An American friend of mine named Dale served as a missionary for twelve years in Australia. I know Dale to be a sensitive and intelligent minister. Thus, I have no doubt that he took great steps to understand Australian culture and to avoid saying or doing things that might offend Australians. But even a careful preacher can make a misstep. At one Christian gathering Dale was preaching from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 5-7. There, Jesus addresses our obsession with possessions. He deals with our fretfulness over finances. To do this, Jesus points to the birds: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:26 ESV). Dale summarized Jesus’ point by saying this: “We need to become birdwatchers. Those of us who follow Jesus need to be birdwatchers.” He meant that as we look at the birds, we are reminded of Jesus’ statement that God takes care of birds, and thus God will take care of us. But upon that statement, Dale’s listeners smirked, giggled, and laughed. Not the kind of expected laugh you get after telling a great joke. The kind of laugh that means you just said something you shouldn’t have said. Afterwards, a member of the gathering took Dale aside and explained: “Here in Australia we have a word for ‘men’—the word ‘bloke.’ And we have another word for ‘women.’ That word is ‘bird.’” According to this Christian leader, some of the listeners used the word ‘bird’ as a synonym for ‘woman.’” Thus, when Dale encouraged them to be “birdwatchers” he was actually encouraging them women watchers.
Perhaps you’ve made a similar stumble when visiting a foreign country. Tried to say something in their language and made a mess of it. Or did something you’d normally do in the U. S. without thinking, only to find out that you don’t do that in that country. Most of us recognize that a change in geography often brings a change in culture. [PP world map] We realize that “where” we are brings people who look at the world differently than we do. And we have to pay attention to the words we use and the actions we take. We appreciate that a change in geography often brings a change in culture.
But it’s important to not just understand “where” we are. We also need to understand “when” we are. Even without changing geography, a change in chronology can bring changes in culture. Even though we may stay put, as time passes us, culture around us can change. And the change from one generation to another right here in the United States can be as significant as the change from one audience in Africa to another in Asia.
David Kinnaman and the Barna Organization have written about this. Kinnman has shown that without leaving the United States, as time has passed, the culture around us has shifted.
Let’s start around 1935. Someone born around 1935 would be part of the Senior generation. This was a generation in which more than 70% were “Christian” and only about 28% were “post-Christian.” Post-Christian is a term used to describe people who do not attend Christian worship services, have serious questions about the Christian faith, and live without being formed by the Christian story. For those born around 1935, very few were post-Christian. Most were Christian.
But if we move down the timeline, staying put in the United States, things begin to change. Someone born around 1955 would be part of the Boomer generation. This was a generation in which 65% were Christian and 35% were post-Christian. Over time, there’s been an increase in the number of people who are disconnected from the Christian faith.
Staying in the same geography, we change chronology to about 1975. Someone born near 1985 would be part of the “Buster” generation. This is a generation in which 60% are Christian and 40% are post-Christian. Thus from 1935 to 1975 we see the percentage of post-Christians rise from 28% to 40%.
Finally, we land around 1995. Someone born around 1995 could be called “Mosaics.” This is a generation in which 52% are Christian and 48% are post-Christian. Nearly 1 out of every 2 of this generation is disconnected from and disinterested in the Christian faith.
Another way to envision the cultural change of chronology comes to us from the Pew Research Center. They recently discovered what’s been called “the rise of the ‘nones.’” “Nones” refers to people who say they have no religious affiliation. From 2007 to the present those with no religious affiliation have risen from about 15% to almost 20%–the highest percentage in American history. The increase is particularly strong among young adults. While only 9% of the Seniors were “nones,” more than 30% the Mosaics are “nones.”
Thus, while we’ve remained in one spot, the culture around us has changed. Where we are is the same. When we are is an entirely different time-zone. We now live in a time zone with increasing numbers dislike Christianity and are disconnected from Christianity. We live in a time zone when Christianity is increasingly critiqued.
In my book Preaching to Pluralists I describe this time-zone in the following terms. When are we? We live in a time zone where…
- More and more people are uninformed about the Christian faith. They are growing up without basic knowledge of Christianity.
- And, larger numbers of people are pluralistic. They do not believe in absolute truth or in one true religion—and they don’t like Christianity because of that.
- Further, increasing numbers of people are pragmatic. They are interested in whatever works in the here and now. They care about life before death, not life after death. And they view Christianity as something with little to offer in the here and now.
- In addition, increasing numbers of people are anti-institutional. They distrust organized religion, including Christianity.
- Thankfully more and more are spiritual. They pray. They are genuinely interested in spiritual matters.
- In addition, increasing numbers of people are experiential. They are looking for an experience of God not just information about God.
- Finally, they are relational. They want community. They seek social support.
