The Buck-Naked Emperor

There are a lot of crazy issues being batted around and argued these days in our culture, where it seems as if a good segment of our population has lost its mind. Some are moral issues, of right and wrong, and many have morphed into political issues, of right and left. Most seem to be common sense issues, and there is a serious shortage of that in our world today. 

Some of these supposedly controversial issues are things that, just a few years ago, we all agreed on, because they were grounded in Scriptural truth and thousands of years of human history. But someone decided to push against the goad of cultural norms, and it didn't take long before we were being pressured to believe that these absurd propositions are now "normal."

Sometimes it seems that they are just going for the shock factor, but it’s hard to even be shocked any more, however non-sensical things are proposed. The Babylon Bee cannot satirize things fast enough, before someone catches up and parody becomes real life.

So as easy as it would be to list some of the stories of the world’s craziness so that we can dismiss them and all join in and make fun of them, I hope those stories will break our hearts instead, and that we will have compassion for those who are confused and deceived. And really there are deeper issues at play in the world, in the spiritual realm, that are leading to the silliness. 

A few years back, in discussing one of those such issues in a sermon, I said that it was time for us as Christians to stand up and say, “The emperor has no clothes.” In fact, I went on to say that he, the emperor, was, indeed, “buck naked.” Some people apparently did not understand that analogy, and thought I was talking about a particular politician.

However, as I am sure many of you are aware, it was actually a reference to a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, called “The Emperor's New Clothes." The tale has been a popular story for nearly two centuries, and it was even made into a Disney movie—The Emperor’s New Groove--about 25 years ago. The idea behind the story, and my point in that sermon, was to illustrate absurdity, with absurdity. 

If you aren’t familiar with that fairy tale—and perhaps I shouldn’t have assumed that everyone was-- two swindlers go to this pompous emperor who was known to spend lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. They pose as weavers, and offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up their looms and go to work. Several different officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check the progress of their work. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought of as a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor's suit is finished. They act like they are dressing him with these invisible clothes, and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. But the last one to catch on is the one who should have known from the beginning, the emperor himself.

And the point of the story is, sometimes, things ARE as obvious as they seem—and someone needs to risk going against the crowd, to stand up and say, “The emperor has no clothes.” And I believe that’s where we are as a culture these days, and where we as the church must speak up for what is true, as revealed in God's word. I don’t think we should do it with condescension, with a holier-than-thou self-righteousness—but with compassion and humility, and with the same childlike innocence that recognizes simple truth and states it.

And even if we don’t do it anywhere else—we must be willing to do it in the context of our church family, and in our homes—and especially as parents, who are leading the next generation to understand and recognize truth. Because, when you live in an upside-down world, to be right-side-up will sometimes be thought of as weird.

So, stand firm for what is right, church, with humility, but without apology. The world needs to know the truth we have,, more now than ever before.

I am grateful for you, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

--Pastor Ken