I don’t know about you, but one of the things that I find very annoying at times is the way Christians are usually portrayed, although I think caricatured might be a better word for it, on TV. By that, I don’t mean the way they’re shown in reality shows, those which show the real lives of clergy, for example, I mean the way Christians are portrayed in other kinds of programmes. In an article in the Church Times in December 2020, an ex-bishop of Lincoln expressed the opinion that clergy and Christians in general were portrayed on TV in ways that range from risible to downright offensive. And I think he was quite right in his opinion.
Before I go any further, I must say that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with comedy programmes like Father Ted and The Vicar of Dibley. They show clergy, and Christians, in a risible way for comedic effect in that they exaggerate reality in order to make it funny. And I think it’s very important that we do have that ability to laugh at ourselves. We should take what we do as Christians very seriously, but we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously because if we do, nobody else will and then we’ll become risible in another, less attractive sense; we’ll become objects of derision, of contempt, ridicule and mockery because we’ll become real life exaggerated caricatures of what we should be. And then we won’t be in the least bit funny.
I think TV programmes can be, and often are offensive in their portrayal of clergy and Christians, because they do show us as these humourless caricatures of what we really are, and so they make us, and our faith too actually, risible in that derisory sense. Just think of how Christians are often portrayed in soap operas for example. How many clergy in soaps are shown as people of deplorable morals? As people who can’t wait to jump into bed with the first attractive person they meet, and whether that person is married or not makes no difference whatsoever? As people who are drug addicts? As users and abusers of the vulnerable? And isn’t it true that Christians in general are invariable portrayed as people who sit somewhere along a scale that ranges from silly, annoying and trouble causing, interfering busy bodies to mentally unstable, sometimes violent, religious fanatics?
Sadly, we know that some clergy, and some Christians are like this and do these things. But only a very few. TV, however, gives the impression that, if not all, then at least the majority of clergy and Christians are like this and do these things. And this is downright, and deeply, offensive if we care about our faith. Some people, I’m sure, might think, So what, what difference does it make? It’s only soap land, it’s not real. We exaggerate things to make them funny in comedy programmes, what’s wrong with exaggerating them in soaps to make interesting story lines? But to think like that is to fail to see the damage this does to the Christian faith and the problems it causes us in trying to live out our faith and proclaim the Gospel.
One problem is that this incessant false and offensive portrayal of Christians and their faith on TV gives people a very negative impression of Christians and their faith. It reinforces the idea in an already sceptical population that Christians are all either hypocrites or religious lunatics who can’t be trusted. It gives the impression that the Christian faith is something that can’t be taken seriously because those who profess it and proclaim it don’t take it seriously. It gives people the impression that Christians and their faith are, at best, a pain in the neck because they, and it, wants to interfere in their lives, or at worst, something that’s dangerous because it leads people into extremism and potentially violent behaviour.
Another problem this negative portrayal of Christians and their faith on TV causes is that it makes it much harder for us to do what we’re called to do as Christians. As we know, we’re called to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Part of doing that means getting involved in other people’s troubles and problems so that we can help them. Of course we can do that in an impersonal way through supporting things like Food Banks and charities, but if we’re going to help people in a more personal way, we have to get personally involved, to some extent at least, with the people we’re trying to help. But if people think that Christians are interfering busy bodies, if they think that we’re religious nut cases, they might not want or accept our help. I have actually heard people say that they don’t mind help or a visit from Church people as long as they don’t start ‘Bible-bashing’ or trying to convert them or trying to interfere in their lives. I’ve heard people say that they don’t want help from the Church because all they’re interested in is how much they can get out of you in return. In other words, those people believe that the Church is happy to help, but it wants a pledge of money in return for its help.
Those things do happen from time to time, but not as often as people think they do. As Christians we’re called to love people without asking or even expecting anything in return. Our reward for what we do comes from the Lord, and we get that reward simply for loving our neighbour. But, when we’re faced with objections like this, we’re not always able to show that love; our neighbour doesn’t want our love because they think there will be a price to pay for it. But also, when we have to face this kind of opposition to simply trying to help someone, when our offers of help are rejected, it’s quite possible that we’ll become more reluctant to offer help in the first place. For one thing, rejection can hurt, but also it’s because we don’t want to be seen as interfering busy bodies, let alone Bible-bashing nut cases.
