Order out of Chaos - Part 2 (the brokenness and true diversity of culture)

2. We also learn about the brokenness of culture in Isaiah.

I think we first see it here in Isaiah by the way of contrast. We have a perfect culture here. Everything is working right (18 and on): no violence, no exploitation, all of the races are getting together and working together so there is no class, racial conflict, there is no sorrow... but we know that our culture is filled with that.

Why?

Not because cultural activity is wrong, but it is because of the way it is being done, the way it has been done throughout history. The reason why this cultural picture in Isaiah is perfect is because all of the collective cultures are bringing their riches to God and they are doing their work for the glory of God.

The alternative to this can be seen in Genesis 11, where the first city (at least the first the Bible speaks of) is being built - the Tower in the city of Babel. There was nothing wrong with the architecture, the economics, the art, or the physical sciences it would have taken to build it. A city was being built and all of these activities were good, but yet Genesis 11:4 says the reason this was done was so that they could make a name for themselves....

Obviously our work is important to human fulfillment - if God is a worker, and God’s spirit does what it does, and we are made in His image, then doing my job well is crucial to my fulfillment as a human being made in the image of God.

BUT if you get to the place where your work and your job is the only way that you know that you are important or that you have value - when that begins to happen you begin to see destructiveness in the culture. It is natural to say that a job is part of who you are. But when you get to the place where you look at your job and say NOW I know I am important - as you look at your status, your money, what you are doing - then it destroys everything else because you will walk over anything and everyone to get what you think makes you significant... Men and women do not back down lightly when they think their whole reason for getting out of the bed in the morning is compromised.

Maybe I am cynical but I don’t think people become doctors to primarily relieve suffering, but to bring their families up in the world. People become lawyers not because they have a passion for justice in the world, but to bring their families up in the world. We might start off with the noble idea, but if we are honest, I think we would see that the very dark places of our hearts pervert those good intentions quickly and easily.

I think it is worthy to note here an interesting story I have heard about soldiers on the allies side in WW2. It was surprising to hear how some of these people were happy for the very first times in their lives as soldiers. Why? Because, according to their own accounts, for the first time in their lives they found themselves not doing something for the pay, for social standing, but for the sake of working together to get something done that benefited everyone. In a small way, during this war, these soldiers experienced a bit of shalom. Instead of working just to make money, to get ahead, they began to work together for the flourishing of the human community. It was a major step away from making a name for themselves. They found themselves happy, and then helping...

Daniel Bell, writer of the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism has written that economic growth is fueled by thrift, honesty, and delayed gratification. Without getting into it too much here, I think the basic point has some validity here in that those who invest in the community and those who see that there are things more important then individual profit fuel profitableness. They are the ones not walking over everyone else. And they do this when profit is not ultimate or does not define who they are. When profit becomes an end in itself, and not used within the means God created it for, it creates our brokenness.

But if and when you get an identity, a sense of being a special creation of God and a sense of being loved, that is so deep, that is a part from your work; and if and when you get an allegiance that is above and beyond making a profit and finding societal status the way you do, your work will begin to renew your community. We cannot bring in utopia, but if you are able to change in these areas you will become part of cultural renewal. The way in which you manage people, the way in which you treat your own money...

here is an example of how i think this might work: why do we hold onto our money? Because we ‘need’ to live in certain places and we ‘need’ to have certain things, so we can feel a certain way about ourselves because we are not totally secure on the inside with who we are. We have to let people and societal status give us our place in the world. But when God becomes your God, rather then money or when God becomes your security, your identity, your validity, your beauty, then money just becomes money. And then you can give it away, and that brings about justice, that brings about the flourishing of the human community - the culture is broken at its heart and we can begin to be agents of renewal.

3. There is a true diversity of culture in the end. An intriguing thing about Revelation and Isaiah 60, is that national, racial, cultural distinctions are sustained in the renewed earth. “Every tongue, tribe and nation” in Revelation, are now “in the city of God”. There are different tongues, tribes, peoples, and nations here. And notice that every culture brings something different. In Isaiah 60 some cultures bring the herd, some bring the gold, some bring the incense.

Why? What does it mean?

This must mean at least two things:

(1) that God has put His common grace into EVERY single culture, so that every single culture has certain themes and certain strengths and contributions to make to the ENTIRE flourishing of the human race that cannot be replaced. We need them all. God DOES NOT want cultural homogeneity.

And yet, on the other hand, they must bring it all to the Lord. I think this is what this means, (2) every culture has a strength, some the individual is emphasized, some the family, some power, some wisdom, some tradition, some skepticism and questioning, but when these things become ultimate in a life, when they are made into an idols, made into gods, THEN they become destructive. God says that you must be converted in heart, and make Him the center of your life and THEN culture will work the way it is supposed to work where you will be making a contribution rather then basically hurting the human race by the idolization of your particular strength....

Someone might say after this, ‘So even though all of these cultures are good they still need to be converted? That is the trouble with you Christians, you are always trying to convert people, and you must not impose your culture on somebody else by trying to make them a Christian.’

Lemin Sanneh, an African professor at Yale, would like to challenge that. What you seem to be saying is that Christianity belongs to some cultures and not all.

Lemin wrote a book called ‘Whose Religion is Christianity?’ Although I have not read it (it is on my ever growing list of books I need to read) I have read excerpts where Sanneh is very tired of people saying to Christians that they ‘mustn't impose your culture on them, you mustn't try and convert Africans because you are trying to destroy their culture.’ In other words, Sanneh says, ‘you are saying that Christianity belongs to certain peoples and not others.’ HE is upset, HE is offended. In one excerpt of the book he says that every culture has a base line narrative. Paul in the Bible said that the Jews want power and the Greeks want wisdom. Every culture has them, even today, every culture has certain things that they are after. Sanneh says that the African culture knows that the world is filled with spiritual forces, especially dark forces. And so they have asked, as a culture, how are we going to address that? They looked at their tribal religions and although they believed in these forces, they had no answer on how to overcome them. And they looked at the modern secularism that was coming and saw that it laughed at their Africaness because it said that they couldn’t believe in miracles, they can’t believe in demons. He mentioned that that is “cultural totalitarianism”. And then they looked at Christianity, and this is what Sanneh has said has been happening, “Christianity answered the great cultural challenge of our hearts. People sensed in their hearts that [Jesus] did not mock their respect for the sacred, and he did not mock their clamor for an invincible savior, and so they beat their sacred drums for him until the stars skipped and danced in the skies. And after they danced the stars were not little anymore, Christianity helped Africans become renewed Africans, not remade Europeans.”

There is a true cultural diversity here in Isaiah and Revelation. God does not want cultural homogeneity. But He also says, ‘Come to me! And then the great grace that I have given to every single culture, the plot line of the story I have given to every single culture will find its happy ending.'