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50 Shades of?
Joshua L.F. Bower
Delivered February 15, 2015
First Presbyterian Church, Whiteville, NC
So theres this book trilogy. Its really popular. At one point it was selling one
copy per second worldwide. And this past Friday the movie version of the first book was
released. It made $30 million on opening day, making it the biggest February opening
day ever.1 And would you believe, the movie it beat out for that title was The Passion of
the Christ in 2004. Have you heard about this? Of course you have! Its 50 Shades of
Grey. But just in case theres somebody here today who doesnt know what Im talking
about, 50 Shades is the story of a young woman, Anastasia Steele, who falls in love with
a handsome millionaire named Christian Grey. But he comes with a catch: he wants her
to sign a contract saying she will do what he says or he will punish herin what Ill call
to keep this pulpit-appropriatehell punish her when the two of them are in an
intimate setting together.2 Ive been asked many, many times why Im choosing to preach
about this. The short answer is because were in this culture at this time and if what Jesus
said is true, then were supposed to be salt and light in the world were in.3 To let this
level of cultural phenomenon happen with no comment on how to live faithfully in it
would be failing to live up to my calling to pastor Gods people. So thats the why of this
sermon, but what exactly am I commenting on? If you talk to critics of the book series,
its a poorly-written rag meant to appeal to the darkest of our instincts. They also say it
1 Anthony DAlessandro, How Valentines Day+Fans Are Impacting Fifty Shades
OpeningSaturday B.O. Update, Deadline Hollywood Blog, accessed February 14,
2015, http://deadline.com/2015/02/fifty-shades-of-grey-kingsman-weekend-boxoffice-1201372952/.
2 It turned out that the young folks in our church werent there, so in my actual
sermon I said punish her in the bedroom. For those of you not listening in the
pulpit, humorist Dave Berrys review gets more to the point: Christianwants to tie
her up with ropes, handcuffs, shackles, tape, etc.to blindfold and gag her. He wants
to spank her, whip her, flog her, cane her, paddle her, put nipple and genital clamps
on her, bite her and use hot wax on her. We know this because he asks her to sign a
contract agreeing to let him do these things to her. Yes! To be fair, the contract
clearly states that there will be no acts involving fire play . . . urination or defecation
and the products thereof and no acts involving children or animals. Because thats
the kind of old-fashioned cornball romantic Christian is. From Dave Berry, Dave
Berry Learns Everything You Need to Know About Being a Husband From Reading 50
Shades of Grey, Time, accessed February 9, 2015, http://time.com/3030375/davebarry-50-shades-of-grey/.
3 Matthew 5:13-16

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teaches warped ideas about relationships. For example, that a victim of abuse can
somehow change her abuser through submitting to him if she just keeps working to
uncover what makes him an abuser in the first place. This is a dangerous idea to teach
women at the exact moment were realizing how widespread domestic violence is in our
culture.4 But if you talk to fans, 50 Shades is a beautiful and empowering story of a
womans unrelenting love restoring a broken man to his true selfan ultimate story of
redemption. Ive had 3 of my close friends tell me this is how they read the books, and
were planning on seeing the movie for the same reason. I trust these friends, and I have
no reason to think theyre lying to me.5 Over the last week Ive heard and read hundreds
of theories of why this is so popular, from the darkest instinct argument to the beautiful
love story angle to the deep unmet needs of women to the psychology of romance to just
plain old everybody else is doing it. I gotta be honest: I dont have a clue the reason
why this is as big as it is. But I do know how the studio is selling it to the public. I
watched the trailers for the movie. The first trailer was straight innuendo. To its credit,
the second trailer was all about Anastasia changing Christian. But then the trailer that
aired during the Super Bowlwhen the studio knew the most people would be watching
that trailer was nothing but scenes of the main characters shedding their clothes with
the words on the screen: Books Sold: Over 100 Million; Trailer Views: Over 250
Million; Fantasies Provoked: CountlessAre You Curious? Whatever the reason its
popular, whatever redeeming things you find when you get in the building, it seems that
the studio thinks that what gets folks in the door is curiosity about forbidden fruit.
What is a faithful Christian response to these kinds of cultural phenomena? Because Im
not creative enough, I settled on 3 things that I believe Christians everywhere should use
4 One area I really wanted to explore was how this book fits in with the recent news
stories about domestic violence. How is it that a book where sadomasochism and
violent domination is key to driving the plot gain so much traction in the midst of
cultural backlash against domestic violence? Somebody should preach a sermon
about that.
5 But I also have a question rattling around in my own mind: do these friends of mine
overlook the violent sexual practices and find the redemption story in 50 Shades
because redemptions the point of the books, or because theyre the type of people
who will always look beyond questionable stuff to a possible deeper truth? Or put
another way, Are most people reading these books and seeing the movie because
they want to see a redemption story, or because they want to indulge in out-of-themainstream sexuality? Or put a third way, Is this just people rationalizing 50
Shades the way I rationalized both 300 movies?

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to engage the culture. This isnt everything that can be said on the topic, obviously, but
its a starting point for those who actually want to live as Christs disciples in the midst of
a beautiful but still broken world. So here we go:
First, any conversation about these sort of things should start from a place of
humility and personal repentance. Not that you need to hear this again, but heres Jesus
take on the whole judging thing: Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the
same way you judge others, you will be judgedWhy do you look at the speck of sawdust
in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?...You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck
from your brothers eye.6 Its easy for a lot of us sitting here to look down on people
who are 50 Shades fans and judge their lack of morals. But all of us consume the culture
around us all the time! If its not 50 Shades of Grey its something else. The top 10 most
popular TV shows on the air right now includes The Blacklist, which is literally about a
man killing people off his personal hit list 1 by 1.7 I know a lot about The Blacklist
because I love it. I watch it every week. In last Thursdays episode, 14 people were
murdered2 execution-styleand 1 man was tortured by being water boarded in the
holy water in a Russian Orthodox church. I own 3 of 4 seasons of the TV series
Spartacus, which includes material way raunchier than anything youll see in 50 Shades.
Im not morally superior to anybody! And now that Im an old man and dont listen to
pop music all the time, when I do Im shocked. If my great-grandmother came back from
the grave and watched Katy Perrys Super Bowl halftime show shed die of a heart attack.
And we wont even mention the things you can do on the best-selling video game Grand
Theft Auto.8 But the point is: nobody here is in a position to condemn anybody else. We
all stand in need of redemption. Any engagement with other Christians or the
6 Matthew 7:1-3, 5
7 Survey: Americas Favorite TV Shows Are Not What You Think, Entertainment
Weekly, accessed February 13, 2015, http://www.ew.com/article/2015/02/11/surveyamericas-favorite-tv-shows-are-not-what-you-think-0.
8 For example, in Conan OBriens Clueless Gamer segment reviewing Grand Theft
Auto V, Conans character goes into a strip club, where hes invited to receive a
private dance from a topless digital woman (or more than 1 woman!) who says
sexually explicit phrases to him. Later in the review, he blows the strip club up with a
missile. Conan OBrien Reviews Grand Theft Auto V|Clueless Gamer|CONAN on
TBS, YouTube, accessed February 1, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=EB_XX_IM8io.

