If you’re someone who goes to the gym, you probably know that most gyms have lines of TVs overhead tuned to several different channels. They’re on mute, so you can’t hear them unless you plug your headphones in. The gym I go to underwent a fairly significant renovation this summer, and when it was done, I noticed that the TVs were now showing different stations than they used to.
They kept a few of them the same, like the one that shows the time and lots of videos of people doing incredible things. They’re selling the idea that our bodies are amazing and can be pushed to the limit, even when I feel like I’m struggling there on the exercise bike. HGTV is there, selling us the idea that home renovations and moves will make our lives better.
But some of the stations switched to cable news stations that weren’t there before. It’s very interesting watching cable news without hearing what they’re saying. They, too, are selling things. They’re selling a particular worldview. They want their viewers to see that certain things are good and that those things that challenge those views are destructive. Without the sound, it’s a bit subtler how they do it, but it’s still very much there. They’re not really delivering news. They’re selling ideas that want viewers to buy into.
(If you happen to watch any cable news, you should experiment with muting it and just watching what’s on your screen. What are they selling to you? What feelings are they trying to evoke in you? How do those compare to what Jesus teaches?)
When I was a teen, I used to get up early enough to watch SportsCenter on ESPN. It was only thirty minutes, and I’d have a good idea of what happened the previous night in whatever season we were in. For those of us who did this, it gave us a good chance to talk about the games at lunch that day. SportsCenter functioned as news. Yes, it was also selling something; it was selling the idea that sports mattered, were worthy of our attention, and were something we should spend money and time on.
The last TV I looked at in the gym was tuned to ESPN. The SportsCenter of my youth is long gone. And what has replaced it? Round tables, largely populated by men, offering their opinions about sports. Even more, with the massive popularity of Pat McAfee (who is now being paid $30 million a year), there are now shows recorded to look like a bunch of young bearded bros at home in their basement giving their hot takes on everything. No need for experts — the bro culture’s got this! ESPN is selling us the idea that the guy down the street who watched last night’s game has a hotter take than the journalist who worked leads for years to understand a topic.
Why do this? It’s money. They want you to buy what they’re selling.
You may be wondering why I’m talking about all of this and when the sermon is going to show up, but just bear with me. I’ll get there.
Did you know that private equity firms — whose purpose is to invest money to make more money — have begun buying stakes in sports franchises? Just this past week, we learned that the Los Angeles Lakers are being sold for $12.5 billion to a private equity firm. Other firms have stakes in around 75 franchises, including the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, and the Golden State Warriors.
Now, I’m not saying this because somehow having one fabulously wealthy owner (like George Steinbrenner with the Yankees) was somehow a more noble pursuit. He wanted to make money, but he absolutely wanted to win championships too. Why would these private equity firms begin buying stakes in your teams? They see an opportunity to turn their money into more money, which means they are not as interested in winning as they are in profiting. The decisions they make will be based upon how much equity they can squeeze out of this asset, and if that means chief profitability can happen with a bad but beloved team, well, go for it. After all, it’s about selling things so that we can get more things, right?
Allow me one more example, please. By now you’ve probably heard about the Savannah Bananas, the barnstorming baseball team that is turning baseball into nonstop entertainment. They’re wildly popular. Currently, there’s a waiting list of 4-5 million people trying to get tickets to see them play what they call Banana Ball. Their product is baseball, but it’s baseball combined with pro wrestling and Broadway and so much more. They’ve had a pitcher who used to sing on Broadway (and who was good enough to pitch for UCLA) pitch at their game in Yankee Stadium wearing the mask from Phantom of the Opera and singing “The Music of the Night.” They have players who can do a back flip while catching a fly ball in the outfield.
Banana Ball also has a lot of rules intended to make the game more fun. There is no bunting. If a player bunts, they get ejected. If a player gets four balls, he gets to sprint and take as many bases as he can while the defense has to toss the ball around as quickly as possible until all players have touched it. There’s also my favorite: If a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out. The games have a clock, and they end promptly at two hours. When they finish, the crowd stands together and on the count of three, they shout, “Fans First!”
Banana Ball is also selling something. They’re selling the idea that their form of baseball is all about the fans’ enjoyment. There is not to be any dull moment in the action. And people are packing out stadiums all over the country to experience the nonstop joy of Banana Ball.
For what it’s worth, I’ve had my name on the list to get tickets because it does sound like a ton of fun. And let me be clear — all of this talk about how we are the constant recipients of the sales pitches of everything from better homes to bodies to Banana Ball, doesn’t make buying and selling inherently bad. It’s just that we live in a culture that is selling us things almost every second of every day, and it does so sometimes with such subtlety that we have no idea that we’re being constantly asked to buy what someone is selling.
The church exists in that culture, as do we.
