Cultural Awareness

Jack Radcliffe

Identity: The Shape of a Movement • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Cultural Awareness - we strive to translate the message of Jesus Christ in ways that will captivate the hearts of all. The spiritual condition of Athens provoked Paul to go to the synagogue and marketplace to be with and talk with anyone who was there about the good news. He was forced to share (put on trial like Socrates) his "strange" teaching with the assembly of governing council in Athens (caretakers of legislative, judicial, religions, cultural, and political matters). He proclaims the good news - give an explanation for his strange teachings - by connecting it with some of the language of their religious system. Many converts were gained.

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Introduction

Continuing our Identity Series

Cultural Awareness - we strive to translate the message of Jesus Christ in ways that will captivate the hearts of all.

Nashville: The Athens of the South. Replica of the Parthenon built in 1987. The Nashville Parthenon was constructed in 1897 as part of the Centennial Exposition, a six-month event held to celebrate Tennessee’s 100 years of statehood. Nashville had been colloquially known as the ‘Athens of the South’ – due primarily to the city’s focus on higher education - not common in the south then. the only full-scale replica of the Parthenon in the world. Architecture, art museum, weddings, etc.

Athens

Acts

At one time the intellectual centre of the ancient world.

Athens was an international destination.

Athenians and visitors to the city (tourists) were both moved by curiosity to hear something new and they had nothing better to do than enjoy intellectual stimulation.

Go there to get the latest on everything from scientific discovery to real and fake news, to religion.

Curiosity to hear something new and they had nothing better to do than enjoy intellectual stimulation.

The center of pagan philosophy and culture that on closer look, was philosophical superstition.

When Paul arrived, it was during his second missionary tour and he found the city was in a period of decline; living on its reputation.

The Agora

In Cleveland, OH - the Agora is an entertainment venue but in Athens, it was the marketplace.

Open place of assembly

The public internet - gathering place to hear and talk about the latest news, politics, ideas.

The word Agora (pronounced 'Ah-go-RAH’) is Greek for 'open place of assembly’ and, early in the history of Greece, designated the area in the city where free-born citizens could gather to hear civic announcements, muster for military campaigns or discuss politics. Later the Agora defined the open-air, often tented, marketplace of a city (as it still does in Greek) where merchants had their shops and where craftsmen made and sold their wares.

Later the Agora defined the open-air, often tented, marketplace of a city (as it still does in Greek) where merchants had their shops and where craftsmen made and sold their wares.

Think Depot Town or downtown Ann Arbor with a farmer’s market.

Paul's Pattern

‘He found himself confronted by a veritable forest of idols’, with vast numbers of images of Hermes all over the city and especially at the entrance to the agora (rsv market place) through which he probably walked.

There was in fact at Athens a blend of superstitious idolatry and enlightened philosophy.

Second Missionary journey

Acts 17:16–34 ESV

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Acts

Luke’s presentation of Paul’s encounter with cultured paganism.

Paul's Pattern

[SLIDE]

1. Synagogue - Jews and God fearers

2. Anyone he met in the marketplace. First to the Jew then the Gentile (everyone else).

He was a student of the culture wherever he went. Observed, learned.

He spent time with people of all walks in every place in the city - synagogue, marketplace - with anyone who happened to be there. Including the philosophers (academic).

[SLIDE] Response to Idols

Luke tells the story of Paul’s encounter with cultured paganism.

When Paul arrived ‘He found himself confronted by a forest of idols’,

Man-made images or representations worshiped as Gods - images of Hermes the Olympic god everywhere

Many idolaters literally serve idols: in ancient Egypt statues of gods were regularly and ritually clothed and fed.

The spiritual condition of Athens provoked Paul to go to the synagogue and marketplace to be with and talk with anyone who was there about the good news.

Marketplace

Not afraid

The condition of the city provoked Paul's spirit: full of idols.

Observed/learned of their many idols. A student.

Definition

The adoration and expression of praise to a god (including the God of Israel) as represented in an idol.

Idols, Idolatry. Man-made images or representations worshiped as deities; any natural or manufactured objects worshiped as deity; anything receiving worship other than the one true God. Idolatry is the spiritual worship of an idol. Many idolaters literally serve idols: in ancient Egypt statues of gods were regularly and ritually clothed and fed.

[SLIDE] Provoked, Distressed (angry)

Acts 17:48 - God doesn’t dwell in things made of human hands

Isaiah 40:18–20 ESV

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

Isaiah 40:18-20

[SLIDE] Engaged

Reasoned, discussed with people where they met, lived.

Come and See phase of discipleship

Epicureans

Materialistic. Nonexistent or very distant gods. Science and importance of pleasure and tranquility.

