So we are in Week 2 of the series BrainWashing and here’s why:  I really & truly believe that SO MANY of your problems today – relationship breaking, church hopping, temper losing, Jesus doubting, sexual dysfunctioning, political paranoia-ing – come first of all from faulty thinking. In the same way that smog dirties up the air, our brains have been dirtied up by cultural forces that we are only vaguely aware are operating, and once our brains are dirtied up in that way, we’re conditioned to look at the world through a certain kind of lens.  A particular grid.  And even if you love Jesus and are loyal to his church and you don’t know this is happening, believe me, it is.  In the age of the Screen and the Net, it’s happening more powerfully than ever before. It’s conventional wisdom.  It’s what smart people think.  It’s everybody knows that!  It’s seemingly harmless but ultimately lethal and your brain and my brain needs a thorough washing to look at the world in a healthier way, a different way, a more Godly way.  We started this series last week by learning together that when you realize the world killed God, you never trust its wisdom again and now it’s time to go all Patti LaBelle & get a new attitude. And what is the new attitude?  One in which, without the Lordship of Christ, don't make no sense. What do I mean? Ah.  Sunday.  8:30.  10.  11:30.  

Riley and I  spent a few days earlier this week in Austin, Texas, visiting my 99-year-old mother as well as an assortment of siblings, nieces, and nephews. I wanted my mom to see Riley in the aftermath of his graduation from UNC-Chapel Hill  AND I wanted to see her at the midpoint between her 99th and 100th birthdays. (I saw her last November for number 99 and of course my whole family will be back here this November for a blowout on her 100th.) What I didn't count on happening, though, was watching a National Championship happen. It turns out that the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships was held this week in Waco, Texas (no biker bar jokes, please) on the campus of Baylor University.  Waco is only 100 miles from Austin. I read in Tuesday's paper that the final match would be that day, and would feature two teams who have ascended to the upper echelon of college tennis only in the last decade or so:  Oklahoma University (OU) and the University of Virginia (UVA).  (Back when I played college tennis, a title match between those two would have been as likely as a BCS Football Championship between Wake Forest and Northwestern.  In the 80's it was always Stanford versus fill-in-the-blank.) There was an added attraction: one of the members of UVA's team, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, had taken tennis lessons alongside Riley when Riley was eight and Thai-Son was six.  In fact, I remember watching with amazement in those days as Kwiatkowski pummeled ball after ball against much older hitting partners at the Charlotte Tennis Academy. So I persuaded my older brother and sister to join me and Riley for the 100 mile trek from Austin to Waco, bought some bleacher seats, and watched the drama unfold. I noticed a few things have changed since I played college tennis in the 80s:

• No one serves-and-volleys.  No one.
• That's because everyone has great groundstrokes. Everyone.
• American-born players are the exception rather than the rule.  Which has made some folks in college tennis want to change the rules.
• Most players have two-handed backhands.  I was pleasantly surprised to see four one-handers among the twelve singles players.
• Teams and fans cheer a lot louder.  (Or maybe Princeton fans in the day were too sophisticated to cheer at all?)  Who would have ever thought you'd hear a BOOMER SOONER cheer at a tennis match?
• I sat next to the Dartmouth coach and struck up a conversation about Ivy League tennis, which apparently is better now than ever before.  I wanted to defend myself but kept quiet.  He was most impressed, however, when I introduced him to my sister with "and she beat Nancy Richey once."  (Nancy Richey was a top pro in the 60s and 70s, even winning both the Australian and French Opens.  But she didn't beat my sister Nancy!)
• Andy Roddick attends matches.  That's because his brother John is the coach of OU.  Andy sat four rows in front of us.  I didn't think it was an appropriate time to tell him of my man-crush on Roger Federer, who had a 21-3 advantage in their head-to-head.

After hundreds of serves, thousands of groundstrokes, and tens of volleys, UVA won, 4-1.  Actually, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won the next-to-last point for the Cavaliers, very calmly serving out the match in spite of the obvious tension in the stadium. As soon as UVA won the clinching point, the players and coaches stormed the court in frenzied, euphoric celebration. I realized it was the first time I've ever seen a national championship won, live and in person, as it happened. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in central Texas.    

