It might be for this reason that I hardly enter a Wal-Mart anymore. The infamous People of Wal-Mart web pages showing how ill-dressed or undressed shoppers are says it all. Or fly somewhere and see how people dress for air travel -- when I fly I dress up and not down! The same could be said for a concert in which the ticket price alone might imply something a more formal rather than casual. Just last month my wife and I had to change our path in a store because they young man ahead of us (not in a Wal-Mart) was wearing sleep pants, a bathrobe, and slippers. Really? I guess I have become the fuddy-duddy that I rebelled against in youth. I feel the same way when I find pastors who wear what might be comfortable or easy to put on (from the chair where you dumped it yesterday) but I find it hard to take them seriously in their calling. If they show up on Sunday morning with vestments of khakis or board shorts or t-shirt or polo, I am immediately put off. It seems to me that they are rebelling against their vocation in some childish and culturally relevant way that is both arrogant and rude.
I fear that this kind of thing affects a great deal in the Church. Our theology is not exciting but boring. Our morality flaunts duty more than liberty or indulgence. We are in a very unfavorable position against the world. The world offers us sexy, cool, vital, vibrant, indulgent, forward-looking, be what you are, and, most of all, have fun in everything. In comparison the Church seems rather dull, bland, boring, and very uncool. They say that if you are not a liberal when you are young and a conservative when you mature, you are simply an idiot or a fool. Maybe youth instinctively rebels against the tradition and traditional theology, morality, and liturgy. I don't know. But I do know that in choosing the fun over everything else, the world has not chosen well or anything worth having.
Youth left me with many things and regrets are also among the memories. I hope it is true for many. My sixth grade teacher told me most of all in life to be true to myself. Which self? The selfish, rebellious, lustful, fool who does not care about consequences or the mature self that lives in bondage to them or the Christian self who has learned to delight in the will and Word and order of the Lord? The real radical is not the one who indulges in a Rumspringa vision of life that cares for nothing except the moment and puts off the serious for a time to be announced later. No, the real radical is the mature self, formed and shaped by the Spirit of God, to become in time the person who has been given eternity. I am encouraged that some of those coming out of their youthful rebellion are awakening to this truth and showing up in conservative, orthodox, and traditional parishes offering orthodox and traditional liturgy. It is my hope that this is where the future is headed and not simply a momentary trend.
We might hasten this a bit if we got out of our system the idea that youth ministry should be fun to counter the boring and bland stuff that happens in worship and Bible study. We might initiate this kind of maturity by refusing the idea that worship is a stage, that the people in the chancel are actors, that the script is made up, and that the goal is entertainment. We might encourage a more real future by offering our kids a more real present in which the symbols and ceremonies come not from preference or for the sake of the experience but because the presence of God is as real as God, the truth is not subject to individual decision or definition, and the purpose of God is to set us from from the fake freedom that corrupts and kills. The most radical thing in our world is not going with the flow of culture or fad but resisting the current because God has entered our time to rescue us from our sins, restore our lives in holiness, and direct us to the eternal future which we taste now in the mystery of bread and wine. Looking back, I can thank a few profs along the way who taught me this radical idea.
1 comment:
It is an axiom that self moderation and self discipline are virtues in life that put a check on our conduct, and for one who seeks the middle way there is a tendency to avoid extremes. Most of my close friends in my youth seemed to follow the traditional roles of their lower middle class parents, dressed neatly, and shared the values of hard work, good manners, and respect. As the sixties moved along, youth in America seemed to be in rebellion, not entirely a valid rebellion, but a rebellion for its own sake, and many lived the part that youth culture advocated. But we still had our “ole fuddy-duddy” types, and I was one of them as well. Most of us in this nerdy category remained that way, a kind of underground resistance in a country that had become more vulgar and coarse in language, more relaxed in personal appearance, and less interested in good manners. And we often sought the friendship of like minded people, rather than the rebels. I think for a time each of us often fall in the middle, sometimes roaming between the cool rebel and the staunch traditionalist. We have our lighter moments, although for the most part we remain conservative in our values, appearance, language, and conduct. As for the church, people who love the Lord include a mixed bag of the cultural rebels and the traditionalists. Perhaps, we are not much different than the early Christian believers gathering together on a typical Sunday morning. There would be shepherds, shopkeepers, farmers, rich folks, poor folks, soldiers, some stragglers and curiosity seekers, seamen, fishermen, a repentant prostitute, businessmen, thieves, drunkards, altogether forming a blend of weary souls just trying to find grace, comfort, and redemption in the Lord! Soli Deo Gloria
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