Reflection on Preaching and Pop Culture

This started out as an inquiry into stories. What is it that resonates with people? And more importantly, what does that say about our relationship with God?

It seems like a funny question on some level. What does God have to do with Twilight or Eminem? Yet, if we are going to talk about the Spirit with any kind of integrity it seems like we have to acknowledge that God must be capable of working through what people find meaningful, even if it seems banal. Millions of people see something of value in these and other icons. Why?

There is something valuable in the story. Twilight offers a storyline that appeals to a generation of girls and young ladies; in fact, its sales are an indication that it is appealing to adult women as well. Its popularity is indicative of a story that speaks meaning into the difficulties that women face. It speaks into the confusion of puberty as well as our yearning for love in adulthood. To divorce sex and God leaves the church impotent to speaking into that reality. There might be a cogent message here for 21st century Christians, but the only way to address it is to look openly at what it is that makes Twilight an often guilty pleasure for so many.

Eminem has a similar appeal that, while crossing gender lines somewhat more than Twilight, is predominantly a male phenomenon. Eminem's message is not primarily about sex, but it deals with the human tendency to hate, and at its best it is about coming to terms with who we are. He doesn't have it figured out, and maybe that's why it's hard to see him as a storybook character. The evolution of his career seems has been for the better, but the end remains unwritten. Regardless, there is something about him that resonates. The pain and sometimes hatred that inspires his lyrics has moved a generation who consider him a voice for their trials. Surely, there is something Christian in that.

Finally, I opened up to the idea of WikiLeaks. This I was more skeptical about than the others in part because it is dehumanized. Eminem is flawed, but that can be explained by his utter human-ness. Twilight is a very human novel. WikiLeaks seems to presuppose a kind of omniscience. And yet, this too is a very human tendency. We want to know things; it says something about us--even if it isn't always something good.

With the process of sermon-writing finished, I have come to realize that this has always been about story. I struggled most with the WikiLeaks topic because it didn't lend itself well to narrative. Our stories undergird the meaning in our lives. Moreover, the Christian story gives meaning back to the stories that we hold dear. Too often the problem preachers have is that the Christian story that we are attempting to proclaim is ignorant of the prevailing stories in the culture. This has been an exercise in understanding how we can talk about those forces without selling out to them; in short, how we can re-focus the power that they have on the cross where we claim ultimate meaning lies.

This is possible only through my own story-telling. As a preacher I am only as good as quilt I can fashion from the threads that connect the stories that my parishioners bring, the stories that the culture has ingrained in us, and the overarching grand narrative of God in the world. This is the challenge of preaching and pop culture, but I am coming to think that it is also one of the only ways we can be authentic to life in the here-and-now while proclaiming the "not yet"-ness of the gospel.