Tim Keller's 9/11 Speech

http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary/2006/09/tim_keller_911_.html

Moralism in Conservative Churches

Why has this stuff from Keller struck me as being so new? For a CRC kid much of this stuff is old hat. Why am I finding it refreshing and insightful? Let me take a crack at the issue of moralism and the faithless ways that conservative churches have "done business."

Churches that preach grace are often hooked on moralism. Why do we live by moralism when we preach grace? I think it is because we think we can trust God to save our souls from hell by grace, but we can’t trust God to save this world through grace. When it comes to operating in the world we all default back to "works" and how "works"operates. Now a part of that is understandable if you see some of how Keller uses Edwards on common virtue and true virtue. Common virtue is part of common grace and it is a "works" way of restraining evil in this world. Pride, fear, guilt, greed all are employed to keep things from being as bad here as they might. What happens, however, when we employ these things in the church as tools for trying to build the church and advance God’s kingdom? Believing in grace at church means NOT appealing to fear, pride, or greed in the church in order to achieve short term compliance and morality. THAT is something we don’t hear much about. Churches are experts and building institutions and ministries by feeding the sin underneath the sin. In many ways churches out of lack of faith (because it requires faith to believe that grace and gratitude will do it’s work) charge forward attempting to achieve good things by works not motivated or energized by gratitude or joy but out of guilt, fear and pride. Moralistic ministry majors in this and churches have majored in moralism. Moralism itself is a subtle way short-cutting the gospel and a stealth way of idolatrous self-salvation. "If we can’t be good at least we can look good because it is too scary to really admit how faithless we really are."

Keller on Gospel vs. Religion

A good illustration of what Keller means by "religion" is Earl Hickey in the TV sitcom "My Name is Earl". Earl presents a very practical reduction of the notion of karma: "Do good things, good things happen. Do bad things, bad things happen." Earl came to this conclusion after facing the face that his life "sucked" (in his words) and he came to the understanding that if he wanted better things for his life he needed to straighten up his act. As he is recuperating in the hospital bed after losing a winning lottery ticket getting hit by a car he starts a list of all the bad things he’s done. "I’m just trying to be a better person."

I first used Earl as a works-righteousness illustration when I was preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism. The response from some in the congregation was surprising and enlightening for me. A number of people thought that I was being rough on Earl. Earl is the hero of the show and many articulated that Earl’s ambitions were good and right. Who could criticize someone just trying to be a better person? The show is about Earl’s attempts at reformation. He’s stopped stealing, cut down on his lying, he goes out of his way to do helpful things for others. Many see Earl as a positive role model. "If more people could be like Earl Hickey then the world would be a better place..." This is precisely why he’s such a perfect illustration of what Keller says is the difference between "religion" and "gospel". Religion says, "if I do good things, good things will happen to me/for me." In fact if you watch the show long enough you’ll see that for Earl Hickey karma really isn’t very much like karma in the sense of Eastern religions, karma really is God. Earl talks to karma, has a sort of relationship with karma. It is really a good personalization of Christian Smith’s moralistic, therapeutic deism.

Tim Keller Themes and Insights

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This page will be a work in progress for a while. I've been repeatedly listening to the links to the MP3s on the Monergism website page on Keller: There are themes and insights that Keller returns to again and again at least within this sample that I think are important and helpful. This grouping of MP3s mostly deal with the vision of Redeemer Pres.

As I'm writing these things I'm seeing that I'm writing what I'm learning. (See the main Tim Keller page for that.) Not all of the ideas in these piece's are Keller's so I don't want to give anyone the impression that he said something or means something he didn't. They are my ideas some very dependent upon Keller and some of what I'm working on. Also the Keller "anthology" I'm working from here is limited to the MP3s freely available on the web and some of the stuff I learned when I was in NYC visiting Redeemer. Both of these statements are disclaimers to not hold Keller responsible for anything I might say about him. What he has on record in the public sphere is on record.

I also decided to make these things separate posts on the blog. I realize that it isn't as convenient for seeing just one page on Keller, but it makes it easier for me to manage and to avoid just one long page.

• Gospel vs. Religion:
• Moralism in Conservative Christianity
• Identity
• Understanding Identity through Genesis 16: Sarah and Hagar
• Kingdom and city
• Changing hearts, preaching to the heart, motivational structure of the heart

9/11 Meditation

Eugene Peterson in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places says the following:

"A major difficulty in embracing history as the field for salvation (some find it insurmountable) is the sheer mass of relentless and assertive counter-evidence. The loudest and most conspicuous players on the field of history are playing quite a different game than Christ is.... Many if not all of these games are associated with outright claims or implicit assumptions that the games will lift the lives of those who play them out of the ordinary into something more interesting, more exciting, more meaningful: banish boredom; invite excellence; offer company with the elite; establish power." p. 160