Hip to be Square

What was the topic of conversation among the men at your church the past few Lord's Days? I don't mean in the service itself, but during those cherished times of fellowship. And what has been the topic of conversation where you work? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that in both places most of you have been talking about either football or basketball (and the difference may be how swiftly I and the post office gets this to you). Before I suggest that this is a problem, let me confess my own failings. My beloved Steelers are still in the hunt as I write, and it is a matter of both conversation and concern to me. And it is becoming increasingly a matter of conviction to me. I'm pretty sure that all it would take is four or ten bad years, and I'd muster the sanctification to give up this unholy habit.

God has, in His grace, brought me to the place that I am utterly disinterested in professional baseball, basketball and hockey. And college sports aren't so big with me. The Steelers, however, are not only a thorn in the side of their opponents, but in me who loves them and perhaps shouldn't.

I began this journey in Israel. I sat in a coliseum near Galilee, and listened while our guide explained that the first century Christians were considered odd for a number of reasons, including their failure to frequent the coliseum (this was before they became the main event and the main dish). Their failure to attend was not because of obviously immoral activities, but because they had no reason to attend. I began to consider there that the Bible has nothing at all to say about entertainment. (Though it says much about making music and dancing. I'm narrowly defining entertainment as a passive activity in which others do, and we watch.)

To some this lack of direction is cause for celebration. The reasoning is that if God doesn't forbid something, it must be OK. Most have never noticed the Bible's silence, and so just adopt the world's view of entertainment, but with a few caveats about sex and violence. I'm not suggesting that all things left unmentioned in the Bible are necessarily wrong. The Bible after all, says nothing about cars (or trucks). But I can't help but wonder if we're at least wasting too much time, and at worst, uncritically allowing our culture of entertainment to shape our thinking. Has so much watching made us a body of watchers? Has witnessing the amazing feats of the best and the brightest made us believe that it takes a pro to do everything? Has the sheer number of choices vying for our entertainment dollar led us to think that choice is the highest good?

Many of us fool ourselves. How can we be all things to all men, we think, unless we're up on the world's latest nonsense? And so we baptize our immersion in the entertainment culture with the lie that one day that clever allusion to Seinfeld in our witness will usher someone into the kingdom. We drag the little neighbor boy to hear Mr. All-Pro speak on the importance of knowing the "man upstairs." We cannibalize the folly of Madison Avenue with our "This Blood's For You" t-shirts. All that time in front of the idiot box is all for the kingdom.

If we decline to spend our time in the pursuit of entertainment however, if we break this tie that binds, we can be sure it won't be the Romans who think we're odd, but those in the church. There is perhaps no greater insult around anymore than "Isolationist." To opt out of the entertainment culture is to become in the eyes of many at best a weirdo, and at worst an irrelevant, self-righteous monk.

In calling us to be all things to all men Paul is not telling us to be hip to the diversions of those around us, to become enculturated Christians. Rather he is calling us to be free of those petty identifiers of time and place that might drive folks away. There is a middle ground between speaking in archaic thees and thous, and speaking ebonics. We don't tell the world that in order to be a believer one must wear fat ties and double knit pants, but neither do we spend our coffee breaks sharing the latest gossip from the glamour world of fashion. The unbeliever doesn't need to know more about Calvin Klein, he needs to know more about Jesus. And does the believer.