When Nuance Is Lost

We have lost a sense of nuance in our society today. This is the cause of most of our problems in nearly every area of life. I realize that the two previous sentences don’t seem very…well, nuanced with their strong declarative declarations which don’t invite any further thought or reflection. But if there is one thing that need not be qualified by nuance it is the fact that we just plain don’t like it…nuance, I mean.

In the great movie Diner, about college buddies in 1959 Baltimore, Paul Reiser’s character, Modell, says:

“I don’t like the word nuance. It’s not a real word. Not like gesture. With gesture at least you know where you stand…but nuance?”

I’m not sure if that line was written into the script by Paul Reiser or if he was improvising and Barry Levinson decided to keep it in the movie. I tend to think that the line was Paul Reiser’s. Many years later when he starred in the great sitcom Mad About You, his production company was called Nuance Productions. In any event, it is so true. Nuance seems like sort of a slippery word. The word suggests the idea that often there can be very fine, subtle shades of difference which can and should affect our understanding of something. A more proper dictionary definition is “a subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression, or sound.” We might talk about the nuances of facial expression or body language which, though seemingly just small things, can change our perception of a person or a situation. A failure to recognize that such nuances do exist can lead to some pretty off kilter conclusions, convictions, and conflagrations.

Whereas the possibility for this exists in many areas of life and thought, I am most concerned by how the lack of nuanced understanding has affected language, and particularly the language of scripture. This has sometimes led to faulty interpretations of key scriptures. This, in turn, has contributed to confusion and misunderstanding within our churches, our political landscape, our national life, and our world. Often this misunderstanding involves the relationship between church and state and our place as Christians therein. One would think that after a couple thousand years and several wars we would have this pretty much hammered out. But not so much. This stems from a misreading of scripture caused by disregard for the nuances of ancient languages, customs, and contexts.

My thinking along these lines is, obviously, my opinion and understanding. Yet, I feel qualified to speak to issues that involve the interpretation of the Bible and how it intersects with and speaks to many of the issues of our day. I have been a pastor preaching and teaching for 35 years. I have a couple of degrees which reflect 8 years of training. I continue to read widely from many different perspectives including and especially those with which I disagree. I am certainly not claiming that my knowledge or understanding is perfect. And one thing that is essential for the church today is to sometimes agree to disagree. There are a few things that as Christians we must agree on—the bodily resurrection of Jesus, creation ex nihilo by God, the inspiration and sufficiency of the Bible, to name a couple. But on some things, there can be disagreement between Christians without casting aspersions on the faith of those with whom we disagree.

So, I’ll be writing about some things which seem to tend to get mixed up because of a failure to grasp the subtlety and nuance of the biblical languages and cultures. And we can understand this if we just think about the English language and how much of the meaning of what we say is nuanced by our body language, inflection, tone, as well as the words we use. I have great respect for people who learn to speak other languages. When I was in seminary we had several students from other nations. It was amazing to me how well they could speak English. But they frequently told me that English was hard to learn. It wasn’t so much the actual words that were difficult. But it was the syntax, the grammar, often the spelling of a word, the pronunciation, and the nuances of the language which can only be learned after being immersed in it.

I have had three years of New Testament Greek, one ill-fated year of Old Testament Hebrew, and three years of German in high school. German isn’t the most difficult language to learn, but there are some things that don’t make sense unless you know the subtleties of the language. My favorite was the day we were reading the phrase “Du hast einen vogel.” This phrase literally means “you have a bird” but it’s used to call someone crazy. Perhaps this is where we get the idea of a bird brain.

In the Bible I think one of the most misinterpreted and misapplied passages is Matthew 24. Soon I’ll be writing about that and giving my understanding of what Jesus is talking about and, more, importantly not talking about. Will it be my own understanding of it and can we agree to disagree about my conclusions? Yes, on both counts. However, I believe careful consideration of the Greek text and the subtle nuance of the words and grammar used by Jesus in Matthew’s account lend themselves quite naturally to my conclusions. And I will just say for now that they are much different than what I have read and heard for years. There is one thing that continues to bother me which I hear all the time from Christians. Okay, there are many things, but particularly irksome is when someone says “Well, I just take the Bible literally” in their defense of a particular viewpoint or interpretation. What they are saying, usually, is they are reading an English translation or version of the Bible most of which are very good and certainly consider the original languages, contexts, genres, and other factors. But what I have found is that even the best English translations betray, often in key passages, the biases and viewpoint of the translators, editors, and even publisher. Does this mean that they are bad? No, it just means that maybe there are more things going on in the original languages, context, and culture than even the most “literal” versions can convey. I’ll be talking more about this in future posts.