Stoics

Sometimes ridiculed (babbler)

Reason is the principle inherent in the structure of the universe.

Pantheistic concept of God. as the world-soul.

Stoics - Reason is the principle inherent in the structure of the universe. Pantheistic concept of God. as the world-soul. Ethics - individual self-sufficiency and duty.

Ethics - individual self-sufficiency and duty.

Not impressed with Paul

Babbler - bird picking up scraps in the gutter;

Loafer - equivalent to a someone with enough knowledge to be dangerous on the internet trying to sell you their system for leadership or financial success.

hey piece together things they've learned over time with no formal guidance or education.

Come and see

Conversation

18 - babbler, ignorant show-off

19 - 20 - Wanted to learn from him; know about this new teaching; wanted to understand.

Very smart people want to learn from someone they don't know. Must have been something about the WAY Paul went about talking with them. Engaging rather than off-putting.

[SLIDE] Took him to the Areopagus/MARS HILL

Prominent rise overlooking the city of Athens where the philosophers of the city gathered to discuss their ideas, some of which revolutionized modern thought.

At one time The Areopagus was an Athenian institution devoted to matters of justice, law, and governance.

The Areopagus was remembered for playing a leading role in the death of Socrates who was charged with introducing foreign deities into Athens.

Place where they met regularly to discuss the latest ideas. Intrigued by what he was saying and invited him.

The charge brought against Socrates is that he “does evil, for he does not acknowledge the gods whom the state acknowledges, while introducing other, novel divine beings”

the charge brought against Socrates is that he “does evil, for he does not acknowledge the gods whom the state acknowledges, while introducing other, novel divine beings”

Taken their to find out in detail what he was teaching because he was introducing a foreign God - some strange or foreign thing to their ears.

• The Areopagus was remembered for playing a leading role in the death of Socrates who was charged with introducing foreign deities into Athens.

Luke makes Paul look like a Socrates-like figure to show a kind of mock trial between early Christianity and Athens as the center of pagan philosophy and culture.

Luke presents Paul and the gospel as confronting the elite religious, cultural, and legal institutions of Athens. Not a backwoods, superstition but one worth of attention from society's most prestigious and elite institutions.

According to Xenophon,

Presumably Luke’s audience is intended to grasp the popular resonances of the Areopagus as the primary governing council over Athens, a council invested with the role of being the caretaker of legislative, judicial, religious, cultural, and political matters.

A Student of Their Culture

I can see you are very religious

Paul used the opportunity to identify with their context.

To listeners, complmentary

To readers, not complimentary so they could see the irony of the situation.

Most likely good to provide a way to engage the audience. For the readers though, Luke uses a connected noun indicating a derogatory sense so they would see the irony of the situation.

For all their religiosity, the Athenians were in reality thoroughly superstitious and lacking in knowledge of the true God.

This can be called "come and see" (Hull).

2. Connected the Gospel with it

3. Some believed and joined him

[SLIDE] Connecting the Gospel With Culture

Paul’s speech in presumes some basic knowledge of the institution of the Areopagus, Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, and the trial of Socrates.

In their religion there were glimpses of the Gospel

[SLIDE] Their Language

Connected the good news with the language of their religious system.

Paul uses language you would expect a Greek-speaking Jew to use, especially when talking with pagan worshipers.

[SLIDE] Their Religion/Philosophy - Took advantage of unknown God to proclaim who the unknown God is.

Not saying they were unknowingly worshiping the true God. Telling them who the true God is who was ultimately responsible for all the things in life they gave the unknown god credit for.

This is the God who made the universe and all it contains...therefore Lord of heaven and earth (OT description but also would have been accepted by Plato).

Paul in fact uses the insights of the philosophers in his attack on the beliefs of the Athenian populace; the Epicureans attacked superstitious, irrational belief in the gods, expressed in idolatry, while the Stoics stressed the unity of mankind and its kinship with God, together with the consequent moral duty of man. What Paul was doing was to side with the philosophers, and then demonstrate that they did not go far enough.

Paul in fact uses the insights of the philosophers in his attack on the beliefs

Epicureans - superstitious, irrational belief in the gods, expressed in idolatry

Stoics stressed the unity of mankind and its kinship with God and the moral duty of man.

What Paul was doing: side with the philosophers, this is what you’ve got right and then show them that they did not go far enough.

The job of a missionary is to express the gospel in terms that would be intelligible to the hearers without changing the essence of the message.

He proclaims the good news - give an explanation for his strange teachings - by connecting it with some of the language of their religious system, poets who shaped their culture.

24 - 34 - The Gospel

In their religion there were glimpses of the Gospel

[SLIDE] Three Ways

If we are his offspring, he is alive and isn't like anything we can imagine or make.

