"Gentlemen, this is a football"
I once read that Vince Lombardi would start his training camp with these words. I can only imagine what some of the players thought about this comment.
And yet, without knowing it, the late Mr. Lombardi is going to help me make a point.
What he held in his hand was a football. Not a baseball, orange, or underwear.
It is a football.
That my friend is an absolute truth.
Call it whatever you want, it is a football.
Now can you imagine one of the rookies on the team saying, "well it may be a football to you, but I thing it's a grape".
I would bet he wouldn't make the team.
I know some of you are going to say I'm making a silly point about something as complicated as the truth.
But has it become more about taking the truth, and changing it to fit our lifestyle?
What if, dare I be this bold, we have decided it's much easier to change the truth than it is to change how we live?
Being kind of slow I'm just now try to get a handle on post-modernism and the emerging church, and I have to tell you there are some things I like. Dealing with the brokenness and social needs of people, I think, is Biblical. That's what Jesus did.
I'm cool with that.
Having a church setting where people can come and find love and hope. That's good stuff.
I'm very cool with that.
But my question is this.
At what point do we teach the truth?
See I tricked you, because some people say "well what is the truth"?
And now we come back to my first point.
There has to be an absolute truth. Without it there is chaos. There is no right and wrong, only feelings. People live for what they think is right, which man can come up with some really wacky stuff.
And I know the truth hurts. We don't like to be told what to do or what not to do. We don't do criticism very well. God better be okay with what I'm doing (or not doing) because I'm not going to change. But hey God is love right?
At what point do we preach or teach the absolute truth? The one that you know exists. The one that you know may hurt some feelings. The stuff that brings conviction to people to change their lives.
Or the stuff that you know may cause you to lose some people.
I'm really torn here because I've been reading some great books about reaching people were there at.
And I know, better than most, that the Christian walk is one of a process. I also understand, better than most, that none of us are without sin.
But do we stop preaching the absolute truth for fear we might offend someone?
I once heard of a pastor who would not preach against abortion, his reason caught me off guard. He simply stated that he couldn't preach against it for fear they would fire him.
Everybody wants to preach about Christ's love, it's a great message. Not many want to wade into areas that might step on somebody's toes.
So we come down to this, do we preach the absolute truth or do we preach the truth that everybody wants to hear.
The truth that the Bible is wide open to interpretation, that there really is no right or wrong or absolute truth. Just trust your feelings and you'll be fine.
Before long we begin to see the football, as a grape.
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3 comments:
The problem with this post Tom is that you are having a discussion with no one, at least I can't figure out who you are debating. You have a gutless guy who is afraid of getting fired, but that has nothing to do with postmoderns.
Who have you read that you disagree with? Give me an example of a truth statement that a postmodern would be unwilling to preach?
It isn't a debate at all, at least not with any particular person. It is just me thinking out loud. In the 1950's the Army academy was rocked with a cheating scandal, a violation of their honor code. Many people began to question the code, was it still relevent, was it okay to cheat in a very difficult school. Many wanted the accused to be let off, simply because the honor code was from a different time, the past. I recently heard one of my youth group question one of the commandments as still relevent. This kid has been raised in a Christian home and been in church their whole life.
My worry, and I don't care if it's postmodern or not, is that we never look at the gospel, the teachings of Jesus, the absolute truth of the Bible and the values it teaches as irrelevent to today's world.
I am not lumping all postmoderns in the same pile, as I stated their is lots of great stuff going on in many churches. As I also stated, I am just now trying to understand the movement, so I admit I am a little behind the times.
Here's my goal: To help you communicate effectively with postmoderns. My goal is not (just to clarify) to convince you to become postmodern.
You said "Has it become more about taking the truth and changing it to fit our lifestyle?" That is not (in my opinion) what postmodernism does. And if postmoderns do it, so do moderns.
You seemed to be talking about postmoderns and then you threw in a gutless guy. Postmoderns are not gutless. You put my defenses up.
If your youth is a postmodern and you try to tell him, "Come on, it's a football," you probably won't convince him. The kid's question gives you an opportunity to take him deep. If you tell a postmodern that a question is not legitimate, you pull yourself out of the opportunity to sway him. Guide him, help him discover. Trust God to guide him along with you rather than feeling the onus to convince him yourself.
Let me give you my take on postmoderns. It is my opinion that if you don't enter their thought process, you have little to no chance of influencing them. And yes, I think they can be influenced to understand that God is true and so are the commandments.
The problem is that scientific theories are coming and going at an alarming rate. Newton's theory of gravity was disproved by Einstein's theory of relativity which is about to be disproved very soon.
Newton's theory of motion were disproved by quantum physics which continues to change it's tune about what is true about motion -- string theories abound.
Wires are displaced by semiconductors which will soon be displaced by organic conductors.
The church put Galileo under house arrest for saying the sun was the center of the solar system rather than the earth, and they didn't apologize until about 20 years ago!
The church once saw slavery as legitimate and blacks as a lower race, but now they don't.
Remember all that stuff we learned about the atom in high school in the 80's. Not true.
This isn't about science or a rant on the history of the church. This is about the fact that the truths that guide our lives are in flux.
I personally don't believe in evolution, not because I'm conservative, but because what we knew for sure fifty years ago, we don't know for sure anymore. I doubt we will believe evolution in 50 years.
Postmodern's parents said they would love each other forever and they didn't. They got divorced.
They don't know what to believe. They go more by instinct. So let's stop there a minute. Can you follow God by instinct? By paying attention to Jesus and the Holy Spirit rather than the ten commandments? Aren't the commandments now written on our hearts? Can we follow God more by movement and rhythm instead of by stern arguments?
I would think you could. I would think these movements and rhythms would lead you straight to the absolute truth... about abortion and homosexuality. Postmoderns don't throw out the Bible, in fact, they seem to read it more than moderns.
Postmoderns seem to me to be wired more ready to follow the spirit than a modern, who must stick with a doctrine whether it seems to prove out in experience or not.
Tom, thanks for thinking out loud with me. You are my friend and I am sure that is absolute truth. Thanks be to our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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