Heresy of the Month

On John MacArthur, Ray Lamontagne, and Metanarrative

I have been thinking a lot of our story.  A post by Peter Eavis on the Not Religious Blog this morning was about this and got me obsessed.  What drives us?  What do we live for?  Reading Leanne's post from Monday made me realize just how big of a story she has lived already!  Being married, having twins, writing, and teaching full time, plus being Canadian, she already had my respect and admiration for her heroism.  Finding out, now, just how much she has truly lived, has catapulted her into my "Legendary" category!  She has been everywhere!

Look at the lives of most people.  Because of choices made, many arbitrary at the time, they are doing something.  They are filling some role.  But are they fulfilled?  Do they ever actually reach anything resembling the full potential of their calling and destiny?  Statistics I've read (though I don't really know how they get these), say that more than 90% reach the end of their lives, without ever really reaching their potential or their destiny.

As I have worked on getting in touch with whom I was truly created to be, I have realized that I have settled for less.  In my pursuit of health, I am more and more in touch with my potential.  I am capable of much, much more than I have ever allowed myself to believe in the past.  As we are running out of money, I am very tempted to go and do the dutiful, man-of-the-house thing of getting a practical 9-5 job, putting my writing on hold until "we are in a better place, financially".  Does that sound familiar?  Have you used that statement?

I have a resume that needs to be spiral bound.  In order to continue to be a pastor, I have needed to work a number of different jobs to contribute to the family dinner table.  "I've got to put food on the table!" is the mantra of almost every human being I know.  It becomes a very convenient and non-threatening escape hatch.  It protects us from intentionality in pursuing our dreams and potential.  That way, we won't make blood, sweat, and tears sacrifices, possibly for years, only to realize at the end that our self-perception was a delusion of grandeur.  I have found out who I really am, and I am unimpressed.  That is our fear.

I can be truly great.  I can do world-changing things for the Kingdom of God.  I am afraid of taking the risk to try, only to find out I am wrong.  I also don't enjoy living in the tension of being in over my head.  Bumping into situations where I cannot confidently say, "I've got this."  I want easy, effortless, and safe.  I quote scriptures to myself like, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  See!  Jesus doesn't want me to experience tension.  Therefore, I won't, as an adult, go back to school to get my doctorate.  I would have to face being wrong about some things.  I would be challenged.  I would be surrounded by people who are smarter than I am.  I might find out I'm not as smart as I thought.

So, we play small.  We stay in a conservative city with a very small-town mentality.  A bigger city would eat us alive.  Here, I can sell insurance during the day, drink beer in the evening, talk about the Packers, compare professional quarterbacks with how great I was back in the day, regale my friends with tales of my own exploits on the "ole gridiron" in high school (which remains, through my 40 years of life, the peak of my accomplishments), go home to watch some TV with the fam, and go up to the cabin on weekends.  I wouldn't run into anyone smarter than I am on any day here.  I never have to worry about being challenged and stretched.  I subconsciously only choose people who are even less effective at achieving their potential to be my friends.  The world I have created for myself has no tension.  It is safe.  It is simple.  I've got this.  It is a smaller story and rather uninspired, but it is my story.

Jesus came to give us life to the full.  Why are we so scared to believe him?  Why do we carry a gospel that is so small?  John MacArthur, an influential pastor, recently blogged about, what he calls, the YRRs (the young, restless, and reformed).  He says that there is never a reason for a pastor or minister to drink beer.  If one does drink beer, one is obviously caving to the pressure of wanting to "be cool" and is compromising the gospel for the sake of catering to the secular culture at large.  Now, I agree with MacArthur that if a pastor's motivation for drinking beer is to "be cool", "be hip", or to "fit in", then that's pretty lame.  But, I love beer.  Beer is yummy.  I have a number of friends who are pastors and brew their own beer.  I love trying different micro-brews.  I started my church in a brewery, another thing that MacArthur finds to be insincere and sinful.  Look, I am not really offended by, or defensive about, MacArthur's statements.  Whatever.  I started in a brewery, because a friend owns it and let us use it for free.  I drink beer, because beer is a good, in and of itself.  Also, I grew up Catholic, and we just didn't have the evangelical hang-ups.  Again, none of that is the point.

