Upfront Musings

Virtuous Reality

By now the phenomenon of "virtual reality" has become such a part of American life that we may wonder how we ever got along without it.  Imagine having to live with plain old reality all the time!  How did we ever entertain ourselves with mere fiction?  How were we ever content with nonbionic mortals waging battles against real life monsters and villains?

The last decade of the second millennium has come to our rescue and provided a new reality, a reality that is almost real, if not more so.  And this virtual reality comes across the same screens on which we watch daily news of not-so-real history in the making around the world.  The same screens we use to trade stocks, write to missionaries, book our flights, check on the weather, and take care of daily tasks like homework and budgets.  The hard-core virtual reality, of course, comes on a headset that blocks out any of the nonvirtual reality so the full effect of the "virtual" comes through.  Mortal Kombat (3), Tomb Raider, and Madden "98", stuff like that -- and the kids love it. 

Is this what life in the third millennium will be about--plastic reality?  How will it play in our Christian lives?  What will the virtual sermon preached by the virtual pastor in the virtual worship service be like?  The electronic church, popularized in the 70s, will at last have some real competition.  Not that we'd have to actually go to a church building, because we will be able to log onto any one of a rich menu of virtual churches from pentecostal (or will it be pentiumcostal?) to liturgical.  We might even be able to record our responses to the service or sermon on-line.  "Loved the graphics, pastor!"  Or, "Can I order one of those floating ax heads with my Visa?"

Come to think of it, virtual reality is not all that new.  Plastic religion has been around longer than Christianity.  The so-called great religions of the world as well as new entrees like New Age, the darlings of pluralism, present a virtual reality.  But before casting too many stones their way, we must admit that some Christians have their faith on the screen of some pretty fancy headsets.  Jesus, overlaid on all kinds of backdrops.

 My backdrop, I suppose, is higher education: Boy Jesus at age 12 confounding the learned clergy in the temple.  Did they ever get a lesson in worldview!  What's your virtual backdrop?  Suburbia, ecclesial life, the American flag, your Christian group?  Everybody's dressing up Jesus, as Larry Norman once sang.  Amazing how many old patches on his new garment.

Virtual religious reality is probably inevitable.  The search for the historical Jesus, undertaken by a liberal crew who wouldn't have known him if he had come walking on water to them, is dead end for all of us.  And thank God, it is not the historical Jesus, but the glorified Jesus, we will meet.  The backdrop is described in Revelation 4 and 5, and it makes all other backdrops two-dimensional, black and white, slow and silent.

Meanwhile, especially at this time of year, we celebrate with good reason.  Jesus wasn't and isn't virtual.  Incarnation is Reality, so we celebrate Virgin-born Reality.  Forget the screens, forget the headsets, forget even the nonvirtual services.  The really real REALITY incarnated in your heart brings all the excitement we can stand.  If we are tuned in.