But if we can be reluctant to help people because we don’t want to be seen as interfering in other people’s lives, how much more reluctant are we to do something that is quite clearly interfering in other people’s affairs and yet we are equally clearly called to do, and that is to point out wrongdoing?
Our readings today quite clearly tell us that, if someone is doing something wrong, we should speak up about it and urge them to change their ways. And this too, is part of loving our neighbour. As Jesus says, if we can convince someone that they’re doing, or have done, something wrong, and we can get them to change their ways, we’ve ‘won’ them back. In other words, we’ve helped them by saving them from any punishment due to them on account of their sins. But there’s more to it than simply that. If we can convince someone to change their ways and desist from whatever it was they were doing wrong, we’ve also helped the victims of their wrongdoing. So in speaking up and trying to stop wrong, we’re loving both the perpetrators and the victims of whatever wrong was going on. But we’re not only loving and helping the perpetrators and victims of wrongdoing when we speak up and try to stop it, it’s for our own benefit too that we do this.
In this morning’s reading from the prophet Ezekiel, we read;
“If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin, but you yourself will have saved your life.”
Here, it’s God speaking to the prophet, but in this morning’s Gospel, doesn’t Jesus extend this responsibility to try and correct the wicked to us? And the meaning of this is quite clear; if we see wrongdoing and do and say nothing about it, we’re just as guilty in God’s eyes as those who have committed the act. If, on the other hand, we speak up against wrongdoing, whether the perpetrators listen to us or not, we’re absolved of responsibility and guilt.
It’s said isn’t it, that the trouble in the world isn’t the evil that people do, but the good they don’t do and that for evil people to succeed requires only that good people do nothing to stop them. As Christians, we’re called to do good, and we’re called to try and stop evil whenever and wherever we see it. The problem is that we can be prevented from doing these things, one by the very people we’re trying to do good to and for, and because people can, and sometimes do, see us as the evil ones. In part that’s due to the few Christians who aren’t good and who have done evil, but it’s also due to the negative view so many people today have of Christians and their faith. And, again in part, that’s due to the risible and downright offensive way Christians and their faith are so often caricatured in popular TV programmes.
This negative view people have of us can make it hard for us to love our neighbour as ourselves, as we’re called to. Our help can be rejected because of it. We might be reluctant to help because we don’t want to be seen as interfering busy bodies. If we speak up against wrongdoing, we’re probably going to be accused of hypocrisy. And that can be very hurtful if we’re simply being tarred with the same brush as those few Christians who have themselves committed evil. And that might make us reluctant to speak out as we’re called to do. There’s also perhaps more than a touch of self-preservation in not speaking up against wrongdoing. More than once, for example, I’ve seen people try to break up a fight only to be the first one laid out by a punch on the jaw for interfering. Or was if for simply trying to do their Christian duty and stop something wrong from happening?
For all these reasons, it can be hard for us to love our neighbour as ourselves in practical ways, but we still have to try. When we find ourselves in situations like those I’ve described, we should ask ourselves whether it’s better to run the risk of being thought of as an interfering busy body, or of being thought of as uncaring? Are we prepared to proclaim the Gospel, even at the risk of being thought of as a ‘Bible-basher’? Are we prepared to let wrongdoing and evil go unchallenged because we’d rather risk our immortal souls than risk getting involved in something unsavoury by interfering in human affairs? If we take what we do as Christians as seriously as we should, if we’re not simply caricatures of what we should be as Christians, we can only answer those questions in one way and then do what our faith and our Lord calls us to do.
Amen.
Propers for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity 14) 10th September 2023
Entrance Antiphon
Lord, you are just, and the judgements you make are right.
Show mercy when you judge me, your servant.
The Collect
Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)
Ezekiel 33:7-9
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Romans 13:8-10
Matthew 18:15-20
RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 