He's overlooked human ignorance up to now because you haven't known better. But now he is calling all to repent...radical life change.

A day is coming when he will judge the world by his standard - and the judge is Jesus and proof of all this is his resurrection from the dead.

3 Parts

[SLIDE] God is Lord of the World

Including other gods and all of creation

Creation and and does not need a temple or human cultic ritual

A God who is Creator and Lord clearly does not live in a temple made by human hands

[SLIDE] Man is God’s creation and needs God

Paul takes over pagan Greek poems, expressive of Stoic philosophy, and applies them to God: LIFE AND CONNECTION WITH GOD

Zoe (life) associated with Zeus.

Greeks: humanity is divine. Paul: humanity is the image of God.

He doesn't need us to provide him anything but rather is our source of life - life, breath, and everything.

God's purpose in all of it - humanity would seek after him to touch and find him.

The grateful longing of the heart of humanity for the God whose goodness we have experienced.

You don’t have to grope because God is near.

Seeking should not be difficult. The living God of Israel is near even though he is great.

Confirms this with two statements of pagan origin (poems) but used to support a Judeo-Christian doctrine of God.

[SLIDE] God and man are related; therefore idolatry is foolish

Now uses OT/Jewish thought to oppose Greek thought.

If men possess the spirit of God, they must surely recognize that God is Spirit and not capable of material representation.

For if men are in God’s image and are given the spirit of God, then a statue cannot portray the living God

You didn’t know this before - ignorant and God was prepared to overlook it

Now you know it and are no longer ignorant; he will no longer overlook it (A STATEMENT THAT FIT THEIR CONTEXT)

For if men are like God, it follows that an inanimate image cannot portray the living God; if men possess the spirit of God, they must surely recognize that God is Spirit and not capable of material representation.

God was prepared to overlook their ignorance, but now he will do so no longer, and calls on all men everywhere to repent.

Conclusion: APPEAL - give up your ideas of God and change your mind (REPENT)

Conclusion: give up your ideas of God and change your mind

There is a day for the world to be judged by one who has already been seated as judge - not the judges that used to meet here and found Socrates guilty like you are trying to do to me today

The one God raised from the dead

He treats the resurrection as historical fact and uses it as proof of the Jesus' appointment as judge.

It’s Your Choice

Now they were provoked.

Here's where the group began to form their opinions and the group was split.

Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul but bodily resurrection was alien to their thinking (body was earthly and evil/soul good).

Some laughed at him and dismissed him

This provoked his hearers.

We'll hear you another time - a more positive reaction...they longed that what Paul said was true.

But others wanted to hear more. When he left, some followed.

One, Dionysius, became the first bishop of Athens.

[SLIDE] Being Culturally Aware (Like Paul)

The bible offers abundant resources for living in a wildly diverse and contested world.

Clapp, A Peculiar People, 77.

To modern, privatized Christians, worship too easily connotates escape from the world and a removal from public life. We’ve given up that for which we were created.

NT Christians understood no distinction between private and public work of the church.

Liturgy - work of the people OR public work.

In Roman society, to build a bridge for a public road was an act of liturgy.

Military service was an act of liturgy.

Performances of the arts were acts of liturgy.

Jonah

Jonah didn’t want to prophesy in the streets of Ninevah - a city he hated and was angry with that God is no longer angry with.

He knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing.

This threatens Jonah because it challenges the specialness of him and his people.

It deprives him of an evil enemy.

Having a clearly defined enemy gives us a clear identity and course of action.

We become self-righteous opponents of evil dedicating our lives to fighting it to its end.

What happens when these enemies who have given us the definition of our goodness (not like them) are called into community alongside us?

Jonah goes to a city full of anger that God is no longer angry with.

[SLIDE] Crossing into Secular Boarders With the Gospel

[SLIDE] Truth 1

We live in a multi-cultural world.

[SLIDE] Truth 2

The church is culture: it is a system of language and other things that make sense of the otherwise chaotic and unrelated events in our lives.

The Christian narrative is my core story; the code of my life.

Thinking of ourself as a culture can help us appreciate the complexity of confronting a multicultural world of which we are a part.

Think about how someone else would feel coming into our culture.

[SLIDE] Truth 3

There are many church cultures.

The multiple church cultures engagement with cultures is complex.

We cannot decide to be for, against, over, under, or in paradox with it (Niebuhr).

Our engagement is on a case by case basis. Some of it we can embrace, others, reject, some we will be open to with changes or qualifications.

[SLIDE] Truth 4

Awareness and Engagement of the Christian Cultures with Societal cultures is not an option.

Ship Metaphor

We operate out of our own culture that provides our own roots, symbols, meanings and out of it constantly and diversely interacting with aspects of other cultures.

