Glenn Lucke, MUST I Care About the Da Vinci Code? Part II

Please see Part I.

The Da Vinci Code fuss reminds me of a larger issue- to what degree does the world set the agenda for the Church? On one hand, I recognize that because we are social creatures we are affected by those in the Church and those outside of it. For those who care about being missional, and I do even if I only partially understand the term, I realize that going to the world to minister to the world means that we are affected by the world’s needs.

But set the agenda? Drive the Church? The Church being merely reactive? I radically disagree. I have seen these crises that envelop evangelicalism-- in the early 1990s my friends fretted, “What about Embraced By the Light?” So I read Embraced by the Light, evangelical responses to EBL, participated in seminars and discussions....and I saw very little fruit from my investment. Then it was Celestine Prophecy and then within evangelicalism the KJV-Only controversy.  Then the Bible Code. I took at step back during the Bible Code controversy and thought, “I’m a freakin’ puppet getting jacked around whenever a crazy person writes something that sells in pop culture.”

Other trends blew through....Left Behind (“You went to seminary, what do you think of Left Behind, Glenn?”), Jabez (“You went to seminary...”), Purpose Driven Life (“You went to seminary...), and now DVC.  I have been very glad and repeatedly relieved that I exited the puppet’s stage during the Bible Code controversy.  I resist having fads determine how I spend my time, even part of it, and instead I’m joyfully and proactively pursuing what the Lord has called me to.

What I resist is the guilt that accompanies evangelical handling of the controversies-- that people like me are being poor or irresponsible Christians because we’re not using this “incredible opportunity.”

Here’s your incredible opportunity—

I still think that Life Together, lived as the New Humanity of Christ, living the Kingdom as a loving but stark counter-culture, that includes God-honoring worship among the ecclesia on the Lord’s Day, the fervent and accurate preaching of the Word, the administration of Sacraments and Discipline, the communal life of the Church during the week, the excellence we pursue in our God-given vocations, our ministries of mercy, our calling of idols into question and our heralding the Gospel of the Kingdom as the answer to those idols....this is “the incredible opportunity” that we have each week. This vision of living the Kingdom doesn’t exclude taking advantage of DVC opportunities, but this vision means that not all of us need to have our lives structured by the trend du jour in pop culture.

© 2006, Glenn Lucke.

Comments

[Greg Ward]

Hi Glenn,

Hate to point this out, but by spending two posts on this already, haven't you kind of succumbed to the siren in a backwards sort of way? I mean should you even need to explain yourself, if you really don't care? Truly a pathetic expression of apathy!

Greg

[Glenn]

You "hate to point this out". Really? Using your language and logic, would that be a pathetic expression of hatred? :) <-- denotes being playful, not snarky.

What force greater than your hatred COMPELLED you to point this out?

I'm in a clue-ful mood so I'll explain: I don't care about 1) reading the book, 2) seeing the movie, 3) making the most of this incredible opportunity.

I do care, as evidenced by the two posts, about rebuffing the guilt manipulation that accompanied SOME appeals to "make the most of this incredible opportunity."

I do care to use this cultural artifact as a window into a theological discussion about Christ and culture, and the tension between living missionally and not letting the world set the agenda for the Church.

So DVC was the illustration for what I wanted to talk about: the missional/world-setting-the-agenda tension.

Holler if you'd like any more distinctions. :)