In Jesus Holy Name May 21, 2006
Text: John 15:8, 18-21 Redeemer
“Living in a Cultural ‘Perfect Storm’”
In the fall of 1991, a six-man crew on the fishing vessel, The Andrea Gail, left Gloucester, Massachusetts. Two weeks later they encountered the perfect storm. Wolfgang Petersen directed the movie based on Sebastian Junger’s book, the true life story of the fisherman who died at sea with the Andrea Gail.
The Andrea Gail was 72 feet long, a hull of continuously-welded steel plate and a 365 horsepower turbo-charged diesel engine, capable of speeds up to 12 knots. There are 7 type-one life preservers on board, six survival suits, and a Givens inflatable raft; an ice machine that could make 3 tons of ice a day to keep the fish fresh and cold. The Andrea Gail was one of the biggest money-makers in Gloucester.
The October 1991 storm was the strongest storm in recorded history. It was called the perfect storm because it was 3 storms that combined into one, where boats encountered 100 foot waves, the equivalent of a ten story building.
August 28, 2005 hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane, became one of the strongest hurricanes to strike the southern coast of the U.S. It was over 100 miles wide at its center. 80% of New Orleans was flooded. The storm obliterated life, buildings, and roads, along the entire coast of Louisiana to Alabama. The highest winds were 175 miles/hour. The storm killed 1,604 people. Katrina produced record storm surges along the entire Mississippi and Louisiana coast ranging from 12 feet to 37 feet. For days we watched the aftermath. Cleanup, debate continues.
At our recent District Convention, the keynote speaker was University Professor, futurist and author Dr. Leonard Sweet. He is the author of over 25 books with titles like Aqua church – new paradigms facing the church; Soul Tsunami Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture – how the church can survive in the tidal wave of post-modernism that is sweeping our culture, and still sail through troubled seas and fulfill its mission and calling; Soul salsa – 17 Surprising Steps for Godly Living in the 21st Century.
One of Leonard Sweets comments about our culture is quite telling. “This is a culture that loves gated communities, and there are gated churches.” Are We?
Mission churches are not gated but are sending their people into the world to share their personal faith and work for justice for the poor and lost. They find ways to serve. Dr. Sweet believes that the Christian Church is in its own “Perfect Storm”. It is a cultural storm.
In Jeremiah 12, the prophet Jeremiah is complaining to God: “Your ways are always righteous O God. Yet I would speak with you about your justice. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You are on their lips but far from their hearts.
God answers. “Jeremiah, if you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a safe country, how will you manage in the thicket by a jungle of the Jordan? Jeremiah, there’s worse to come. Jesus said, you will have tribulation, but cheer up. I have overcome the world.
Leonard Sweet notes: This is not the first time the church has encountered storms, but the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe are not between the devil and the deep blue sea. There are three storm makers. All category 5 storms are converging to create Christianity’s first Perfect Storm. Christians and Christianity are going where no one has gone before in history.
In the past century the “Church” was taken over by Communism and Fascism. They were defeated. The Church of Jesus remains, but there was a cost. When storms come they enforce the rule – persevere or parish.
When storms come bring a refiner’s fire
When storms come, Christians are to go out and meet the storm.
According to Leonard Sweet the three storm makers are
1) Post-modernism
2) Post Christian culture
3) And what he names global warming of “post scale”
Most of us are part of the post-modern world we were born B.C. (before computers). Our children are A.C. born after computers. Most of us are one generation removed from the “out house”. In our B.C. world we grew up on the printed page, a book culture. The magic for kids today is the “screen” media, the I-pod world, and Webb connections. We remember sitting and listening to 8 tracks.
They walk around with I pod ear phones.
Human history has been marked by 3 major cultural changes and innovations that changed the world.
The Greek alphabet changed the world for centuries.
The Printing Press in the 15th century created a different world which lasted 5-1/2 centuries.
Now the computer and internet is the third major change. Our world has been rewired.
In this post-modern world 75% of households in Korea are wired to the Internet. In America, only 18%. In Rio de Janeiro there are no telephone poles – they went directly to wireless.
Nobody buys albums any more. Music is downloaded to your I-pod. My son’s new I-pod, which was transported in a shirt pocket to the hospital delivery room, played music during labor. His I-pod will hold 2,600 songs.
The second hurricane is living in a post-Christian arena. There are now more Muslims born in Denmark than babies being baptized. There are more Islamic believers in England than Anglicans. In Belgium the chiming of the church bells has been silenced by Islamic protests. Christianity is dying in the West.
