Worlds enough and time

The death of 28-year old actor Heath Ledger took many by surprise yesterday. (See the NY Times article here.) While there is no official cause of death, the apparent condition in which Ledger was found suggests that he overdosed on pills. There are plenty of actors and actresses in Hollywood whose death wouldn't surprise much of anyone, but Ledger was not one of those. He was a fairly low-key actor, who didn't seek the limelight and chose to live in Brooklyn rather than on the West Coast.

I'll never forget the first time I saw "A Knight's Tale." I had heard that the movie inserted rock music in a lot of the jousting sequences, and I expected to hate it. To my surprise, I found myself laughing from start to finish. It was one of Ledger's first starring roles, and he did a superb job.

I have a friend whose pet peeve is the petty bickering that often goes on in the church and distracts congregations from what they ought to be doing. Whenever he hears about a church fighting over the parlor furniture or the hymn selection in worship, he is fond of remarking, "Those people have way too much time on their hands." And by and large, I think he's right. Most United Methodist churches in this country are fairly affluent by the world's standards, and they often find themselves fighting over things that don't matter a whole lot. They've got money, they've got time, and they're bored.

You could say the same thing for a whole lot of people in Generation X. They don't have the kind of needs that most of the world has to worry about - food, water, shelter, security, etc. So they find ways to keep themselves distracted from the pervasive boredom that creeps in when basic needs are met and there is no clear sense of what to do next. Often, that comes in the form of substance abuse.

Wouldn't it be great if the church was really able to shape people in such a way that they understood service to Christ as the defining call in their lives? If they sought out their own salvation rather than seeking a fight with a fellow church member over a careless comment in Sunday school? If they committed their lives to serving the poor in Christ's name rather than committing the sin of speaking ill of their neighbor?

And wouldn't it be great if Gen X'ers were the ones to help make the church a place where that happens?

Every time I hear about another prominent member of my generation lost to the toxic combination of money, boredom, and the ready availability of drugs, it grieves me that the church is failing in its mission to proclaim the good news that there is another way. It is not about pointing fingers at a certain type of lifestyle; it is, instead, about offering a kind of lifestyle constitutive of values deeper than fleeting high of intoxication.

Heath Ledger left behind a 2-year old daughter named Matilda.