Cultural Renewal: Glorifying God Through Our Work

"Now let's meditate on this for a minute, what do I mean by that all right go back to the beginning of the Bible and there you have god with his hands in the soil making us keep this in mind Eastern religions have always said that the material world is an illusion it's not really important and Western religions the Greeks the Romans and all that believe that the material world was defiling and debasing and the spirit was good and the body was bad and the and the dirt was worse here in the beginning this is just unprecedented you know in the religions of the world here is god with his hands in the soil making us and when he makes us he makes us gardeners now you know what a gardener does a gardener cultivates which is the same word as to culture a piece piece of land to cultivate into culture is the same thing it's the same word notice okay and to cultivate or to or to do cultural activity is to take raw material and arrange it in such a way as to draw out all of the enormous potentialities of it for the flourishing of human beings and human Community cultural activity is taking raw material not leaving it but cultivating it and drawing out it's all its potentialities for the flourishing of other people and the flourishing of the human Community for example we need Beauty there's flowers we need food there's vegetation and a gardener culture that's cultural activity but we have to keep on going and yeah okay I understand Gardens but let's keep on going and here's a great list uh Mark n puts it down like this it says here's how God made the world he says who formed the world of nature which provides the uh raw material for all the physical sciences which is a cultural activity who formed the universe of human interactions which is the raw material of politics economics sociology and history who is the source of all Harmony form and narrative pattern which is the raw material for art who is the source of the human mind which is the raw material for philosophy and psychology and who Moment by moment maintains the connection between our minds and the world beyond our minds God did God does that's a great list think about it cultivating drawing out arranging the land so it brings forth Beauty and brings forth food which we need for the flourishing of human human beings and human Community let's keep on going what's music you're taking the raw material of sound and fashioning it into music what's writing uh what's what's theater it's taking the raw material of human experience and fashioning them into narratives into stories what is uh Visual Arts is taking the raw materialist say die and sticking on a canvas and you know what the human race cannot Without Beauty you can't live without stories it can't live without without these things give our lives meaning and so what is that it's the same thing as gardening you're taking the raw material of creation and you're drawing its potentialities out for the flourishing of human beings and especially of human Community let's keep going Elizabeth Elliott my old teacher Elizabeth Elliott used to say when someone washed and combed your hair when whenever your hair was just combed she couldn't help but think of Genesis 1:1 order out of Chaos the work of the spirit when someone comes and cleans your house you could not flourish without that unless you do it yourself see in other words so-called menial work you know when God who originally started with his hands in the soil the god of the Bible and when God who made the first human beings gardeners and when God when he did become a human being did not come the way a Greek God would have come as a philosopher and didn't come the way a Roman Gody would have come as a general but Kane was a carpenter the biblical worldview has the highest possible view of the most menial work because everything from gardening to combing hair to Investment Banking is cultural activity and it's something that God does because his Spirit does convert the soul of course the spirit comes and converts the soul but Genesis 1 the spirit brings order out of chaos the spirit is concerned about creation it loves creation the spirit cultivates creation Now when I said all the way to Investment Banking interesting uh Richard ma who's a scholar and a uh Seminary president I listened to a talk by him to a group of financial people and he said something very interesting he said do you realize what creation is God existed and then God decided to take the Breath of Life which he alone had and put it in some other beings so that suddenly there were other personal beings and gave them freedom of will knowing that by putting something that he had into these people allowing them human race you know to see the light of day and giving them human free will he knew that eventually it was going to be incredibly costly the investment was going to be incredibly costly infinitely so but why did he do it because in the end will it be worth it will it be worth it instead of just having God to have a whole universe of angels and human beings and who else who knows what else all loving and praising of course it's worth it God's the ultimate investment banker because what he did was he he took his resources and he risked them and at infinite cost did something that actually expanded the beauty and glory of the universe and when listen there's a lot of re we're going to get to in a minute there's a lot of bad reasons to do all work but when a venture capitalist when an investment person sees a human need and sees a talent to meet that need and then risks your resources to see an Enterprise that meets that human need and creates jobs and creates human flourishing Richard ma said this is all from his talk that's not just Godly that's Godlike now when he was done with his talk a lot of investment bankers came up and said wow not only did that help me but could you please talk to am I Minister about this and every one of them said you have