CSI Earth: Looking for God’s Fingerprints
Ron DeBoer
8/24/2010

I had just finished Pastor John VanSloten’s new book, The Day Metallica Came to Church, so I was hoping for some inspiring illumination as I walked into the Four Seasons Theatre in Toronto recently to watch the stage production of Miss Saigon, one of the most successful musicals—both on Broadway and worldwide—ever made.

The premise of VanSloten’s book is that the Bible and culture “co-illuminate” one another and that creators of culture “co-create” with God new things that can illuminate truths found in the Bible. We read the Bible to learn about the creation of the world, God’s faithfulness to his people, the stories of God’s faithful followers, the prophets who laid out the plan for Christ’s walk on this earth, God’s perfect plan for our lives, and the salvation story. But Van Sloten says we can learn just as much about God from popular culture, and that God reveals himself and his ideas in art, sports, movies, and books. He says we tend to look at nature—tornadoes and sunsets, for instance—and easily see God’s fingerprints. But he also believes that we can see, hear, and learn from God in all of culture—including secular culture. To prove his point, Van Sloten offers up several Bible verses from the Old and New Testament and then several song lyrics from Metallica. He then mixes them up and asks the reader to distinguish Metallica’s lyrics from the Bible’s. Unless you have a photographic memory or a Biblical encyclopedia, you could not tell the difference from the Bible verses and the lyrics—that’s how closely the language and themes reflected one another.

Van Sloten looks for God’s voice at sporting events, such as the Super Bowl, and movies, such as Crash and Spiderman. He’s preached on violinist Joshua Bell, cyclist Lance Armstrong, physicist Albert Einstein, artist Vincent Van Gogh, and on theology in the oil industry. Whether in the lyrics of Metallica or the details of the fabric of a world famous fashion designer, Van Sloten’s point is that God can use ANY aspect of his created world to speak to us. What we have to do is learn to listen to his voice.

Thus, the Bible and culture “co-illuminate” one another.

This raises some pretty heady questions. Can God really be using the writers of Metallica when they thought they were writing subversive, angry, violent lyrics? Does God deliberately work through the writers and directors of Hollywood blockbusters—even R-rated ones—to tell us things about his greatness and to speak to us about forgiveness or love or salvation? Does God use the NBA finals to illuminate oneness and his promises and purpose? The answer, of course, is yes—any other answer would be limiting God and diminishing his greatness. So, if you’re ever doubting that God is actively working in his creation in the 21st Century and not simply sitting back and allowing sin to tear it apart (which even Christians can do sometimes if they watch too much news!), then this should be exciting news for you!

Before going to Miss Saigon the other night, I prayed that God would illuminate himself through this stage production, that he would show me a glimpse of his hopes and dreams for humanity. And he did. If you’re not familiar with the storyline, here’s a quick synopsis: An American GI named Chris meets a Vietnamese woman named Kim, and they fall in love before he gets evacuated back to America in 1975. He promises her he will come back to get her. Three years later, he is a married man back in America. Only he knows the secret of his love for Kim. However, he has nightmares about leaving Kim and not fulfilling his promise. He then learns that Kim is not only still alive, but that she has borne him a son. Together with his new wife, Chris returns to Vietnam to see his son, and Kim thinks he has returned to take them back to America. Of course, Kim is devastated to find out Chris is married to an American woman, who refuses to take the little boy back with them to America (as Kim wishes). The play ends with Kim making an unthinkable sacrifice to ensure that her son can grow up in America.

My description alone should reveal what Van Sloten calls “echoes of God’s voice.” Love, guilt, sacrifice, loyalty. As I watched this play, I simultaneously thought of Jesus’ love and ultimate sacrifice to save me so that I can live, and tears came to my eyes during the play—that’s “co-illumination!” What really resonated in me about this play is a scene that takes place shortly into the second act. A slide show of children is being shown—children born of Vietnamese mothers and American GI fathers long gone—and you realize those children have a purpose in this life. Their conception and birth are no accident. God knew they were going to be born. No human life is an accident. Psalm 139:16 (NLT) says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.” Isaiah 45:15 (NLT) says, “O God of Israel, our Savior, you work in mysterious ways,” and later he says in verse 18, “For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and the earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.”

You’ve probably had moments of “co-illumination” in your life, those moments when something other-worldly seems to be happening, when God is downloading messages or revelations to you through the words of other people or the words of a character in a movie or in a painting you’d never seen before but which seems to speak directly to your heart, your worries, your desires.
That’s no accident. Coincidence is not a word that can be applied to your life. Van Sloten asks, “Are all those moments, those just right and true moments that feel pregnant with God’s presence that we sometimes experience in the diversity of a city, in the beauty of a scientific theory, in the oneness of a World Cup soccer game, or in the intricacies of a fabric’s weave, heaven on earth? Are they foretastes, moments where God bends time, leans over, and whispers to us, ‘There’s more’?”

As you go into this week, keep your senses open to God’s will. Pray to him to speak to you in all areas of culture and in the Bible. When you do the two together, you’re in for some mind-blowing stuff.

I may not have explained it as richly and clearly as John Van Sloten in The Day Metallica Came to Church. The book doesn’t come out until the fall (I was sent a review copy this summer), but I would recommend it if you’re looking to think more deeply about your place in the world and, if you have a bit of CSI in you, in seeing God’s fingerprints all over culture.

Ron DeBoer is an educator and writer near Toronto, Ontario. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rondeboer16.