Anush A. John Podcast
Anush A. John Podcast
Salty Fish - Engaging the Culture
How is the Christian faith different than the culture in which it is? Is there any compatibility between the Christian Faith and culture? If not, how does a Christian engage with the culture?
anushjohn.com
Good evening. It's great to be here. Thank you to Dr Johansson for this invitation. The first time I had an interaction with CMDA staff was last year with the national organization, some of the leaders there. We went to Israel for a 10-day trip. Obviously things have changed since then, but I've been looking for the opportunity to meet up with CMDA. I met a lot of the people during that trip and then I didn't know Johns Hopkins had a branch. But great to be here.
Speaker 1:One of the usual desires that kids have in school is to try to fit in and anything or anyone that's slightly different. You know, it's kind of awkward for them and so even if kids have, let's say, a disability, sometimes more than the disability itself, it's the fact that they are different that makes them difficult to fit in, that makes it awkward for them, and sometimes that seems even worse than the handicap for them. Now this can be an issue in the Christian faith when, if we are in a different culture, in a non-Christian culture, we may feel that awkwardness. How do we react in a non-Christian culture? This evening, in a sermon entitled Salty Fish, I want to look at the challenge of Christian interaction with culture. I've divided this talk into four parts. In the first part, we will look at the immiscibility of culture. Second, we will look at the lure of compromise. Third, we will look at the immiscibility of culture. Second, we will look at the lure of compromise. Third, we will look at intentional grounding. And fourth, we will look at the balance. All right, so it's going to be about 30 minutes or so and then we'll try to wind it down.
Speaker 1:First, let's look at the immiscibility of culture. Now there are a lot of similarities between Christians and non-Christians. Now when I say non-Christians in this context, it means the secular culture. So if I said non-Christian in an Indian context, it is predominantly a Hindu culture. If I said that in the Middle Eastern context or in Asia or some other country, it'll be the Buddhist or Muslim. But in the West the primary non-Christian context is a secular context and it need not be atheistic, but I'll call them functional atheists. So it's not like the secular culture wants to prove and absolutely believes that there is no God, but they act like there is no God and that is the secular culture in which they are, in that there is no God but they act like there is no God and that is the secular culture in which they are in.
Speaker 1:So there is some similarity between a Christian and a non-Christian or a secularist, and that has to do with our humanness. We all have our human issues. We've got kids, we've got problems. We've got work, we've got. Whatever we do humanly is our similarity. We've got work, we've got. Whatever we do humanly is our similarity. But one of the main differences between a Christian and a secularist is that a Christian believes in the afterlife and the secularist or the atheist does not believe in the afterlife. So a Christian lives today in light of tomorrow, whereas a secularist or an atheist lives today in the light of today.
Speaker 1:So if you are a Christian in a secular culture, as we are in the West, the differences get bigger over time. So, for example, interstate 95 is a road that starts in Miami and goes all the way up along the East Coast, through Maine, to the border of US and Canada. All right. So let's say that you were traveling along I-95 North and as you're traveling along I-95 North, in your secular worldview, you suddenly became a Christian. North, in your secular worldview, you suddenly became a Christian. And when you become a Christian, it's not like you take a tangent and go okay, instead of going to Maine, I'm going to go to New Hampshire. That's not what happens when you become a Christian. You take a 180 degree turn and instead of going north, you are now going south. Now, the moment you exit out of I-95 and try to go south, you are very similar to a person that was driving next to you. But as time goes along, the differences get bigger, because the secularist is going north and the Christian is going south. So over time, the differences get bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:What is the consequence of living in a culture where the culture has a different worldview than our own? And what happens is that the culture will be antagonistic to the Christian, and this has happened throughout the centuries. Let's just read a verse In John, chapter 15, verse 18,. Jesus told his disciples if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you.
Speaker 1:When, as a Christian, we live in a secular culture, like oil and water, we are immiscible. Second, let's look at the lure of compromise. Second, let's look at the lure of compromise. Since we are living in such a different, opposite culture, there is a lot of incompatibility and therefore there is a lot that we can lose. Now listen to Jesus talking to his disciples. And his disciples were not in a secular culture, they were in a religious culture. And and still, look what Jesus tells his disciples. Let's read two verses.
