My next to last generational post this month (I’m hitting the road next week) is on the subject of sin — a subject that not many pastors even want to talk about these days. A lot of people tell me that millennials are a lost generation. Let’s examine that for a moment.
When I was responsible for a hundred Cadets or so, I tried hard to get them to take responsibility for their actions. That involved their character, on and off duty. “You just can’t turn your character on and off like a light switch,” I told them. In fact, character was revealed more when no one else was around. It’s who you are when no one is watching. Character matters when you’re sitting next to the buttons of our national arsenal.
Character involves knowing right and wrong, and choosing to do the right thing. In God’s eyes, doing the wrong thing, whether by omission or commission, is called sin. Sin exists, despite the popular cultural narrative to the contrary (a narrative that could have been written throughout human history). It is because of sin that we need a Savior so that we may approach a Holy God who cannot countenance sin in His presence. In God’s wider reality, that Savior is Jesus Christ. I commend Him to you not because I’m required, but because I’m thankful. You see, I’m a sinner, too.
I’ve never met an impolite millennial, but I have heard from them that I shouldn’t shove my religion down their throat. Sorry, but my faith isn’t confined to my Church or my home. I need God on the road (it’s why I fasten my seatbelt) and in shops and on the job. I’m not shoving here—think of it as just pushing back against the popular cultural narrative.
Jesus did. He didn’t talk to everyone on the night He was betrayed, but He talked with the author of the popular cultural narrative of His day, Pontius Pilate, and He, in no uncertain terms, outlined to Pilate that there were people on God’s side of the line of Truth, and then there was everyone else. I didn’t write it. Read the book. Does the mere fact that I’m pointing that out to you constitute “shoving religion down your throat?” If so, I apologize, because I’m a sinner, too. It’s just that Jesus wasn’t, and died for sinners like me, so I’m feeling like pushing back a little.
When I have met gay people or those who have come out of that lifestyle, I have introduced myself as “a sinner, too.” In my classes, I let my students know that I’m a sinner, too. When I’ve attended conferences, I’ve let people know that I’m not better than anyone. I prefer to stay under the radar with this website because I know that I, too, could easily fall victim to sin should I be more widely read or popularly received. Should that ever change, I’d need extra help from the Lord on that one. I gave up cable TV in 2002 because I didn’t need that much of the popular culture coming into my house.
I’m cautious going on to FoxNews.com anymore because sometimes the stuff there resembles soft core pornography. Scrolling is something I’ve become really proficient doing on my “smart” phone. Sorry, millennials, but pornography promotes human trafficking, and as much as you rail against slavery, to countenance trafficking by the insatiable appetite you have for porn must be a bit conflicting, don’t you think? Every generation is immersed in it these days, but for millennials, the numbers are particularly horrible. Don’t feel like I’m shoving this down your throat, but I’m hell on trafficking. End of sermon. Let me show you my scrolling techniques.
In a few weeks, “Time” magazine or “National Geographic” will run their “Jesus Issues” because, as Easter approaches, they’ll want to talk about the resurrection. Well, a lot of people need to know about the resurrection and maybe a conversation about the resurrection is good.
But, signing up for it, agreeing that Christ bodily arose from the dead, interceded on my behalf because I believe and accept it, and made a way for me, a sinner, to receive God’s grace whether at home, in Church, on the road, in the marketplace, or anywhere—signing up for it is an entirely different matter than having a theme edition or a “millennial month” or anything short of Jesus Christ. To believe in Christ’s resurrection is quite literally, everything. Time and NatGeo might struggle with it. You might struggle with it. There is not victory without worthy struggle. Victory over sin, if you have yet to experience it, is worth that struggle. But, first things first.
Yes, a lot of people tell me the millennial generation is lost. My response: every generation is lost, that is until each one declares before Christ, that “I’m a sinner, too.” Please, consider it.