Modern secular society has a fetish over youth. Which is a way of saying that the preceding generation has lost self-respect. There are few things more shameful than witnessing disrespect for elders. One of them is elders taken in self-loathing who attempt to cope by falling into an egregious adulation of youth. "We, in our generation, have failed miserably. We have been terrible. But the youth of today--well, to them belongs the future. They are wonderful." The adulation of youth serves as a pathetic attempt at atonement for the guilt of a generation which rebelled against God, but discovered when it was all too late that things had not worked out so well.
Jonah Goldberg describes it this way:
For generations now, but particularly since the rise of the baby boomers, we have institutionalized the idea that young people are simply fantastic for no other reason than that they are young. It has become part of our formal educational philosophy to tell kids they are awesome for no apparent reason. [Jonah Goldberg, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (New York: Sentinel/Penguin, 2012), p. 223.]The end result? A generation of self-absorbed narcissists, unable to get jobs, embittered that the adulation enjoyed as a young person has not continued into adult life. The upshot: a persistent conviction that society owes them something. But recall that it all begins with the generation that went before, which has gnawed at its own bones with self-doubt and self-hatred.
The Christian world-view commands respect for one's elders (Exodus 20:12), particularly our fathers and mothers. It warns against the lusts and follies of youth. It requires that young people be willing to learn the wisdom which the aged offer.
But all of this breaks down when the aged are actually fools, living a life of stubborn rebellion against God. Sins pass down through generations, as well as righteousness. Evil patterns reproduce in the lives of those who come after. Sins, we are told, come down to the third and the fourth generation--a divine pattern which can be broken only by the mercy of God Himself.
This implies that by the third and the fourth generations, things have become so dysfunctional that kids suffering under the ravages of living in alcoholic, drug infused, violent "homes" reach the point where they begin to think there has to be a better way to live. Sin and its promises become loathsome. At that point their ears can become open to hear--and take seriously--the offer of new beginnings, of new life in Christ. When such are converted they usually reject outright the only way of life they have known--along with its all-too-familiar devastations and degradations.
It is at this point that the designation of the Church as a family (brothers, sisters, elders, mothers, fathers) becomes one of the most blessed realities of the new life, created by God's Spirit within. Overnight they become adopted into a new family with an older generation which manifests the sanctification and graces of true wisdom and understanding. As they start to build new lives, the cyclical curse of elders passing on a life of sinfulness, self-loathing, and restless anger to those coming after is broken. It is removed. Amazing Grace ceases to be "just a hymn"; it becomes an actual experience.
Only the Christ is big enough and powerful enough to do this. When He does, it is one of the most beautiful things to behold, far beyond any passing glories of this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment