Christianity and Culture

  • James Harleman
  • May 25, 2008

On Thursday, May 31st, 2007, at Mars Hill Church's West Seattle campus, Pastor James Harleman gave the fifth of a five-part lecture series called "Christianity and..." James' topic was Christianity and Culture. What is Culture? "By the word culture, we have to understand the sum total ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation. Central to culture is language. The language of a people provides the means by which they express their way of perceiving things and of coping with them. Around that center one would have to group their visual and musical arts, their technologies, their law, and their social and political organization." "And one must also include in culture, and as fundamental to any culture, a set of beliefs, experiences, and practices that seek to grasp and express the ultimate nature of things, that which gives shape and meaning to life, that which claims final loyalty. I am speaking, obviously, about religion. Religion—including the Christian religion--is thus part of culture." Lesslie Newbigin Why do we create culture? God is our Creator and He made us creative to create culture (Genesis 1:28). The cultural mandate remains in effect even though sin has entered the world (Genesis 9:7). People create culture simply because they bear the image of God the Creative Creator.
    * Culture is the tool and trade of worship – culture-making is the manifestation of our worship
    * We are all worshippers – everyone worships
    * (Harold Best, Unceasing Worship)
    * Culture reflects who/what we worship
    * Culture reveals our sinfulness
    * Culture is the medium through which Jesus reaches us (incarnation)
    * The Church – the true church - is the place where the gospel intersects culture Why does culture seem corrupted? As culture is the tool and trade of worship, we experience a cultural exchange when we exchange suppress the truth of God and exchange it for a lie. This permeates the culture we create. The values of each culture, the language of each culture, the social mores of each culture are built by people with distorted filters. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:18 – 25 Personally, each one of us engages in this idolatrous cultural exchange due to our own sin, and exacerbated by the culture we are shaped by. We support and create culture that glorifies idolatry. These cultures act as incorrect lenses that distort our worldview, feeding off of our own deceitful hearts. Thankfully, the Gospel of Jesus Christ restores a Christian's worldview, enabling someone who lives for Jesus to engage culture and reject, receive, or redeem it for God's glory. Cultural Engagement: Understanding our Culture and Redefining Entertainment Acts 17 – Paul's sermon
    * Paul walks the streets, examines idols, reads poetry – he knows the culture of his audience.
    * Paul unashamedly exploits the culture and its tools for the sake of the gospel.
    * Likewise, Christianity must change contextually to address its audience
    * Our commission must involve:
    * plundering a culture for its contextual tools
    * entering a culture and using its own weapons against it
    * overcoming enemies by turning their own devices toward Christ
    * we should always be looking to pillage Living in an Entertainment Culture entertainment Pronunciation: "en-t&r-'tAn-m&nt Function: noun
    * the act of entertaining
    * archaic : MAINTENANCE, PROVISION
    * something diverting or engaging en-ter-tain Pronunciation: "en-t&r-'tAn Function: verb
    * archaic : MAINTAIN b obsolete : RECEIVE
    * to show hospitality to
    * to keep, hold, or maintain in the mind : to receive and take into consideration Where is "mindless" a part of entertainment here? Entertainment is not evil. Webster's definition defines two postures toward entertainment: one is "diversion" and the other is "engagement". Arguing that "It's just entertaining" is not an acceptable answer to "Why do you like this?" "It's just entertaining" is a euphemism for "me not think".
    * Why does it push your entertainment buttons?
    * What is it engaging within you, or diverting you FROM?
    * What is "entertainment" to a Christian? More to the point, what should entertainment be to a Christian? Diversion or Engagement? Should entertainment disconnected from Mission? Is Sabbath to be mindless? If entertainment is for self-indulgence and absorption, then we should probably just stick with our Bible. Sadly, that would belie the purpose of our Bible. If we're truly living biblical lives, "mission" and "entertainment" should be synonymous. Entertainment should not be about feeling happy either. Things that entertain (things that we entertain in our minds) should distress, impress, disturb, encourage, convict, excite, and more. Scripture certainly does this, and hopefully chief above all other things; our interactions with others certainly does; the daily newspaper most definitely does; I would think that television and film and video games would be very much the same. Depiction does not always mean glorification, and our Bible is the perfect example of this. Paul was not a cultural couch potato; he was entertained by finding in-roads to the gospel through what he filtered. We must always walk by the Spirit with discernment and choose our battles strategically. What is "safe" to engage? Nothing is safe to watch. It disturbs me when Christians follow FCC and MPAA [ratings] guidelines and just assume and consume without discernment. Disney films have terrible philosophy and theology. Some of the "family" films out there contain the most subversive content because they are 95 percent wholesome with a subtle twist. This has always been Satan's most popular tactic. As a Christian, everything I watch makes me uncomfortable on some level, and it should; something's wrong if it doesn't. Even my Bible makes me uncomfortable in places, because I read about sinners who hurt each other and murderers and rapists and people who rebel against God and don't love Jesus or their neighbor. Many times it makes me uncomfortable because it surfaces similar sinful attitudes in me that I need to repent from. For the Christian, engaging film and media should be much the same way, only with even more discernment because it's not perfect, like Scripture. Philippians 4:8 is often the "champion verse" of those who say not to watch certain types of movies – or not to watch movies at all. However, they usually omit the surrounding verses. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. VERSE 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. God will guard our hearts and minds When I walk down the street and see an injustice, I am reminded that my God is a God of justice. When I hear someone profane the name of God in my presence, my mind recalls that God's name is holy. This verse is not talking about our stimulus, it's talking about our life in light of it. It does not mean we are to isolate ourselves so that we are only amidst things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. To truly pull this off, we would have to leave this world. The good news is that when we are confronted with bad examples and evil – or when we read or watch a tale that illustrates such – we are equipped by God to think about what is lovely, admirable and excellent in spite of the sinful world around us. That doesn't mean we go rushing in where we know we are weak in our sin, but it does mean that we do not shrink back from the marketplace (physical or ideological) or we have ceased to engage the culture around us like Paul did and cease to be evangelistic because we don't want to be exposed to sinners around us. The "logical" progression that kills evangelism 't know the culture or have any conversational connection, it even becomes "logical" that, if you don''Office Space are the type of people Jesus went and had dinner with. '

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