I had a conversation not long ago with someone about what makes a song "Christian" . . . or not. You know how I have concluded many people answer that question, consciously or not? If it is released by a Christian music label and gets played on Christian music stations. That's really what it comes down to in many people's thinking.  And . . . that's what makes it appropriate to sing in church. So: if you hear it on K-Love 91.9  (and can we acknowledge that the relative lack of banter make that a better station than its predecessor, New Life?) and if it was released by Hillsong, Maranatha, or Sparrow, you're good.  It's a Christian song and you're OK to use it on Sunday either as a "congregational" or "special." On the other hand, if a song is released by a mainstream artist on a popular label, it's not appropriate . . . even if the lyrics reflect Gospel themes or Gospel hope. That kind of distinction -- rarely articulated in such stark terms, but lived out nonetheless -- brings up a real conundrum. I call it The Michael English Effect.   Who is he?  In the days of Contemporary Christian Music explosive growth in the early 1990s, he was the man.  In fact, he won four Dove Awards -- CCM's version of the Grammys -- in 1994. And one week later -- literally -- it came out that he and a woman in a supporting band were pregnant.  And both were married to other people at the time. So: were Michael English's Dove Award winning songs Christian?  Any more or any less than U2's Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, or Magnificent?  Did English's place on the 91.9 rotation make his songs worthy of church attention and U2's play on 95.7 The Ride disqualify it? Or even closer to home:  so many of us had our faith strengthened by Ray Boltz's Thank You, I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb, and even Watch The Lamb.  Except many would be surprised to know that Boltz is no longer married to his wife of 30 years and has a male partner.  So are those songs still appropriate for church? I cite all those examples as the foundation for a simple plea:  don't be so quick to separate the spiritual from the secular, especially in music. As Methodists, we believe in prevenient grace -- that God is at work in people who aren't necessarily looking for him.  That's why I believe he can inspire Gospel-honoring art to come out of people who don't yet believe the Gospel.  What song, for example, could move us toward the forgiving spirit at the heart of the Gospel more than Don Henley's The Heart Of the Matter -- and yet Henley would be loathe to call himself a Christian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xezg3z5IE8I That might not be played on K-Love 91.9.  But it should be.    

It's not the top five Steve Winwood songs. It's the top five songs in which he sings. Because whether it was the front man (boy, really) for The Spencer Davis Band, the lead singer for Traffic, or his solo career, Steve Winwood's voice could carry a song.  Let me show you what I mean: 5.  The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys by Traffic.  Set a spell because it casts one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEZH0t5Yozw 4.  Back In The High Life Again  by Steve Winwood.  The title song from his 1986 classic, this song almost made me want to drink. And dance. At the same time.  If you know me, you know how unlikely either of those scenarios are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xss7xy9pAa4 3.  If You See A Chance by Steve Winwood.  This song has a luscious texture, courtesy of 1981 and its synthesizer sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6g_uUhH2c 2.  Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Band.  Julie and I saw Winwood in concert in 1986 in Philadelphia and this was his encore.  It was so good . . . it might have danced a little.  PS - You must watch the video . . . Winwood looks like he's about 15.  Which he was.  PPS -- This is the second best song ever with Gimme as the first word in the title.  If you don't know what #1 is, I feel kind of sorry for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxA3atHD2QM   1.  Higher Love by Steve Winwood.  The best song on the '86 High Life album.  When the Good Shepherd Choir sang this during our Love Song series it fulfilled a 20 year dream.  The sermon's bottom line that day was Staying in love means sharing a love for the Highest love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwuHtbcvTh8  

My only regret with BrainWashing is that I didn't do it about five years ago. But one day last year I had a brief Facebook post on something along the lines of the sermon below and Chris Macedo told me, "We really need you to tell us stuff like that." So I did.  So I will.  For the next six weeks. Here's week one, a message with a bottom line inspired by I Corinthians 2:8:  When you realize the world killed God, you'll never trust its wisdom again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in the 90s, a story came out about a woman from China named Zhang Meihua who when she turned 20 started suffering all kinds of mysterious ailments.  First she lost the ability to move her arms & legs with any agility. Then she began to suffer chronic, debilitating headaches.  Ultimately, she began to lose the use of those arms and legs altogether.  Poor Zhang had to endure those symptoms for 20 years and a slew of doctors before the medical technology caught up and she was at last able to have a CAT scan.  You know what the scan discovered?              That she had a rusty pin – not a nail, not a pen, but a straigh, lodged in her head.  