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surrounding culture that doesnt start with deep reflection about your own practices, what
you watch, what you listen to, and why you do it, its hypocritical. Not only is Christian
arrogance a huge turnoff to non-Christians, its unbiblical. To follow Jesus means
starting everything with a humble heart.
Which leads to my second point: Avoid the extremes of our culture. One extreme of our
culture, especially among church folks, is to think of the culture as the enemy and reject
it. I think one of the great sins of the church is that we uncritically toss out whats going
on in the culture around us. We read parts of the Bible, like in Pauls letter to the
Ephesians: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any
kind of impuritybecause these are improper for Gods holy people.9 Seems pretty
clear, right? Shun the culture! But in another place, this same Paul writes, I wrote to
you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral peoplenot at all meaning the
people of this world who are immoralIn that case you would have to leave this
world.10 And how about his gem from 1 Corinthians: What business is it of mine to
judge those outside the church?11 This assumes that you are going to be in the world,
that you are going to interact with people and things and ideas that dont always agree
with your beliefs. More to the point, if Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of
all nations,12 how can we do that if we stay huddled up in the church together doing
nothing but reaffirming what we already believe with the already-converted? And more
than that, theres a lack of faith in God underneath this approach. This is Gods world
God created it, redeemed it, and sustains it!13 We have this idea in Reformed churches
called common grace. What it means is that we believe that God isnt just working
inside the Church; Gods alive and well and working in all creation. Theres beauty and
truth to be found in secular, non-Christian art, literature, movies, television programs. If
9 Ephesians 5:3-4
10 1 Corinthians 5:9-10. Verses 11-13 go on to exhort Christians to cast out
evildoers from among those who profess to have faith in Jesus and to avoid
immorality in the church.
11 1 Corinthians 5:12a
12 Matthew 28:19
13 Heres a quote from John Calvin I had in an earlier draft of this sermon: If we regard the Spirit
of God as the sole fountain of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall
appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God. Let us learn [from the example of secular men] how
many gifts the Lord left to human nature even after it was despoiled of its true good. This is from his
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.2.15, quoted in Michael Horton, For Calvinism (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 2011).

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we stay locked up in our little Christian bubble we make God very small and rob
ourselves of the truth God offers through our culture. But the second part of this point is
that you should also avoid the other extreme: just uncritically consuming what the culture
gives because everybody else is. To quote your mother: If everybody was jumping off a
bridge, would you do it? The honest answer is probably, YES! If my friends were
jumping off a bridge, I would do itactually, I have done that! Most of us, most of the
time, take whats happening in the world around us and just accept it. We turn on the
radio and listen without ever questioning what were listening to, turn on the TV and
watch mindlessly. Read what everybody else is reading, go to the most popular movie.
We like to be part of a big group, we like to belong. But underneath this behavior is a
very un-Christian ideal: personal freedom. What I mean is that we believe that This is
my life, my brain, my body, and Im free to do whatever I want with em! Paul addresses
this in Galatians: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use
your freedom to indulge the flesh.14 And in 1 Corinthians: You say, I have the right to
do anythingbut not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anythingbut not
everything is constructive.15 You are free. By the grace of God in Jesus Christ youre
free: free from sin, free from deathbut not free to do whatever the heck you wanna do.
Youre freed by God to live as God created you to live. Paul says it this way, You are
not your own; you were bought at a price.16 That price was Christs blood. Jesus gave
his life up so that you could live yours to the fullest. You are precious and loved and way
too good to spend your life wallowing in mud just because you like how it feels on your
skin. It cost God too much and youre worth far too much for your life to be wasted on
things that dont build up you or Gods kingdom. So dont reject the culture without
thinking, but always think when you engage it, too.
And that leads to the last point: Remember what youre here for. Remember Gods Big
Story. Remember: God created this world good, but we broke faith with God, but God
didnt break faith with us: God called Abraham and Sarah and through them built up a
people to take Gods light into the world, to reclaim this world. They failed, but God
kept going, saving them from slavery in Egypt, sending them prophets to call them back
14 Galatians 5:13a
15 1 Corinthians 10:23
16 1 Corinthians 6:19-20a

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to God, sustaining them in captivity in Babylon, and ultimately sending his Son Jesus
the fulfillment of Israels story. Jesus was born, taught, preached, healed, showed the
world what it means to be fully human. He died on the cross to redeem us and called the
Church into being to keep on going, taking his message of love and reconciliation and
redemption to all people everywhere. And so we build relationships and work in the
world and serve others because we believe that Jesus really did show us what it means to
be truly human, what it means to be one with God, what it means to be healed. And we
give our lives for the world because he did: Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants
to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For
whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find
it.17 You were saved. By Gods grace and love alone you are saved! You were freed
from sin and death so that you would be free to live your life in the way God intended us
to live: to be fully, truly human. Youre free to grow more and more, day by day, into the
image of God. Theres nothing holding you back but yourself! And youve been sent to
call others to follow Jesus so that they can enjoy the freedom you enjoy and be fully
human, too, to grow more and more into the image of God. Thats what youre here for,
and thats why every moment of your life matters, because God loves you and God loves
everybody else and people need to know that there is a beautiful, empowering story of
unrelenting love restoring broken people to their true selvesthe ultimate story of
redemption. And its lived out here in the church and in our homes and everywhere on
planet Earth followers of Jesus go. So heres the BIG question you should ask before you
pick up a book or turn on the TV or surf the Internet or get in the movie ticket line: How
can I use this to make me more into the image of God? How does my doing this show
others what it means to be truly human as Jesus was human? How can I use this to call
others to follow Jesus? And if youve already done something that doesnt fit the bill
like I have thousands of times and will do thousands morerepent, receive Gods
forgiveness and look for Gods truth and grace and love even in those not-so-great things
youve done. Its there. Thats a promise.
Jamie Dornan plays Christian Grey in the 50 Shades movie. He says, I dont want [my
daughter] to see the movie. But I cant stop her seeing it one day. Id do everything in
17 Matthew 16:24-25

