Buzz the Basics, Church

I’m not one of any authority to comment on movies. I’ve never seen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ all the way through. I had to be strapped into a seat on a 17-hour trans-Pacific flight to watch The Hobbit (the first one, which is weird since I only own one book by that title) – and it took me watching it twice to stay conscious long enough to be able to say I’ve seen it all. It took me three days to watch The Dark Knight Rises. I had to be forced to watch Fireproof. I’m very glad I was, but am equally glad I’ve avoided seeing all the other Sherwood Baptist Church productions.

I am not an expert on movies.

There’s a decent amount of buzz in the Christian community about the upcoming Son of God movie event. People seem excited about it, and there are some very popular names adding their influential voices to the excitement.

Don’t look here for a review. I have no plans on seeing. I hope you enjoy it if you go see it.

I know I already sound like Grumpy Cat, but can I make an appeal?

The Scripture has given us three primary ways to portray the Person and work of our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (Who is the Son of God).

Preaching.

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3:1,2; the “public portrayal” was the preaching of Christ, which is where the “hearing with faith” occurred).

The Lord’s Supper.

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread...for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 10:16,17; 11:26).

Baptism.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:3-5).

“In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, Who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11,12).

Since these things are explicitly commanded by God for the remembrance, portrayal, and communication of Jesus, can we buzz about these things more than we do about a movie? I’m not even addressing the validity of the medium of “the movie” as a means of communicating Scripture (right now, anyway). I’m just asking a question about what gets us talking and promoting. If we don’t find the excitement in us to magnify these ordinary – and scriptural - means of grace, maybe we should do some serious soul-searching as the covenant people of God.

Shouldn’t the “big thing” pushed by the Christian community in social media and elsewhere be that which we’ve been commanded to do? Shouldn’t that be our heart’s desire, joy, and the words of our voice in the midst of the world scene? Let’s take our proper place in the historic Church of the ages and get excited to buzz the basics He gave us 2,000 years ago. The new stuff will be gone tomorrow. What He gave us will endure. Get excited.