Sermon Tone Analysis

I wanted to start out today by talking about cultural syncretism.

When I was younger, one of the things I loved studying was Anthropology.

Anthropology is the study of what makes us human.

Anthropology takes a rather broad approach to understanding many different aspects of human experiences by using archaeology, bioanthropology, linguistic anthropology, and social-cultural anthropology.

Archaeology understands the past through pre-historic and historical materials, architectural features, landscapes, and remains.

Bioanthropology examines human and non-human primate evolution, ecology, behaviour, and biocultural variation.

Linguistic anthropology studies the many ways language reflects and influences social life.

While Socio-cultural anthropology examines social patterns and processes within and across cultures.

I first heard of cultural syncretism within the confines of the last two anthropologies mentioned, Linguistic Anthropology and Socio-cultural Anthropology.

Cultural syncretism is defined as “when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique.”

This blending can come from religious practices, architecture, philosophy, recreation, and even food.

The easiest way for me to describe cultural syncretism to you is by telling you of an experience I had in my life.

In 2009-2010, when I looked like a curly-haired hippie, I attended Prairie Bible College to take part in the Discover program.

As I have mentioned before Chelsea was there as well taking the same program.

She had no interest in me, but you can’t stop the magic that works at Bridal colleges, I mean Bible colleges.

Through the Discover program, we were studying Anthropology.

We got to learn about the Mayans in Guatemala and how when the Spaniards came over and demanded the Mayans adopted their culture and catholic religion.

The Mayans, seeing that they were no match for the Spaniards, obliged with the exception that they could have some of their religious practices as variants within the church.

In Guatemala, you can still see evidence of this today.

For instance, in some parts of the Mayan religion, they cursed people they didn’t like.

Today when you walk into a Guatemalan cathedral, you will see numerous candles burning for numerous different reasons.

But a particular candle of note is the black candle.

This candle is specifically for cursing people.

You will also find the worshipping of a specific Mayan God by Guatemalan Catholics.

The Catholics call him San Simon, while the Mayans call him Maximón.

Maximóns altars are crowded with all kinds of conflicting imagery—icons of the Virgin Mary, but also taxidermied animals hanging from the low ceiling.

The priests only speak in a certain Maya dialect while remaining constantly drunk, and the air is choked with cigar and cigarette smoke.

This is all part of Cultural Syncretism, the blending of two religions into one.

So the question you may be asking is, why is this important?

How do anthropology and cultural syncretism relate to me?

Well, the answer stems heavily back to the sermon I gave last Sunday on how do we respond to those who are sinning and thriving in sin around me.

The truth be told is that we as a church are being infiltrated by the devil and his workers.

As the world changes around us to do the devil's bidding, the church has garnered increased pressures also to change.

When I entered the military, I became more aware of cultural syncretism within the church.

This became apparent to me because the military was consciously aiming to hire more “diverse” chaplains than ever before.

These chaplains were gay or lesbian or would subscribe to a particular group that would support these individuals in those roles.

As I got to know these chaplains I found, increasingly, they were from the United Church.

This alarmed me.

During this same time, the National Post published an article entitled “The Split in the United Church” the author Charles Lewis wrote this in the first couple of paragraphs.

“The United Church of Canada, which was formed 86 years ago with the grand vision to bring Protestants together “in one glorious national church,” is undergoing one of the most precipitous slides in modern religious history.

In the midst of a breathtaking erosion in its membership, the church is undertaking what some call a great experiment to redefine itself through an intense engagement with the surrounding secular world; whether it be through advocating for the environment, fighting for the rights of homosexuals to marry or taking on the cause of the Palestinians, the church has attempted to blur the boundaries between religion and the broader society.

Supporters believe this strategy will eventually right the ship because they are following the word of God to engage in the world.”

To be clear, this isn’t just an issue that is just affecting the United Church.

This is affecting, among many others as well, Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Reformed churches as well.

Unfortunately, there are many individual churches and denominations that are heeding the siren call of cultural acceptability and joining the ranks of allowing some of this same stuff to happen within their own congregations.