In his book You Lost Me David Kinnaman surveys these young adults to find out why so many of them are disconnected from and disgusted with Christianity. Their reasons fall into 6 categories. When are we?
- We live in a time when increasing numbers view Christianity as overprotective. The church, they say, views everything outside church walls as sinful. Thus young people want nothing to do with the church.
- We live in a time when increasing numbers view Christianity as shallow. The Christian faith, they say, may help me get to heaven, but it offers nothing for living on Monday morning.
- We live in a time when larger numbers see Christianity as antiscience. The church, they say, believes all science is bad and is an enemy of the faith.
- We live in a time when larger numbers see the Christian faith as repressive. The church’s stance on morality, they say, is archaic and won’t work in a culture like ours.
- We live in a time when more and more view Christianity as exclusive. The church’s teaching about Jesus being the only way to God seems overly exclusive.
- And we live in a time when more and more see the Christian faith as doubtless. The church, they say, is not a safe place to ask hard questions.
This is when we are living. And one of the great challenges is that Christians and churches tend to assume we’re still living in the same old time-zone. Some churches and Christians still act as if we’re living in the Senior time zone when most in our culture knew about the Christian faith and had an inclination toward the Christian faith. But the reality is that we are living in the Mosaic time zone. We’re living in a time zone when there is increasing disinterest in and hostility toward the Christian faith. We’re living in a time zone when more and more of the people around us don’t like Christianity.
What do we do about this? Let me share a suggestion which grows out of Mark 2.
Just 45 verses into Mark’s fast-paced account of Jesus, we encounter something unexpected. Mark presents 5 stories with one theme—conflict between Jesus and religious leaders. Five stories where people are critiquing Jesus and his faith. Five stories where Jesus is critiquing the faith of others. Five stories somewhat analogous to our time zone—a time zone when faith is bring critiqued. These five stories are not chronological. They didn’t happen all at once. Mark brought them together because they share this one theme.
Why did Mark do this? Probably because Mark’s readers were living in a difficult time zone. At the time of Mark’s Gospel, his readers were in Rome being persecuted for their faith. Thus Mark uses these 5 stories to address their situation. People are critiquing their faith. So Mark shares stories of people critiquing Jesus’ faith. And though we are far from being persecuted for our faith today, perhaps these 5 stories have something to say to us in our time-zone.
Notice what happens in each of the 5 stories. In each story, religious leaders criticize Jesus for his “outside the box” faith. And, Jesus criticizes religious leaders for their “inside the box” faith.
In story #1, friends bring a sick friend to Jesus. They cannot get to Jesus so they lower their friend through the roof to Jesus. Jesus sees the man’s physical sickness. He also sees the man’s spiritual sickness. Thus, rather than merely healing his body, Jesus also heals the man’s soul. Jesus forgives the man’s sins. But some of the religious leaders protest: Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? (Mk. 2:6 ESV). And Jesus fires back, Why do you question these things in your hearts? (Mk. 2:8 ESV). The religious leaders practice a faith that is inside the box—they cannot fathom that a figure like Jesus could be authorized to forgive sin. But Jesus pushes against their box and forgives the sin.
In story #2, Jesus comes upon a tax-collector named Levi. Tax collectors like Levi were despised. Yet Jesus says, “Follow me” and Levi does. Levi invites Jesus for dinner with “many tax collectors and sinners.” But the religious leaders protest: Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? (Mk. 2:16 ESV). And Jesus fires back, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mk. 2:17 ESV). The religious leaders cannot fathom that God would have any use for someone like Levi or that it could ever be appropriate to have fellowship and friendship with people who seem so far from God. But Jesus pushes against the limits of their box.
In story #3, legalistic believers come to Jesus and protest: “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” (Mk. 2:18 ESV). They cannot imagine that a person could be devout and not engage in the twice-weekly fast of the Pharisees. But Jesus fires back: “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. (Mk. 2:19-22 ESV). Jesus reveals that there are times to fast and times to feast. And, Jesus states that the box they’ve put God in is like an old piece of clothing, or an old, fragile and inflexible wineskin. Jesus, on the other hand, is practicing a faith that is fresh and flexible. It’s outside their box.
In story #4, Jesus and his hungry followers snack on grain during a Sabbath. And the religious watchdogs bark: “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (Mk. 2:24 ESV). Their box is so small they cannot imagine that God would approve picking heads of grain to fill an empty belly on the Sabbath—the day when no work was to be done. But Jesus fires back. He tells the story of King David—one of the most revered figures of the Old Testament—who did something even more “controversial” to fill an empty belly. Jesus concludes, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mk. 2:27-28 ESV).
In the final story, Jesus is attending worship services in a synagogue. There’s a man present with a shriveled hand. Jesus heals the man. And the religion police protest: 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:6 ESV). And Jesus fires back: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” (Mk. 3:4 ESV).