When I hear a person make strong statements, with which I disagree, rather than just dismiss them out of hand, I like to see if I need to examine something in myself.  So, rather than just dismissing MacArthur as a religious zealot and a legalistic idiot, I need to see what, in me, may need examining.  My ultimate goal is obedience to Jesus.  MacArthur's statement doesn't ring true to me, but there is a chance that this is so, because of my own rebellion, rather than an error on the part of MacArthur.  So, I examine my own motives for starting a church in a brewery and for enjoying beer, which I stated above.  Those don't seem sinful to me.  OK, so maybe it's not the behavior, but what is behind it.  At this point, I ask myself, "What is this person, with whom I disagree, trying to protect with these statements?  What is the value behind the statement or behavior?"

In this case, MacArthur seems to be trying to protect the integrity of the gospel.  Well, that's certainly a good thing, right?  But then, we have to ask ourselves what is his interpretation of the gospel?  Is what he is trying to protect something worth protecting?  As I've often said, if something is truly true, it doesn't need defending or protection at all.  It will stand on its own.  Based on all that I have read by MacArthur, he seems to subscribe to a moralistic understanding of the gospel.  This is the "larger story" for which he lives his life.  This is called, in philosophical and theological terms, a metanarrative.  A metanarrative is generally defined as the bigger-than-us story that gives us vision, purpose, and direction for our lives.  It makes us.  It defines us.  It is our ultimate, transcendent, over-arching destiny that shapes our lives into the image of God for which we were created.

MacArthur's metanarrative seems to line up with evangelicalism as a whole.  This is rhetoric we have heard from Tea Party Conservative politicians, from evangelists, from conservative neo-reformed pastors, and from Bible-and-gun-toting homeschoolers.  This gospel can be summed up as this: "We were made good.  Eve sinned and made Adam sin.  So, we were now totally depraved and corrupt.  God sent his son, Jesus, to die.  He had nothing but hatred and wrath for us for our naughtyness.  When we killed his son, that made him feel a lot better about us.  We are still totally depraved.  Women are the "totally depravest" (as much as you can have degrees of total depravity), because they started it.  Now, however, God has nothing but wrath and hatred for us, until we say a special prayer.  That prayer doesn't make God stop hating us.  He is now willing to clean us up, not hate us quite as much, and let us go to heaven after we die.  That special prayer is a pledge to be good.  So, you are totally depraved, Jesus died, now, pray the prayer and stop sinning, so you can go to heaven after dying.  That is what people in this school of thought seem to profess as their metanarrative.

This is not a metanarrative at all.  It is an agenda.  It is a creed or set of beliefs and principles.  It may even be VERY strongly-held, but it is not metanarrative.  How can that story shape me and define my life?  "Behave"?  Really?  That's what Jesus gave His life for?  Remember, a metanarrative has to be bigger than the person.  It has to have the power to shape and drive the person.  It is supposed to be a treasure in a field, that a person would sell absolutely everything in order to buy the field to get the treasure.  Evangelicals have a small gospel.  It is a small story.  It has no value for shaping and defining our lives.  It will get me nowhere near my destiny.  A creature cannot be more powerful than the creator of that creature.  It is always subject to the will of the creator, because it owes its very existence to the creator.  In other words, this story of the gospel of sin management cannot be a metanarrative, because it is all created by people.  A metanarrative has to come from beyond us, in order to be bigger than we are.  Morality, politics, doctrine, rules, laws, principles, beliefs, and creeds are all human constructs. 

