One-Post Wednesday: The World Cruciform

Everywhere I look I see Christ. Over and over again, the simple message of God-as-man on the cross and resurrected seems to help make sense of life in all of it's wonder and horror. It permeates our culture even as our culture claims to be so secular. I know many Christians want to shut out popular culture altogether, but I find that if we can build bridges instead of walls, we do Jesus Christ a much greater service. There are, no doubt, many cultural products that are all but incompatible with our faith. But the process of shutting out must be very slow, very deliberate, and very thoughtful. We must listen before we shut our ears.

Let me give just one example. Nikki Sixx was a very hard-partying member of the VERY hard partying-band Motley Crue. He struggled through a terrible heroine addiction, but found a way through it. His very history may turn many Christians off, but I would suggest that his song LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is something that Christians could well embrace. I could preach a sermon on just one line from that song:

"There's nothing like a trail of blood to find your way back home."

Isn't that the very essence of the message of the Cross? Aren't all Christians following a 'trail of blood' to 'find their way back home'? Yet this is from a very secular rock n roll song. I guess the connection can be just shrugged off as coincidental. I have no idea whether Sixx has any religious beliefs at all. But I do not think the freedom he found through suffering could be his had he not grown up in a Christian culture. I do not think he could've written these words if not for the Cross of Christ and it's influence on the western mind.

Now I don't mean to say that Sixx may be a Christian 'in spite of himself', but what I am saying is that just cutting off rock music or alternative rock whole cloth because of the general drift of that culture results in a very important missed opportunity. I can find an endless line of similar connections from many bands Christians might be loathe to open themselves up to. But it's there, if you listen, if you think about it. Build bridges where possible, walls only when absolutely necessary. That's my motto, anyways. I want to bring Jesus to the world, not keep Him in a cage.