In the midst of the clutter of books and paperwork, you will find a few odd knickknacks in the pastor’s study:  a bit of First Baptist, past and present, with the home communion set used by Dr. Towart alongside my own set;  a commemorative sheet of US Postage stamps celebrating the Star Wars films guarded by a Storm Trooper windup toy found at a ABW tag sale, a modest collection of icons (odd in the sense that “icons” are usually not found in Baptist minister’s studies), and finally, the prize of my collection, action figures from The Simpsons, complete with the playset recreating the church attended by the Simpson family (clergy action figure, but not batteries, included).

For more years than I care to admit, I have watched the show with a sense of delight, though again, some might think it strange that a minister watches the show. I tell people that I watch the most religious show on television. Indeed, an entire book is given over to the spiritual side of the show: The Gospel According to the Simpsons, by journalist Mark Pinsky.

When you look at most television shows today, the Simpson family is fairly unique. They are one of the few families on television who go to church, and not just when the writers need to do an obligatory Christmas episode. The Simpsons attend the vaguely malinline Protestant “First Church of Springfield”. Most television shows, if they bother with religion at all, use a generic chapel-like setting for a funeral or wedding. (And in the case of soap operas, they can be both at the same time!) The Simpsons are churchgoers, year round.

That is not to say that they are perfect people. Bart occasionally plays pranks, including the time he changed one of the hymns to a rock song parody called “In the Garden of Eden”. Lisa attends worship with her family, yet she is more interested in the contemplative Buddhist tradition. Mother Marge and baby Maggie usually look on in some dismay when Homer, the patriarch of the family, falls asleep in the pews, or says or does something usually inappropriate.

Nonetheless, the Simpson family attends worship, alongside their many neighbors, coworkers, and friends, singing hymns, praying prayers, and keeping each other awake during the sermon. In other words, the Simpsons are not too far off reality.

If you were to visit First Church, how would you spot Homer in the crowd? Just listen for something breaking.

When you visit the First Church of Springfield, the odds are likely that the guy who bumped your car as he pulled in, asked you during worship if it was okay to make change in the offering plate, and then raced past you to get the last doughnut at coffee hour before you could, that guy is Homer Simpson. The person who held the door open for you, said good morning cheerfully, and decided to share his doughnut with you because Homer got the last one, that guy is another regular church-goer: Ned Flanders.

Ned Flanders is the Simpsons’ next-door neighbor, an earnest Christian now widowed, raising two young boys. Flanders is the epitome of what some persons believe Christians are like: naïve to a fault, all “goody two shoes”, and a little detached from the realities of the world. In an episode aired a few weeks ago, when Homer has a raucous backyard Mardi Gras party, Ned is the only one excited (or even aware) that when the clock strikes midnight, the penitential season of Lent begins. He counts down the seconds with excitement, as if Dick Clark watching the ball-drop on New Year’s Eve, and says to the inebriated crowd, “It’s Ash Wednesday, my friends. Time to put down those gins and confess your sins!”

Considering the show is now in Season 20, it has been providential that the ever changing group of writers have left questions of faith part of the mix, rather than just a throwaway gag for an episode. Twenty seasons and counting, The Simpsons takes a moment to tweak religious life while poking fun at politics, home life, and popular culture.

Homer and Ned are often at the heart of the show’s critique of religious life. Ned is a person who tries to live an upright, moral life. Homer is bored stiff by church, and sometimes, he will do the bare minimum to keep his wife happy on Sunday mornings. That is not to say that Homer is without his redemptive points. I believe Homer gets Christianity. In one episode, Bart finds Homer reading a Bible. “What’s it about, dad?” Homer says earnestly, “It seems to be about a bunch of messed up people…well, except for that guy” (i.e. Jesus).

As if in fulfillment of his reading of Scripture, Homer acts as a messed up person in his day-to-day living. He hectors poor Ned across the backyard fence. Homer borrows lawn mowers and everything else from Ned without bothering to return it. (Most recently, a sight gag involves Homer drinking coffee at the kitchen table. The cup’s label reads “Ned”.) You would think that Ned and Homer could not exist in the same room, let alone the same church. Yet, if it’s Sunday in Springfield, you will find Ned and Homer in the pews.

Like I said earlier, the show does not seem too far from reality. In the text from 1 John, we read of an early Christian writer speaking about the choices before us. In this particular passage, we are told abide in God as children of God, or if we choose unrighteous ways, it is as if we are children of the devil. The writer of 1 John reflects on the paths we choose with the life of faith. We can know the words, we can go through the rituals, however, when it comes down to it, will we live out the faith?

Admitted, the language of 1 John sounds a bit troubling: No one who sins abides in Christ. Those who do so are children of the devil. In the hands of fundamentalist Christianity, this sort of text is catnip for stern Calvinists, feeding a worldview where Garrison Keillor claims even the faithful do not feel “saved, just merely on parole”. Where would we fit in? All of us are sinners, and not one of us is capable of leading a perfect, sin free life. As Homer Simpson reads the Bible, indeed, we are a bunch of messed up people.

First John is best read in light of the gospel of John, as John’s gospel is thought to be the most direct influence, and where the epistle gets its likely authorship or at least inspiration. In John’s gospel, we are told that Christ comes as “the way, the truth, and the light”. Following Christ is about one’s intentionality. You follow Christ or you do not. The world will not readily see the way of Jesus. It is only those who choose to do so who will learn the ways of abiding in Christ. Christians still struggle with keeping the faith, however, there are those who will make poor choices, or outright ignore the way of faith offered to us by Christ.

Some scholars suggest that this edgy writing of1 John reflects the angst of a faithful Christian speaking about watching believers who were straying. The language of “children of the devil” might be metaphorical language, sharpened by the exasperation of one person seeing others making the wrong choices, watching people take leave faithfulness to God with little concern or sense of consequence.

In the midst of his grumble, the epistle writer gives us this wonderful word:

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

The Christian faith does have more grace than perhaps 1 John makes it sound. We are all sinners, yet in God’s grace, we are able to be the redeemed and reconciled people of God. At the same time, if we take seriously this hope of God coming back at the end of things, we ought to live each day in hopeful, faithful anticipation and live our days in this messed up world as people striving to be called “children of God”.

We live in a world of Neds and Homers. In fact, we may find ourselves somehow mirrored in the antics of Homer or the earnest yet somewhat neurotic Ned. We even go to church with them. Along the way, though, it is still up to us to decide how to live out our lives. Do we keep the faith perfunctorily, legalistically, or dismiss it altogether? The New Testament tells us of God’s promised end as well as ways to live out life in the meantime. The Church, generation to generation, aims to be that anticipatory, hope-filled people whom embody the best of what it means to live in the now and the not yet. Nonetheless, it is ultimately a matter of personal choice. Do we choose to be God’s children?