The Death Of Gravitas

                  John Piper's Sermon Of The Day this morning is a conference talk....from October 7, 2005. What might first come to mind when thinking of the ministry of John Piper is....the joy of the Lord.....and that would be accurate....but even before and above this would be....the absolute sovereignty of God in everything. If you have never heard Piper....this would be a good place to start. You could either go to his ministry website....desiringgod.org....and navigate your way to his sermons of the day....or you could easily Google this message.....John Piper, The Aspects Of God's Sovereignty. 
                  The 1990s saw the publication of quite a few serious and scholarly Christian books taking to task what was happening to the church in a postmodern age. David Wells was one of those authors....and I sold his books in the Christian bookstore that we owned at the time. In fact the bookstore came into existence in part because of the many authors such as Wells and John MacArthur and Michael Horton who were at least giving the church the opportunity to wake up.
                 John Piper begins his sermon....(conference talk)....with this quote from the newly released (2005) book by David Wells....Above All Earthly Powers....Christ In A Postmodern Age

"This moment of tragedy and evil....(9/11)....shown its own light on the church....and what we came to see is not a happy sight.....for what has become conspicuous by its scarcity....and not least in the evangelical quarter of it....is a spiritual gravitas....or weight....one which could match the depths of horrendous evil and address issues of such seriousness. Evangelicalism now....much absorbed by the arts and tricks of marketing....is simply not very serious anymore."

                 Whatever progress was being made in the 90s....had halted....this in 2005....and today....17 years later....we in evangelicalism are at least 17 times more...."absorbed by the arts and tricks of marketing." A ball player....pointing to the sky after hitting a home run....is evidence of our evangelizing. A demagogue....or a demigod....(boths definitions fit)....has become our king....and our books very rarely exercise the mind with gravitas....but are based more on the imagination than God's Holy Word.