A metanarrative also has to apply to all areas of life.  When it doesn't, we suddenly have inconsistency and conflict. What if MacArthur met me in person, and he found out that I drink beer?  Yet, I am completely devoted to following Jesus.  I am not trying to be cool, I'm not young, restless, or reformed.  I am a walking contradiction to the script that his story of morality and good behavior gives him.  So, MacArthur now has to deal with his own inconsistencies and hypocrisy.  He has surrounded himself with people who all agree with him and practice the same principles, values, and agenda.  In other words, he has created a culture.  Now, the expectation is that MacArthur will preach legalistic morality.  He cannot do otherwise.  He is stuck. 

Let's imagine God visits him in a dream, showing him a large blanket coming down from heaven, filled with cans of Keystone Light.  He hears the voice of God say, "Take and drink!"  He can't do it.  He has, in a very devoted and committed way, done exactly what his culture expected of him.  So, in his zeal for protecting the integrity of his gospel, he has made himself larger than his own story.  He is the creator of his own god, so that god cannot redirect him.  Besides, he wouldn't accept the dream anyway, because he is conveniently a cessassionist.  He doesn't believe that anyone can have a prophetic dream today.  So, his small story has been built by him.  "God hates beer.  Stop drinking beer.  Go to Heaven."  That story, as a creation, cannot steer the creator.  In this reality, MacArthur has effectively compromised the integrity of his gospel by caving to the whims of his own culture.

A metanarrative, while giving us a sense of values and convictions, has to also have the power to make us do otherwise.  Without that power, it is simply an agenda or set of beliefs.  Saul persecuted Christians, killing them out of a strong zeal for his faith.  That's what drove him...until he was knocked off his ass by God.  Then God changed his name to Paul, a man who no longer had an agenda and strong belief system.  He now had a destiny, a purpose, and a larger story, not created by himself.  It was given to him by God.  Saul with an agenda became Paul with a metanarrative.  Notice that it was God who gave that to him.  He could not do it himself.  Notice the name change.  Our metanarrative is our identity.  Our identity comes from God.  When he became Paul, he no longer cared for his own life.  He counted it all as loss for the sake of this larger story.  Abram just wanted to get laid and have a kid.  When he discovered the larger promises of God over his life, he became Abraham and began living a metanarrative.  Jacob was a conniving little weasel, until he wrestled with God, received his unique blessing, and became Israel.  Simon was a zealot who wanted to see the violent overthrow of the Romans, until suddenly he grasped the identity of this carpenter that he followed.  Stripped of his agenda, he became Peter, the man with the metanarrative of being the rock-solid foundation of the global church.

This was not the story of sin management.  It was the story of life to the full - of seeing the Glory of the Lord in the land of the living.  It is the Gospel of the Kingdom come and coming.  It is not dying and going to heaven.  It is about Heaven coming down and transforming all reality.  We have to prepare the way of the Lord.  That is our destiny!  Each of us were uniquely designed to take part in that.  There is something that only you can do.  No one else on the planet can accomplish it.  It will require all of your resources, energy, skills, talents, and even your life.  Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a grain of wheat.  If it dies, it grows and bears a harvest 100 times its original potential.  That means we have to die to our desire to remain safe.  We have to die to our desire for comfort.  We need a larger story that compels us to live in the tension.  My yoke is easy and my burden is light becomes very real.  Why?  Because if it is a true metanarrative, we don't die grudgingly.  The man who bought the field with the treasure did not grumble or complain about selling everything.  It is all joy!  It is a celebration!  All of that stuff was in the way of him getting that treasure.  He counted it all as loss for the sake of the treasure.  Once we learn to embrace Jesus and die to the rest, we are transformed, not into people who behave themselves, but into people who are truly great.  We live life to the full by living every moment in light of the Gospel of Jesus, by which we fulfill our destiny.