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my power that she doesnt, but what can I do? The movies cinematographer said, I
have a 14-year-old daughter, and I wonder about the images and the stories that we send
out.18 This alone would give me pause as a follower of Jesus contemplating a trip to the
movies. But if you leave here this morning with nothing more than Josh said dont go
see 50 Shades of Grey youve completely missed the point. I havent read the books and
dont plan on it, and Im not going to see the movies. And Ill tell you the main reason
Im not going to see the movie: because I want to. The trailers have made me curiousI
wanna know what happens when shes blindfolded!and my interest has nothing to do
with a good story. So knowing my own temptations, Im choosing not to go.19 As your
pastor, Id encourage you to avoid it as well. Its tough to make the case that youre
going so you can grow more into the image of God, or to help bring others closer to
Christ. Even the best themes from the story can be found in literally thousands of other
stories that dont include obviously questionable things. And the unusual thing I noticed
was that it wasnt just me: every friend I have who pastors a churchmale, female,
conservative, liberal, evangelical, progressivethey all feel the same way about this.20
But they didnt just reject it outright: they started from a place of humility, aware of their
own sins in this area, and carefully researched and prayed and considered and talked with
friends who had read the material without judging them. I know I personally fought the
urge to reject it without thinking or to just shrug my shoulders and let it happen without
saying anything. But this process actually made me more excited to live into my call to
follow Jesus. Engaging the culture led me to a deeper relationship with Christ, and I
think with those I disagree with. It may have just touched somebody elses life, too.
18 Both of these quotes are from Belinda Luscombe, The Grey Area: How the movie
Fifty Shades of Grey set out to craft a feminist romance from a novel of sex, violence,
and domination, Time, February 16, 2015, 41.
19 These 3 sentences werent in the sermon when I took it into the pulpit, but as I
preached it I thought, You know, its time for some honesty, and I honestly would
love to see all the sexual stuff in itand thats not a good thing. Delivering the last
paragraph here is kind of a blur, but I think I recommended the congregation watch
Schindlers List (has all the elements of 50 Shadesviolence, nudity, sex, personal
redemption, etc., but actually fits the criteria I put forth here). I think you should
watch it, too. Great film.
20 A friend of mine posted on Facebook on February 12, Fifty Shades of Grey: finally
something progressives and conservatives can detest together. And in a comment
she said, My news feed is currently awash with posts from folks across the whole
spectrum decrying it. Granted, its for different reasons, but at least were all
paddling in the same direction.

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Were called to thoughtfully, prayerfully engage all parts of the culture around us, taking
the great story of ultimate transformation and redemption in Jesus to all people in all
times in everything we do. May Gods Spirit guide you as you do just that, in the movie
theater or wherever you go. Amen.21

21 Also helpful in preparing for this sermon were Kim Gaines Eckert, So Much More
to Sex Than Fifty Shades, Christianity Today her-meneutics Blog, accessed February
12, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/august/so-much-more-tosex-than-fifty-shades-of-grey.html?paging=off. And Jonalyn Fincher, Is There
Anything Redeeming in the 50 Shades Trilogy? Christianity Today her-meneutics
Blog, accessed February 9, 2015,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/june/is-there-anything-redeeming-in50-shades-trilogy.html?paging=off.