to understand that our ministers are always saying look you business people you know we're here serving the lord and you're out there spending all of your life making money so just give us enough of it so that we can serve the Lord because you're not but now do you understand what's being said here do you don't understand what what Revelation and Isaiah saying yeah I'm in the business of saving Souls but you know what the purpose of saving Souls is the renewal of creation the the whole purpose of saving the spiritual Souls is to is is renew creation do you realize when we get to Isaiah 60 when we get to the new the the new Heavens new Earth I will be out of a job all the souls will be safe but we still need musicians we'll still need Architects we'll still need investment bankers some of you are going to have to train me I'm going to have to be apprenti see you see if the spirit of God does not is not only a preacher but also an artist and that the Bible says so also a gardener Psalm 104:30 the spirit of God renews the face of the Earth even as as John chapter 16 says the spirit is in the world to to convict the world of sin of righteousness and judgment and so if the spirit is not only preaching saving Souls but also committed to creation and committed to renewing creation and to and investing in creation and drawing out its potentiality and if the if the whole purpose of saving Souls is the renewal of creation how dare we say and the church does say that us ministers are the ones who are saving the world and and doing God's work and the rest of you just give me the money so I can do it how wrong is that how wrong is that there is no view of the world and I even go so far to say there's probably no religion I'm sure every religion's got something but there's no religion that's got more gives you more reason to do cultural activity than Christianity you know why because like I said there's religions that say this material world isn't real there's other religions say this material world is debasing you know and then there's the secular world that says this world is real but it eventually it's going to burn up and the Bible says that cultural activity will go on forever and that this is even what redemption's about to get back to the place where we really really can do the work that God gave us originally to do endlessly unfrustrated doing our art doing our music doing our business doing our work doing our carpentry now goodness but secondly we also learn here about the Brokenness of culture now you learn it a little bit by way of negation I mean because we have here a perfect human culture everything's working right and as we saw in verse 181 1920 there's no violence here there's no exploitation all notice all the races are getting together and working together so there's no class conflict there's no racial conflict there's no marginalization there's no sorrow there's no hopelessness but we know by way of contrast that our culture is filled with that why not because human culture the cultural activity per se is wrong but it's the reason why it's being done the reason why this is a perfect human culture is because all the cultures are bringing their riches all the nations are bringing their riches and over and over it says we're doing our work for the glory of God now let me show you what the alternative is Genesis 11 Genesis 11 talks about uh the first at least in the Bible uh the biblical description the first city was being built the Tower of Babel the city of Babel and inherently there is absolutely nothing wrong with architecture as we've been seeing there's nothing wrong with uh with the economics behind that the physical sciences that it would have taken the art that it would have taken you're building a city all the all the activities are inherently good and yet Genesis 11:4 says the reason that everybody did this they said let us do this to make a name for ourselves let us do this to make a name for ourselves now what this is saying is very very important obviously our work is important to human fulfillment if God is a worker and if God's spirit does all this and that we Are Made In His Image therefore doing my job well is crucial to my fulfillment as a human being because I'm made in the image of God but having said that if you get to the place where your work and your job is the way you know you're important it's the only way you know you're important it's the main way you know you're important it's the main way you know you have value when that begins to happen then you see destructiveness in the culture and do you know how that works surely you know how that works I mean think about how many at least English names have our jobs Fisher Smith Baker those are jobs and it's natural to say it's part of who I am that's why you know the the word the the job became part of the name but when you get to the place David Martin L Jones who was a a doctor a physici in Britain many years ago and it's his little quote by the way sort of gender exclusive but it was 70 years ago in Britain and he says he says I can't tell you how many doctors my my physician friends how many doctors that when they die you should put this on their Tombstone born a man died a doctor and what he meant by that was he said it was it's very very very difficult not to look at your job to look at your work and to say now I know I'm important now I look at the status look at the money look at what I'm doing darthy s says it would be utterly revolutionary if we changed that the destructiveness comes because if you are if if work becomes an end in itself it's not for the lord it's not for the flourishing of his creation you're not bringing your peculiar honors to him like they are here but you're doing it for yourself to make a name for yourself to be sure that you for security for your family that sounds Innocent but what it does is it leads to exhaustion it leads to taking jobs that you really don't like but you need in order to make it