Considering Culture (9)

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

So we are still treking through my no-so-recent seminar on culture (sorry, I didn’t think it would take this long.)

We are at the point of considering the consequences of the biblical story and our place in it. Here are some culturally-related starting points…

First, if we are part of the new creation, our lives should reflect the new creation. We can look at this from many different perspectives. We’ve already quoted 1 Cor 5:17. This may imply more than simply our individual lives are newly created, but it certainly doesn’t say less. We are already — in some sense — part of the new creation and our lives should show that. This must cover all aspects — including our involvement with creation and in culture. To borrow a rough train of thought from Paul — do we think that because the world is going to be re-created that we can exploit the present one and act as if it is optional whether we work in line with the way God want things to function? How can this be?! We have seen the way things should be, the place where mourning disappears, etc. Can we live in a way that subverts this now?

Second, remember that we said that the Creator is glorified by a correctly functioning creation. So, we work with the way things and try to bring them close to God’s intentions be cause that act in itself brings glory to God. Our lives should glorify God by fitting in with that correct functioning.
This isn’t a stale and fixed thing — recall that we said culture was what we did with the freedom that God has given us. One aspect of ‘correct functioning’ is that we use that freedom and act creatively.

Third, in reflecting the new creation now, we proclaim God’s new creation in the present. As Tom Wright points out in an old Veritas talk So What?, we can proclaim in many — including non-verbal — ways. We don’t work for correct operating of creation in the hope that it gives us an opportunity to explain ‘the gospel’, but primarily because such work is a proclamation in itself.

As we said earlier (repeatedly), we know this on the level of personal piety — I bring glory to God by living my life in accordance with His intentions. But we cannot simply restrict ourselves to ourselves to this; we have to let it ripple out into our culture-making — I bring glory to God by working for culture that is in accordance with His intentions (in whatever way is appropriate).

Of course, it will take thinking to understand what this means in the areas we touch. It is not necessarily obvious and we must be sure not to restrict it to catagories that we are comfortable with. For instance, we might be clear about the way all this applies to our personal actions at work (treating others fairly, etc.) but what about the impacts for the products of our work, etc.?

In all this we need to work to understand where we are and to act for healing:

…we should seek to comprehend the good of God-made structures, counter the lies and heal the scars of sin, and contribute to the development of neighbour-loving relationships and God honouring cultural development. The biblical gospel is the good news of the kingdom, the healing and restoratin of creation itself. Jesus himself is constantly referring to his work as the gospel of the kingdom. He offers not only forgiveness but also healing and guidance toward a new way of being human in the world. Jesus cares about healing his diseased creation. He is the good physician, and we are the orderlies instructed to attend to the healing process.
(From The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness by Opitz and Melleby)

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Permalink | February 7th, 2008

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