While writing this, I am listening to Ray Lamontagne and the Pariah Dogs.  I love his music.  He has a great song about wasting life by not risking and looking for a larger story.  It's called "Old Before Your Time".  I wanted to share the lyrics with you in closing:

 

Old Before Your Time lyrics by Ray Lamontagne And The Pariah Dogs

ALBUM: God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise (2010)
List of Ray Lamontagne And The Pariah Dogs Lyrics

When I was a younger man lookin' for my pot of gold
Everywhere I turned the doors were closin'
It took every ounce of faith I had to keep on keepin' on
And still I felt like I was only losin'

I refused then like I do now to let anybody tie me down
And I lost a few good friends along the way
I was raised up poor and I wanted more
And maybe I'm a little too proud
In lookin' back I see a kid who was just
Afraid, hungry and old before his time

Through the years I've known my share of broken hearted fools
And those who couldn't choose a path worth taking
There's nothin' in the world so sad as talking to a man
Who never knew his life was his for making

Ain't it about time you realize? It's not worth keepin' score
You win some, you lose some and you let it go
What's the use of stacking on every failure another stone
Till you find you've spent your whole damn life
Building walls, lonely and old before your time

It took so long to see
That truth was all around me

Now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turnin' gold
And like the sky my soul is also turnin'
Turnin' from the past, at last and all I've left behind
Could it be that I am finally learnin'?

Learnin' I'm deserving of love and the peaceful heart
I won't tear myself apart no more for tryin'
I'm tired of lyin' to myself, tryin' to buy what can't be bought
It's not livin' that you're doin' if it feels like dyin
Cryin, growin' old before your time
Cryin, growin' old before your time

Following Jesus in a Karaoke Society

I'm back.  Things have been crazy.  I am building a new blog site for Heresy of the Month.  I am going to transfer all of this over to the new site, when it is completed.  I started this blog with the intention of just writing some of my thoughts down, as I wrestle with some things for writing a book on discipleship and following Jesus.  It is mostly a "Following Jesus in a Consumer Society for Dummies" type of book, on which I include myself in the "Dummies" category.  It is a book for people who are looking for a way in, without having to adopt the heavy yoke of cultural Christianity.  In other words, it is a book for people who are not currently Christian, or who were at one time, but have found that designation to have more baggage than it was worth.

All that being said, I have not been very intentional about this blog, because I was just using it to start to formulate and chew on ideas for the book.  I wasn't going to promote it as a thing in itself.  Then the whole thing took on a life of its own.  I suddenly found myself getting many emails thanking me for the content and thoughtfulness of the posts.  That was really cool, but it was very unexpected.  Now, when I don't post for a while, I get lots of emails asking me for another one.  We have had a lot of new people come and visit the church because of the blog.  I have been approached by job recruiters for writing and editing positions.  Electronic and print publications have contacted me.  Don't worry, none of this is going to my head.  It just has all been a little overwhelming, and  I am excited about it at the same time.  So, I have realized that I need to ramp this up a bit, and make it more professional, focused, and "for real".  I have been spending a lot of writing time getting things set up to build a more versatile and interactive blog site.  I will (hopefully) unveil it in a couple of weeks.

All of this leads to my post for today.  I have been thinking a lot about creativity and passion lately.  My friend, TamaraOutLoud, wrote an incredible post (she always writes incredible posts) about her liberation as a nerd, entitled "Nerd Is the New Cool".  You should check it out.  Her writing is awesome!  1980's AWESOME!  But this post was right in the wheelhouse of what I've been thinking about.  I talked about this at my training a bit last week, but I didn't have time to develop it fully.

We live in a Karaoke Society.  There is a great Ted Talk from Malcolm McLaren that inspired me, called "Authentic Creativity vs. A Karaoke Society".  You should check it out.  It is a great lecture that serves as a plea for moving out of this carbon-copy type of approach, that is so prevalent in our world today.

You see, that is the exact problem.  No one creates anything new anymore.  No one dares to try something risky and innovative.  Take a look at the performing arts as an example.  Once the formula was created for contest reality television by the producers of Survivor, every network and every producer kept stamping out carbon copies of that show.  Then, suddenly, reality shows come out about New Jersey, and then every network and producer wants to make a show with white trash from Jersey.  Madonna shocked the world, when she burst on the scene in the 80s.  Now, Lady Gaga is an absolute copy of the formula that worked back then.  Even her riffs and chord progressions are exactly the same.  If you don't believe me, listen to her "Born This Way", and then listen to Madonna's "Express Yourself" - same themes, same melody, same everything.  I didn't like Madonna's music, and I like the Lady Gaga shock, glam rock copy even less.  With "Dark Knight", comic book movies have broken into the cultural imagination.  There are 6 comic book movies being released this year, with many more slated for next year.  The massive production costs and problems of the Spider-man Broadway musical have not stopped them from believing in the miracle of the comic book formula.  I'm not really complaining about the comic book thing, because I love them.  I will see every one of those movies.  But I am making a point about our refusal to try anything new.

