Sexy Rompers and Christian Faith

On one of my Facebook pages, an add: “The Must-Have Sexy Romper” – Get it now, with a demure model effecting a kind of dangerous innocence.

Amazing …

Should I get it now and give it to my wife?

What will it do?

Will it make life infinitely better? Slightly better? Or not at all? Or will it soon end up in the discard box?

How does advertising like this work? And to what end (other than a vast transfer of wealth, from my pocket to someone else’s)?

Anyway, I’m wondering about the American mind these days.

And the role of “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” – that’s us, if you’re wondering.

I know, I know. Someone will read this and say, “Lighten up Eggebeen. Relax! Smell the roses.”

But I still wonder.

I wonder about American Christianity. And, yes, it is American. Faith, like a flower or vegetable, takes root and grows in a cultural soil, taking on the coloration and odor of the soil in which it grows, absorbing its nutrients (or lack thereof) and any toxins.

There are times when I see church advertising, and I wonder: What’s the difference between selling Jesus, as if he were a commodity to enhance your personal performance, a “savior” who has nothing better to do that concern himself with your hangnails and bad hair, and selling a must-have sexy romper?

I’m reading a new book by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham – wherein Tom says we have to reclaim the great themes of Scripture – not just dive in and pick up a few juicy verses here and there, but learn how to read all of it, carefully, to discern God’s call, God’s purpose, and see within God’s purpose – to renew all of creation - our purpose.

This purpose, initiated in the original call to Abraham and Sarah, sustained through Israel’s long and complicate life, renewed in the voice of the prophets and established in the life, the teaching, the cross, the tomb and the resurrection of Jesus – is unfolding throughout creation as I write, and, by the grace of God, we’re a part of it.

This is a “must-have” reality for each of us. As the ad puts, “get it now.” Or as Jesus said, The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.