The head of the pin was on the outside of her skull and the shaft had penetrated into her brain.  After the discovery, the doctors were able to remove the pin surgically and VOILA! all those horrific symptoms vanished.  What’s interesting is that Zhang had no memory of having a pin stuck into her head; doctors speculated that it had entered her skull soon after birth and her skull had hardened around it.  She needed – and received – the ultimate brainwashing for lifelong brain damage.             And so I want to spend a few moments today – a prelude to several weeks, really – looking at the ways in which Zhang Meihua  is not alone. S he’s not the only one to have her brain invade and infected and influenced by forces she couldn’t name and can’t remember – but forces that had been negatively impacting her brain and her thinking from her earliest days.  Nope, not just Zhang and not just a rusty pin.  Zhang is joined by most of us and like her, we don’t even realize when our brain is being assaulted and soiled.    And the rusty pin that has infected your brain is behind so much of what beguiles you – those relationships you can’t figure out, the money issues that never get resolved, the sexual hangups you have, the desire you have to be famous, to the point you’d prefer infamy to anonymity, oreven the embarrassment you feel in some professional or academic settings when it comes out that you are a Xn.  You either hide from it or very quickly qualify it with, “I’m not THAT kind . . . “              And I’m getting all this from I Cor 2, sort of our home base for the BrainWashing series.  Here’s what’s going on: Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, and that church is a mess.  They are a mess because some self-styled elites were stirring up all kinds of dissension, claiming super-secret knowledge that no one else had.  And they’d get asked, “well what IS this super secret knowledge?”  They’d answer, “I can’t tell you.”  “Why not?” “Cuz then you’d know & it wouldn’t be secret!”  These same self-anointed elites held that their secret knowledge allowed them to engage in and encourage all kinds of sexual immorality as well.  And this is the A-Team of the Corinthian church!  So with that backdrop, and with the Corinthians church torn apart by a Christian Caste system based on secret wisdom, look at what Paul does in 2:6-7a: ⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom   READ.  Oh, so he sets up this supreme contrast (VISUAL DISPLAY?) between God’s wisdom and the wisdom of the rulers of this age (which probably includes the Corinthian Brahmins).  And in Paul’s day, the wisdom of “the age” would also include the Roman government, the Greek poets, the Olympic athletes.  In our day, you could easily say it is ABC, CBS, Disney, ESPN, The Academy, the Deans of Harvard,Yale,Princeton, the DNC, the RNC, and hell, maybe even Run-DMC.              It’s the wisdom, the perspective, the “all the smart people think this way” mindset.  These are the governing classes, the ruling class, the chattering class, dare I say it . . . it’s the right side of history.  That’s who Paul is talking about there.  And then look where he goes in 2:7: ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  No – IN CONTRAST, in other words, we DECLARE.  We don’t apologize for, we don’t minimize, we don’t hide behind, but we believe and proclaim with confidence that Conventional Wisdom is actually the epitome of foolishness.  And then, in a brilliant maneuver, Paul brings it home in 2:8 with all the subtlety of a lightning strike: ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  Whoa.  Do you see what that is saying?  Look closely.  It’s saying that the world’s wisdom, the right side of history . . . look at how it responded to God’s visit to earth: they crucified the king of glory  The glory of God in Jesus was so blindingly bright that the best and the brightest had to put it out.  God – the one who gave us brains to think in the first place – visits his planet and the people there respond to his visit with murderous rage.  Sit with that: the world – its values, priorities, and mindset – killed God when he dropped in for a visit.  The wisdom of the world responded to the visit of God with murder. The world’s wisdom killed God.  Killed God.  I read that in v. 8 while in India and the implications of it completely bowled me over.             Because here’s how it connects with you, with me, and with the BrainWashing series:  When you realize the world killed God, you’ll never trust its wisdom again.  When you wrap your mind around the fact that the best and the brightest of the world’s thinking answered the doorbell of God’s visit with a shotgun blast to the head . . . then you’ll never trust its wisdom again.  And that’s so vital to know and to embrace because so much of the world’s wisdom seems not only to be wise . . . but to be loving as well.             Just think about what is accepted these days as what all the smart people think now:  Tolerance is the greatest virtue of all.  In fact, the other thing we can’t tolerate is intolerance.              It’s love that makes a family.              Appearance is the same as success.             The USA is above reproach in its foreign policy.             The USA is the locus of evil in its foreign policy.             You’ve earned your money.  Do with it what you want.             It doesn’t matter WHAT you believe, so long as you believe something.             As long as it’s consenting adults, God’s too busy to care what happens in the bedroom.             If it feels natural to you, it must therefore be good for you.             