These contest shows, reality shows, pop music, crime shows, the Disney Machine, World Series of Poker, Lindsay Lohan, and all of the other pop culture garbage that is fed to us and our children creates a completely unrealistic understanding of the world.  It destroys our priorities and core values.  It sedates and innoculates us, keeping us from wanting more.

Just examining the American Idol phenomenon, one can see some very telling symptoms of a damaged culture.  A person no longer has to work, struggle, suffer, pay their dues, fight for what they want, go through years of poverty, or commit to pursuing their dreams.  There is no risk.  After a 12-week show, you will either have a music career, or you won't.  The contestants are crying, many of them only 16 years old, and they speak of the intensity of this "journey".  It's not a journey at all, but a sprint.  I liken it to giving a magic pill to a toddler that will make him or her into an adult in only 12 weeks.  The growing pains are intense, but they reach adulthood so fast, that the pain is quickly forgotten.  It sends a message to our children that nothing good is worth work and sacrifice.  All good things should just drop on your lap.  The statistics that less than 2% of all aspiring actors, musicians, artists, writers, or athletes actually "make it" professionally still hold true.  The talent show formula sends the massage that it is much more like 50%-75% make it.  We quickly forget about the hundreds of thousands that didn't even get an audition.  We can all be rock stars!  There's lots of room!  You don't have to work or sacrifice!  We'll give it to you!  The fine print says, "...as long as you fit our formula."  People who take risks and are uniquely, authentically creative get eaten up by the pop culture machine.  You conform to the formula, or you go to the artistic trash heap.

World Series of Poker has shown us that millions can be made from playing cards.  I have seen MIT grads who go from poker tournament to poker tournament, focused on winning lots of money, their heart's ambition and dreams long since forgotten.  They could be curing cancer, creating sustainable fuels, or solving global food and water crises.  Instead, they are immersed in a culture of greed, drugs, sex, and gambling.

Brilliant, potential computer engineers are wasting away in their mom's basement, playing World of Warcraft or hacking into servers to steal identities as a way to fund their worthless lifestyle.  They could be transforming medical technology to help doctors more efficiently work to heal patients.  They could be getting married and loving their families into life, raising beautiful, powerful, creative kids who take risks to better humanity.

If you are going to write a book about politics, it had better fit with either the Fox News formula on the far right or the MSNBC formula on the far left.  The only other option is to go so satirical that you are hilarious, but the vast majority of the population cannot grasp your esoteric delivery.  Your point gets lost to the masses in your satire.  This is the Comedy Central formula.  Whatever the case, you must be controversial and shocking.  Don't be a creative person with thoughtful suggestions for moderate step-by-step change.  Instead, its finger-pointing and shocking, "sky-is-falling" rhetoric that sells books.  Huge, sweeping generalities and lazy stereotyping save time and allow for a book to be written in days instead of months.  Why research, when American Idol has shown us that a book deal should be handed to you, because "YOU DESERVE IT!"? 

"Obama is the Antichrist!"  "Bush was a power hungry war monger!"  "Gays want to get married, so they can take money from hard working Americans!  In fact, everyone (except corporations - they're nice) wants to take the money of hard-working Americans."  "The GOP wants to kill unions, so that they can start a Nazi State in America!"  The generalities and stereotyping comes from both sides.  No healthy dialogue, just shooting back and forth.

