Being with it - the necessity and challenges of cultural relevance
There have been remarkable changes in rural communities over the last fifty years or even the last twenty years. When many of us were children, we grew up with a good understanding of the agricultural world. Many of the children we were at school with were farmer’s sons and daughters, and many of us worked on farms in our school holidays and the weekends. But now all is changed. We live in communities where many people have no idea about the realities of agricultural life.
And there is no less remarkable a change in the spiritual world. If any of you saw Songs of Praise a couple of weeks ago from Christ Church Oxford, you will have seen Bishop Richard Harries being interviewed. As you know, he is shortly to retire, and he was asked about the changes that he had seen. One of his comments was that forty years ago, you could depend upon people having an understanding or knowledge of Christian ideas and stories. However, the world has changed so that you cannot depend on that now. Society at large has little understanding of the Christian faith.
And so it is that we find ourselves in very much the same position that St Paul was in when he wrote this first letter to the Corinthians. We find ourselves in a situation, just as St Paul did, where the culture around us is vastly different to the Christian culture, and where the Christian culture is largely not understood.
The necessity of gospel proclamation v16
One might ask the question as to whether or not it matters. I think St Paul makes this absolutely clear. For right at the beginning of our reading this morning, in v 16, Paul talks about the necessity of preaching or proclaiming the gospel. There is a need to proclaim the gospel. There is a need to tell the good news of Christ. It is not an optional extra. For St Paul makes it clear that he is entrusted with a commission. I am sure that we are familiar with the great commission that Jesus himself gave the disciples at the end of Matthew’s gospel. Matt 28:19-20. ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations‘. That great commission did not change. It applied to St Paul as much as to Christ’s first disciples. St Paul, there was an urgent necessity to proclaim the gospel. And this necessity to proclaim the gospel arose not only from Christ’s commission, but also from Paul’s conviction that the great news of the life changing work of Christ should be freely available to everyone. v18. Having received those blessings, Paul is anxious that they should be shared v23.
And I believe that it is no different for us now. If we have truly accepted Christ as our Saviour and Lord, then we will want to do his bidding. We will want to carry out and continue his great commission. And indeed, it is not just a case of compulsion, but also because of our compassion that we want to share the great things that we have received with those around us. Most of us, if we receive a big box of chocolates, want to share our good fortune with those around us. We offer the chocolates around. And so it is, or should be, with the great blessings that have been received through Christ. So first of all, Paul makes it clear that there is in the necessity of proclaiming the gospel.
The necessity of cultural adaptation v22
Now as we talked about earlier, St Paul was proclaiming the gospel in a situation where the Christian culture was generally misunderstood or not even known. St Paul was proclaiming in a situation where the fundamental ideas of Christianity were unknown. So the necessity of proclaiming the gospel effectively requires the necessity of cultural adaptation. V22. What Paul says in his letter is that he has ‘ become all things to all men, that I might by all means to save some’. At first sight, this seems incredibly open-ended. So what does he mean by that?
What we see as we look closely at what Paul says here and elsewhere is that he starts from where his hearers are. He was prepared to adapt. He starts from the cultural position of those to whom he is talking. He starts with an adaptation and relevance to their cultural situation. So to the Jews, he starts from the point of view of what it’s like to be a Jew. He starts from the cultural position of a Jew. And because he understands that cultural position, he can move on from it to proclaim the gospel with relevance. And you can find that very clearly laid out in the letter to the Hebrews in the Bible.
But Paul is also conscious of the cultural position of Greek people, and the Greek mindset. So when Paul is talking to a different group of people, the Greeks, he starts from the point of view of that Greek cultural position. A good example of this is when Paul speaks to the Athenians at the Areopagus. Acts 17. He starts his proclaiming of the gospel by starting from their viewpoint, from their cultural position.
So Paul is acutely aware that, in order to proclaim the gospel effectively, his proclaiming needs to be culturally adapted and culturally relevant.
