The word "evangelism" has come to be associated with stuff that makes a lot of people—even ordained clergy!‐really, really uncomfortable. For some it simply brings to mind folk knocking on the door and imploring you to read a copy of The Watchtower or The Book of Mormon. For others it evokes brands of fundamentalist theology that believe they have the only correct answers to life's questions and that any other answers are one-way tickets straight to hell.
And that's sad. Because evangelism is about being so excited about your own path that you simply have to tell other people about it. There are plenty of truly awesome and righteous religious paths out there, and I find it deeply tragic that such a small handful of them have the reputation for wanting and needing to share how awesome and righteous they are with the rest of the world.
I think this is a place where Christianity—especially local mainline churches—could learn a lot from geek culture. The first thing that springs to mind for me is one of my favorite quotes from Felicia Day (as reported by Wired):
“We have to mean something ourselves, and not just get trapped into, ‘Hey, everything’s just a mashup T-shirt,’” Day says in Episode 91 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “The substance of what it means to be a geek is essentially someone who’s brave enough to love something against judgment. The heart of being a geek is a little bit of rejection.”That first part, by the way, strikes me as getting at the idea of vocation—we have to mean something. Maybe that's something that Christianity could be helping geek culture with while geek culture helps Christianity with that second part. Even if it means a little bit of rejection, we have to love the path we're on against judgement.
The second thing that comes to me—the best popular culture example of what I want to get at here—is The Big Bang Theory. Now, I have to say that I—like many geeks—have a love/hate relationship with the program. But that's probably its own post at some point.
For now I want to uplift one of the things that keeps me watching. The fact is that the program came out of a marriage between two different show ideas: The first was about these two genius roommates—the kind of people who's thoughts and work change the world, but who simply can't relate to the rest of us in socially acceptable ways. The second was about this naive country girl moving to the big city to try to break into acting and ending up as a waitress. Combining these two things into one show mean that all the tension and comedy—the story, in other words—come out of the meeting of these two worlds. One of the things I love about the series is that when those worlds meet each other, they affect change in each other.
One of the ways these two genius geeks affect change in this Nebraskan wanna-be actress is through that substance of what it means to be a geek that Felicia Day identified. What they love they love with reckless abandonment—all the stereotypical geeky things, from D&D to comic books—despite all the snarky comments she could throw at them. And the cool thing is that their obvious love of these things does draw her in. The love all these things so much that their response to her making fun of them is to say (echoes of Jesus in the Gospel lesson for Sunday) "Come and see." Sit down and watch Star Trek with us. Come to the comic book store with us.
Christianity in general, and local mainline churches specifically, need to ask themselves if they're so excited about the path they're on that they would love it despite the judgement of their neighbors. Do they love their path so much that they "geek out" over it? Are the excited enough about their path that they simply can't help saying "come and see?"
Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
011414
The scripture lessons for January 19th—The Second Sunday after Epiphany Year A—are:
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