Happy Friday,
“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given — and they will enjoy an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”
Jesus, The Sermon on the Mount
About one half of Christ’s parables point to the scandalously shocking nature of God’s grace. The other half make it clear that we are accountable for what we do with what is temporarily entrusted to our care. These truths are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, we are called to two things at once: to rest in God’s lavish mercy and love, and to wisely steward his resources in ways that line up with his vision and values.
Every. Single. Moment. God is not particularly interested in your spiritual life. That is because He cares about absolutely everything about you. Every thought. Every action. Every moment. Our sacred/secular divide is a false construct. What we deem “spiritual” is no more important to God than what we deem financial, emotional, physical or intellectual. If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.
Sorry, but NO! Given the rise of SpaceX, his purchase of Twitter, the ascension of Tesla, the crazy name he gave his son, the mano-a-mano challenge he threw out to Putin – given the money and a dozen other things – it’s hard to avoid Elon. I note this to say I was not surprised when I was sent this 90 second video of him talking about Jesus. What I was not prepared for was the celebration of his answer. FWIW, Elon’s statements about Jesus impressed me, but not because he said what I wanted to hear. His answer impressed me because it suggests that he has given Jesus some thought. While affirming Christ’s ethic of “loving your neighbor” and “forgiving others,” he not only avoided affirming Christ’s claim to be God and Savior, He steered well clear of affirming Jesus as a great teacher. (After all, a big part of what Jesus teaches is that He is God.) When we get excited about a famous person saying something nice about Jesus we are living in “the suburbs of blasphemy.” God is not lucky that Elon – or John Wayne, Bob Hope, etc., etc. – say something nice about him.
Malik’s Seven: In previous updates, I’ve cited Charles Malik’s seven cultural shapers – the family, the church, the state, business, higher education, media and the professions. I have also noted that while the family and church were losing influence, the state and higher education were gaining. It’s past time to add business to those gaining. “Employee activism” – along with the agenda of high tech and HR – have become major cultural players.
This Week’s Sign that the Apocalypse is Upon Us: Teenage girls are now getting preventative Botox injections.
More Bad News About the News: Without any time to recover from last week’s news that the Department of Homeland Security had established a Disinformation Governance Board, I was rocked by Kelly McBride’s piece on poynter.org. McBride, who is NPR’s Public Editor and a “media ethics expert,” argues that it is time for newsrooms to “reframe both abortion coverage and the worn-out debate around the rules of objectivity and subjectivity.” In the piece she laments reporters striving after the traditional ideal of neutrality. (Silly me, I thought a reporter’s goal was to objectively report the events in such a way that you couldn’t tell what their biases were.)
It’s Not Just Congress: For a while now, I’ve been banging my spoon on my highchair complaining about declining trust. In his book, A Time to Build…, author Yuval Levin does a better job. He notes that “fake news, #MeToo, income inequality, conspiracy theories, public health crises and absurd political theater” have led to a dramatic decline in trust in large institutions of all types – e.g., government, business, media and the church. He also explains why this is such a bad thing. I commend Levin’s book. America’s love affair with rugged individualism has got to be checked. We need strong and healthy institutions.
Without Comment: 1) Afghanistan has replaced North Korea as the most difficult place in the world to be a Christian; 2) Using “excess deaths” as the metric, the WHO believes COVID deaths have reached 15M globally – 6.25M deaths from COVID itself, and the remainder from “the virus’s impact, including increased overdose deaths, deaths by suicide, and more;” 3) More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, which is both the highest on record and 15% higher than the previous year; 4) Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is roughly 50 times more potent than heroin; 5) According to Salary.com, the market value of a stay-at-home mom is $184.8K/year; 6)According to AAA, U.S. gas prices now average a record high of $4.37 / gallon; 7) Now that sports gambling is legal, total wagers have climbed into the neighborhood of $120 billion.
IDNK: 1) J. Edgar Hoover was 29 years old when he was named acting director of the FBI – a position he held for the next 48 years; 2) At the start of 2022, 64% of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck; 3) BTW, in case you DNK, IDNK stands for I Did Not Know.
Next Week: I leave later today for the Holy Land, so Dr. Ben Dockery – who just stepped out of the role of Campus Pastor for the Lake Forest campus in order to launch an Institute for Christ Church – will take over Friday duties.
Closing Prayer: O Lord, please accept my distractions, my fatigue, my irritations, and my faithless wanderings. You know me more deeply and fully than I know myself. You love me with a greater love than I can love myself. You even offer me more than I can desire. Look at me, see me in all my misery and inner confusions, and let me sense your presence in the midst of my turmoil…. Take my tired body, my confused mind, and my restless soul into your arms and let me rest, simple quiet rest. Amen (Henri Nouwen – 1932 – 1996)