I suppose I also had every intention of putting new insulation in the loft.
It's never too late to start the things you want to do, though, is it? So here we go, another bit of insight from the minds of the writers of The Simpsons.
The Simpsons Season 13, 2001
Episode 6: She of Little Faith
The writers of The Simpsons aren't good theologians, by the way. That's not what I mean by a series called Simpsons Theology. Sometimes they do get some things right, most of the time they get it wrong, occasionally they think they've nailed it and try to correct the Church... But that's another episode and another blog.
So it's not about the theological insights they offer. It's about the cultural observations they make about Christianity which Christians can then interpret theologically. A show like The Simpsons is interesting because it gives a glimpse into how the world perceives Christianity. And, as we're about to find out, those observations can be quite good, and something to learn from. At the very least, it shows us that the world is watching. And if it's watching, that's because it cares...
The writers of The Simpsons aren't great sympathisers with Christian beliefs, or religion in general, but what they have observed is that there is a generic value to Christianity and religion, something that enhances some people's lives in some way. And they seem to be able to get on board with that. It's a pretty typical - if it works for you then I'm pleased for you - sort of approach. It's a recognition that Christianity has had a good, if somewhat intangible, effect on society. And whilst the writers don't like, agree with, understand the value of church for themselves personally, it's clear that they have understood that if there is any value in Christianity, whatever that value is, it lies in its distinctiveness. That is, in the Church being/offering something different, distinct from the rest of the culture. Or, to use the language of the Bible, holiness. And it's here that the Bible, the Church and the writers of the Simpsons can agree.
In the episode titled 'She of Little Faith' this becomes quite clear. It's an episode that seeks to make the point that if the Church isn't different to the culture, the culture doesn't want it. Also hinting at the fact that any so-called Christians who are happy for the Church to become worldly are insincere hypocrites who won't be listened to.
The writers of the episode have understood well that the world has the world. The wider culture knows that it is distinct from the Church, from Christianity. It knows there is a difference, that there should be a difference, that they are not the same. However, that means it has no need for a Church that looks like it. It doesn't need another version of itself. It's not in the market for that.
Culture knows and likes what it can offer. The culture knows it's not perfect, for sure. And it would certainly be open, in principle at least, to having its problems diagnosed and solved. And it might just be willing to listen to a Church that is different from it. Because if it is different, that might be because it has the answers the world may (or may not) be looking for.
But, it damn well won't listen to a Church that looks like it does, that acts like it does, and (effectively) believes and disbelieves the same things. Because, a Church that looks like the world's culture, is not offering anything positive that the culture can't come up with on its own. And, a Church trying to look like the culture in order to be attractive to it, will surely find itself absorbing the it’s faults, too. In which case, it will be in just as much need of help as everyone else. The world is sick, but it’s not stupid. And it won't be insulted by a copycat culture that imitates it under the guise of a religion that clearly didn't trust its own beliefs enough to stand up for them and remain distinctive.
Yes, all of that is clear in one 20 minute episode of a 20 year old cartoon.
It's a funny episode. Delightfully balancing the absurd with the poignant, the serious with the frivolous. Thoughtful humour sprinkled with silliness.
The opening scene is comically unexpected. Homer builds a rocket for Bart (with the help of The Nerds who modify the toy rocket and greatly enhance its capabilities). The rocket is launched from the back garden containing the family pet hamster.
Mid-flight, the launch goes wrong, Nibbles (the hamster) hits the EJECT button leaving the unmanned rocket to spiral out of control, crashing into the building of the 'Presbylutheran' First Church of Springfield.
The church, of course, is broke. But, reluctant to simply close down, it seeks financial aid.
But how does a church with no money get its building rebuilt?
Commercially sponsored investment, of course.
In steps Mr. Burns (whose hair in the moment happens to be pointing up at the sides like devil horns). Burns is accompanied by Lindsay Nagle - the series' perennial business consultant stereotype - whom he assures can get the building rebuilt in no time thanks to a lump sum from Burns followed by a steady stream of commercial revenue from advertising to pay him off. The church will be rebuilt. Though not just rebuilt - rebranded. As Lindsay Nagle says "the old church was skewing pious".
And boy-oh-boy is the church rebranded. It's really rather clever in a sacreligious sort of way. There are big, comfy cinema seats instead of pews, adverts plastered on every wall, sponsorship woven into Reverend Lovejoy's ministerial robes, and, to really demonstrate that the show enjoys making fun of religion, there is an extra large version of Michelangelo's Last Supper with holes cut out of the faces where people can put their heads to have their photo taken. It's all pretty amusing. The kind of satire the Babylon Bee would come up with.
Anyway, the service starts. Lovejoy begins to pray. He prays to God. Offering up pastoral petitions for the parishioners. Standard. Then, in what is clearly part of the contractual obligation of the deal made with Mr. Burns, he 'prays' to Crazy Larry thanking him for the insanely low prices of his big screen TVs. Lovejoy hesitates, but eventually caves in. His integrity as laughable as an electronic store called ‘Crazy Larry’s’.