It takes effort and humility to really understand the subtle shadings of many things in The Bible and in life. This is certainly true of our nation currently in which political opinions and positions are more extreme than ever before. Yes, that’s a pretty extreme statement. Maybe I should limit it my lifetime. Yet, I’ve read and studied a lot of history, and I believe it’s true. There’s an unwillingness to put forth the effort required to really understand the issues of the day and acknowledge that they can be very complicated. In between total black and total white there are various shades of gray which need to be understood and assimilated into an informed and careful approach. Simplistic, wooden approaches to address complex things won’t do. I love what H.L. Mencken once said:

“For every complex problem there is an answer which is clear, simple and wrong.”

We often talk about George Orwell as an oracle of future reality. But Walker Percy wrote a book back in 1971 which is just so prescient it’s bizarre. I read it in 1985 at Indiana University at which time it seemed like so much science fiction. I was reminded of this book in this excellent piece by Russell Moore. To summarize, Percy’s 1971 novel, Love in Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World, describes a time very much like we are experiencing today. He writes of a time when the country is divided into two factions, what we would call the Left and the Right. The Right is driven by resentment toward minorities and rage at elites while the left is motivated by ideologies of sexual liberation and secularism. Religion and politics become intertwined. The main character, Tom More, observes that there are left states and right states, left towns and right towns, even left movies and right movies. The center is gone. He says, “They want either total dogmatic freedom or total dogmatic unfreedom, and the one thing that makes them unhappy is something in between.”

In between the extremes are the nuances and subtle shadings which lead to greater understanding, solutions, and truth. Too often, when nuance is lost so is the truth—whether it’s in understanding the Bible or parsing the time we live in.

What is a Christian?

What if being a Christian isn’t defined only (or primarily) in terms of what we believe but, rather, how we live? In Galatians the apostle Paul lists some characteristics that a person who has the Holy Spirit within them should strive to exhibit. We commonly call these the “fruit of the Spirit.” One aspect of this fruit is kindness. Really, everyone should strive to be kind whether they are a Christian or not. Yet, Christians, above everyone else, should strive to demonstrate simple human kindness. Sadly, this too often isn’t the case. It just astounds me how folks can leave a church building on Sunday around noon after worshipping the Lord and then stop at a store or a restaurant and be just extremely rude to people who are stuck at work on a Sunday simply trying to do their jobs.

There are many examples of this I could share. A few years ago I stopped by Biggby to get some coffee before church. There was a young guy in front of me who worked at Bob Evans across the street. I believe he was a dishwasher. And he was there buying drinks for everyone in the opening shift at Bob Evans. After he paid, the person at the counter said “Have a good day!” He said, “Well, I’ll try. It WILL be a good day after all the church people are done and gone.” Let me add, that before he said “church people” he inserted a sort of descriptive adjective (or was it an adverb?) belying his opinion of the church people who go to Bob Evans after church on Sundays.

As we were waiting for our drinks to be done I approached him and said something like “Hey, I heard what you said and I’m a pastor…” He then got a look of horror in his eyes not knowing what to expect next. I just apologized to him for the way that they are often treated by the after church crowd and that it wasn’t right and please not to hold it against Jesus for how some Christians act. He said very sincerely “Oh, I’m sorry…you don’t need to apologize…I didn’t mean anything by it….” He appreciated my effort, though I’m sure it didn’t change his opinion.

Then, about a year ago after church I stopped by our little grocery store in Perry. This grocery store is much smaller than Kroger or Meijer and I think at times it struggled to stay open. I was in line behind a family who had obviously, like me, come from church. I didn’t pay much attention to them. But when I got to the register I said the usual “Hi, how are you?” to the young girl working. She literally was on the verge of tears. She said she was fine and thanked me for asking. I asked her if she was okay. She told me that the church lady before me didn’t say a kind or friendly word to her and basically acted as if she was nonexistent except to get irate because the store was out of fresh green beans.

