Jesus and the City
Jesus And The City
I’ve never liked Christian music nor the culture that goes with it. I’m a pastor. The truth is, I’d much rather listen to Coldplay, The Avett Brothers, country music, and even Van Halen. I have my reasons, some good and some probably less than stellar. But mostly, I’m just not sure Jesus would listen to it either.
The beginning of the outworking of the gospel in history is the event called the incarnation. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on flesh and came down at a particular time in history to a particular place in the Middle East, adopting a particular language and engaging in particular cultural expressions. In terms of the message he brought, he stood out like a sore thumb, proclaiming that he would suffer and die for people, thus removing the stain of their sin and gaining God's love and acceptance for them, regardless of their goodness or badness. But in terms of the form he took, he fit right in. He wore the clothes, ate the food, listened to the music, and spoke the language of the culture he was in.
There are two things to note here about Jesus and culture: (1) Jesus did not divinize the culture he was in. In other words, he did not moralize or absolutize the culture. The cultural expressions around him were not sacred to him nor did he make them sacred, but (2) neither did he denigrate the culture He was in. The cultural expressions around Him that were not inherently evil, he did not condemn as evil nor boycott. This is all to say that Jesus lived where he lived; he looked like a first-century Jewish man because that is what he was.
What does this mean for the church and its engagement with the city, a city like Waco? It at least means Jesus’ relationship to the culture he was in marks out the path that the church is to walk in the world. The church gets to follow Jesus in his incarnation, in a small way, and put his incarnation on display to the world. The pattern of the incarnation immediately rules out cultural superiority. Jesus did not divinize cultural expressions, which should prevent the church from elevating them to the level of the sacred as well. An example of this would be to moralize or absolutize personal and cultural preferences – like in music, art, literature, education, parenting, family dynamics, particular traditions, or certain programs.
The pattern of the incarnation also immediately rules out cultural escapism or separatism. Jesus did not denigrate his culture; he dignified it by engaging it with joy: he ate and drank with tax collectors and messed up people. It would run directly counter to the grain of the incarnation for the church to try to escape from the cultures of the world. Just as Jesus embodied life where he was, the church is to express its life in the place where it has been divinely situated.
Another way Jesus’ relationship to the culture he was in should impact the Church’s
engagement with the culture it is situated in is this: he encourages us to live
where we live. Jesus gives us the freedom to live where we live. If Jesus neither
divinized nor denigrated culture, but dignified it, then we are free to do the
same. The church and the individuals making up the church are set free from
worrying that they are engaging in inherently evil activities simply by enjoying a
concert or a pub. We do not have to hunker down and wait until the new heavens
and the new earth to start enjoying ourselves. The church can enjoy the world that
God has made and the creative gifts that God has given the world.
Jesus also gives us the reason to live where we live. Jesus’s incarnation was with a view to saving the world, and so is our cultural engagement. As light in a dark place and as salt in food, the presence of the church in the life of the world brings some redemptive influence to it. The church is to be “the-world-as-it-should-be” and we have the privilege of doing that right down here in the middle of where we are. God made the world to be a happy place: happy in Him and happy with his gifts. The church is called to be that kind of community, not cordoned off in our own little enclave or Christian ghetto, but out there in public, so we can invite the world to enjoy God in Christ as well. That is, we get to enjoy ourselves in the world for the sake of the world, in our communities for the sake of our communities, and in our city for the sake of our city. So, go ahead and be a real redeemed person in a world that needs redeeming.
I’ve never liked Christian music nor the culture that goes with it. I’m a pastor. The truth is, I’d much rather listen to Coldplay, The Avett Brothers, country music, and even Van Halen. I have my reasons, some good and some probably less than stellar. But mostly, I’m just not sure Jesus would listen to it either.
The beginning of the outworking of the gospel in history is the event called the incarnation. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on flesh and came down at a particular time in history to a particular place in the Middle East, adopting a particular language and engaging in particular cultural expressions. In terms of the message he brought, he stood out like a sore thumb, proclaiming that he would suffer and die for people, thus removing the stain of their sin and gaining God's love and acceptance for them, regardless of their goodness or badness. But in terms of the form he took, he fit right in. He wore the clothes, ate the food, listened to the music, and spoke the language of the culture he was in.
There are two things to note here about Jesus and culture: (1) Jesus did not divinize the culture he was in. In other words, he did not moralize or absolutize the culture. The cultural expressions around him were not sacred to him nor did he make them sacred, but (2) neither did he denigrate the culture He was in. The cultural expressions around Him that were not inherently evil, he did not condemn as evil nor boycott. This is all to say that Jesus lived where he lived; he looked like a first-century Jewish man because that is what he was.
What does this mean for the church and its engagement with the city, a city like Waco? It at least means Jesus’ relationship to the culture he was in marks out the path that the church is to walk in the world. The church gets to follow Jesus in his incarnation, in a small way, and put his incarnation on display to the world. The pattern of the incarnation immediately rules out cultural superiority. Jesus did not divinize cultural expressions, which should prevent the church from elevating them to the level of the sacred as well. An example of this would be to moralize or absolutize personal and cultural preferences – like in music, art, literature, education, parenting, family dynamics, particular traditions, or certain programs.
The pattern of the incarnation also immediately rules out cultural escapism or separatism. Jesus did not denigrate his culture; he dignified it by engaging it with joy: he ate and drank with tax collectors and messed up people. It would run directly counter to the grain of the incarnation for the church to try to escape from the cultures of the world. Just as Jesus embodied life where he was, the church is to express its life in the place where it has been divinely situated.
Another way Jesus’ relationship to the culture he was in should impact the Church’s
engagement with the culture it is situated in is this: he encourages us to live
where we live. Jesus gives us the freedom to live where we live. If Jesus neither
divinized nor denigrated culture, but dignified it, then we are free to do the
same. The church and the individuals making up the church are set free from
worrying that they are engaging in inherently evil activities simply by enjoying a
concert or a pub. We do not have to hunker down and wait until the new heavens
and the new earth to start enjoying ourselves. The church can enjoy the world that
God has made and the creative gifts that God has given the world.
Jesus also gives us the reason to live where we live. Jesus’s incarnation was with a view to saving the world, and so is our cultural engagement. As light in a dark place and as salt in food, the presence of the church in the life of the world brings some redemptive influence to it. The church is to be “the-world-as-it-should-be” and we have the privilege of doing that right down here in the middle of where we are. God made the world to be a happy place: happy in Him and happy with his gifts. The church is called to be that kind of community, not cordoned off in our own little enclave or Christian ghetto, but out there in public, so we can invite the world to enjoy God in Christ as well. That is, we get to enjoy ourselves in the world for the sake of the world, in our communities for the sake of our communities, and in our city for the sake of our city. So, go ahead and be a real redeemed person in a world that needs redeeming.
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