LeCircus

For those who heard my sermon yesterday, the comments here will not be especially new. If you missed it, the sermon centered upon Micah 6: What does the Lord require...but to do justice love kindness and walk humbly with your God...

My sermon contrasted the Scriptural expectation of humility and justice against the me-first values of our time, depicted most recently in the spectacle of Lebron James' free agency as well as the hype and media circus surrounding it. ESPN aired a special entitled, "The Decision" in which Lebron publicly announced that he would be taking his talents to South Beach. The entire process was so over-the-top that it actually drew criticism from the media itself (or at least from rival networks and commentators). My favorite quote came from Eric Stangel, the head writer and executive producer for The Late Show with David Letterman, who wrote, "I'm keeping my 2 yr old up to watch the Lebron James Special. I want her to see the exact moment our society hit rock bottom." Naturally, he posted the comment on Twitter.

All this has little, really, to do with Lebron James. Except that he now represents the latest example--one more symptom, really--of a society that is very, very sick. Celebrities are lifted up and worshiped to the point that they cannot help but believe that they really are the heroes we imagine them to be. It's all a ridiculous circus but no one seems particularly able to point this out. Instead, we just play along. Turn on our televisions and watch as our society slips into the dust of narcissistic history. Even though we might sense the absurdity, it seems that we are nevertheless destined to play out a drama in which the logical conclusion is complete and utter catastrophe. What does the Lord require has been replaced by an unquenchable appetite that begins with a very different question...What's in it for me? We really cannot blame Lebron or anyone else who appears to blessed by all of this because we're all failing to offer any real alternative. Go get yours we say. Because, frankly, that's the best idea we've got...

The Church has failed greatly in this regard. More than anything else, we have failed in memory and imagination. We've forgotten our own story and we lack the courage to explain to one another that every society that has headed down this road has ended in ruins.

Surely the Church has something interesting to say to a society that is tumbling headlong into the abyss of the self... Yet where is that voice? Indeed, some corners of the Church have gone so far as to actually join the circus--promoting the very narcissistic values that are polluting our culture. Some of the fastest growing churches in our society right now are promoting values and practices that are diametrically opposed to the central teachings of the Gospel and the Scriptures. It is difficult to blame the faithful when the very institutions that they trust to tell the truth have sold out to cheap and easy answers simply because they seem popular.

And that's really the thing. If we fail to ask questions like the one that Micah is asking in Micah 6, who will? If we forget the lessons of our own story, who do we expect to remember them? It is one thing for the world to lose its mind but the Church is without excuse. For we do have an alternative story. We do have an alternative message that is compelling and reliable enough to challenge the prevailing nonsense of our time... But will we muster the imagination and courage to recall it and speak it? If we do not, then we deserve Lebron and Lady Gaga.

This is a central tenet of my own leadership at Saint Francis. I want to invite us to be a community that attends to an alternative way of living in the world. I want us to be a community that asks questions about God, about life, and about the world in which we live. I want us to seek that unique path of humility and courage--a path that is revealed in people like Micah and Jesus and Francis of Assisi.