And as I mentioned earlier, the necessity of proclaiming the gospel in the twenty first century is very different from the necessity of proclaiming the gospel a hundred years ago or even fifty years ago. The necessity of proclaiming the gospel today is that it takes place in a completely different cultural environment. And so with the gospel is to be proclaimed effectively today, there is the necessity of cultural adaptation v22.
So, if we are to proclaim the gospel today, we must be culturally relevant. That is quite difficult. And this is difficult for two reasons.
The first is that by and large we don’t actually understand the culture around us. What are the cultural values underlying our society today? How do these cultural values impact on families, on teenagers, on employees or pensioners? Because only when we understand that can we begin to proclaim effectively.
The second difficulty is that to proclaim the gospel in a culturally relevant way is going to require change. Adaptation means change. None of us really like change. In the interview I mentioned earlier, Bishop Richard Harries also said that we needed to consider new ways of getting through to people with the Christian message. So if we are to proclaim the gospel in a culturally relevant way we need to examine what we do, and be prepared to change.
You may have heard of the great missionary, Hudson Taylor, who went to China in the 19th century. He decided that he would take on the dress and the look of the Chinese. He shaved off all his hair apart from one ponytail that went down his back, in the Chinese way. Then he took on Chinese traditional dress, the long silk gown and robe. If you like, he became a Chinaman to Chinamen, so that he might win Chinamen. But in order to proclaim the gospel to the Chinese in a culturally relevant way, Hudson Taylor was prepared to change. And so must we.
The necessity of spiritual integrity
Now one of the potential problems with cultural relevance is that it becomes open to abuse. And sometimes people believe that to become all things to all men means that the gospel is ultimately flexible. Sometimes people believe that to be all things to all men enables one to believe almost anything and still be a Christian. Sometimes people believe that to be all things to all men, really means that there are many ways to God.
But that is not consistent with what Paul says here, or what the rest of the Bible teaches. Paul makes it clear that he maintains his spiritual integrity and the integrity of his faith. There is a necessity for spiritual integrity. And you see what this is about is adapting the method of proclaiming the gospel to be culturally relevant, rather than adapting the message of the gospel. It is about method rather than message. The message stays the same.
The way that Paul makes this clear is in verses 20 and 21. So what he says is that although as a Christian he no longer has to live with the ritual law that the Jews operated under, because he has been set free from the old covenant by the death of Christ, nevertheless, he was prepared to become conventionally correct to the Jews in order to win them for Christ. And the same principle applies when dealing with other cultural groups. He’s not saying that he went to sin with the sinners in order to proclaim God’s word. Paul, where things were without moral significance, was flexible; he was rigid when there was a moral conscience about a thing, when it would have violated Christian morality and truth, but when a thing was cultural Paul was flexible.
It is important that this is not misunderstood. Paul never set the message of the gospel aside, but he was prepared to set aside his own liberty in order to proclaim it. He was not prepared to dilute the gospel message. He was not prepared to modify the message to make it acceptable. But he was prepared to modify the method.
And if we are to proclaim the gospel in a culturally relevant way, with spiritual integrity, there we do need to know the truths of the gospel for ourselves. One of the difficulties for us is that frequently our understanding of our Christian faith is limited. It is difficult for us to proclaim the gospel effectively if we are not really sure what it’s all about. I believe that the clergy and ministers of the Church have an awful lot to answer for in their failure to teach the people. I’m pleased to say that I think that is beginning to change. But of course we all have our own individual responsibilities. Responsibilities to read God’s word, to pray, to ask questions when we don’t understand. So it is incumbent on us to be secure in our faith and in our relationship with God, so that we can proclaim the gospel with integrity.
So we live in a very changed world. And although the truths of the Christian gospel are unchanging, the cultural change in the world around us has a significant impact on us as Christians today. For if we are to fulfil the great commission to proclaim the gospel, and to proclaim it with integrity, we need to adapt our proclamation of the gospel to our changed world. We need to adapt our proclamation of the gospel to the cultural changes that around us. That will require change, but it is a change that has a great reward. For as St Paul said, ‘I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings’. May it be that we accept St Paul’s challenge to adapt our proclamation of the gospel, for the sake of the gospel and that we may share in its blessings.
