Entry Sixty Two: Reaching at Revelation

There is nothing more spiritually awakening then being asked what your favorite sermon is and allow me to explain why, but first let me give some context.

Today I was asked this question by a new friend, just about 30 minutes ago via Facebook.  Both of us being political science majors, we first became aquatinted at a Political club meeting about three months ago. Since that meeting we have discussed personal hobbies, interests, economics, our preference on the president, and of course future ambitions. However, during our chats we had never really brought up religion. Though, I am not generally shy about my faith on social media or in the work place, his question still came as a slight but exhilarating surprise. The question was simple and efficient; it read "Any good Christian sermons you recommend on youtube?".

Even with such directness it took me about 3-4 minutes to process what he was asking and what I was suppose to do. I sat there thinking about his job profession, his hobbies, where he may be in life, what he may be going through. I even considered the possibility of there being a deeper question or plea. It was difficult to digest at first, because although this exercise was a normal exchange with my christian friends, with none christian friends, and even with strangers... it had never happened with political friends. I sat there for another couple minutes thinking of my favorite pastors, my favorite churches, sermons that came to mind, and I had absolutely no idea where to start.

After a couple moments I began looking up Ravi Zacharias, then Francis Chan, then Tim Keller. Then I looked up Skyline Church, Experience Life, Mosaic Hollywood, FoothillChurch, and Christ Church of the Valley. I started by looking in the media section of each website, scanning each series theme, then picking a couple I thought might be good. However, for the first time in my christian life I looked at the videos with a whole new level of objectivity. Questions started raising in my head; does this message sound like its attacking atheists, does it sound belittling, does it sound too exclusive, fundamentally does it sound offense? Then I wondered what would be offensive from his perspective.

It takes a certain kind of person to enjoy watching C-span, watching documentaries, reading the news, and following polls as a workplace hobby. I know, because I too enjoy these things and only find like minded people perusing the same field - politics. With someone who works in a major public office, there sits a certain kind of mind that can easily sift through bullshit and poor rhetoric. Thus, for the first 20 minutes I had my work cut out for me, instead of sharing videos I really enjoyed for personal reasons, which had a certain personal context involved... I looked for videos that may be nourishing from where ever he may be in personal walk. I thought of the deep questions he may be asking.

After skimming through about 13 themes and skimming the videos,  something strange came over me. As I continued watching I kept encountering the same thoughts "why is he talking so aggressively?", "why does he keep speaking on the defense?", "why does he automatically assume I am Christian?", "why do I feel like this sermon was written for a Highschool group?", "Where is intelligence?" this is such a crappy speech. After about the third of fourth "why", I realized something. Behind all those questions I was also thinking "man I have heard this a million times", which opened my eyes up to something incredible. I realized how confined the idea of truth has become within modern christianity.

I began thinking about all the times I had watched a Ted Talk and really appreciated the inspiration, or what it used to feel like sitting in church and hearing a theological paradigm I had never experienced before. Now after thinking about the whole thing it dawned on me that in the christian world, the combination of theology and practicality are not combined. For instance, I only know of three organizations that combine science and christianity to explore our purpose. I only know of one none profit institution that uses sociology and psychology to research and preserve the family unit. Lastly, I only know of one book that outlines the powerful politics Jesus created during his time on earth.

A couple weeks ago another friend of mine who is catholic was telling me he would attend church if pastors would talk about the complexity of natural law as they did during Abraham Lincoln's day. This is a friend who enjoys reading about roman history, the great philosophers, and modern global politics. I cant understand why that topic isn't brought up commonly or why people don't use the same kind of complex vocabulary as before, but I wont share that opinion because it will waste space. The point my friend pointed out earlier, and the point I discovered while searching for a good video, is that the christian church has become so consumed by the attitude of pleasing that it has forgotten its duty.

The duty of the christian church is to explain truth by painting a picture, using broad strokes and also small brushes. Yet today the church paints with only small brushes, or it paints with broad strokes. Instead of getting something beautiful that captures the soul and inspires the mind, we get something that looks good for the slow of heart, and for others it feels like an optional or abstract form of entertainment. It's not that the messages do not have enough material, or enough combination of science and scripture, or theology and astronomy, it is that sermons often fail to answer some of our most common questions. The pulpit points out what may be an issue but then gives no direct resolution.

I was looking at the sermons with an lens given to me by Christian Academia, such as the importance of historical context. Then from political philosophy I gathered the importance of history, law, absoluteness, and good rhetoric. At that point I called my friend Chris for his own personal suggestion, because after examining myself for only a couple moments I figured with such lenses it would be impossible to give my other friend what he needed, clearly there was something going on with myself. Chris sent me a video on Facebook and I thought about forwarding it, but the video raised the same "Whys" as the others. So I just sent my friend a list of my favorite pastors and some great churches.

Most often when the pulpit does proclaim a resolution, it feels awfully like a self help guidebook or check list. When I sent those pastor suggestions and church links I as if I were doing the same thing. I suppose ultimately this is what I am saying: Where are the great readers and thinkers of our time? Where are the youth that know old philosophy, who understand civics, who can retain history. Why do I only know a handful of incredibly intelligent people, why do I know this handful and not a handful of pastors who can beat them? I find myself almost temped to get into pastoral ministry myself. However, I fear that jumping on such a train leads to the problem of being narrowly educated, not a duel artisan.