February 6, 2022: 2 Timothy 4

4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Stephen Colbert is not someone I watch. There are many reasons, perhaps most importantly I find him to be a strident partisan who does not make me laugh. If a person claims to be a comedian, but only takes shots at one side politically, I do not enjoy their comedy.

Stephen is in my newsfeed a good deal because he was asked by Dua Lipa about the intersection between his faith and his comedy, and which “wins out”.

Now I do want to point out charitably, that he was not asked, “Stephen what is the path to salvation?” This whole thing reminds me of the Christmas special I saw more than 20 years ago, where Amy Grant said the most meaningful Christmas tradition she could share was burning their Christmas tree…Huh?!? The Jewish singer interviewed on the nationwide TV special gave a more Christian answer.

Tim Keller inserted himself by praising Colbert effusively, and when he was criticized for doing so, he said Colbert is “contextualizing the Gospel”.

I have now watched the clip. Nope.

Several prominent friends have weighed in to defend Keller. They are also wrong.

The reason they are wrong is seen above. Timothy is promised suffering for faithfulness.

“Choose kindness over humor” is an exhortation we give to one of our children in particular. I deeply understand his impulse to make people laugh, because we share it. I have been the lead singer in a band, soaking up praise afterward, I have had people speak in praise after a sermon in ways that stroked my ego instead of glorifying God, I have even given political speeches that brought some positive attention, but nothing compares to comedy in feeding the flesh. When you can make a group of people stop what they are doing and laugh and laugh and lean in to pay attention and find what you are saying and how you are saying it hilarious, it directly feeds your ego.

Now Christians can be comedians, and I enjoy some of them a great deal, but you see the space dominated by people who desire audience approval more than anything in this life. They were almost always a bit of an outsider who unlocked laughter as the way to make people like them.

So what does Colbert have in common with Keller? Aside from being extremely intelligent, they both desperately desire to be liked. They also both desperately want to be liked in NYC. They share this in common with Donald Trump, although I suspect both would bristle at that comparison.

Now am I saying Keller never speaks the truth in a way that offends? No, he certainly has had some pushback. Yet take some time and read the comments to Colbert here.

Comment after comment is from someone who hates religion, hates the authority of Scripture, loves Colbert and loves laughter. The Gospel is not “laughs win” and in his discussion of sadness and laughter he points to Irishness, not a cross and an empty tomb.

Christian celebrities have a deeply treacherous road ahead of them. The desire to be liked is overwhelming. It is also not an option for those who are faithful in following the One whose perfect life sent Him to Calvary.

The Gospel offends, because we are to tell people we are not our own, we were bought at a price. A true presentation of the Gospel will lead to persecution again and again. The reason so few American Christians experience it is because so few American Christians obey the command of the Great Commission to go and make disciples. A missionary once said “in other countries Christians fear the raised fist, but in America they fear the raised eyebrow”.