Then, in one last act of gratuitous denigration, the reverend invites 'The Noid' to deliver a special sermon on 'the sanctity of deliciousness'. The Noid (I had to look this guy up) being an advertising character created by Domino's Pizza in the 80's. Must be a US thing...
It's the final straw.
Good old conscientious Lisa can't take any more of the selling out. And she yells out "That's it!!"
Then comes the punchline. The most astute and biting moment of the episode.
Homer, trying to help Lisa avoid further embarrassment by drawing even more attention to herself, loudly whispers "Quiet, Lisa. Everyone in the store is looking at you."
"Everyone in the store is looking at you."
It's really rather brilliant if you think about it. The church has so lost its identity that it resembles a shopping centre more than a place of worship. And the congregation doesn't care.
The dialogue continues with more brilliantly succinct analysis.
Upon being told that "everyone is looking at you" Lisa resplies "They should take a good look at themselves and what their church has become."
The now implicated Reverend is prompted to defend the situation by explaining that "it's still the same basic message. We've just dressed it up a little."
To which Lisa rebukes him "like the whore of Babylon?" - one of the better uses of scripture by the writers.
The Reverend claims that to be a false analogy, but can only cower when Lisa very confidently asserts that it is in fact apt. “APT!”
So Lisa asks the question of the congregants "Do you see what Mr. Burns has done to this church?"
It turns out they have. They're quite happy really. And with a series of comparisons to esoteric cultural references, they explain why.
"He restored it from nave to narthex!"
"He super-sized the pews for the zaftig believers."
"He put ice in the urinals."
He's given them what anyone and everyone likes. At this point we're led to understand that the congregation as a whole are confused as to why this is bad? Why can't a church be holy and comfy?
Good question. Yet the Simpsons writers' - credit to them - have understood it's not quite that simple. And Lisa gives a really good response.
"Those are all wonderful things, but they've cost the church its soul." (Clever, right)?
Again, it’s very astute. Recognising that good things are good and that nice things are nice. But that they can also get in the way of more important things. And in this case (like in real life) the state of the church building is a barometer of how seriously the congregation takes its beliefs, and of what it really values.
Lisa is no stoic here. True religion doesn't need to be a man living on a pole in the desert. She's not insisting on a counterintuitively austere lifestyle in order to breed piety.
But she has recognised that there is more to life and religion than comfort. And whilst comfort is not inherently bad, in this case as in many other cases, the commercialisation of the church and its tending to the comfort of the people is indicative of the problem, not the solution.
It's still a church building, after all. There will be singing, there will be prayers, there will be a sermon. Yet to the congregants, it doesn't matter if those things are compromised. They'll happily listen to a sermon that has nothing to do with the Bible, delivered by someone who isn't a minister, because at least it brings in the money that pays for the building which is called a 'church'. And non-religious people don't go to church. Therefore they must be religious. And if they're religious because they go to church, they're in a right standing before God, right?
The whole church, including its message, has been dressed up. It's unrecognisable as a church, yet all but one little girl has noticed. Everything has been changed but the name, and everyone has been duped. Is it wrong to have comfy pews? Not really. Is it wrong to have clean toilets? Of course not! Yet the word of God goes missing, and Lisa's outrage is wholly justified. Because the main thing that should have made the church distinctive has gone. Along with all relevance. And it's just become one more place of comfort and entertainment. A place to have a good time through indulgence of the senses.
I know many smaller churches close down because of a lack of funding. But lots of money is always a danger for the church. Because the temptation is to spend it on nice things.To dress itself up. But that’s not for Jesus’ bride. He bought her pure white clothes at a greater cost than any amount of money. She must adorn herself with these clothes.
Revelation 19:7 & 8 says:
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
The Church should be dressed up. The bride should make herself ready (under the shepherding of faithful ministers). But she should be dressed up in righteousness. She is to be adorned in holiness. And this episode, oddly enough, is an indictment on so many churches. Churches that try gimmick, after gimmick, after course, after outreach event, after programme, after hospitality trick, to attract people. Earlier service times, later service times, shorter services, simpler sermons, better music, powerpoint presentations, branding and graphics can all be ways we dress up ourselves as the Church trying to be appealing.
Yes, every church needs a decent website these days, and sure, it's great to enjoy donuts and a good cup of coffee together as part of our fellowship. But if things like these in any sense - if they even marginally take priority over holiness and righteousness - then they've been wasted. They will in fact become a hindrance to our witness. And I do think that every church needs to ask the question about what it does on a Sunday and throughout the week: does it aid progress in holiness and help to demonstrate the same? Does conforming and compromising really bring people in? Maybe ask the Archbishop?