Living together is the best practice for marriage.             I can read my future by studying the stars.             Mankind is inherently good and if just given the right economic opportunity, he will make wise choices.             ALL THAT IS THE WISDOM THAT KILLED GOD!  It is!  Now: I am not a prude, I watch TV, I still listen to Led Zeppelin, I don’t hate the world, I’m not telling you how to vote (actually, I love making both Dems & Repubs uncomfortable!), BUT I have learned to listen to the world pontificate through the lens of biblical wisdom.  And biblical wisdom, unlike the “wisdom of the age” is upside down, backwards, odd.  It includes, as a friend of mine said, the “passionate ranks of the sexually restrained.”  Love that.  No one believes that anymore.  Except that odd group of ppl known as Xns.             Anytime you run across a world view, a way of looking at things that even though it seems nice has actually disregarded or moved beyond Scripture: remember: that’s the wisdom that was so offended that God dared to visit us that it killed him when he did so.  When you realize the world killed God, you’ll never trust its wisdom again.             And why is that?  Because minds that are not reconciled to God through Christ will naturally think in ways are not redeemed.  Those minds – again, heading up ad agencies, movie studios, and major universities – will think in ways that are seductive, alluring, sensible, and ultimately lethal.  In many circles of the church (though UMCs don’t talk like this much), this is called a worldview.  And as I developed this series and thought about this message I asked myself, “why have I waited so long to give messages like these?  Because the people of GS have fallen prey to the world’s wisdom on so many levels!  From the hyper-patriotic to the needlessly cynical.  From the sexually permissive to the financially stringent.  From the worship of celebrity to the desire for anonymity.  Even some people who have become so open minded that brains have fallen out.”  Well, even though I’ve waited too long I am so glad to be able to declare to you today as Paul did to the Corinthians so long ago: When you realize the world killed God, you’ll never trust its wisdom again.             I love 2:7 and 2:9 as well.  Both of those verses highlight just how ancient & unchanging God’s truth is. We need that.  In a world in which newer is better, in which products are designed to be obsolete in a matter of months, in which we think no one ever before has been as smart as we are, oh we need to reconnect with what is really, really, really old.  Listen: I’d much rather excavate ancient truth with you on Sunday mornings than invent new ones.  Being on the right side of history doesn’t concern me nearly as much as being on the right side of God!  Oh, I am so glad to acknowledge that I am not smarter than those who wrote the bible.  When you realize the world killed God, you’ll never trust its wisdom again.             So: what?  What is this a call to?  See, I want you to know that this truth –When you realize the world killed God, you’ll never trust its wisdom again – is not some esoteric teaching that’s disconnected from your life and your relationships.  Nope. It’s in the middle of them.  Because my great prayer is that as you grow in your suspicion of the world’s wisdom you will grow in appreciation of God’s.  And when you grow in appreciation of God’s wisdom, as you are saturated in it, you will think as God thinks and act as God acts – and in so doing you will protect yourself from some of life’s great landmines.  You’ll join the ranks of the sexually restrained.  You’ll embrace the truth that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and that includes the first fruits of your money.  You’ll understand that the greatest among you is NOT on The Bachelorette but is servant of all.  You’ll know that the first will be last and the last – the people most of the world overlooks – are in fact first.  You’ll be delighted that you know the truth and the truth as made you odd.  I love 2:10: The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.   It’s why we talk about moving to maturity here at GS.              Because I’ve learned that wisdom of the world people can turn out weird.  That those who killed God can themselves be resurrected.  I remember as a senior in high school, a new Xn and understanding that meant that I’d wait until marriage for sex, that I was sitting in the cafeteria for lunch one day.  And as is typical among high school boys – gosh, males in general – sex came up.  As did my abstinence.  And I remember a guy standing behind me – a kid I’d known since 3^rd grade – say with this sneer in his voice, “You just sit there and BE a virgin, Talbot.”  As if it was the worst insult he could ever hurl at me.  And God was so good – even though I was a new Xn, I was just odd enough to know that was a great thing to be insulted for.             But anyway, now that we are, um, not 18 anymore, you know who emails me all the time now. That same “kid” – now 53. And you know what he routinely sends me?  These updates from a ministry whose purpose is influencing American culture with the odd truths of the Gospel. IOW, infecting the world with the Christian worldview.  I don’t know exactly how or when my friend changed – but I think it had something to do with a journey to sobriety – I just know he did.  You know what happened?  He got that rusty pin pulled out of his head.  He got the ultimate brain washing.  Won’t you?   Then, during the closing song, we handed out this "Shower Swag" to any who wanted their brains washed: