Culture Encounter

 

On this Father’s Day, we are diving into a couple of stories in the Bible that are pillars of the Scriptures and have influenced our culture at large.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, which has inspired some amazing artwork through the centuries, teaches us about God’s unrelenting Fatherly love.  The image of the Father, day after day, waiting and longing for his train-wreck of a son to come home gives great hope to a total train-wreck like me!  The Hebrew has a word for this kind of love, it’s called Chesed (sounds like the King James Bless-ed but with a really rough “CH” sound on the front – imagine trying to mimic the static on a radio)

The account of Abraham and Isaac is the other story we examine this morning, and it is a ROUGH one.  God gives Abraham and Sarah exactly what they’ve longed for their entire married life (a long marriage!), and then tells Abraham he has to sacrifice their young, long-awaited son of promise.  It’s confusing, and heartbreaking, and torturous to read.  The ending is wonderful, because the angel says, “Abraham, Abraham, don’t lat a hand on the boy or do anything to him!”  A happy ending indeed, but only because an alternate sacrifice was provided.

I was reading a great book called, The Forgotten Jesus, by Robby Gallatry.  While he has PLENTY of quote-worthy things, one of the best things in the book is a quote from Donald Barnhouse who wrote – “God was instilling a reflex in the minds of his people that every time they thought of sin they would think of death.  For Sin means death.  It means the death of the sinner or the death of a Savior.”

In this week’s sermon, we explore WHY God would have the story of Abraham’s call to sacrifice Isaac in the Bible.  When we see GOD as our Father, and understand what HE sacrificed for us, we can then see what it means that he is also the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son.  This GRACE is the hardest thing for us to ever understand.  But it is also the biggest blessing we will ever have in our lives.

Happy Father’s Day!

 

Painting of the Holy Spirit descending by Alessandro Filipepi Botticelli

Pentecost is the celebration of the birth of the Church.  Jesus had ascended into heaven 10 days before the feast, and in his parting words to the disciples he said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The Holy Spirit did arrive in a powerful way during the Jewish festival of Pentecost, a commemoration of Moses going up on the Holy Mountain to receive the 10 Commandments.  The first Pentecost did not go so well.  Moses came down the mountain to see that the people had managed to break the First Commandment in dramatic fashion just moments after the command had been given!  They worshiped other gods, golden calves.  The result was ugly – 3,000 people lost their lives.

Centuries later, when the Holy Spirit caused Peter to preach the Gospel, the result was beautiful, 3,000 people were baptized and brought into God’s eternal family.  Instead of 3,000 going from life to death, 3,000 were led from death to life.  We see that God wants to be in relationship with his people – and his people to be in relationship to one another.

Today we introduce our Summer Sermon Series:
We will spend the summer exploring how God calls us to constantly reconnect with three key relationships – With God, with our Church and Family, and with our Community. We kicked off the series with this sermon on Pentecost.

This is an essential lesson for our current cultural climate.  We live in times when we are surrounded with superficial connections.  These connections promise a substitute for the messiness of real relationships and conversation, but fail to deliver.  Think of all the variety of apps available to help people find a ‘hook-up,’ but fail to help people find truly fulfilling relationships.

If you simply search the terms “Connected But Alone” you will find all kinds of articles come up.  I wanted to share four with you here.

THIS is a wonderful TED Talk by the very insightful Dr. Sherry Turkle
THIS is an article from the Independent
THIS is an great article from Christianity Today
THIS is from the NYT blog awhile back

All are worth checking out.

We live in a culture that is desperate for real and substantial relationships.  And God’s church, born on Pentecost, is uniquely positioned to be the answer to the isolation so many face.  God wants us to know HIM, and to know HIM together.  Let’s go on this journey of reconnection TOGETHER this summer!

A few weeks ago, our Wednesday Evening Bible Study got to the section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells us to tear out our right eyes and cut off our right hands if we use them to lust.  Not easy stuff to read:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.  (Matthew 5:27-30)

There is always the question, “Does God really want me to disfigure myself?”  The answer, I have to believe, is no.  What I mean is, If I pluck out my right eye, I’m still VERY capable of lusting with my left.  Same goes for the hands.

So beyond getting our attention, and telling us that he takes the issue of lust very seriously, what else could be behind Jesus’ stern command to pluck and cut?  There are undoubtedly any number of opinions about this, but I couldn’t help but think of a short video I saw decades ago by author, speaker, and filmaker, Jean Kilbourne Ed.D.

What I saw was one of four different iterations of her video series, “Killing Us Softly.”  That video had a huge impact on me then, and still sticks with me today.  Kilbourne spoke about the exploitation and degradation of women in advertising.  One point that really got me thinking is that in ads, women are often seen as just parts.  The images often don’t show an entire woman, just breasts, or butt, or legs, etc.  This “parting out” of a whole person allows us to see her not as a human being, but as a mere object meant for our own pleasure.  This is dangerous territory.

In her recent Tedx talk, which I highly recommend, she made a powerful statement:  “Women’s bodies are dismembered in ads.  Not only dismembered, but insulted.”  She went on to say, “When women are objectified, there is always a danger of violence.”

Kilbourne has given me a different perspective on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.  As she argues against objectifying women, seeing women as mere “parts” and making women more susceptible to violence because of degrading attitudes, in a way she is mirroring Jesus words to his followers – “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away…  And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.”

Is Jesus telling us to consider before we lust, or look at pornographic images, that we are tearing a real person apart in our minds?  That before we look at her as mere object or a collection of parts, or make it easier to commit violence upon her, that we should first be willing to see ourselves as an object, to be willing to make ourselves into parts (eyes and hands removed from our bodies), and be willing to subject ourselves to violence (plucking and cutting)?

I’m not sure. But it makes me think about the whole issue in a more personal way. Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If we can’t stomach the idea of tearing ourselves in to pieces, we shouldn’t do it to someone else, physically or spiritually.

Continue reading “10,000 Freaking Steps”

I haven’t posted anything for awhile, so here is the sermon – ENCOUNTER GENEROSITY, which started a number of great conversations with our people.  One young woman told me that she was at her favorite coffee place when the barista was going to make her usual grande coffee.  She said, “No, make it a tall and keep the change.”  He was puzzled and asked her why.  She said, “do you really want to know?”  When he said he did, she said, “My pastor has challenged us to be more generous, and I am trying to see how it works.”  The barista chided her told her not to give her money away and gave her a grande.

However, his tune changed when she came in a few days later and was greeted as “Giving Girl.”  He said, “Grande coming up?”  And she said, “NO!  Tall and keep the change.”  This time he replied, “you really are doing this!  It seems to make you smile, I’ll try it too!”  Great stuff!

This last week we dove into the an important topic – ENCOUNTER PATIENCE.  It is amazing how much time we spend in the “fight or flight” parts of our brain when God has given us such miraculous ways of thinking, reasoning, and processing emotions with the rest of our brain!  Patience is so needed in our culture today!

Lastly, we recently explored the topic of REAL Commitment in the form of the Biblical Covenant in the sermon ENCOUNTER COMMITMENT.  You may never look at a marriage ceremony the same way again!

Here are some further thoughts following this week’s sermon ENCOUNTER NOTICING.

The 1%.  This is the term the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd used to decry those in America who have a disproportionately high level of wealth.  I’ve never been accused of being in the 1%.  The question is, should I be?

I’m not saying this because I’m writing this post whilst wearing diamond slippers as I hover over my vast estate in my state of the art helicopter (wouldn’t THAT be cool).  No, I’m saying this because as far as wealth and “stuff” go, I’m much closer to the 1% level when I look at what I have compared to what most people in the WORLD have.  Shoot, I may be past the 1% mark for all I know.

My mind goes to the recent, and very justified, outrage people expressed over the contaminated water situation in Flint, Michigan.  Many poor, predominantly black families had been drinking water with ridiculously high levels of lead.  Why?  Because leaders at the top decided to try to save a few bucks.  The anger was felt all over the nation because here in the USA, clean water is a given, it is rightly considered a basic human right.

Not so in much of the world.  This just shows how incredibly blessed and wealthy we are here in our country.  People all over the globe would weep if they could simply turn on faucet and have clean water come gushing out.  They would raise their hands to the heavens if someone gave them a toilet which safely and efficiently takes bodily waste away from their home and to a treatment facility.  Do you think about this?  Do you know where your waste treatment facility is?  Probably not.  Hardly anyone does, here in the land of plenty.

You are probably in the 1% in the world.  So here we are, rich in stuff and resources more than we know in America.  But here in the USA, we are so terribly poor in at least one area.

The National Science Foundation puts out a General Social Survey.

In this survey there were 2 statistics that have troubled me, and kept me up at night.  One involves a question that asks if a person has ANYONE in their life with whom they can discuss important issues.  The answer 25% report that they do not.  1 IN 4 SAY NO!  They don’t feel that they have ONE PERSON in their life with whom they can discuss important things, be they good or bad.  Let that sink in.  How isolated have we become?

It gets worse.  If you ask the same question but say “Do you have anyone with whom you can discuss important matters aside from immediate family?”  The number jumps to 53%.  Over half don’t have anyone outside their family who cares to talk with them about real issues.

This doesn’t mean we aren’t using our voices to speak to people.  It means that we aren’t REALLY talking with people.  Just like there is a difference between hearing and listening.  There is a difference between saying hi and really getting into life on life conversation.

In our country, most of us aren’t in the 1% according to the Occupy Wall Street definition, but according to the General Social Survey, a whole lot of us are in the 53%, or the 25%  Something needs to change because those last two places are dangerous places to be.

Can you help be a lifeline to someone who feels they have no one?  My mind goes to Acts 3, when Peter and John come across a man who is in desperate need and this happens, “Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!”

One of the greatest services you can offer in our culture today is simply being willing to stop, notice real people, look at them and say, “look at me, I want to talk to you.”

On in 4 people you see feel they have no one, and more feel they need a friend outside of their family.  Being that person can change a life.

Last week we looked at the whole idea of what it means to have REAL Truth in our sermon Encounter Truth.   This Saturday and Sunday we will be digging deeper into this idea with as sermon on Encountering Authority.  As I studied for this sermon and wrote about it, I realized that the whole concept of truth/authority/freedom is a HUGE issue in our culture today, if not one that comes to mind immediately when we look around at our society.

I couple of months ago, I got a lesson in a current cultural view of authority when I had an opportunity to have lunch with a high school friend of mine Bryan Kramer.  He lamented that so many people suffer from something called GURU SYNDROME. I had never heard of this phenomenon, but I did a little research, and sure enough, it’s a real thing (not that I doubted Bryan, he told me to look it up!).

Guru Syndrome manifests itself in a variety of ways, but the gist of it is that many people are looking for an expert to follow, and in this age of social media lots of people claim to be experts who have no business using this title!  The problem is that people are looking for some sort of authority to help make their lives better and will pay to read a book, or go to a conference, or subscribe to a newsletter of anyone who claims to be able to shoot them up the corporate ladder.  There are a lot of “GURUS” out there, but few that have any real record of substance.

However, this helps us see that hardwired into our hearts is a deep desire to connect to a real person that we feel can really help us in real life.   We seek authority, but for selfish reasons.  I’ll listen to you, and do what you say, not to serve you, but because its better for ME!

We want this because we think we know what is best.  Getting what we want isn’t always the best!  There is a great Twilight Zone that speaks to this.  Watch an episode called, “A Great Place to Visit” and you will see what I mean.  Then last line will haunt you for a long time (I first watched this episode 25 years ago, and I still remember it!).

What we need is an authority that is worthy of submitting to and serving. If we look to other people for this, we will be disappointed time and time again.  If we look to God, we will find what we need, but it still isn’t easy.  Because if Christ is LORD, then he can tell us things we don’t want to hear!  I think of this amazing blog post from the President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University when this topic of Biblical Authority comes us.  Read it for yourself, I don’t want to ruin it!

Blessings to you as you seek God, and grow in understanding who he is.  Once you begin to see the whole of him through the cross and empty tomb, you will learn to things – God loves you, and you can trust him with your life.  I can’t think of a better authority then that!

 

This weekend we looked at the next installment of our Culture Encounter Summer Sermon Series.  The sermon title was ENCOUNTER REFUGEES.

One of the passages we used was an obscure couple of verse from Leviticus
⁹ “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.  Leviticus 19:9-10

I love these verses for their practicality!  Since the days of Moses, God’s people were told to harvest their fields in a peculiar manner.  While their fields we rectangles God’s command was to harvest in an oval.  This left the corners of the fields with tall stalks of grain that were to be free for the poor and refugees in their midst.

Can you imagine the power of the tall corners of the fields?  People in trouble would see those tall stalks as monuments to love and concern for neighbor.  Many people who might have starved would have been filled with wonder and awe that a whole culture thought of poor they had not yet even met.

The question for us is this – What can our “corners” be in our culture today.  How can we communicate to people we haven’t even met yet that we love them, that we care about them, that our relationship with God makes their lives better?

Something to think about!

RECAPPING LAST WEEK

Last week, Pastor Jeff Browning of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Garden City New York led us through the book of Jonah and the topic ENCOUNTERING ENEMIES.  It was great to have him here, and a huge thanks to our friends in New York for loaning him to us for the weekend!