BREAKING GOSPEL

 

[This sermonic essay may initially be understood as exclusively for Christians. Yet Jesus Christ invites all people to Him who are weary and heavy-laden with life,]

In response to the COVID19 pandemic my wife and I purchased a subscription to Netflix as we knew we would not be going out as much. Binge watching Netflix series has become a guilty pleasure for us. Especially enjoyable was Breaking Bad, originally seen on AMC.

In case you have not seen Breaking Bad (and I imagine that there are many who have watched but for various reasons wish to remain anonymous) I will summarize the highlights. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher living in Albuquerque New Mexico with his pregnant wife and teenage son. Walter is overqualified for his current job. He is a former government research scientist and entrepreneur who took a five thousand buyout from his former business partners. With the tech firm now worth billions Walter is becoming increasingly bitter as he enters the sixth decade of his life. His family is growing, and he must work extra at a car wash with a demanding and unsympathetic boss.

Then Walter’s life implodes when he discovers he has lung cancer and the out-of-pocket expenses for treatments will probably bankrupt his fragile finances. In the meantime, DEA agent Hank, Walter’s brother-in-law, invites Walter for a ride-along to see a possible drug bust. During the operation Walter recognizes a former student of his, a slacker who is obviously a low-level drug dealer. Walter looks up Jesse and makes him a deal. They will “cook” a high-quality meth and sell it in the growing and lucrative drug market. Walter justifies his deal dealing with the claim that he is only doing this for his family and calculates he needs to clear about 950,000 dollars before he leaves the business.

The unintended consequences of his actions lead to murders, threats, and deals with Mexican cartels and domestic white supremacists. The two heart-wrenching moments in the series were the deliberate execution of a child who witnessed one of the robberies Walter led and the execution of Hank by one of Walter’s business associates. All along the way Walter continued to justify his behavior by saying he is just doing this for his family. But finally, towards the end Walter finally admits to his wife that he is doing this for the power, and he is good at it. Essentially, his drug business gave him a sense of control over an otherwise chaotic and boring life before he started cooking meth.

Breaking Bad is a morality play rather than a mere drug drama. The title itself is derived from a Southern colloquia term meaning to choose evil. At the beginning Walter is not necessarily a “bad” person but we soon learn he lacks a clear moral compass. Also, in the beginning, he is a sympathetic character as we understand his plight. But as he sinks further and further into the darkness of his own choosing, we begin to lose any positive regards for Walter, and we are relieved that Hank discovers the truth about him.

Yet Walter is not alone in choosing badness over goodness. Saint Paul declares that all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. We sin in our thoughts, words, and deeds and seek to justify our deliberate shortcomings with self-serving lies. And the sin cycle continues as we ourselves break bad, perhaps not as dramatic as the fictional Walter White but bad nevertheless.

To break our cycle of badness we need an intervention. The bad news is that at the very core of our soul no one, not even ourselves, can break through this cycle. The good news is that God can and will break through by the way of Jesus Christ. Then we become free to break gospel- to choose to follow Christ rather than to glory, as theologian Scot McKnight suggests (with some added twists of my own) in the following-

·       Individualism (I am the center of the universe)

·       Consumerism (I buy things I don’t need with money I don’t have to impress people I don’t like)

·       Nationalism (I believe God loves my country more than any other)

·       Moral relativism (I cannot know what is universally good)

·       Scientific naturalism (I believe all that matters is matter)

·       New agism (I believe I can become a god)

·       Postmodern tribalism (I believe all that matters is what my small group thinks)

·       Salvation by therapy-ism (I believe that I can come to my full human potential though inner exploration)

By breaking gospel, we are free to engage in, again as McKnight suggests, other pursues (also, again, with some added twists)-

·       Devoted to the Kingdom of God fired by a robust biblical imagination

·       Living abundantly in loving and serving God and others

·       Committed to justice, especially for those who have been marginalized

·       Committed to peace and reconciliation

·       Devoted to a life of seeking spiritual wisdom

Let us break gospel together!