Jesus models an expansive faith where sinful people are forgiven, problematic people are befriended, disciples can dispense with fasting when needed, grain can be plucked on the Sabbath, and a person can be healed on the Sabbath. Jesus pushes against their restrictive faith where forgiveness is limited, friendship is withheld, and where traditions must be upheld even at the expense of people in need. Jesus is rearranging social barriers here. Jesus is breaking down religious traditions here. Jesus is putting love of God and love of neighbor first here. The religious leaders are building up social barriers. They are strengthening religious traditions. They are putting love of position and power first. They’ve got God in a box. So Jesus removes the box. Jesus pushes against this religion that restricts God so severely.
We live in a time zone when many are critical of our faith. Just like the religious leaders criticized Jesus, many today criticize us. And one thing these 5 stories do is comfort. They remind us that from the very beginning Jesus was the target of criticism and judgment. It shouldn’t surprise us if we today are targets of criticism and judgment.
But these 5 stories also challenge. My friend Eric Gentry recently said to me, “When we read Mark 2, we like to see ourselves as Jesus—as the ones being unfairly criticized. But maybe we should see ourselves as the religious leaders—as the ones who deserve some criticism.” One of the things Mk. 2 should lead us to ask is this: Are contemporary critics of Christianity pushing against our core beliefs or just our outer box? Are young people turning away from Christianity because they’ve really found something wrong with Jesus? Or are they turning away because they’ve found something wrong with us? Are they leaving because we, like the religious leaders of Mark 2, have created a repressive box around God? This time-zone when many are pulling away from the Christian faith is an opportunity for self-examination. Are Mosaics rejecting Jesus? Or are they rejecting the way we portray Jesus? Are they losing their religion because of something Jesus said of did? Or are they losing their religion because of something we said or did? Are they pushing against our beliefs or our box?
I recently had a conversation with someone for whom this is not just academic. His father was raised as a church-going Christian. But his father’s church eventually ran the father out of the congregation for his views about a marginal issue. The father never returned. The son, my friend, also had some very negative experiences with churches when he was in his twenties. They were so negative that he left church. He said, “I didn’t need that middleman. I could pray to God by myself.” There was a time when he was similar to the Mosaics I’ve mentioned. But he wasn’t necessarily pushing against Christian beliefs. He was pushing against the box—that negative box churches had placed between him and Jesus.
When the young adults in Kinnaman’s You Lost Me charge that Christianity is overprotective, shallow, anti-science, repressive, exclusive and doubtless, what are they charging? Are they criticizing the actual teaching and life of Jesus? Or are they criticizing some of flawed ways in which we’ve portrayed and practiced the teaching and life of Jesus?
Paul Tripp writes of his son:[1] “I gave birth to a son who just doesn’t understand gifts. My wife and I would go out when he was a little guy to buy what we thought was the [perfect] gift. He would tear open the gift, and he’d end up playing with the box. It drove us crazy. We decided one Christmas that we were going to find … the gift of gifts that he would not be able to resist. We shopped and shopped. We found the gift. We were so excited. We were much more excited at that moment when the gift came out from under the tree and he was about to unwrap it—much more excited than he would have ever been. He ripped open the gift like a little boy would … and, actually got out this toy and began to play with it. I had a feeling of such victory. I went into the kitchen to get something to drink, was in there for a few minutes, and came out and he was sitting in the box. I couldn’t believe it.” Then Tripp makes this application: “If you’re one of God’s children, you have been given the most awesome gift that could ever be given. It’s gorgeous from every perspective. It’s a gift of such grandeur that it’s hard to wrap human vocabulary around it and explain it. It’s beautiful from every vista …. It’s the gift that every human being needs. It’s a gift that in all of your work and all of your effort and all of your achievement you couldn’t have ever earned; you could have never deserved; you could have never achieved. It is absolutely without question the gift of gifts. It’s the gift of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, [but] I am deeply persuaded in the face of this gift, there are many Christians who are content to play with the box.”
Perhaps that’s what we need to take away from Mark 2. Perhaps what we need is a challenge to not let our box get in the way of the gift. Some of us are just like that child. We tend to focus on the box and forget the gift of Jesus. Perhaps what we need is a reminder that what the world around us needs—has always needed—and still needs today—is not that box. But the gift. Perhaps what we need in the midst of all of this critique is to remember that the world’s been given the most awesome gift that could ever be given. It’s gorgeous from every perspective. It’s a gift of such grandeur that it’s hard to wrap human vocabulary around it and explain it. It’s a gift that in all of your work and all of your effort and all of your achievement you couldn’t have ever earned; you could have never deserved; you could have never achieved. It’s the gift of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we’ll just let the world see this perfect gift, instead of our imperfect box, they’ll be no keeping the world from turning to Christ—no matter what time it is.
