some important doctrines and accepting sinful activity (2). Within churches of Christ, some have found good things in the Emerging Church movement, though to my knowledge, no one among us as gone to the extremes that some have recently.

While this is a brief overview of the two philosophies and how they are affecting the church, some are asking, is there another way? Can we communicate with both generations within the same congregation or are we hopelessly divided? There is a third way in which we can communicate with Sgt. Joe Friday and Seinfeld. Tim Keller is a Presbyterian minister in of all places, New York City. He is theologically conservative and through his preaching has a congregation of five thousand and that church has helped establish more congregations in the metropolitan area of New York (3).

“One of the most important ways to get a hearing from post-modern people and to wake up nominal or sleepy Christians is to preach the gospel as a ‘third’ distinct way from both irreligion and religion. Religion is ‘if I obey I will be accepted.’ Irreligion is ‘I don’t really have to obey anyone but myself.’ The gospel is ‘since I am accepted, I will obey’” (4).

His argument is that both the modernist and the postmodernist have created their own idols. The modernist has made his efforts and forms his idol. If we do the form and make the effort, then God will save me, that is, He is obligated to save me. So I must do the “five acts of worship” and when I do, then I have done my part thus adding to the work of Christ. What we have done is made our acts of worship an idol. Those are challenging words. Pride and fear are two motivating factors in our idolatry. Pride in the sense that I do not want to be seen as weak or to be caught in some type of sin. Fear in being caught or in being afraid that God will condemn me for some sin is another. Modern believers can make any number of things idols unintentionally because we have made obedience an idol. The degree of my obedience means my acceptance. A recent statement on a sign by a church of Christ about obedience suggested this.

Postmodernists have their own idols. It could be how they view success in their careers or relationships. Being fired or divorce could be mean failure, a fall from the idol they have set up for themselves. They become what they worship: money, power, self. What Keller suggests is that we need to show the postmodernist that the idols they have set up for themselves are doomed to failure because it is self-seeking; what is in it for me. They base their acceptance on being accepted in some area. When they are not, or are rejected, then they have failed, and life could become unbearable.

What Keller then does is to point both groups to the Jesus and the cross. He shows that God can and has accepted them in Christ. It is through the work of Christ that we are saved from idols and sin. We did nothing, which is what Paul emphasized in Romans 5:6-11 - ungodly, sinners, enemies - but now in Christ saved. When we come to realize that we are accepted by God in Christ, based on His sacrificial death, that God loves us where we are, then after that realization of acceptance, we then choose to obey out of that acceptance and not out of requirement and the expectation of getting something. We already have the promise of eternal life guaranteed by God through His Spirit.

Paul says it this way: “he saved us, NOT because of the righteous things we had done, BUT because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that THOSE WHO HAVE TRUSTED in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:5-8, emphasis mine). Notice what Paul says. We did not save ourselves and we cannot do that! It is only through Jesus Christ that we are saved; His blood. Once we realize that, then we respond in trust to what God has done. God is not looking at us to be perfect, nice as that would be, but that we will be faithful to Him in our walk. There are many challenges in that. For instance, if we lie, why are we doing it? Is it in pride or in fear of being caught or getting our way?

Sgt. Joe Friday and Seinfeld can come together. They have some common struggles to deal with and overcome. Keller goes on to say that eventually the postmodernist will need to look at the teachings or doctrines in scripture and to come and understand that there is truth which can be understood. That will come as understanding increases. His way seems to me to be a better one than what we have practiced and what others are trying. We do need to recognize that we are in a cultural shift and that we need to understand as much as we can about that so as to present the good news to people. Notice that in Acts 17 when Paul spoke in Athens, he approached the philosophers differently than he did the Jews of a synagogue or God fearing Greeks. We meet people where they are but we also need to understand where they are as well (5).

Let me encourage you to read some of his material on this and to read his books. You will find them profitable though you might not agree with everything.

George B. Mearns

(1) I’m sure one could come up with other shows that represent the philosophies of today but these will do.

(2) Even within the Emerging Church, not all are going to extreme views. They are disagreeing and dividing over those who are.

(3) Let me say that while I do not agree with all his doctrinal positions, Timothy Keller’s approach to reaching the two generations is proving successful. We can learn how to do this and reach out to those around us through his preaching example and approach. His two recent books, The Reason for God and The Prodigal God were published in 2008 by Dutton.

(4) Preaching in a Post-Modern City: Part Two, http://theresurgence.com