One local pastor speaking at our recent church away day mentioned that part of his ethos in ministry is ‘to make it as easy as possible for people to meet Jesus’. And that's great. And I think most of us are onboard with that. But have we misunderstood what 'making it easy' actually is? Jesus is a holy God. If people are going to meet Jesus, the holiness of his Church must be glaringly conspicuous. And I wonder, do we confuse holiness with hospitality? Meeting Jesus isn't easier at 4pm as opposed to 10:30am. It's easier when unbelievers turn up, at whatever time, and see a bride of adoring, worshippers who love and trust Jesus as Lord and saviour. People who sing with sincerity, pray with confidence, preach with clarity and urgency and who bear the fruit of the Spirit.
Part of what this local pastor meant was that we shouldn't cling to anything unnecessarily traditional that might be off putting in our modern context. And maybe 4pm happens to be better than 10:30am in your specific context. It's possible. Great. Do that. Or whatever it is you need to do. But we must think, is it just that? No! Making it easy to meet Jesus means making it easy to hear and understand the Bible by speaking about him clearly, faithfully, honestly, with confidence and conviction from his word.
To be fair, churches are acclimatising nicely to the culture in a good way I believe. The women don't wear hats any more, and the men don't all wear suits any more, and we don't give suspicious looks to young people who turn up wearing a t-shirt by the band they saw the night before. We fit in with the culture in the right way at many points. But then, having noticed that we've done something good and right and useful, have we taken things too far, and become worldly? Hospitality is an aspect of holiness, of what it means to be a Christian. Our elders must be that. But has hospitality replaced holiness?
Paul Washer puts it well when he says that we shouldn't look like the Puritans. Literally, we should not dress like them. It's a deliberately absurd statement because no one wants to look like the Puritans. But he makes the point - we're not to be obtuse. To dress like them would be to be deliberately off putting. Unnecessarily weird. Yet if our holiness matched the holiness of the Puritans - men whose teaching is still radically Biblical and challenging 400 years on... well... Maybe we'd have churches that people avoided, not because they despised religion as a trivial nonsense that has nothing to offer because it's no different, but they'd avoid church in the way 'hardened sinners' avoided attending a service at Richard Sibbes' church, for fear of being converted. Such was the potency of his winsome preaching.
Comfort and compromised sermons and prayer will get people through the doors of your church, but it won't get them through the gates of heaven. Yet, if they are encouraged through your doors because everything is familiar to them, well, how likely will they be to stick around? We joke about that as Christians we’d have no idea what to do if we walked into a betting shop. We’d find it awkward at first. Yet everyone who uses a betting shop didn’t know what to do the first time. As much as we should be welcoming, we shouldn’t be worried if people find church awkward the first time. We should not make church what it’s not. It won’t do anyone any good.
If we offer entertainment - well they can get that elsewhere. If we offer comfort - they can get that elsewhere. And if they do stick around because they can cope with 15 minute sermons and they enjoy the free coffee and donuts, well, what will happen if the sermons get longer or the donuts run out? Or if nothing changes, how much will they actually grow? What will they think being a Christian really is? We do a disservice to people if we hook them in with 'church lite' during a one off service aimed at unbelievers. Will they not be disappointed or confused when they turn up to church as normal - church for the believer that is longer, more reverent, more sincere, more scriptural? If we use entertainment and comfort to attract people we will attract people who are looking for those things. And when you call them to holiness - how attractive will they find that? Yet if we seek to be the holy, righteous Church the Bible wishes us to be - we will attract those people who are genuinely seeking those things. And surely they will learn to grow in that too, through repentance and faith.
There are people out there who want what we're offering. As the Bible says, the harvest is plentiful. Not a harvest of people seeking comfort and entertainment, but of people who will long for holiness when they see it, will long for salvation when it's offered, will be eternally grateful for forgiveness when they receive it and oh so thankful for help in the fight against sin.
The very astute way the episode ends makes pretty much this point.
Perhaps the most poignant warning is when Lisa, who leaves the church and renounces the faith, ends up becoming a Buddhist.
Because in its own way, the Buddhist temple she found her way to was calm, peaceful, meditative, with a comparatively distinct identity. This place was happy to be different and to stand out. It was an antidote to the materialism that Lisa had become less than enamoured with. It stood out, at the very least, by its integrity. And when our churches lose that, like Lisa, people will leave. The true believers will find a fellowship that will worship according to the book. The sincere but unconverted will go anywhere else that scratches their itch. And if they haven't been fed well by the church they leave (ironically the reason for leaving), who knows where they might end up? Will they not gravitate to the closest approximation of what they think they're looking for, that they can find?
By the end of the episode, Reverend Lovejoy has tried everything he can to trick Lisa back to church. Poor Lisa is even threatened with getting no presents at Christmas. And she's bribed with presents. Lisa's Buddhism goes on to be a running theme of the series, but I do wonder if the writers could be said to have been asking the question to the Church: if you have a better message, won’t you get a better response? If Christmas, and presents and comfy pews is all you can offer, which sincere seeker will want that? But Church, if you have anything worth listening to, please say it? How many Lisa's are there in the world who go on to be Buddhists or Muslims or anything else simply because they encountered crappy churches who could have been the means of salvation had they stuck to the book, worshipped properly, adorned themselves in holiness and refused to compromise on the message?
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