up in the world it leads to superiority and very often it leads to ruthlessness and it leads therefore to the destruction of human Community it leads to the exploitation it leads to the sadness it leads to the drivenness it leads to the it leads to the marginalization it leads to the conflicts darthy sers this fascinating little uh statement she wrot wrote about uh this right after World War II in Britain she says uh the habit of thinking about work is something one does to make money and to get a position in society is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what an absolutely revolutionary change it would be to think otherwise people become doctors not primarily to relieve suffering but to bring themselves and their family up in the world uh people become lawyers not because they have a passion for justice but to bring themselves and their family up in the world but during World War II one of the great surprises that many of us had in the Army was we found ourselves for the very first time in our lives happy why cuz the first time for the first time in our lives we found ourselves doing something not for the pay because it was miserable and not for the social standing because all the different classes and this is in Britain we all thrown together but for the sake of working together to get something done that benefited everyone in a small way she was saying in the British army during World War II they begin to experien a little bit of Shalom because instead of people basically out there to make money and to get Society you know get get ahead they began to work together see for the flourishing of the human Community it was a it was a major step away from making a name for myself and next thing you know they found themselves happy and next thing you know they found them that they were helping and then of course I guess she was the rest of the passage is we all went back to our jobs and things are just as the way they always were Daniel Bell has a great book called U it's kind of old now but but it's called the cultural contradictions of capitalism and it's really important reading and he basically says this he says he says economic growth is fueled by things like Thrift honesty and delayed gratification in other words people who see a lot of other things are more important than profit fuel profitableness but he says when profit becomes the ultimate and making money becomes the ultimate it eats away at delayed gratification it eats away at thrift and it eats away at honesty and it destroys the very basis for economic productivity and that's exactly what you have according to the Bible in human culture today Brokenness that comes because work becomes an ultimate you're basing your identity on it profit becomes an ult it becomes a means it to it not a means to an end but an end in itself but if and when you get an identity a sense of being the special creation of God and being loved that is so deep it's apart from your work and and if and when you get an allegiance that is above and beyond making profit and making money and Status the way you do your work will begin to renew we can't bring in Utopia but if you're able to change in those areas you become part of cultural renewal the way in which you manage people the way in which you you treat your own money think about that you know why do we hold on to 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're not Totally Secure on the inside with who we are but you know what happens is when you work in order to make a name for yourself then the work is not about the work and it's not about the people you're helping and it's certainly not about the lord it's about you and your money is you and so you have to hold on to it that's your way of making sure you're secure but when God becomes God rather than money God becomes your security God becomes your identity God becomes your validity God becomes your beauty money just becomes money and you can just give it away and that brings about Justice and that brings about the flourishing of the human Community the culture is broken at its heart and you can begin to be agents of renewal how let's keep going thirdly we're not only learning here and this is a brief but a very interesting point because it's in the text not only does the bible tell us about the goodness of cultural activity and the Brokenness of human cultures but thirdly it says that there's a true diversity of culture what's intriguing about both Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21-22 is that National racial cultural distinctions are sustained in the Heavenly and you know the new heavens and new earth they they are if you look it says every tongue tribe people and Nation are now according to the Book of Revelation in the city of God but which means there are different tongues tribes peoples and Nations and notice every culture brings something different some cultures bring the herd some cultures bring the gold some cultures bring the incense some why what does this mean and yet they must come and offer to the Lord and that means two things and these are I find fascinating number one it means that it must mean that just as individuals no individual has all the talents and only when we're working together can we get things done it must mean that God has put common Grace his grace into every single culture so that every culture has certain themes and certain strengths and it has th contributions to make uh to the entire flourishing of the human race that can't be replaced that we need them all that's the only possible explanation for the fact that all the nations come and they maintain their ability to do certain things because cultures just like people have certain talents and certain themes and therefore certain Goods that the whole human race needs that's marvelous God does not want cultural homogen and yet on the other hand they must bring them to the Lord and here's what this means every culture just like every human being and