So I guess the question is, do we have a responsibility to change with society as the demand to change becomes increasingly louder?

Do we take bits and pieces of what seem to be working or agreeable in our world, and do we apply it to how we view the Bible?

Let's face it, not all cultural syncretism is bad after all.

I love pineapple pizza.

The Melville Roll at the sushi restaurant here in town is delicious.

Cultures have come together and have accomplished great things.

Macaroni and Cheese with Ketchup and hotdogs is an example of this.

So do we just accept this?

There are many examples, within the Bible, of the outside world trying to infiltrate the church and change its values or direction.

Many of these values are disguised as something that is beneficial but is ultimately destructive.

The first example I think of is when the Israelites came to an Acacia Grove in Numbers 25, the Moabite women were sent to deceive the Jewish men by offering their bodies to them and then encouraging them to participate in the worship of Baal of Peor.

The problem with this was the Israelites began to open themselves up to worshipping other related gods such as Moloch.

The short term benefit was sex.

But the horrors that would come from offering sacrifices to Molech are things that nightmares are made of.

In fact, Leviticus 18 lays out a disgusting list of different relations that are forbidden, and the reason why these relations are forbidden are described in verses 24-30

In Leviticus 19:2 it continues, “… You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.”

You must be holy, set apart, different from the rest of the land, because I, the LORD your God, I have called you to be different from the rest of the land.

Not doing the same thing everyone else does!

YOU MUST BE HOLY BECAUSE GOD IS HOLY!

If you want to find yourself in the presence of God, you must be willing to follow His ways!

When we are looking for examples of how not to fall into following the world off of their cliffs that they shore up, it is hard to come by one.

Unless, of course, you look specifically to the one perfect example, and that is Jesus.

Jesus underwent the same temptations we undergo, but he had the master manipulator target him.

The rest of us might get the special attention of Satan every once in a while, but other than that, we just get jarred and poked at by his demons.

But when it came to Jesus, Satan gladly took that challenge.

We see this take place in Matthew 4:1-11

How angry this must have made the devil.

Jesus stood in direct opposition to the devil and gladly took a little suffering to be able to be faithful to God and God’s word.

Jesus would later point out that the devil had such a hold on the world and that he could deceive the world into doing wrong.

Jesus called the devil the prince of this world, who stands condemned.

In John 14:30, Jesus says

Jesus reminds us however that we have the “helper” who will guide us in all matters and will even guide us in how to stand opposing this world in John 16:7-15 Jesus says this,

He, the helper, the Holy Spirit, will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

The world is screaming these days that Homosexuality is approtpriate!

The world is screaming that adultery is to be normalized!

The world has gone so far as trying to normalize and accept Pedophilia as a socially acceptable sexual orientation, they like to call themselves MAP’s, or Minor Attracted Persons.

And anyone who stands opposing these values or who would dare say, “if you are attracted to children, you should seek professional help” are screamed at and told they are intolerant or bigots.

The prince of this world has turned people to sin so hard that the world has gone from bad to worse.

And there are now people who say that they are reverends and pastors who preach that we should be tolerant of these things, and some of these individuals claim to be members of these very groups!

2 Timothy 3:12-17 says this:

You catch those key points?

Those who live a godly life will be persecuted, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse.

And to combat these things, we need to turn to the Scriptures for guidance.

Following the scripture is increasingly going put us in direct opposition to the world.

And it is not going to get any easier, infact Jesus even said in Matthew 10:22

Jesus echos these words again in John 15:18-19

Jesus says if you are a follower of His the world will not like you.

As we continue down this path you will see more and more churches fall to the worlds values, but we need to hold firm to the teachings of the scriptures.

Jesus never promised it would be easy in fact, we see this in his very ministry that he had on this world.

He was executed for speaking the truth, for goodness sake.

And some of his disciples would later follow him to that same fate.

The interesting thing is as churches fall to this world's standard, it is because of self-interest.

It is in our own personal interest to agree with the world, but we are called to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2: 1-17 says

Through all this, we are called to love our neighbours, we are called to speak Jesus’ good news, and we are called to keep the faith by living in active communion with Jesus Christ.