Evidently, this happens a lot—people just being rude and acting as if she isn’t a human being. She said she appreciated that I looked her in the eye, asked how she was and took the time for the very simplest exchange of greetings. She told me she always works on Sundays because she doesn’t go to church. I asked her if Sundays seemed to bring more of the rude people like the lady before me. She said Sundays were the worst to the point she was thinking of quitting. I apologized to her and talked to her a little bit and left feeling angry (after I had just preached a sermon on anger) at the insensitivity of “church people.”

This can’t be. We are Christ’s ambassadors. How can so many Christians be so unkind? I know we all have bad days and I’m not saying that I am always a perfect example of human, Christian kindness. But over several decades of life and ministry I have heard and seen enough examples to know that this is a pretty widespread problem. And, especially now, when the world is so topsy turvy and there aren’t enough people to fill these and similar types of jobs, we need to be kind. Because we’re Christians. But more than that because we’re human beings. And so are all those people we encounter behind a cash register, who take our orders for lunch, or who serve the public in a whole host of ways.

In the 4^th century, Pachomius, a young Egyptian peasant, was abducted and forced into the Roman army. While awaiting transport up the Nile, he and the other conscripts languished away in a jail. Local Christians arrived with food, water, and other supplies to care for them. Pachomius was puzzled. He asked who these caregivers were. “They are Christians,” he was told. “What is a Christian?” Pachomius asked. “They are people who bear the name of Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and they are merciful to everyone, including strangers and even enemies.” Pachomius was so amazed by the love and kindness demonstrated by these Christians that he vowed to commit himself to their God if he ever found freedom. When he was discharged not long after, he sought a local church and was baptized. Pachomius later became one of the leading voices and most influential Christians in the history of the early church.

What is a Christian? “They are people who bear the name of Christ, and they are merciful to everyone, including strangers and even enemies.” I wonder how many people today would define a Christian that way?

Update…

It has now been 3 months since retiring from full time Christian ministry after over 30 years. I have usually recoiled when asked how “retirement” is or what I’m doing in “retirement.” This is because I am not really fully retired as in drawing social security and not having to work again. I am a long way from being able to do that if I ever do. So, after having enjoyed a few months of the joy of having nothing pressing against me that I had to do, now it’s time to begin the next chapter of my life, work and ministry. So what is my plan? I’m looking forward to finding some kind of work to do that’s maybe different from anything I’ve done. I have some ideas, but at this point I’m not sure what that will be. I am also going to pursue preaching for churches that might need interim ministers or just a fill-in. This is what I most want to be doing–being of help and encouragement to churches. I might take a while for this to happen, but after I secure a regular job that will be my main pursuit.

The other thing I want to do a lot more of is writing here on my site. I will begin writing more in the very near future. As I have spent several months reflecting, praying, reading, and studying I believe that the Lord would have me to write on a variety of subjects which might seem random and unrelated but are not. My goal will be to hopefully clear up some things which I believe have become extremely muddled in the church these days. For some time I have had ideas and thoughts that I have felt compelled to write about, but I have resisted. I’m not sure why I have resisted, but lately have been convicted that maybe I’ve been “squelching the Holy Spirit.” So, I’ll be trying to bring some kind of clarity from a biblical and Christian perspective to the many things that make up life in this world and in our nation at this moment in time.

I’ll just say that probably some of what I’ll be sharing is somewhat complicated with some people disagreeing with my thoughts. And that is okay. Yet, after being a pastor for over 30 years with a sometimes debilitating habit of trying to read everything I can on a wide variety of subjects I am confident enough to share my opinions and convictions. Some of it will come from a place of just exasperation and frustration, and my “spiritual gift” of sarcasm might be too readily apparent. But I will try my best to write and share my thoughts in a way that is irenic, encouraging, and humble. Yet, I won’t pull any punches.

This will be a work in progress and I cannot say how long it will be before I begin posting more stuff. But I want to encourage you to read what I write with an open mind. I will also be retooling the way my site looks to accommodate the other facet of my post ministry ministry–preaching availability for churches in need. But I’m looking forward to this next phase of my life and ministry and I hope that you’ll share it with me through this. Please feel free to email me with comments or questions or even some healthy disagreement. My email address is: cjhiggins16@icloud.com

Peace

Kissing Church Fads Goodbye…

So, I want to clear something up that some have asked me in the past. In several sermons I have made a point to say that Christianity and the simple gospel message has nothing to do with much of what it seems to have been intricately entwined with. Christianity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has very little if nothing to do with any particular political party, political agenda, how a person should dress (or not dress), a list of things we should or shouldn’t do, or any number of fads that have come along in the church world over the last few decades.

