Family Integrated Church | Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

I have a diverse library. Every “ology” can be found – theology, technology, sociology, anthropology, and mythology, just to name a few. Widely varied genres and perspectives live on my shelves. My catalog runs the gamut from ancient to contemporary, orthodoxy to heresy, and the profound to the absurd. Seriousness and satire have a home in my world of ideas – a cosmos framed both on shelves and in clouds.

In the outer reaches of this cosmos is a book entitled, The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook. Supplied to me by a bookstore-owning friend, who usually plied me with theology, this little quod absurdium purports to give strategies for life’s worst-case scenarios. For example, when aliens invade, it is imperative to construct a headpiece of tin-foil. As is well known, aliens are telepathic. Only a tin-foil headpiece can foil their telepathy. The only alternative is simply to stop thinking. Just don’t think about anything. Clear your mind. This is the only foolproof way to avoid alien domination.

Perhaps this explains why critical thinking seems to have disappeared. Maybe our culture is preparing for an alien invasion. We have clearly stopped thinking – at least any thoughts other than the mantras du jour fed to us by (anti)social media. Critical thinking, and its expressive corollaries, free speech and robust dialogue are now anathema. Dialogue has been replaced with cancel culture – a group-think which refuses to admit any narrative other than that clearly delineated by a viral hashtag. Meanwhile everyone and everything at odds from the approved narrative is declared “dead to us.” While I am not sure that Central, Central Intelligence or Big Brother and his Ministry of Truth are behind the cancel-culture, it is certainly enforced through social media.

But cancel-culture is not new. Media campaigns and boycotts are as old as the Fall of Mankind. Public shame and commerce have long been powerful tools for policy change, for better and for worse. What is new is the amazing speed with which shame and commerce is effected through social media. The uneditable and unanswerable animosity unleashed by social media cancels without appeal. The “brakes” of time – and therefore reflection — were never installed. Time to reflect, to think carefully, to analyze motive, context and deeper intent is missing. There is no time for thoughtful action, only violent and immediate reaction. As social critic, Neil Peart, noted, “conform or be cast out.” These are the options – the only options.

Cancel-culture strikes at the core of the Christian’s identity. Christians are animated by the gospel. Thought, speech and actions are to be transformed by the renewing of minds not conformed to the pattern of the world. Thus, christians are fundamentally at odds with the ethos of cancel-culture. Truth is not socially determined, but authoritatively revealed. And that authority is not Twitter. On the continuum of “conform or be cast out,” Christians will always be castaways. The received and revealed gospel is the compelling means of grace for our lives and our world. Our compulsion, our commission is to share it, preach it, declare it and defend it. Yet, the gospel’s presupposition of a brokenness no state or hashtag can fix is obnoxious to the cancel-culture. In its opposition to Christianity, cancel-culture reduces Peart’s “conform or be cast out” to only one option – “conform,” willingly or unwillingly.

And so, Christians find themselves is a familiar place – the place of persecution. This is nothing new. As Jesus unfolds the ethics and expectations of a life animated by grace, he concludes with are remarkable statement.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:10-16

We love to proclaim and sing about being the salt of the earth and a city set on a hill, but notice how Jesus connects these to a faithful response to persecution. The cancel-culture wants to silence the gospel and the truth of God. How are we to respond? Are we to soften our message? Conform it to the differing expectations of culture? Reassess our calling or the sphere in which we execute it? These are all questions Jeremiah faced. The “Temple Sermon” was one of his earliest and most memorable sermons. Jeremiah was probably optimistic as he preached. But the moment the sermon ended the cancel-culture attacked. “You shall die” was the response of the religious establishment. “Jeremiah, conform or be cut off.”

When God called Jeremiah, he warned him that this would be the case.

But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.
Jeremiah 1:17-19

How would Jeremiah respond? How will we respond? As Paul wrote to a young Timothy, “indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) It is only a matter of time before you face the ultimatum, “conform or be cast out.” What will be the response to this worst-case scenario?

Join us this Lord’s Day, September 13, as we examine Jeremiah 26 and consider the Jeremiah’s response to the cancel-culture of his day. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP

I admit it. I am absolutely syncretistic in my speech. Wherever I live, the local accent and expressions find their way into my own. On a recent family movie night, an ancient VHS tape surfaced of a presentation I gave in 1988. Two things were notable. First, I had as many verbal ticks then as now. And second, my accent – it was positively “down home” – vintage Georgia. I am without a doubt a verbal chameleon. Yet, this is true for most of us.

The attitudes and expressions of those around us together with the images and phrases we’ve invited into our souls will bubble up to the surface of our lives through our speech. Beyond accents, inflection and expressions, movies, books and music often implant phrases into our psyche that become mainstays of our expression. Brando’s eerie mantra from Apocalypse Now – “the horror,” and Ham Porter’s refrain from The Sandlot – “you’re killin’ me Smalls,” are go-to phrases for me. But a favorite is the admonition of the Grail Knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – “choose wisely!”

After navigating the “leap of faith from the Lion’s Head,” Indy enters into a shine to the Holy Grail, guarded by an ancient knight. The room is filled with different cups — elaborate and simple, some of precious metals and jewels, others of simple wood or glass. In order to save his father’s life, Indiana Jones must choose the one true Holy Grail from the vast display. But the first choice must be the right choice, for the Grail Knight warns him.

“You must choose, but choose wisely, as the true grail will bring you life and the false grail will take it from you.”

Indy must choose a cup to drink. He must drink. No other option is on the table. He must choose – and choose wisely. Life or death hangs on the choice.

We see a similar picture come into focus in Jeremiah 25. The prophet is told to take the “cup of the wine of God’s fury” and make all the nations drink from it. It is no mild vintage. It has no smooth flavor. This wine is neither light-bodied nor flavorfully rich in tannins. No hints of this or notes of that. And it does not finish well. It is hard drink. The cup of judgement. Those who drink it, drink it down to the dregs. It has no mild or pleasant effect. The drinker becomes raging drunk and violently ill. Bold drinkers think they can handle this liquor, but it reduces them to complete stupor. But what if men simply refuse this choice? What if they will not drink. Note what the Lord says.

Thus, the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it…. And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink!’”
Jeremiah 25:15, 28

Not to drink is not an option. And there is no milder vintage. But is there another cup? The cup is a common picture of God’s judgment in the Bible. But scripture reveals a remarkable promise — that God, himself, will graciously take the cup from us.

Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:
Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
Isaiah 51:21-22

But what is more, God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, drinks our cup for us.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, … he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” …Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
Matthew 26:36-42

And then He gives us another cup, a different cup – the cup of blessing which we bless.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:26-28

Jeremiah was told to take the cup of the wine of the wrath of God and to make all the nations drink of it. But there is another cup. For those who choose wisely — who trust in Christ, not in themselves, who acknowledge God’s righteous judgment of sin, yet plead for His mercy upon sinners, there is the cup of blessing. The Grail Knight spoke more than he knew when he cautioned, “choose, but choose wisely, as the true grail will bring you life and the false grail will take it from you.” What cup will you choose? The cup of the fury of God’s wrath? Or the cup of Christ?

Join us this Lord’s Day, September 6, as we examine Jeremiah 25:15-38 and consider the choice God sets before us between grace and judgement. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP