Some time ago Michael Bell showed me a video clip on Sermon Spice that captures the heart of pop religion in American today. It's a satire---that means, it is a joke---of the music collections sold on late night TV info-mercials. The CD being hawked in the clip is titled It's All About Me, The Greatest Collection of Me Worship Ever Recorded on One CD. For a good laugh to start the day, check it out here: http://www.sermonspice.com/videos/592/its-all-about-me
Of course, satire is funny because it mimics reality and resonates with us in a way that reflects truth via the funny bone. The sting of this kind of humor is that it is usually right on target. So, Chevy Chase did a mean Gerald Ford, Tina Fey has captured Sarah Palin to a tee, and this video clip announces, through the medium of absurdity, the truth about us. Sadly, much of our worship and teaching and preaching is about us. So the hits continue---I Lift My Name on High, I Exalt Me, There is None Like Me, I am Why I Sing, and the all time favorite, How Great I am.
What a collection! Of course, this is the worship music of the gospel according to _________________(you fill in the blank: Oprah, Dr. Phil, Joel, Benny, Kenneth, Robert, et.al.). It is egocentric, shallow, totally unbiblical, and representative of the superficial theology that drives the ever-popular Word of Faith movement and the gospel of prosperity.
OK, so it is satire, meaning that it is a stretch! People really don't sing songs like that. And, here, precisely here, is one of the problems. Everything about the Word of Faith crowd seems so main-stream, so normal, so, how do you say, churchy. Underneath the songs about Jesus, the glories of the Father, and the wonders of creation, is a slippery foundation of biblical mis-interpretation, use of Scripture out of context, flimsy translation, and therefore, faulty theology.
It is the gospel of self! And, any student of the Word knows what the Bible says about self. Spend a few minutes in Romans 7 this morning if you want to see the truth about us humans. Paul writes, "I know that nothing good lives in me..."(verse 18).
And that's the poverty that is really striking America today, you know, ego-nomics.
Comments