Post by -|E|- on Dec 11, 2005 12:27:00 GMT -5
We can rise above our moral failures
Timothy Fountain
For the Argus Leader
Article Published: 12/10/05, 2:55 am
OK, let me confess a guilty pleasure. (I mean besides my Christmas stocking full of junk food. Or sitting in a stupor watching too much football.)
One of my favorite TV shows is FX Network's "The Shield." I don't mention this often in church circles because the show is rated mature for all of the reasons you might imagine. Admitting this to church people could knock the pews out of alignment - never a good thing with Christmas on the way.
But, even with all of its sex, language, violence, etc., I find "The Shield" one of the most relentlessly moral shows on television. The saga of L.A. anti-gang police officer Vic Mackey (Emmy Award winner Michael Chiklis) chronicles the terrible consequences of moral compromise. As Mackey and other characters practice an "ends justify the means" ethic, they become tainted by the very evils they seek to suppress. Characters lose their families, destroy their careers, wreck friendships and even die by ignoring issues of right and wrong. A point comes where the dirt clings and can't be washed away.
The deep meaning of Christmas, so often overlooked in all the commercial and sentimental compromises we make at the expense of spiritual wisdom, is that God loves this world enough to plunge right into the grime, pull us out and wash away the toxic mess. The spiritual heart of Christmas beats from John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
God is not just a distant and impersonal force but a loving savior sent to suffer with us and lead us to new life. And he never compromises in his love for us, despite our moral failures: "If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself" (II Timothy 2:13).
Last season on "The Shield," Mackey was given a chance. Standing by the grave of a lost friend, another victim of moral compromise, Mackey hears the strains of "Amazing Grace." As a punk version of that old hymn blasts, Mackey sets out to set things right - but he tries to do it by his own corrupt methods and sinks deeper in the mire.
Christmas is a chance to climb out of the muck of our moral compromises - not by our own efforts but by the power of a fragile baby: "... the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6).
The Rev. Timothy Fountain is pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd in Sioux Falls.
Timothy Fountain
For the Argus Leader
Article Published: 12/10/05, 2:55 am
OK, let me confess a guilty pleasure. (I mean besides my Christmas stocking full of junk food. Or sitting in a stupor watching too much football.)
One of my favorite TV shows is FX Network's "The Shield." I don't mention this often in church circles because the show is rated mature for all of the reasons you might imagine. Admitting this to church people could knock the pews out of alignment - never a good thing with Christmas on the way.
But, even with all of its sex, language, violence, etc., I find "The Shield" one of the most relentlessly moral shows on television. The saga of L.A. anti-gang police officer Vic Mackey (Emmy Award winner Michael Chiklis) chronicles the terrible consequences of moral compromise. As Mackey and other characters practice an "ends justify the means" ethic, they become tainted by the very evils they seek to suppress. Characters lose their families, destroy their careers, wreck friendships and even die by ignoring issues of right and wrong. A point comes where the dirt clings and can't be washed away.
The deep meaning of Christmas, so often overlooked in all the commercial and sentimental compromises we make at the expense of spiritual wisdom, is that God loves this world enough to plunge right into the grime, pull us out and wash away the toxic mess. The spiritual heart of Christmas beats from John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
God is not just a distant and impersonal force but a loving savior sent to suffer with us and lead us to new life. And he never compromises in his love for us, despite our moral failures: "If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself" (II Timothy 2:13).
Last season on "The Shield," Mackey was given a chance. Standing by the grave of a lost friend, another victim of moral compromise, Mackey hears the strains of "Amazing Grace." As a punk version of that old hymn blasts, Mackey sets out to set things right - but he tries to do it by his own corrupt methods and sinks deeper in the mire.
Christmas is a chance to climb out of the muck of our moral compromises - not by our own efforts but by the power of a fragile baby: "... the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6).
The Rev. Timothy Fountain is pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd in Sioux Falls.