Shiny Happy People at Bingham Park

William Bode

Tuesday, August 27, 2013 Shiny Happy People 2 Corinthians 3:3-18 NLT Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever! Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. --------------- The REM song Shiny Happy People is meant to be an ironic take on Chinese propaganda following Tiananmen Square uprising. The uprising happened when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them. The government attempted to tell the world and maybe it's own people that it was not a repressive and cruel regime with posters declaring the Chinese are shiny happy people. But possibly it was true that China was indeed peopled with 'shiny happy people.' The irony is that although we in the West have freedom and democracy we are not shiny or happy. We are some of the most depressed, cynical, malcontented dependants bent on pessimism inhabiting the planet. Now the biting irony comes when you look at the church in the West. They genuinely have every reason to be shiny happy people. If you read the passage above from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and know a little bit about your Bible, you'd recognise that people following Jesus should shine more than Moses did after being in the very physical presence of God. One of the ironies is that in the hotbed of communist persecution it is reported that the church in China has grown from 14 million official followers of Jesus to 70 million in unofficial underground house churches. Possibly the real Shiny Happy People are the Chinese after all, for in the face of great difficult they had sought freedom within by letting the Spirit of God set them free. Unfortunately, the oppression of the past had not been the enemy of faith as much as the economic freedom of the current China. For whether you are in the East or the West the real oppressive force is not the government. What dulls the soul is rather the greed and materialism that lulls the soul into falsely thinking they are free. For it is not religion that is the opium of the people. It is unbridled power and unchecked greed. It is true violence to continue ignoring poverty, to look the other way while we are amusing ourselves with films like the Hunger Games when in fact we are as those entertained by the wars of this world. We are even entertained by watch the news and seeing the man in front of the tank. Because it makes us feel superior! Karl Marx was quoting a much older similar saying when he said, "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". But he didn't say this because of real Christianity or the real Jesus. He saw all to often the leaders of privilege and money, who are equally found in churches and governments both oppressive and democratic, telling the people to fall in line and quietly look the other way when they see the poor. They don't want us to be like the rebel lowlife upstart, the good Samaritan. The platform plank of the capitalist and the communist alike is to deny the fallen, hurting and damaged. Both show by their lies and denials that their ideologies don't have room for the needy. This is a façade of fake shiny happy people, which is why they end up so easily becoming dull, grumpy people attempting to be what they are not. But true followers of Jesus, according to Paul, will have a glow. They will have a longer view. Unlike Marx they see that salvation from oppressive regimes, capitalist or communist, is of greater importance than freedom now. Our oppression does not actually come from the system, it comes from our rejection of Jesus. But in trusting him, we have a greater more hopeful perspective. In him, that is Jesus, we are set free. We are the most soulful and we who follow Jesus are the most heartful. For our champion didn't stand in front of a tank. Our champion didn't simply die for us. He rose to give light, and love and life. So be free and be the Shiny Happy People God has made you to be. But realise it only comes from Jesus. It does not come from your ideology your system or explanations. It comes from having the veil of unbelief removed by God's Spirit. (to be continued, in your face, no really the real story will be seen in your face. )