Faith Without the Rabbit Ears – Let’s Go HD!

In 1998, high-definition television (or HDTV) was introduced to the entire United States when astronaut John Glenn returned to space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery.  Although a few local station networks had been using HD for their television transmissions since 1996 in the U.S., the Discovery mission coverage marked the first time that high definition transmissions were broadcast coast-to-coast.  A few years later, the manufacture of traditional television systems had become a thing of the past.

     High-definition television (HDTV) is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems (also known as standard-definition TV, or SDTV, or SD).  HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD.  Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression.  As anyone who watches television or movies today will attest to, some of the pictures we see are so amazingly clear and intricate that we sometimes feel we are right at the place where the action is happening!

     As we embark on a new “year” at Glen Burnie United Methodist Church, I wonder how we might be able to move our faith journey from traditional-definition to high-definition.  How can each of us or our community look at our Christian journey as HD Faith?  In other words, how might we come to transmit our faith in a way that allows others to see our Christian love so amazingly clear and intricate that they feel as though they are where the God-action is happening?  How do you experience Christian love from or share love with others?  How do you receive service from or give service to others?  I think there are many different approaches that may help us transform our church to be one that transmits HD Faith!

     We need to continue to study what the Bible has to say to us.  Through worship, Bible studies, and fellowship activities, we bring the action of the Bible stories right into our lives.  This means understanding the text in the context of when and where it was written, but also how the lessons relate to our lives today.  We need to witness to each other one-on-one and in groups to how the words of Jesus and the actions of the Holy Spirit have confronted us in amazingly clear and intricate ways.

     We must challenge ourselves to share our HD Faith with people we know (or may come to know) who have not yet recognized how God is working in their lives.  Sharing our stories of how Christ inspires, transforms, or challenges us is necessary to making our faith relevant both to ourselves as well as to people who have yet to come to church.  Sharing our stories is more than simply telling people about the grace of God that we experience.  It also means “learning the language” of others so that they can understand in clear and specific ways what we have experienced and what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ looks like.  Sometimes, our “church talk” may need to sound like “street talk” to make sense to people who don’t know what church is all about!

HD Faith is not a new program or even a way of proclaiming a new message.  It is a way of sharing the old message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that becomes exciting and meaningful to those who need to hear it as well as to ourselves who have been commissioned by Christ to “go and make disciples…teaching them everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19 – 20).  We don’t need to watch tv to see HD action.  HD Faith is telling our HD stories and in showing our HD action to the world!  Let’s share our HD Faith!

                                                                        Blessings,

                                                                                    Pastor Martin P. Brooks