If you know me well, you know that I am a huge fan of really bad comedy! I love slapstick humor, lame puns, British comedy and punch lines that make most people just groan and change the channel! The cult-classic mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, combines all of these elements, so of course, I love it! In it, the viewer follows the heavy metal band, Spinal Tap, as they go on tour and it mocks the inner workings of the rock and roll industry, the laughable self aggrandizement of celebrity, and the soap-opera-worthy story lines that take place behind the scenes of an industry that takes itself waaaaay too seriously!
One of my favorite parts comes when the band is brainstorming ideas for the stage design of their upcoming "Stonehenge" tour! Sitting at a restaurant and classically doodling ideas on a napkin, they devise an elaborate and impressive idea! An 18-foot tall replica of the enormous pillars of Stonehenge, gently lowered from the sky amid smoke, lights, screaming guitars, and dancing Druid dwarfs! It would be monumental! It would be impressive! It would be awe-inspiring!
Unfortunately, they made one tiny mistake. On their drawing, they jotted 18" rather than 18'. The addition of that one, minuscule tic mark, in the hands of the set designer, transformed their massive 18 foot high pillars into a Barbie-sized version of only 18 inches! The effect, as you can imagine, is a ridiculous, underwhelming, laughing-stock! As the lead singer prepares the audience to be mystified and awed, and as the smoke rises and the tension builds with rumbling cymbals....down drops the tiny monolith to the horror of the band members who are forced to continue playing as if nothing were unusual. The scene reaches it side-splitting climax as the elfin-clad dwarfs emerge and dance around the tiny prop! The juxtaposition between the elaborate concert with it's promise of an unforgettable climax, and the miniature reality is hysterical and ironic!
After the concert, the band is debriefing with their manager, analyzing why the band seemed to be "down" that night. Among the various critiques, Nigel (lead singer) sarcastically pipes in, "I, for one, do not think that the problem was that the 'band was down!' I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf! Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object!"
So. . . how do we apply Nigel's "wisdom" to ourselves? Unfortunately, we sometimes pull a mini-Stonehenge with our faith! We add to or take away a little something from the Truth and end up with a weak, watered-down God. For example, we can...
- Focus solely on the grace, love and forgiveness of God while conveniently ignoring the justice and wrath of God towards sin. This is dangerous, because we then fail to seriously address the sin in our lives because, "God is love and we are all sinners who are forgiven." Christ's sacrifice is diminished if we separate His justice from His grace. Yes, as believers, we are forgiven through the blood of Christ, but the result should be a changed life! Not a perfect life, but certainly changed!
- Look at God as a "Divine Watchmaker" who wound up the world and now just lets it run on its own without His intervention until He returns. This is a classic heresy in the church. This makes God small by denying his sovereignty in all things past, present and future! The Bible is clear that God is intimately involved in EVERYTHING, no matter how minute, and has a plan for everything we experience, even those things which are very difficult to understand.
- We can focus so heavily on God's wrath and judgement that we forget grace. The flip-side of #1, people who constantly wring their hands wondering if indeed they are saved, worrying whether or not they have been "good" enough to earn God's favor, make God small by saying, in essence, "The sacrifice of Jesus was not enough to atone for my sins!"
- We can focus on the blessings of God and not the God of blessing. When the primary reason for our faith becomes our desire to have our needs met (physical healing, release from some circumstance, deliverance from some oppression or injustice, inner peace, prosperity, etc.) then we have made God small indeed, reducing Him to a cosmic Santa Claus who exists, not for His own glory, but for bestowing gifts upon his good little children. In that case, God ends up serving His creation, not the other way around. We have placed ourselves on the throne. Yes, God loves to give good things to His children! But His ultimate purpose for everything He does is His own glory and to make us more like Christ!
These are just a few examples of ways in which we commonly err in our beliefs about God. God can not be made limited, ineffective, forgetful, indecicive, or weak. If we have relegated Him to any of these characteristics, it is we who have made a mistake, not God, and we must go back to Scripture for a clearer understanding! Otherwise, we have "understated the hugeness" of God and may find ourselves dancing and worshiping around a tiny, ridiculous fake!
(If you want to see the Stonehenge fiasco clip from the movie, here's the link! Be forewarned, however, that the "f" bomb is dropped at the beginning, but that's the only offensive portion. ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMVMHNG68m8&feature=fvsr
