#234 Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow

My pal Superman's motto recently changed from "truth, justice, and the American way" to "truth, justice, and a better tomorrow." (This isn't the first time a change like this has been made. Superman was originally described as fighting for "truth and justice"; "the American way" was added later on.) I've been preaching from the book of Malachi for the past couple of weeks, and I spend a reasonable amount of time thinking about the prophets in the Bible, so as I thought about "truth, jusice, and a better tomorrow," I noticed that the elements of that motto are reflected in the kinds of things God's prophets talked about long ago.

When it came to truth, God sent prophets to His people to help them understand the truth about God and themselves and their relationship with God. The prophets would recall God's love and faithfulness to His people, particularly how He created them and saved them and claimed them as His own. The prophets would remind God's people of God's law, His instructions for what it means to live as people belonging to God. When the prophets spoke, the truth again and again was that God's people by and large weren't truly living for God. The truth was that God wanted obedience and love, not lip service and empty ritual. The truth was that God's people were breaking their covenant relationship with Him through their sins and wrongdoing, and God was rightfuly angry with their rebellion. God's people didn't deserve His blessing and favor. But God was also patient and merciful, calling the people to turn back to Him in faithfulness.

When it came to justice, God used the prophets to expose His people's injustice. Over and over the prophets railed against the wealthy and powerful who took advantage of the poor and weak. God condemned dishonesty and violence and greed and sexual impurity for the harm these sins did to other people as well as for how these sins broke His law. The prophets also spoke of God's justice. God would defend the oppressed and neglected. God would not ignore sin and cruelty, neither among His people nor among the nations. He would bring just judgment, punishing those who deserved punishment for their actions and attitudes.

When it came to a better tomorrow, God didn't send the prophets to only preaching judgment and destruction. Again and again, particularly at the end of the prophetic books, God gave messages of hope. Better days would come for God's people. After judgment, God would bring restoration. In His mercy, God was not finished with His people. He would forgive His people's sins. He would bring a remnant back from exile. He would purify His people and teach them to be faithful to Him so that they could truly serve His purposes. God would lead people from all nations of the world to worship Him and enjoy His blessings. God would set His broken world right, and His redeemed people would love with Him forever. God promised that life would be better than ever before as He carried out His good plans.

So I think Superman writers are generally pointing in the right direction in hoping for truth, justice, and a better tomorrow. We see God's goodness and wisdom reflected in all sorts of different corners of our world. But the thing to keep in mind here is that we need God's truth and God's justice, not our own human interpretations of what's right and good. And a better tomorrow can't finally come through human striving. Only God can redeem and restore His people and His creation. He does this through Christ Jesus, our only Savior, who fulfills all that God spoke through the prophets. Superman can't really save us, but maybe Superman can get us thinking about and searching for what we ultimately need from Jesus.

Grace and peace,

BMH

P.S. Lanie and I found a few of the more out of the way ice cream cone sculptures this week. One of these weeks we'll have to take a trip downtown and get a whole bunch at once. But for now, here's a few more photos:

#233 Dead Leaves Falling to the Ground

My college cross country team had an informal competition that started around this time every year: as we ran through the Midwestern fall, we tried to catch more falling leaves than anybody else. There weren't many rules required for this game. As long as you were out on a training run,  encountered a leaf that was falling without your help, and caught it before it hit the ground, you gained a point. This may seem like a strange game to you, dear reader, but when you're running dozens of miles each week, this sort of competition adds quite a bit of variety.

Sometimes the game was easy. You'd be running along on a day with a gentle breeze, and a leaf would practically drop into your palm. Other times the game was endlessly frustrating. The wind would pick up and blow the leaf past you or calm down and let the leaf drop just out of your reach. Or the leaf might dance unpredictably or swerve towards traffic, leaving you grasping empty air or leaping back to safety. And since we would be out running as a team, dropping back or veering off to chase a leaf meant you'd have to do extra work to catch back up, whether or not you made the catch.

I was thinking about this game while I ran on a breezy fall morning this past Saturday. My run quickly turned into the kind of run we dreamed of for this competition. After catching a single leaf early in the run, I snagged three more from a single tree that was upwind of me on the trail. Four leaves is an impressive haul when you're committed to staying on your path at your desired pace. And wouldn't you know it, those four leaves helped distract me a bit from the humidity and my waning energy. Sometimes a little diversion is all you need to get through the miles.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#232 Brainwashing

A long time ago the Christian Reformed Church—that's the denomination I'm part of—said that church members should not go to the movies. A few decades later the CRC changed its guidance, deciding that an outright ban on movies was not the way to go. I remember talking about this history one day in seminary, and my professor said that by the time movies were given the okay again, most people had TVs in their living rooms. The big screen seemed less dangerous when small screens were everywhere.

Now I enjoy watching TV and going to the movies. I don't think we as Christians should avoid film and television altogether. But I do think those original decision-makers had some valid reasons to be concerned. As I've gotten older I've become slightly more aware of how movies and TV shape the way we think. Stories are powerful things. When we watch a show or film, we're meant to side with a certain character or group of characters, hoping for their success. Sometimes these heroes are pursuing noble goals: safety, justice, friendship, happiness. But many times those goals (or the means taken to reach those goals) stray into sinful territory: violence, extramarital sex, dishonesty. If we just absorb these stories, they can begin to affect the way we think, making us more and more comfortable with behavior that goes against what God wants for us, what God says is right. It's easy to switch our minds off when we're watching TV shows and movies. Without even realizing it I can start cheering for that dating couple to hook up or that main character to steal a car or that "villain" to be killed. On some level I'm being brainwashed into accepting the morals of the filmmakers.

And it's not just shows that shape the way we think. The news we watch can influence our perspective. If we hear one side of an argument over and over and over again, it becomes easier and easier to believe it or agree with the speakers, no matter how ridiculous their positions may seem at first. Advertising, too, uses short, crafted stories to try to convince us that we need certain products to be happy or to feel complete. In many ways, TV bombards us with more constant messaging than the movies.

So what do we do to combat this subtle brainwashing? I don't think Christians need to just avoid TV and movies altogether. They can also teach us things that are good and beautiful and true. But I think we need to watch critically. We need to think about the messages our shows and movies convey. Sometimes we should stay away from certain projects. I don't think I can give a hard and fast rule, but I think there are limits where a film or series can have so much graphic violence or explicit sexual content or rampant disregard for God and His name that Christians should simply avoid it. I think we should place limits on how much we watch. And finally, I think we need to root ourselves in God's story, the true story of the world, by reading the Bible and worshiping and spending time with other believers. If God's story is the main story shaping us, we'll be better prepared to evaluate and (when necessary) resist other stories. It's good to remember that our goal is not to conform to the values of movies and TV but to be transformed by God.

Grace and peace,

BMH

P.S. Lanie and I continued our ice cream cone sculpture hunt this week: