In a recent Christianity Today interview, pastor Rob Bell was describing the gospel that he teaches and lives by.  The interviewer asked him how he would present this gospel on Twitter.  Frankly, I thought his response rested somewhere between “lame” and “non sequitur“, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

Greg Gilbert took Bell to task on Friday on the 9Marks blog (again, not what I want to talk about — just setting the table).  On Monday, Gilbert asked his readers how they would present the gospel on Twitter.  He set the limit to 140 characters (the actual Twitter limit).  It’s an interesting exercise, but it had disturbing results. The vast majority (over 90%) of responses fell into one of three categories:

1. Direct quotes of Scripture verses
2. Paraphrases of Scripture verses (mostly to get down to the character limit)
3. Stuff that was dripping in “Christianese”

#1 and #2 come from awesome source material.  And one could argue that, given the inspiration of Scripture, the verses are (in essence) straight from God, so who could say it better?  But those responses still come off as lazy and cookie-cutter.

#3 is what bothered me most, though.  If we’re going to tweet the gospel, why would we use a language that’s foreign to the target audience?  It’s as effective as standing on the street corner in Istanbul and trying to convey a message in fluent Portuguese.

While it is definitely a huge component of the gospel, the word “sin” appeared an embarrassingly large number of times.  I commented on the blog:

Not in any way to downplay sin, or to try to say that we made “mistakes” or some such nonsense/cop-out, but in looking over many of these, I am reminded of Steve Taylor’s comments regarding his song “Jesus Is for Losers”. He said that we (in modern evangelicalism) have become so anesthetized to the word “sin”, that we don’t even really think about what it is, most of the time.

This would have to go double for the unbeliever, who most likely would tune you out at the first mention of the “s” word. Given the context of what we’re trying to do (come up with valid tweets), I can’t help but wonder if we need to dial back on the language that is (overly-)familiar to **us**.

About 45 minutes later (though possibly before my moderated comment got approved), another person submitted her own tweet.  While I can’t be absolutely certain of the original content (why I say that, in a second), I’m fairly certain that her tweet had been:

We suck. God doesn’t. Jesus became like us but perfect, died instead of us but lives. If we get that and trust Him we are forever free.

However, the moderator edited her comment thusly (emphasis mine):

We [sin]. God doesn’t. Jesus became like us but perfect, died instead of us but lives. If we get that and trust Him we are forever free.

Now, I have no beef with paraphrasing a word that you don’t want to appear on your blog because you find it crude or vulgar.  I even do it to myself at times (e.g. long-time readers may recall a reference I made to a “urination match”).  But I find it interesting (in a depressing way) that less than an hour after I talked about the possible overuse of the word “sin” in this context, that the moderator specifically chose to use that very word, thereby re-enforcing my point.

And we wonder why our churches are dying.

Neat story here about a pro-life pastor who chose to go to jail rather than compromise with a plea bargain, and the ministering that he did behind bars.

Luke records Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance to the disciples (emphases mine):

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.

Immediately after Jesus greeted them with shalom — peace — they exhibited the exact opposite.  Jesus went on to ask them why they doubted.  Being God, He knew the answer already; the question was really for their benefit.

Likewise, it is for our benefit when He has to ask us the same question.  Because sometimes we’re just as stupid as those guys were.  But our God is a patient God.  He doesn’t say, “Do I stutter?”, though He’d certainly be justified if He did.

Let us be thankful for His patience.  But let us also see what we can do about not trying it in the first place.

Tim Challies has a great post (what’s new?) about Stuart Townend’s hymn “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.”  I love this hymn, and am tickled that it’s in heavy rotation whenever my church observes the Lord’s Supper.

Tim observes the recorded occasions in the Gospels when Jesus successfully evaded death at the hands of His enemies, as it wasn’t His appointed time yet.  An angry mob with rocks or people ready to push Him off a cliff did not suffice to murder Christ before His time.  In fact, no one could actually do it, in and of themselves.  Jesus said that He laid down His life and that no man could take it from Him.

And so it was, even with the cross.  Tim (rightly) comes to the conclusion that “it was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross.”  But, contrary to Townend’s lyric, it was not “my sin that held Him there”, either.  My sin has no more power over Jesus than the mob’s stones or the arms of those who sought to push Him off a cliff.

Now, I understand that Christ chose to die on the cross because of my sin.  And I understand the emphasis on my sin, particularly in a time when there seems to be no personal responsibility for one’s own actions.  But to say that my sin held Him on the cross swings the pendulum from “no responsibility” to “too much credit” (even if it’s “credit” for a bad thing).

It was not my sin that held him there.

It was His love that held him there.

Semantics?  No.  It’s the heart of the gospel.

WASHINGTON, DC — April 1, 2009 — In an announcement that stunned the nation, Barack Obama called a press conference today to state that he is stepping down as President of the United States. Effective immediately, Hugh Beaumont will assume the role. Mr Obama also said that Joe Biden is being replaced by Ozzie Nelson. Similar replacements are taking place throughout Congress, although it is reported that Nancy Pelosi has locked herself in her office.

Given their obvious recent distaste for trusting in God, Christians can now resume trusting in their government and the renewed inherent and absolute morality of their country.

In unrelated stories, Steven Spielberg was kicked out of his country club and Michael Jordan was lynched in North Carolina today.

Stepped away from my computer for a minute and came back to a new window having popped up:

(Sametime is the IM client that my company uses.)

Tim Hawkins sings about the yummy goodness that is Chick-Fil-A.

Hunting A Detroit Tiger
Troy Soos
(Book 4 of the Mickey Rawlings baseball mystery series)

I love baseball. I love mysteries. Put them together in one novel and I’m in literary nirvana.  Troy Soos’ Mickey Rawlings series is just the ticket. Mickey Rawlings is a journeyman utility infielder (the longest he’s spent with any major league club is 3 years) who keeps stumbling onto mysteries.  Intriguingly, in this novel, he’s the killer.

It’s Detroit in 1920, just before the season is about to start.  The papers are splashed with the news that Rawlings shot and killed Emmett Siever in self-defense.  Siever was a former ballplayer who, more recently, was trying to organize the players into a union.

Other union representatives are angry with Rawlings for killing Siever.  Some even want him dead.  Rawlings also becomes persona non grata with his teammates, even the ones who aren’t necessarily interested in a union.

On the other side of the coin, representatives of the owners are pressuring Rawlings to make an official anti-union statement and stance.  Some of these representatives are, uh, less than scrupulous.

Rawlings is interested in neither side of the issue — he just wants to play ball.

Oh, one other complication.

Rawlings didn’t kill Siever.

So, who did?  And why?  And why is Rawlings taking the rap?

Parental Guidance:  I’d probably put language at a PG, and violence at a soft PG-13 (nothing really graphic, just kinda icky and scary).