“Lions and tigers and bears, _____!” If you could fill in the blank immediately, then you have been impacted by culture. On further thought, if you could fill in the blank and your mind went to Dorothy and her companions walking along a yellow brick road toward Oz, you have some context for that cultural expression. If the conclusion of that statement causes you think about your favorite scenes, smile at the thought of munchkins, hum one of the tracks or have fond memories of seasons of life when you enjoyed watching the film, then you are part of the generation that has been impacted by The Wizard of Oz.
Many of us grew up with this movie. We know the songs, we know the story and we know the characters. We have seen poor high school versions of this movie and a brave interpretation of the story by Michael Jackson. Because this story is so ingrained in our pop culture, there was a place for someone to come along and use that story to tell a fuller story. That is exactly what happened with Wicked.
In case you haven’t seen the play, which I highly recommend, let me give you a quick synopsis: Wicked is a more complete story of what is going on in Oz during the time of Dorothy. The movie is Dorothy’s story, and the play is the unfolding drama between the two witches, Galinda the Good Witch of the North and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. All by itself, Wicked is a compelling play with great characters and music; but what makes Wicked amazing is that it so incredibly clever.
Wicked tells the story by weaving in and out of The Wizard of Oz. Wicked‘s characters reference familiar people, places and scenes. It is as if you get to walk through Oz and occasionally cross the yellow brick road, just missing Dorothy and her entourage. During the entire play you have Ah, ha! moments as you put all the pieces together. I found it to be a great evening of fun and incredibly refreshing. As I was driving home, I realized how much more I would have enjoyed this play if I had rented The Wizard of Oz beforehand and re-familiarized myself with the original story. There was so much I missed, and if I weren’t so cheap I would have done that.
The day after I saw the production, I ran into one of the students I work with who saw Wicked several weeks before. We began to share our favorite parts, comments about the amazing music, the great characters, etc.; but as our conversation continued for a few more minutes, I realized she was not impressed at all with how clever the play was and how amazing the intertwining of the two stories was. The more I thought about it, I realized it is because The Wizard of Oz is not part of her cultural story. She might have seen the movie once or parts of it here and there, but without the cultural context, she missed the best component of the play.
Without The Wizard of Oz, Wicked still would be entertaining. However, Wicked is only clever and engaging because it has been built on a cultural phenomenon. Creative people love building on current cultural stories to create even more compelling stories. This pattern is true in the church, as well. We continually are exploring ways to communicate the gospel that are unique and compelling. Through thousands of years and millions of stories, Christians have been finding new ways to tell this story. For many, there is a deep culture that has had touch points with the gospel. There have been songs sung, books written and movies made that portray the gospel story with a fresh angle and fresh characters. Like the play Wicked, these characters and stories just cross in front of and behind the hero of the story along the yellow brick road. Stories as renowned as Les Miserables to recent films such as The Book of Eli have attempted similar things with the gospel. These stories are built on the expectation that our culture knows or is at least familiar with the original story. To fully enjoy and even be impacted by these stories, we need to know something about the Bible, about grace and forgiveness and about Jesus the Christ.
As I reflected on my conversation with my student about Wicked and the connection between the play and The Wizard of Oz, I realized that culturally we are losing—or already have lost our cultural connection to the gospel. Yes, there are many biblical, Christian, Jesus and/or spiritual references in our pop culture, but our ability to use context to connect all the dots and enhance the gospel—the gospel centered on the transforming grace offered to us by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is getting harder if not impossible. One of the implications of this transition is that we must connect the dots and retell a compelling gospel story.
Because we are transitioning into a post-Christian context, it might be time to re-examine the stories we tell and the manner in which we tell them. It is amazing that it has only been 10 years since conversations started about postmodern vs. modern worldviews. In that time, the church has moved into finding really clever and new ways of telling the gospel story, as well as made some amazing strides into applying this faith into missional living. Christians have been refreshed with a more holistic version of the gospel, a gospel that is more community-driven and must be applied in tangible and real ways in our world. Even though the church is being much more intentional in its theology and practice, worship and mission, it is this post-Christian context that continues to shift and move further away from any understanding of the original story.
