Sermon Illustrations
Christian Incarnation in a 'Rootless, Screen-addicted' World
Ever get tired of the endless buzzing of your smartphone, the deluge of emails, and the million and one digital notifications that seem like unavoidable parts of life today? Missional thinker Michael Frost is too—and he thinks they're symptoms of a deep and pernicious disease for Christians. Frost says that modern life is increasingly "excarnate" or "de-fleshed." It's a "rootless, screen-addicted" world, that flies right in the face of Christianity's central teaching—the Incarnation.
Frost says: "[M]any people don't think hard enough about whether they like the way technology is shaping them…. We need to live a fully embodied existence, in community, and in place … [I]f technology wrenches us out of a meaningful sense of embodiment, away from connection with neighbors, and out of the place in which we live, we lose something precious and important. Using web-based tools is great, but so is walking your neighborhood, hosting dinner parties, volunteering at community gardens, sharing a table at a soup kitchen, playing with children, gardening, sports, games, and sex. You can't phone those things in."