Aaron Duvall
“The opinions expressed by the Tabor College EML student bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Tabor College. Tabor College is also not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information in the post.”
There is a memorable line in the classic Wachowski brothers movie- The Matrix. The protagonist Neo is deciding whether to learn the truth about The Matrix, or go back to a life of blissful ignorance. Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) starts his monologue by saying “let me tell you”. Out of this an internet meme was born. Below is one.
Did it work? When you read it did you see what it really said, or did you read it the way you thought it should read? A few interesting things about this meme. The first: What if I told you… that Morpheus never once in the movie says “what if I told you.”? It’s true… he doesn’t. However, if you’ve seen the movies I bet you read the above text in his voice. And you maybe even “remember” him saying it. Secondly, if you read the text as it “should be” and not as it was, congratulations. You’re normal. I’ve shown this picture to no less than 25 people over the last week, and everyone has seen it the same. Eventually I thought maybe people were messing with me so I had them read it aloud. Success rate, 0%.
Much like The Matrix explains we are programed to see things the way we are “conditioned” to see them. Theology and the church is no different. Most evangelicals grew up in a church that said and did things a certain way. We had Sunday morning service, Sunday night service, and Wednessday night service. Song leaders gave way to worship leaders gave way to …
…Praise teams that stretched across the entire stage and couldn’t possibly have each person singing a different part!
We use weird concepts like “Let’s have fellowship” (what does that mean) “hedge of protection” and “traveling mercies”. We had these catch phrases like “It’s not a religion its a relationship”, “Christians aren’t perfect they are just forgiven”, and “The Gospel is justification by faith.” And honestly it’s ok. We should have these. The idea of Christian jargon has never bothered me. Starbucks has jargon and it doesn’t hurt them. I mean seriously… where else is a small a tall, and a medium a grande?!? But eventually we realized Starbucks is good enough, and we bow to the god of jehovah java and learn it.
However, I do have a problem when, much like the meme we all read incorrectly, we see things as we “think they should be” as opposed to how they really are.
What if I told you, the Gospel is more than a moment of justification. But it’s a lifetime of bringing Heaven to Earth. What if it is more than accepting forgiveness, but it’s living transformation.
What if the Gospel is these moments of grace propelling us forward as we advance and build the Kingdom of God. What if it is to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
If this were the case would it change the way we proclaimed it? The modern day audience is looking for something radical. They want authenticity. They want a glimpse into ultimate reality. If we as a church continue to see things as we “think they should be” and not “as they really are supposed to be”, we may miss the chance to share the full and robust Gospel to them.