But because our culture is always asking us to buy what others are selling, we have turned our churches into the same thing. We have to market. We have to promote what we’re doing. We’re asking you to buy what we’re selling — not necessarily by putting dollars in an offering plate, but rather by getting you to believe and live the gospel.
In a world where “Fans First!” has led to a 5 million name long waiting list, we have carried that same mentality into our faith. We choose churches based on whether we like the music or preaching. We opt in and out of the community, not because it’s community but because what’s proclaimed matches what we already thought.
Our culture bends over backwards to get us what we want, and we have carried that same mentality into our churches.
I see that present in today’s gospel reading. (I told you I’d eventually make the connection!) The disciples have devoted three years of their lives to following Jesus around. There were some real high highs, weren’t there? Dramatic healings and miracles. Preaching and teaching that provoked new ways of thinking. People who stood between them and God put in their place time and again. Peter, James, and John even recently went up a mountain with Jesus only to see him transfigured — changed radically — before their eyes.
But then things take a turn. Jesus all of the sudden starts talking about hard things, about how they’re on their way to Jerusalem. There, he’ll suffer, die, and defeat death.
Peter is not buying what Jesus is selling.
“God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
Imagine. Peter rebukes Jesus.
His dude-bro hot take from his barstool? “Jesus, you’re wrong! I’m with you because you’re going to win. I’ve invested my life in you, and now I’m expecting a return on my investment!”
We like to tell God what we think God should do, don’t we? That’s exactly what Peter is doing here, but like us, Peter has no idea that God’s much bigger plan is a much better one than what he has devised. In fact, God forbids anyone stopping Jesus from carrying out this plan.
Jesus continues, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Friends, this is not a sales pitch I’ve seen on the TVs at the gym. It’s true, but it’s hard. This is no “lose 20 pounds in two weeks by taking these pills” or “if you vote for my candidate, then everything is going to turn out perfectly for you.”
The church’s sales pitch is harder. If you want to save your life, you have to be willing to surrender it to something greater than yourself. The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It’s not free fries because you used the app for the first time.
I think we’ve trained ourselves to see our faith as what we can get out of it. This past week I read this little tale about W. C. Fields, the American actor and comedian who was most famous about 80 years ago. Toward the end of his life, someone saw Fields reading the Bible. This friend was surprised and asked him why he was reading it. Fields answered, “Looking for loopholes, looking for loopholes.”
In other words, he was looking at faith for what he could get out of it rather than to understand who he was and who God is. He didn’t want to buy what the Bible was selling. He wanted to see if there was a shortcut to get what he wanted.
To be honest, in our culture, we in the church are in the sales business, but it’s a product that is hard to sell. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Sure, we’ve prettied up as best we can. We have great music! Look at our amazing and fun kids ministry! Our youth play the best games! Look at our pastor — he’s so relatable! But in our efforts to try to sell you on why our church might be the right church for you, I think we’re actually underselling what we truly need — the way of Jesus.
Which brings me to Romans 12. This is a message that is so needed in our culture because we are constantly being sold the narrative that “if you’re not for me, you’re against me.” Romans 12 addresses two questions. How are we to love one another in the church? And, how are we to love the world? These questions are connected. You can’t love the church and hate those not in it, right?
This message, to me, connects with our Kind Haven efforts this summer. People have taken notice of our signs and stickers and shirts, but I hope, even more, that they’ve taken notice that people connected to this church are actually striving to be intentionally kind because that’s a version of what it means to take up our crosses, because that’s a version of what it means to lose our lives for the sake of finding them.
Are you buying what I’m selling when I implore you, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor”? Can you imagine a church that loves with that depth, that one anothers in this way? It’s more than the tagline Kind Haven; it’s who we are because we believe the good news of Jesus.
But it also turns outward. Bless those who hurt you. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. (Remember folks, this is how the church is supposed to love those who are not in the church!) Live peaceably with all. Overcome evil with good.
I don’t know about you, but I am buying what Jesus is selling. But here’s the catch: the way of following Jesus does not come in an easy-to-swallow pill form. We cannot blend it into a nutritional shake and get all of its benefits. We cannot pay a monthly fee and do whatever we want with it.
The way of the cross — this way of love — takes intentionality. It takes care. It takes thoughtfulness. It takes discernment. It takes a critical mind and discerning heart that can hold fast to the things of Jesus and let go of the things that hold us back from faith.
I wish I could just download this to you and have it transform you. But that’s not how it works. It requires the ability to lay aside things we may like but that are holding us back. It means saying “no” to good things so we have space for growing in faith.
In a world filled with nonstop sales pitches for things that can make our life easier and better, I am standing here offering you life at its fullest. Accepting this gift is the hardest and best thing you’ll ever do. God forbid that we ever expect that the way of Jesus is anything but the way of the cross. It is in trusting Jesus even in this that we find our lives.