Understandably, some may think that I am saying that how we as Christians live, the choices we make, and how these things intersect with clear teaching of Scripture do not matter. It may sound as though I’m saying anything goes and we can do whatever the heck we want because in the end Christianity is all about grace and so it’s all good. Or some may think I’m saying that we should not care about the current issues of the day, political or otherwise—including issues that cut right against clear biblical teaching like the sanctity of human or the sexual ethic clearly taught throughout the Bible that would label same sex marriage and activity as sin and outside of God’s intention and design for human flourishing. So, let me be clear. On those 2 issues in particular I have been very clear over the last 20 years and have stated thus in multiple sermons and written pieces. And, there are many other things on which the Bible speaks very clearly. And these things which are clearly taught in scripture need to be followed and believed as the Christ follower grows in maturity and Christlikeness.

And, yet, even important scriptural issues like the sanctity of life and human sexuality do not define what Christianity is about. They are not the Gospel—the “Good News.” And, my long held contention after nearly 30 years of ministry is that many people are repelled not by the Gospel of Jesus or even the hard edged truth of Scripture.

I believe that most non-believers are repelled by their faulty understanding of what church, Christianity, and being a Christ follower is at its essence. And, in most cases, they have this faulty understanding because for many years the conservative/evangelical church world has been more vocal about everything other than the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ for our sin, and the grace offered to a broken world. For too many years (and getting worse today) what the unchurched world has largely heard is that church/Christianity is really about family values, or the Moral Majority, or the Republican party, or consuming only “Christian” media, or being against science and believing the earth is 4,000 years old, or dressing a certain way, or not dancing, or not playing cards, or having to fall in line with the most recent church fad, or homeschooling as opposed to public schooling, or believing in a premillennial-pretribulation rapture, or the King James Bible is the only real Bible, or the evils of Harry Potter and trick or treating, or being anti global warming and opposed to environmental concerns….

I could go on and on. And I’m not saying that this characterization is always fair. Some folks don’t want to believe and wouldn’t even if Jesus Himself presented them with the 4 Spiritual Laws. I’m just saying that in the minds of many, to be a Christian means having to really become a different person in many ways. Not different in ways the Bible says a Christian should be. But different in ways that are more human opinion than biblical prescription.

And, by the way, I’m part of the problem. My calling and job is to get up all the time and try to preach the Bible and this simple Gospel without Chris’ opinion becoming too intertwined in it. And I fail at that too often. Not only in my preaching but in my living.

But I want to give an example of the damage caused by this kind of thing. About 25 or so years ago a young pastor named Josh Harris wrote a best-selling book called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.” This book sparked what was called the Purity Movement which encouraged teens to not date so that they would be less tempted sexually and would be “pure” for their future spouse. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. The Bible certainly speaks to this issue of sexual purity even in a world as sexually confused as ours. The problem was that the book, Churches, pastors, parents, and kids took this idea to an unbiblical and sometimes strange extreme which ended up causing more harm than good. It took a biblical teaching—abstinence before marriage and sex only within marriage—and tried to put a lot of other rules around it.

About 5 years ago young women who grew up in this “purity movement” (1990s and early 2000s) began to write books and blog about the destructive impact it had on them. Many of them gave up on the church. Nearly all of them have a real hard time believing that God loves them since they didn’t stay “pure”. This movement basically said that if you stay pure, God will reward you with the greatest marriage ever with mind blowing sex all the time with your wife. To be fair, there were lots and lots of male and female kids who grew up in churches that really pushed this and are now perfectly well adjusted young adult believers. But my issues with it stem from the legalistic mentality that accompanied it as well as the absolutely heart wrenching stories I have read from young adults who were spiritually and often physically damaged as a result.

This is just one example (of many) of a fad that went through the church world which took a biblical principle to kooky extremes and became intertwined with what “real” Christians do. So for about the last 5 or so years Josh Harris has been apologizing for the damage the book caused. Then last year, sadly, Josh Harris announced that he and his wife were getting divorced and he longer considered himself a Christian.

That’s a pretty extreme and sad example. But it speaks to the damaged caused to the name of Christ and the Gospel when we allow the Christian faith to be too closely related to things other than the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. The apostle Paul says that is the gospel we preach. Woe to us if we ever forget that.