If you want to sell a book about faith, it needs to be extremely controversial or extremely safe.  As we've seen with Rob Bell, you don't even need to publish the book to have people comment and fight over it, building unbelievable momentum and word-of-mouth marketing.  The book really wasn't that controversial, if you read it.  He didn't deny Hell or any of the other heresies of which he was accused.  I have never seen such incredible evidence of this Pop Culture domination as I saw in that whole fiasco.  I hope they do a study on it sometime, because it is a fascinating reflection of how religious leaders, like John Piper and others, have sold their souls to the consumerist, formulaic approach of culture.  Without even reading the book themselves (reflecting the lack of research and laziness I pointed out earlier), they opened fire on Rob Bell, helping him sell millions of copies more than he would have sold in the first place.  Bell's publisher is brilliant, releasing only the most controversial questions of the book.  The book, itself, was anti-climactic and boring, compared to the hype.  Those subscribing to the conservative, Christian formula created the perfect storm.  They continued to NOT read the book, for fear of being led astray, and they continued to publicly fire arrows at Bell, drumming up more interest in the book.  I have never before seen a situation where an author would want a particular group to keep not reading his book and to continue to critique it.  The earthquake in Japan and the Assassination of Bin Laden finally took the air out of those tires.  On the safe side, you can write a formulaic fluff book.  One of the best-selling books of all time, "Purpose Driven Life", fits in this category.  Warren is going in a great direction early in the book, seemingly going deep into who we are in God, only to resurface quickly, turning the book into an infomercial for his other "Purpose Driven" materials.  Osteen's "Your Best Life Now" is the perfect American Idol book.  It says that God wants to just pour out your destiny on you right now!  He came to give you life to the full right now!  It can all fall in your lap right now!  Absolute fluff.  It denies the reality of the vast majority of the population who have to work, sacrifice, and struggle for many years, for whom the movement toward our destiny is, in fact, a journey.

Look, here's my point (and, I believe, McLaren's point in his lecture), the Karaoke society celebrates the uncreative and the stupid.  We laugh at the girls from Jersey, and we think all people from Jersey are like that.  It's easier to make that assumption than to go and get to KNOW people from Jersey.  Eventually, the reality begins to reflect the fantasy.  People in Jersey begin to act and become like the people from Jerseylicious.  We are told by the culture how to behave.  We are given, and we accept, our identity, as it is given to us by the culture.  Will and Grace taught gay men how they should behave.  I know some gay men who are not conscious of their clothing and looks.  They work hard and enjoy sports.  But, now they not only have to battle with their sexual identity, but they also have to go through a cultural identity crisis.  As an Evangelical pastor, I am told by the larger culture that I should be unabashedly Republican.  I should fear and resent postmodernism.  I should be judgmental and publicly rebuke those who disagree with me.  I should never speak, unless I am 100% sure I am right.  I cannot think creatively.  Instead, I should parrot what everyone before me has said.  Ugh.

It is dangerous to take the risk and be creative.  If you stick your head out from the masses to be authentic and really you, you will immediately be met with sabotage.  We are supposed to remain stupid, because "Stupid is Cool".  We are supposed to sound incredibly clever (in 140 characters or less), while still remaining stupid.  If you have to work for something, it is not worth doing.  It is not meant to be.  It should be handed to you, like a winning lottery ticket, or it's not real.  I loved the Justin Bieber movie, and I am now a big fan of the Bieber.  I saw a kid who refused to join the Disney or Nickelodeon machine.  He literally rode around on a bus from radio station to radio station, playing his guitar for DJs and singing, just to finally get his shot.  He was fearless, dedicated, and driven.  One could argue that he has a carbon-copy sound, but at least his dream wasn't handed to him.

I have learned that the magic pill approach is detrimental to real health and character development.  If our whole life is a pop song, and the need for a "good hook to sell singles" is our focus, where is the authenticity?  Where do we find real creativity?  How can we be healthy, complete people with our identity in following Jesus?  I will do more on this in the next post, but I would love your thoughts.  Am I overstating it?  Is it true that our society tries to dictate our identity to us, or are we truly free to allow God to shape our future destiny?  How do we follow Jesus in a karaoke society?