Alice and I went to see the movie Conclave a few months ago. We don’t see many movies, but I heard this one had some weight and seriousness and good acting. It was about the intrigue of electing a new pope. Since Pope Francis’ recent death, people have shown renewed interest in it.
Though I thought it was basically a good movie there were two things I didn’t like about it. The first was the ending, which was kind of pointless and had nothing to do with the events leading up to it.
The second was from a sermon that the main character preaches. That character is Brother Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, who is the British cardinal who is manager of the conclave. He doesn’t like his responsibility but nevertheless dutifully fulfills it. He seems like the only cardinal in the movie that doesn’t want to be pope. He’s a sympathetic figure.
But then he gives a sermon to his fellow cardinals. He says: “The worst sin is…” We’re all leaning forward seeing what he thinks the worst sin is.
It’s not murder or blasphemy or sexual abuse or anything like that.
Instead, he says: “The worst sin is certainty.”
Ugh. This is quite a bit below the exhortation of the Apostle Paul gave to preachers in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
The church should preach a stable, certain message. While there are many things we don’t know, there are some things we do know, and we need to be strong there.
While the church should be merciful with those who doubt and we should humbly admit that there are some difficult areas where we have uncertainty, that does not mean that we put doubt and uncertainty on pedestals. We can be sure of some things. And the good news is that those things are the most important things.
We should be leading people out of confusion and into the light.
Thinking about that movie Conclave again…as a Protestant, I don’t believe in the institution of the papacy. I don’t believe the church should have popes. But I do find myself rejoicing when a prominent Christian figure like the pope says something good and faithful. I feel like we are on the same team. I liked it when recent popes have taken solid stances on what was right, popes like John Paul II and Benedict XVI. They were conservative and more biblical and, at times, courageous.
But Pope Francis? Though he seemed personally humble and likeable, he was pretty liberal. Rather than promote a biblical moral code like his immediate predecessors, he was all-in on progressive causes like climate change activism and acceptance of mass illegal immigration. He also waffled on homosexuality, bringing doubt when he should have brought biblical clarity.
The church needs to get its message right. We can have certainty about the truth of the gospel and we should proclaim it like we mean it. The church must bring moral and spiritual clarity on the issue of God. If it doesn’t, who will? No one else can do it–not the government, public schools, the arts, or industry. The church is the only one who preaches the biggest and most important truths; it must not falter.
The church should do charity, but other organizations can do charity. The church should do community uplift, but other organizations can do that too. There is one thing that only the church can do that those others can’t do: preach the gospel.
That must be first priority. Telling the truth about God has to be #1. The other things can come after.
Too often the church (Protestants included, like the mainline denominations) get off track by replacing gospel truth with promotion of liberal ideas. Or, like some evangelicals, they try too hard to be hip and relevant.
They forget what we are supposed to be about even though it’s not hard to remember. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”
Christ died, was buried, was raised, and appeared. This is of “first importance.” That is the core. We can be certain about it.
No liberalism is in there. No promoting of climate change activism or illegal immigration. No going with the flow of culture or trying to be relevant by bending to what church leaders think people want to hear.
Promoting uncertainty? Let the world do that; the world does that just fine. By the time they’re done, we won’t know which way is up. The church does not need to join in.
I hope that the next pope is a conservative. By that I mean that he believes in God’s old, eternal truths. I think it would be exciting if the new people came from Africa, where Christians have a reputation for reading and actually believing their Bibles, far more than their liberal counterparts in the west.
Our task takes clarity, because there’s a lot of distractions. And courage, as some parts of the message might be out of favor with the popular mind.
No other institution–not government, public schools, industry, the arts–can do what the church does, which is to show people the way to God. We have to get this right. It’s on us.