Bazinga!

Last Friday I sat down to watch the previous night’s episode of “The Big Bang Theory” (TBBT). This is a weekly occurrence for me as I do not have cable television.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, let me give you a basic rundown. The show chronicles the lives of Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki, or as many of you know him, the son from Christmas Vacation). These 2 geniuses live together in a California apartment; despite their quirky features and Sheldon’s idiosyncrasies, the duo have an intimate group of friends: Howard Wolowitz and his wife Bernadette, Sheldon’s girlfriend Amy Farrah Fowler, and forever-alone colleague Rajesh Koothrappali. The four male characters work together at Caltech: Howard is an engineer and the other three are physicists. With the show being based around science, not many Christian values can be taken from it. Just look at the title! Here are the lyrics to the theme song:

“Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!” (only the first verse, as performed by the Barenaked Ladies)

Clearly, the show’s creators do not hold a traditional monotheistic worldview. This is primarily shown through Sheldon’s interactions with his mother. Sheldon was raised in Texas by his mother and father; it was there that he learned about football (much to the surprise of Leonard) and about God from his mother. Sheldon rejects his mother’s beliefs; he opts for a scientific view of creation. Often his interactions with his mother’s spirituality are meant to be funny: Watch from :30 to 1:00

Even though Sheldon does not hold the same worldview as his mother, he respects and loves her. She is one of the few people on Earth who can tell him what to do (with others being Leonard Nimoy, Stephen Hawking, and fellow revolutionaries/popular men from the field of science). Throughout the seasons Sheldon’s mother shows up on occasion; usually to talk sense into Sheldon. One example was when Sheldon bought a large amount of cats and would not give them away.

In the latest episode of TBBT Sheldon and Howard are in Texas while the others are left in California. With the characters being in two different locations, there are two plots. At home in California, the gang tries to solve Raj’s latest dinner murder mystery (which only he enjoys). In Texas, Sheldon is actually behaving with Howard. Sheldon is excited to visit his mother; however he runs away in horror after peaking through the window. The viewer is then notified that Sheldon caught his mother having sex with another man. After talking with Howard over “drinks” (of which Sheldon has one sip), Sheldon decides to return and confront his mother. In typical Sheldon fashion he doesn’t make small talk; he goes straight into the accusation. He calls his mother a “demented sex pervert”. He later tells her that he can talk to her in this manner because she was the one “who quoted the Bible to me my whole life”. Sheldon also occupies the “moral high ground”. After Howard talks more sense into Sheldon, Sheldon again approaches his mother. And here is where the real spiritual application comes in. The conversation goes like this:

Sheldon: “I think what most upsets me about it mother is the hypocrisy. Doesn’t this contradict all of the religious rules you have been espousing your whole life?

Sheldon’s mother, Mary: “You’re right it does. And it’s something that I’m struggling with these days.”

Sheldon: “Then why are you doing it?”

Mary: “Because I’m not perfect Shelly.”

…

Sheldon: “I’ll condemn you internally while maintaining an outward view of acceptance.”

Mary: “That is very Christian of you.”

This is HUGE. I’ve seen this same interaction occur throughout my lifetime… and I’m only 22 years old. I’ve seen friends, fellow Church members, and even our old head pastor fall prey to this same act. Thus I’m sure that most of you, readers, have seen something along these lines. A Christian is caught in the act of sex outside of marriage. Is sex outside of marriage a sin? Yes, it is. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about, and there are plenty of great articles that you can find online (like this one that I stumbled upon last week). No, what I’m here to talk about today is our attitudes in regards to these situations. And this attitude does not solely apply to sex; it applies to areas like alcoholism, gambling, lying, and more. In his excellent book The Ragamuffin Gospel, author Brennan Manning writes,

“Often I have been asked, 'Brennan, how is it possible that you became an alcoholic after you got saved? It is possible because I got battered and bruised by loneliness and failure, because I got discouraged, uncertain, guilt-ridden, and took my eyes off Jesus. Because the Christ-encounter did not transfigure me into an angel. Because justification by grace through faith means I have been set in right relationship with God, not made the equivalent of a patient etherized on a table.” (page 31).

Manning is real with us as readers; later in the book he relates several stories from his time in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Sheldon’s mother makes the same statement to Sheldon – she tells him simply, “I’m not perfect”. The common example to look at would be King David – a man after “God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). The theme that we get from these examples: we ALL make mistakes! I’m sure that I’ve already made a mistake today. As a part-time server, I make mistakes a lot. Can we go back and fix these mistakes? No, we cannot.

And here is my MAIN point, if you’re still reading:

Oftentimes, our biggest mistake is not believing that God has already forgiven our mistakes.

For this reason, I am ecstatic! Manning writes,

“The saved sinner… knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven.” (page 74).

This is GRACE! How readily we tell others that we believe in grace, yet deny it practically. Take these lyrics from the great song Tendons (The Release) by Bellarive:

So who am I to accept this grace that just falls like rain
'Cause we all know I chose to lay my head in this desert
But like a fish out of water
We only then know what it means to be parched
...
For I know no other lover
Who would have met me here in this place.

How true are these lyrics – too often we don’t feel that we deserve grace based on our actions. We have fallen short of the standard. Sure, we tell others when they struggle with sin that God has already forgiven them. (Amazing how easy it is to give great advice, but not live it ourselves). But when it comes to us? We beat ourselves up.

STOP! Come to the realization that God has already forgiven us. We should make every effort not to repeat that sin; and, importantly, recognize that God’s got this under control. How AWESOME is he!

Still struggling with this topic? I know that I wrestle with it a lot. My recommendation would be to read Romans 6 – primarily verses 15 through the famous verse 23.

Oh, and watch Big Bang Theory so that I can talk about it with you. Here's the link: Bazinga!

Shalom.