It took centuries to Christianize Britain but 40 years to deconstruct.
Christian bible stories are unknown. I can no longer in a sermon say, “You know the story of David & Goliath”. People don’t! Do you remember a time when the whole town would shut down on Good Friday? Stores would remain closed on Easter? Macy’s closed on Christmas Day? It’s now a “Holiday Season”. Family prayers at meal time, stories and bedtime prayers must be taught to new Christian families. It is not part of their family experience. Why are cooking shows like Rachel Ray so popular? Why do we have an overweight population and pre diabetic children?
One teacher, during the holiday season, was sharing with her class all the different stories. She read stories about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the Christmas story. As she read the Christmas story, one little boy raised his hand and said “Teacher, that was a beautiful story. Could you read it again.” She did. After the second reading he raised his hand again and asked. It is such a beautiful story, but why did they name the baby after a curse word!?
In the post-Christian world – spirituality is good. The culture now looks to Ophrah and Dr. Phil for answers. Religion is bad. Religion is dangerous. Moral absolute people are seen as foolish idiots.
The first form of persecution is prosecution. Try expanding a church parking lot. In the new “planned communities” there is no land set aside for a church.
The third Hurricane, in which the church finds itself, is what Leonard Sweet calls “global warming of post scale.” His point – we scale up our lives.
a) If I’m hungry you give me a bow and arrow and I have power
b) We scale up to rifles
c) If rifles are not enough we scale up to tanks
d) Ultimately a tank is not enough. Give me an atomic bomb. Now I can kill everything and “obliterate my enemies.” We are facing a return of the religious crusades and holy wars…. Not with swords and battle axes, but with atomic animation.
The question: How does the church get through this perfect storm?
1) Don’t complain. Don’t whine. Don’t ask to return to the “good old days”. They weren’t that good. What was the #1 song in country music last year? Rascal Flats “I Miss Mayberry”, and Tim McGraw’s “Back When I Was Young”.
2) Don’t blame God for sending it our way.
3) The storm can not be managed. Gated communities don’t work for long.
How many of you remember the movie “Forrest Gump? How did he and his boat survive the coming storm? Did they hug the harbor? No, he sailed out into the deep.
Osama Bin Laden’s rage against the materialism of the West is right, but his answer is faulty. He is hugging the shore of ancient history.
Jesus said, This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing
yourselves to be my disciples. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
I have set my face to Jerusalem. There I will be arrested, rejected and crucified but on the 3rd day I will rise from the dead. “Whoever wants to be great must be a servant. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus said, “Come follow me.” Did he say it would be easy?
Jesus said, If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world – it would love you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. John 15:18, 8
Jesus said, By this all men will know you are my disciples. Love one another as I have loved you. John 13:34, 35. Who were the first to reach the blown away communities along the Mississippi coast? The government? The Red Cross? Christians with their chain saws, caravans of mobile kitchens, water, and portable toilets.
In 1977 Francis Schaefer in his book “The Mark of the Christian” wrote: “The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture.” The Christian must practice both God’s holiness and God’s love, not holiness without love, that is only harshness, not love, without holiness. That is only compromise.
Love is patient and kind and always seeks the true welfare of others, even at personal cost. Jesus was nailed to a cross so that we might receive God’s mercy and grace.
As Christians, we possess the message of God’s love for humanity. We have experienced his undeserved forgiveness. We rejoice in the knowledge of God’s personal acceptance. But we can not keep it to ourselves. Jesus said, “As the Father sent me into the world, so I am sending you.” “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to get and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” (John 15:16; 17:18)
Jesus is sending His church into the Perfect Storm. We can not run away from the storm. We can only lash ourselves to the mast of Jesus. Jesus is the one stable force in the howling wind. We shall cling to The Old Rugged Cross.
Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” Don’t worry! Be of good cheer. “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Everybody follows someone. We all give our lives to something. Dallas Willard, Christian Philosopher, challenges his students to the reality test. Put Jesus into practice. Go ahead. Got someone better than Jesus in mind to follow? OK. Try someone else ______ to put Sigmund Freud into practice. Put Charles Darwin into practice. Put Karl Marx into practice. Put Pablo Picasso into practice. The only who or what that can stand up to the reality test is Jesus the Christ, who is bold enough to say to each of us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
Go out, be a witness. Meet the storm. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (I Peter 3:15)