“40 Megabytes is all you’ll ever need”

This Sunday I’ll be finishing a little sermon series on how we use our technology or how our technology uses us! As I freely admitted the first week of the series, I am preaching this to myself. I am a gadget freak and have been since the 90’s when all this stuff began appearing. Recently I saw a list of the top 50 electronic gadgets of the 90’s. At one time or another I had every one in the top 10 and several others in the list. And, yet, I have spent quite a bit of time and thought to not allow screens to become a master instead of a tool. But it’s always a battle. This is the last piece on the subject in conjunction with the series that I originally posted back in 2011.

It is no secret that I love gadgets and technology. We bought our first computer, a Radio Shack Tandy that had a monstrous (for the day) 40 megabyte hard drive which the salesman assured me was all the memory I would ever need. I was immediately mesmerized. Then around 1994 I bought what was called an electronic organizer, a Casio BOSS (Business Organizer Scheduling System), which had a whopping 512 kilobytes of memory. I went through several upgrades of those until around 1996 or 1997 when the Palm Pilot broke ground and really initiated the handheld computing revolution. I loved my Palm and it helped me to stay organized and was a great tool. I still think it’s superior in many ways to today’s stuff. Then came a steady progression of gadgets and the cell phone revolution and then the mp3 players culminating with the iPod. At one point my everyday gear included four gadgets—an mp3 player, a cell phone, a laptop, and a handheld device.

All of these devices (and many more) have now coalesced into just one gadget—the culmination of years of advancement, the Tower of Babel of our generation—the smart phone. Or, in my case, the iPhone. This item is the pinnacle of technology. Surely there will not be anything to render obsolete this modern wonder. This piece of hardware is an absolute marvel of design, engineering, technology, form and function. In one device which fits comfortably in my pocket I have replaced several items—music player, GPS, book reader, personal information organizer, camera, video camera, computer, calculator, compass, level, and the list goes on. Oh, yeah, it also can make phone calls (although, ironically, I think the phone part of the iPhone is its worst feature.) The ultimate Swiss Army knife (is there a knife app than anyone knows of?), the iPhone is awesome and I can honestly tell you that it has the capability of being an extremely helpful tool.

So I just want to be honest that what I am about to say comes from a guy whose admiration for all things techy goes back a long way and will probably not end. I am not an anti-technology, let’s all become Amish kind of person.

HOWEVER (you knew that was coming), I have come to the point that I am deeply, deeply concerned at the ramifications and effects which seem to be emerging from our online, gadget driven lives. These concerns come from my observation, experience and my study as I am reading a lot in preparation for a future sermon series addressing some issues and challenges unique to our day and time. I have been convicted to the point that I need to share some of my thoughts regarding the ways such technology is helpful but also harmful for us as God’s people, kids, men, women, husbands, and wives. Over the next couple of posts I will talk more about some of these.

In Genesis 11 we find a very proud and presumptuous generation who decided that they, through their prowess in bricks and building, could become real big shots and eliminate their need for God. So they set about building this tower to reach to the heavens. I love 11:5 when it says “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the men were building.”

God came down. What they thought to be their crowning achievement in the quest for self glorification was as nothing to God. They thought it would reach God, but it was so insignificant that He had to “come down” to see it.

This is a reminder to we who live in the most technologically advanced culture in the history of the world. We’re not such big shots either. They took the good abilities and gifts God gave them and put them to use for an ungodly purpose. The Tower of Babel was built so they might become more like God. Yet it was the very thing that scattered them and separated them from God and each other. I believe that if God’s people don’t do some hard, honest evaluation of our techno-driven lives, the very thing which can bring us closer to each other and to God might be the very thing that minimizes and harms those very relationships. Not to mention eliminating our ability to think, process, create, mature, reflect, focus, and be truly productive.

I am typing this post on a computer while listening to Pandora on my phone. I am reading a lot of material on this subject from downloaded books on my Kindle. So, again, I am not being the cranky person who hates all this stuff because he doesn’t understand it or know how to make it work (sometimes I wish I didn’t). But I am convicted that I need to sound an alarm (or a beep, or whichever ringtone you want) lest we keep building our towers brick by brick and never stop to consider what we are doing and who we are becoming in the process.

Originally Posted June 2011