Hipsters Love Grace 'Cause It Means They Don't Have To Work

Today's blog post is from guest blogger Josh Briggs. His blog can be found at http://brigg-a-mortis.tumblr.com/. I hope you enjoy this journey down Christian Hipster lane. He, of all people, is qualified to give this definition of what one is.

What is a hipster? It’s hard to give one solid definition. A hipster can come in various forms, but there are however a few key things that unite all hipsters. They love fair trade coffee shops (that aren’t Starbucks), irony, obscure bands/artist, books, and Grace. You might be asking “So what does all this have to do with the reformed church?” If you are a full-blown Christian Hipster or at least partly one, then you know what I’m talking about. For everyone else, keep on reading.

When I’m talking about the reformed church today, I’m talking about churches led by pastors like Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill), Matt Chandler (The Village Church), Tim Keller (Redeemer), and John Piper (Bethlehem Baptist Church). I know there are more but these are a few of my favorites and popular amongst all Christian Hipsters. The reformed church allows a Christian Hipster to partake in all the things they love.

The church usually has an awesome coffee stand serving up the finest locally brewed coffee. If your church doesn’t then it means it’s in its hipster infancy stage. Or maybe the congregation is already too hyper. Or maybe they simply don’t love you.

Hipsters love irony and there is nothing more ironic than ironic than the work of the cross! Pick up D.A. Carson’s Scandalous for a wonderful breakdown of this. He points out how the man who is mocked as king is the king, the man who is utterly powerless is powerful, the man who can’t save himself saves others, the man who cries out in despair trusts God.

Hipsters love obscure artists, bands, and books. Hipster love to talk about the newest band they are listening to and Christian Hipsters are no different. Whether it’s Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers, Future of Forestry, Page CXVI, The Autumn Film, Ascend the Hill, Underoath, Norma Jean, Lecrae, Trip Lee, we love talking about who we are listening to and will push it on anyone in ear shot… or blog shot.

Hipsters also love obscure pastors. Some of you knew every one of the pastors that I mentioned above and said “I can’t believe he left out __________”. Others had no idea who any of them are. I think we are days away from having a pitchfork.com type site for christians to discuss the newest “underground” sermons they’ve been listening to. “Have you listened to Driscoll’s Trial series?” Seriously, though, have you? It’s super good.

Hipsters love to read. I don’t know if it’s because of the “mainstream’s” lack of interest in reading or what, but hipsters love to read. You won’t see them with Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyers (unless they are going for serious levels of irony). You’ll see them reading the aforementioned pastors as well as Spurgeon, Owen, Augustine, and many others. The reformed church encourages reading in general and specifically reading of dead guys. Check out theresurgence.com if you don’t believe me. It kind of proves my point.

Lastly, Hipsters love the reformed church because it teaches the biblical truth that you don’t have to work for your salvation. And, we all know how much hipsters hate work. They are all about the doctrine of Grace. Most will stay in school until they are 70 to avoid getting a job. The secular hipster will say “I’m just finding myself” but the Christian Hipster will say “I’m just waiting on the Lord’s Call”. Thank God we have Grace and do not have to work for salvation! We’d all surely fail but most of us would die before we started. The doctrine of Grace is also why you won’t find many Christian Hipsters at an Armenian church.

She's Only Mostly Dead?

One of my absolutely favorite Bible teachers and preachers is Tim Keller. The following is his commenting on a story found in Mark 5, where Jesus raises a little girl from the dead:

Tim Keller, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, pp. 67-69, commenting on Mark 5:38-42:

Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.

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Do you think it is odd that when Jesus arrives at Jairus’s house he says that the girl is just sleeping? The parallel account of this story in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels make it clear that Jesus understands she’s dead. She’s not mostly dead; she’s all dead. Then why does he make that reference to sleep?

The answer is in what Jesus does next.

Remember, Jesus sits down beside the girl, takes her by the hand, and says two things to her.

The first is talitha. Literally, it means “little girl,” but that does not get across the sense of what he’s saying. This is a pet name, a diminutive term of endearment. Since this is a diminutive that a mother would use with a little girl, probably the best translation is “honey.”

The second thing Jesus says to her is koum, which means “arise.” Not “be resurrected”: it just means “get up.” Jesus is doing exactly what this child’s parents might do on a sunny morning. He sits down, takes her hand, and says, “Honey, it’s time to get up.” And she does.

Jesus is facing facing the most implacable, inexorable enemy of the human race and such is his power that he holds this child by the hand and gently lifts her right up through it. “Honey, get up.”

Jesus is saying by his actions, “If I have you by the hand, death itself is nothing but sleep.” . . .

. . . There’s nothing more frightening for a little child than to lose the hand of the parent in a crowd or in the dark, but that is nothing compared with Jesus’s own loss.

He lost his Father’s hand on the cross.

He went into the tomb so we can be raised out of it.

He lost hold of his Father’s hand so we could know that once he has us by the hand, he will never, ever forsake us.