every profession every culture has a strength some cultures the strength is the individual some the family some power some wisdom some uh the tradition is important others skepticism and questioning every culture is different they all have something to bring but when these themes become ultimates when you make an idol of the family when you make an idol of individual Freedom we've talked about this before then they become destructive and God says therefore you must be converted in heart and make me the center of your life and then your culture will work the way it's supposed to work and then you'll be making a contribution to the human race and not and and not basically hurting the human race by the idolization of your particular strength and theme now a lot of people get very upset about at this point and they say wait a minute you're trying to say that even though all these cultures are good good they need to be converted that's a trouble with you Christians you're always trying to convert people and you must not impose your culture on somebody else by trying to make them become a Christian I would like to challenge that what you seem to be saying is Christianity belongs to some cultures and not to all lmen San this is a very powerful point and I didn't I did not come up with it like all my powerful points okay lmen San African scholar teaches at Yale he written an extremely important book called whose religion is Christianity in that book he addresses the fact that Africa you know Korea has gone from 2% Christian to like 50% Christian or more in in a 100 years Africa has gone from 9% Christian to 60% Christian 50% Christian in a 100 years and it's growing twice as fast as Islam it's growing 7 to 10 times the population and and lansan says he says he's been very tired of people saying oh you mustn't you Christians mustn't uh impose your culture on them you mustn't try to convert Africans because you're destroying their culture he's saying other words Christianity belongs to you and it doesn't belong to us how dare you and he point he he comes up with a theory in the book I'm going to read you a little section here of it that is fascinating he says every culture has a baseline narrative you know how the Paul talked about the cultures of his day he said the Jews want power and the Greeks want wisdom every culture has a has a theme every culture has certain things that they're after and lansan says African culture understands that the world is filled with spiritual forces and especially lots and lots of dark spiritual forces so how are we going to address that and they looked at their tribal religions and found that though they believed in those spiritual forces they had no answer for how to overcome them and then they looked at the Modern secularism that was coming and they realized modern secularism laughed at their africanness because it says oh you can't believe in me Miracles you can't believe in demons just laughed at our africanness that's that is cultural totalitarianism and then they looked at Christianity and this is what lansan says has been happening he says 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 they did not and Christianity 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 the dance the Stars weren't little anymore Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans not remade Europeans there is a true cultural diversity God does not want homogeneity but he also says come to me and then the great grace I've given to every single culture the the the plotline of the story of every one of your cultures will only find its happy ending in me so we have the goodness of culture we have the Brokenness of culture we have the uh uh diversity of culture but last of all what's the key to the Redemption of culture and the answer here is the light I didn't read you the very very first couple of verses the last part of the verses talk about the God is the light we don't even need a Sun or a moon in this in this new culture because God is the light and the very beginning of the chapter verses 1 and two says arise Shine for your light has come and the glory GL of the Lord Rises upon you Darkness covers the earth and thick Darkness the peoples but the Lord Rises upon you and His Glory Appears over you Nations will come to your light and Kings to the brightness of your Dawn there is a light that attracts the cultures and they stream in and the light heals them what is all that about well I got three minutes okay let me tell you what I think it's about St Augustine very famously said that there's a god-shaped hole in everybody's life now let's let's let's scroll forward and and just use a slightly more modern metaphor there's a black hole in your life you know what a black hole is a god-shaped hole of course means that you were made for God you are not going to you're not going to you have an infinite need for affirmation do you realize that have you ever figured out it doesn't matter how much your your spouse tells you You're great doesn't matter how much money you make doesn't doesn't matter what's happened even you know there's not many of us that have you know really gotten to the top of you know our goals but you know what there are a few people who get Way Beyond their goals they become much more famous much more loved much more acclaimed and they usually want to kill themselves because there is an infinite black hole in the center of our lives that need affirmation and and love it's a black hole because it even swallows up light it's that deep and what we're doing is we're working ourselves to death and we're in many cases being ruthless about getting up the ladder even if we're not doing anything illegal and we're harming and and we're making money very often at the expense of other people around us in other words our work is not for the lord it's for us and it's not for human flourishing there's a darkness in us now God begins to come back into the world after the fall and every time