One of the responses to this transition was the seeker church movement. Although the leaders in this movement correctly understood that our culture was moving away from a biblical worldview, the application only further separated this new church culture from the original gospel story. In an attempt to reach this drifting Christian culture, many churches moved away from themes of sin and punishment and transitioned to contemporary language highlighting contemporary themes. All this did was remove even further the themes and language to fully tell the gospel story. What the post-modern and emergent moments highlighted was that people did want some connection to the historical Christianity and a theology that actually impacted our world that was not so individually focused, but rather community- and world-minded: Christ’s heart for the entire world.
This movement helped remind the church that we need to define our terms. No longer should a preacher begin a sermon with, “We have all heard the story of the prodigal son, and many of us are prodigals…” Rather, “In Luke, the third book of the New Testament, there is a story about…” In the last decade, we have moved even further along to the point where words such as Luke and phrases such as New Testament no longer have any cultural connections. Because our context is becoming more and more post-Christian, the church needs to be that much more intentional about making the original gospel story clear and compelling.
Our culture doesn’t know God’s redemptive story as told through Scripture. This story is rooted in history with real people and real events, all pointing to a Messiah who came to usher in a new Kingdom. This Kingdom is to be centered around Jesus the Christ, a gospel that invites people to move from spiritual death and brokenness, to an eternal life, a healed life. This life is to be used for the glory of God in this life and the life to come. There has been plenty written regarding this new Kingdom, about the need for justice, about redeeming Creation. The assumption is that people can put the pieces together and have a fuller and deeper appreciation for the original gospel. What I am noticing is that they can’t.
I am not arguing that we should move away from themes of Kingdom, justice or redeeming creation in our theology or praxis. I am arguing that we use the thin spaces to tell a compelling story for God’s desire and our need for true and full salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Just like the seeker movement missed part of the story by assuming everyone knew the premise of the Bible, I don’t want our current movements only to paint a beautiful picture as we work toward justice. Even more than before, the church cannot be so subtle with the picture it is painting. We are made in the image of God and are longing to be healed from our brokenness. Our personal and cultural desire for healing and justice is because of this universal truth. Because of this universal truth, we can be bold in pointing out that it is through Jesus that we are healed and wrongs are made right.
This is what famous missionaries such as Hudson Taylor, did a century ago. In the mid 1800s Taylor went to China; being sensitive to the culture, he found these thin places. These are places where the needs of a particular culture have rubbed against solutions the gospel of Jesus offers. Taylor would use those thin places to point to Jesus. We need to take a closer look at the culture in which we live and really search for these thin places. The good news is the Holy Spirit already has been moving the church to these places, specifically in justice, poverty and peace issues. As we strive to be missional and work for justice, we can find places where our post-Christian context and the church can meet.
The step that’s missing is the point that tells the rest of the story. Our desire for missional living and justice go hand-and-hand with the character of God. We are motivated by our love for Jesus and a response for the complete salvation He offers us. This connection is getting trickier. Because our non-Christian neighbors have zero touch points for this language or the church, you and I must be even more intentional and purposeful in communicating. While missional living and justice are vital in and of themselves, if we never get back to Jesus, then we really have missed it. We must find a clear and compelling way to put this all together. We have to find a way to show Jesus is the Hero of the story again. We have moved so far away from a cultural understanding of who Jesus is that our post-Christian context—the buildings we work in, the schools where we volunteer, the non-profits we partner with—simply cannot understand what Jesus has done for all of creation. There was an important pendulum shift during the past decade. Like all transitions, there is a need to come back toward the center so the canvas is complete with the beautiful setting and with Jesus Christ front and center.
Without a clear understanding of the original gospel story, those Kingdom principles and works of compassion and justice just become elements of a nice story that has no real value—just as Wicked is a great play on its own merits; but what makes the play truly amazing is the original story of The Wizard of Oz. As our culture loses connection to the original gospel story, maybe it is time to revisit how we tell our story so the redemptive message becomes the center of our focus once again. As our hearts grow for people who are totally unconnected to the church and the Christian faith, we might need to do less with fancy illustrations and simply share the original story once again.