We’re in the ship of Christianity and it’s is the ground we stand on. We operate out of our own culture that provides our own roots, symbols, meanings.

We’re in our own ship but in lanes shared by hundreds of other ships, willing to learn form the shipbuilding and seafaring skills of others, trade at any port because we have a cargo we believe to be of infinite value to all.

But in lanes shared by hundreds of other ships where we interact with them and their cultures.

Willing to learn form the shipbuilding and seafaring skills of others, trade at any port because we have a cargo we believe to be of infinite value to all.

willing to learn form the shipbuilding and seafaring skills of others, trade at any port because we have a cargo we believe to be of infinite value to all.

The ship of Christianity is the ground we stand on. There is no neutral ground I can go to from which to judge it neutrally. I can only judge it from the perspectives I learn on other ships.

There is no neutral ground I can go to from which to judge it neutrally. I can only judge it from the perspectives I learn on other ships.

[SLIDE] Translating the Gospel

There is no genuine Christian formation and life apart from the body of Christ. Our witness is corporate more than individual.

Formal and conscious believes - stories and theologyRituals, practices, feelings, attitudes, assumptions. Worship is the center of Christian life. We are the church and we are the liturgy (work) - every day.

Think about how someone else would feel coming into our culture.

As a culture, we are changing and growing, often correcting ourselves, sometimes corrected by others but never pretending that we can or should want to withdraw from history, society, public affairs.

The ship of Christianity is the ground we stand on. There is no neutral ground I can go to from which to judge it neutrally. I can only judge it from the perspectives I learn on other ships.

The Basis for Translating the Gospel

[SLIDE] For the Gospel to be spread and adopted to the cultures of our time and place: LIVE OUR STORY

We must be a faith community that shows it is true - that God woos, changes and redeems people who are far from him.

Church culture as living tradition: being engaged by a God who is not through wooing, changing, and redeeming an estranged creation.

For faith to occur, to be passed on to those who don’t walk in the way of Christ, there must be a faith community.

By living our faith story - the gospel in a real, compelling and consistent way

It is compelling if it speaks to a variety of life experiences. It is persuasive if it is able to listen.

There is no genuine Christian formation and life apart from the body of Christ. Our witness is corporate more than individual.

Our story must have the power to take hold of our lives and transform it. If it’s not happening with us - if we’re not following it, why should anyone take it seriously?

We have to show the gospel is true in practice and reality.

Today, people will want to know our God when they see the vital and promising life-witness of our community.

A faith story must be consistent.It is compelling if it has spread and been adopted to a variety of cultures, times, places.

Discipleship (including evangelism) requires that we understand a convert becomes the member of a new race, family, humanity.

Our story must have the power to take hold of our lives and transform it. If it’s not happening with us - if we’re not following it, why should anyone take it seriously?

Biblical understanding of family. No nuclear family. Multi-generational extended family including servants. 50-100 people in a household. Would take in strangers

The society of the NT knew no separation between public and private life. Work, play, community service, worship all came together in the household. Not a privatized, isolated, sentimalized haven.

Define love. Myth of romantic love. Consumer sexuality. Spoiler Alert - Fidelity for the sake of better sex is consumer sexuality. Christian love is an enduring, open and generous love only through participating in the community called church. This is koinonia. Marriage is the key way we participate as sexual beings in an adventure of witnessing to and building up God’s kingdom on earth. After a number of years married, question is not: Am I still in love? Better question is are we stronger, deeper continuing as friends? Are we supporting and challenging each other in the faith, in service to one another, our children, our church, neighbors? Married people become people who love each other.

[SLIDE] Discipleship (including evangelism) requires that we understand a convert becomes the member of a new race, family, humanity.

Christianity before capitalism. Capitalism has been baptized. The protestant (not Christian) ethic enabled the spirit of capitalism. It rationalized and created a criteria of efficiency, making money honorable, and isolating/individualizing the believer. Revivals and making decisions for Christ are a consumer Christian activity. Sanctified personal choice. Evangelical revivalists played a powerful role in creating the climate for the rise of advertising. It aims to teach people that they have wants, which they didn’t recognize before and where those wants can be fulfilled. Phrase: being fed.

Character. Called to serve rather than consume. Open handed vulnerability and honesty. Mediating God’s care to humanity (stewardship), commitment to mission, Living like God’s kingdom has nothing to do with economic progress but the return of Jesus, living by our vision.Be multilingual. Understand consumerism because it is the language (an unknown god) of our society. it may become so dominant that it is more truth and reality for Christians than that of Scripture.

Discipleship (including evangelism) requires that we understand a convert becomes the member of a new race, family, humanity.