he comes back there's a certain amount of light burning bush but don't come too close down on Mount Si Pillar of Fire and Moses said says let me see your glory we hunger for the light we need the light there's this there's this darkness in us and God says I can't let you see it it'll kill you because you see there's a darkness in us it's sin and there's a Holiness in him and there's a barrier but though Isaiah says the light is God in the Book of Revelation John can see just a little more clearly and what does he say he says the holy city Shone with the glory of God and its Brilliance was like a precious Jewel now every other place that the glory of God comes down you got to get out in the Bible or it will kill you but here the glory of God has come down on the whole city here the glory of God is purifying everything the light that we hunger for has come but it's it's not fatal why it says the city this is revelation does not need the Sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb of God is the lamp why not the L of God why not the Lord why not Jesus the lamb I'll tell you why because Matthew 27:45 from the sixth hour until the ninth hour Darkness came over all the land and at the ninth hour Jesus Christ cried my God my God why hast Thou forsaken me Jesus Took The Cosmic Darkness so that we could have the light he paid for sin so we could have the light and then he says this John 12 and when on I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all to myself let me tell you what the light is that will draw the Nations to the Lord for the healing it's the light of the Cross when I was listening to this this talk by Richard Mau on to Business Leaders he said here is a very important Christian principle that you take out into your business life and it will renew culture and it will follow Christ and you never necessarily have to even mention the name of Jesus actually and if everybody's look let me explain here here's the principle if you want to be cultural leaders who renew culture and renew human flourishing bear more pain than you inflict bear more pain than you inflict now what here's what he means he says go if you're going to be a leader you're going to inflict pain sometimes you're going to do layoffs sometimes you're going to do things that inflict pain but what's actually happening out there right now is most leaders want to inflict more pain than they bear when someone underneath them does something good they pull the credit for themselves and when someone uh and when and when they do something wrong they make sure they get to blame somewhere else that's the way of the world make sure that you inflict more pain than you bear but he says Be Like Jesus and I remember some years ago there was a woman that I talked to after church just uh Hi how are you who are you yes I've been to Redeemer three or four times oh how'd you hear Redeemer oh she says that's quite a story I don't even think I believe in Christian iisan it you know but I've been coming for 3 or 4 weeks I'm still not sure I believe in Christianity but it's interesting well how'd you get here she worked for a big company in the city and at one point though she had only been working for a couple years for the company she did a really stupid move she made a mistake and she thought would cost her job and her boss took all the heat took the blame basically said it was my fault my fault my fault so she went and to see him and she says you know listen I've been through this I've been working in this city for quite a while and I always see inferiors take the credit from their inferiors but never take the blame never seen that and uh he said well you know he says you know I've actually got a good reputation here I I know it's hurt my reputation a bit but it's certainly not hurting my job I've had a lot of capital as it were human capital and you know I could afford it and you couldn't she and she kept pressing she says but that she this is so different I don't understand what's your motivation you hardly know me finally he said listen I wouldn't say this but you're pressing me I'm a Christian Jesus took the blame for me Jesus Took the hit for me I'm just trying to pay him back a little she says where do you go to church it was here if we pour ourselves out for the people under us if we pour ourselves out for the people around us whether they believe as we do or not whether they ever believe as we do and make this a great City be at at our expense whether they believe like we do or not that's the light that will draw them to the Nations and then and only then do we have the right to say here's how you can be converted to Jesus Christ when people are saying where do you go to church when I am lifted up I will draw all nations to myself says Jesus do you want to be part of that do you want to have that Splendor on you so that they're being attracted to him so that that you could then be agents of cultural Renewal by walking in his footsteps let us pray thank you Father for giving us wisdom where we really need it and we thank you that you have made cultural activity a sacred thing a way of serving the lord and you've even given us a certain amount of uh uh guidelines as to how to do it but ultimately we realize we need an identity based in you we need an allegiance uh that that is centered on you and then we can become agents of the cultural renewal that someday you will bring about to Perfection at the end of time and we long for that day we want a hug we want to be hugged we want to eat and drink we want to dance in the kingdom of God and uh we pray that uh we would be the musicians that we would be the uh lovers that we would be the bankers that we would be the the scientists that will be there doing that and we thank you that that is our Prospect and we live in that hope thank you for that we pray this in Jesus name amen for more of this series and other resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church please visit" [00:09:41]