09.22.06


Dr. Leonard Sweet

'Perfect storm' offers challenge to Christians, speaker says

Professor and prolific author Dr. Leonard Sweet spoke to students about Christianity's "perfect storm" Thursday as part of the Erskine Lectures sponsored by Erskine Theological Seminary.

"I think Christianity is now entering its first perfect storm," Sweet said. "And Christianity has withstood some massive storms."

Sweet prefaced his remarks by reading from the prophet Jeremiah, in which God responds to Jeremiah's complaint with the challenge, "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?"

"Cheer up, it's going to get worse," Sweet said. "A perfect storm is created when you have weather patterns coming together."

Sweet characterized the problems of post-modernity as a tsunami and the difficulties of a post-Christendom society as a hurricane. He also cited what he calls "post-scale" as a kind of global warming. All these converge in the "perfect storm."

To explain what he means by "post-scale," Sweet spoke of a hunter armed with a club whose prey is a wooly mammoth. If someone offers the hunter a bow and arrow, he can move up the scale — this improves his chances of felling the animal. If he exchanges the bow and arrow for a rifle, he is in an even better position. But if he moves on to a bazooka, he will "lose part of his steak," and if he uses an atom bomb, he loses everything.

"Upscale doesn't come from scaling up," he said. "We've all passed a threshold."

To weather the storm, Sweet advised, "Launch out into the deep — don't hug the harbor." Churches should be going deeper, not shallower, and would be wise to adopt the adage of the coast guard: "We have to go out, we don't have to come back."

Second, he said, once you're out in the water, "Steer into the storm." Sweet said his research assistant, who lives in Colorado, offered him an analogy from "cowboy culture." The cows, she said, try to outrun the storm, but buffalo just put their heads down and move into it. So it is better to be a "buffalo believer" than a "cow Christian."

Third, "Get rid of all that excess cargo," Sweet said. "You're weighted down with all that cargo — you've got to get rid of it."

Fourth, Sweet said, Christians in the perfect storm should "lash ourselves to the mast of the Master." This is the time to draw closer to Christ. "Cling to that cross," he said. "Soak up scripture."

Fifth, "Enjoy the ride of your life," Sweet said.

"My favorite storm story in the Bible is in Mark 4," he said. In Mark's account, Jesus falls asleep in the boat, and then a storm arises. While it is true that Jesus calms the storm, showing control over the natural elements, his question to the terrified disciples who have awakened him is, "Why are you so fearful? Why do you have so little faith?"

Sweet said he imagined that if the disciples had not awakened Jesus, they might have had a great ride that day. When Jesus questions them about their faith, it is as if he is saying, "You're in the boat with me — what can happen to you?"

"Jesus won't always calm the storm, but he'll calm you in the midst of the storm," Sweet said. "In the perfect storm, he'll give you the perfect peace that passes understanding."

In Christianity's perfect storm, Christians have the opportunity to follow Christ. "Jesus is always ahead of us, inviting us to join him in the future that's being born," Sweet said.

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