What do Nietzche, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Bono, and Christianity have in common? Well, they’ve all showed up in Tim Keller’s sermons over the years. Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, is the best preacher I’ve ever heard. He tells great stories, weaving together Biblical texts with culturally relevant ideas. And he does so in a way that demonstrates respect for other-than-Christian ideas while simultaneously holding on to a bold and firm defense of orthodox Christianity. His theology is conservative, but he doesn’t let politics impose upon his preaching. In fact, he’s probably been the most influential person in my becoming more and more politically moderate. Keller often demonstrates how a passage of Scripture supports (and/or breaks apart) aspects of both conservative and liberal politics. Whether or not you are a Christian, I highly recommend listening to a sermon by Tim Keller. (Click here for a link to free ones you can download.)
Keller has also become a prolific author of late, with three books: The Reason for God, The Prodigal God, and Counterfeit Gods. I have to be honest–he’s better as a preacher than a writer–but the books are still filled with thoughtful and accessible illustrations of stories from everyday human life and from the Bible. I recently finished Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters. As the subtitle suggests, here Keller talks about the things modern Americans worship: sex, money, power. He discusses why these things will ultimately fail to satisfy us, and how to uproot their power in our lives and allow God to become the ultimate thing. Again, I recommend the book, but I recommend the sermons even more.
Still, books are easier to quote than sermons, so I’ll end with a few quotations worth considering. from Counterfeit Gods:
“There is a difference between sorrow and despair. Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolation… Despair, however, is inconsolable, because it comes from losing an ultimate thing.”
“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
“Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.”
Thanks, Tim Keller, for helping me understand what an idol is and how I might worship God instead. May I become more and more one who enjoys the good gifts of this life without idolizing them. May I become more and more one who worships God alone.
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