Speaker 1:Mark, chapter 10, verse 29 says Jesus said truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel. He goes on to say that whatever you've lost, you you will get back. But the point is that we can lose all these things simply for being a Christian. And then he says in Mark 8, verse 35, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.
Speaker 1:When we become Christians, when we are Christians in a secular culture, we can lose a lot of things. We can lose relationships, we can lose opportunities, we can lose respect. Your paper may not get published because it doesn't fit the secular narrative. I mean, if your paper has bad research and doesn't get published because of that. That's a different story. But if your paper, of all things being equal, if your paper is a good paper, but if it doesn't fit the secular narrative, it need not get published. Right, when there is the risk of loss, then there is the risk of compromise. Neil McDonough is an actor in several movies and shows. He acted in Desperate Housewives. He acted in Minority Report and Band of Brothers, but he refused to do certain scenes because of his faith, and so, while they were filming the ABC series scoundrels in 2010, he was let go and he was blacklisted by Hollywood because he refused to do certain scenes. There are things that we will lose, and it's because of the risk of loss that we have the risk of compromise.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you two things about compromising. Number one Christians are known not to compromise their faith, and that is why in many hostile countries, there are still a lot of Christian martyrs. There's a lot of persecution happening in the Middle East, in India, in China, in North Korea and in several other countries. There are a lot of Christian martyrs because Christians don't compromise. I don't usually quote Adolf Hitler, but this is what he said in Mein Kampf. He said the greatness of Christianity did not arise from attempts to make compromises with those philosophical opinions of the ancient world which had some resemblance to its own doctrines, but from the unrelenting and fanatical proclamation and defense of its own teaching. Christians don't usually compromise.
Speaker 1:The second thing about compromise that I want to tell you is that compromise is usually very slow. When we compromise, we compromise very slow. It's one thing at a time. So if we were compromising, we would not see much difference between yesterday and today. In fact, we wouldn't see much difference between last week and this week. But if we looked over a period of time from last year to this year, you'll find that we have compromised.
Speaker 1:There is immiscibility of a Christian and secular culture and there is always the lure, there's always a temptation for us to compromise. How can we keep ourselves from compromising? So, thirdly, we will look at intentional grounding. How can we avoid drifting away and compromising? How do we stay grounded? I want to tell you two things how we can stay grounded to avoid compromises. First is fellowship with God, fellowship with God. We were talking about having Bible study every week, and it's with Bible study and fellowship with God that we can stay grounded. Colossians, chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, reads Therefore as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. How do we stay rooted? We walk with him through Bible study, through worship not just corporate worship through personal worship, through personal Bible study, through personal prayer, through personal communion with God and time spent with God.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a fable. There was a diamond expert and a student came to the diamond expert to learn how to identify a diamond. It was a 30-day course, and so the student comes to the diamond expert and he signs up and he comes for the first day. He comes on the first day where they were having this training and he signs up and he comes for the first day. He comes on the first day where they were having this training and he's the only student. And so the diamond expert says here's a diamond, I've got an errand to run, I'll be right back. And so here's, the student holds a diamond and the right back ends up being at the end of the day. So the diamond expert comes at the end of the day and says I'm so sorry, my errand ran really long and I'm so sorry. I'll take the diamond back from you, but tomorrow we will do the rest of the course. We have 29 days more. So the next day he comes.
Speaker 1:The student comes, the expert says here's a diamond, hold on to this diamond. I've got one more errand to run. Let me just run the errand, I'll come right back. Of course he doesn't come right back. He comes in the evening, he takes a diamond, apologizes to the student and the student goes away and obviously, as you know, it goes on for about 29 days and so finally, the 30th day Now the student is not happy at all.
Speaker 1:He comes on the 30th day, the last day of the course, and the expert says here's a diamond, I'm so sorry, I've got an emergency that I need to run to. I will be right back. He gives the diamond to the student and he goes, and of course he does not come right back. He comes at the end of the day. The student is livid. He says, ben, I paid so much money to get training from you and here you are. Are you wasted my time and you wasted my money? But, by the way, the diamond you gave me today, something felt off with it. And so the master took the diamond back from the student and says you've learned your lesson, and the lesson was the first 29 days I gave you a real diamond and today I gave you a false diamond. He said the way to know what a real diamond is is to keep in touch with the real diamond. That's all you need to do, and when a false diamond comes along, you will immediately know what a false diamond is. You see, ladies and gentlemen, we don't need to try to learn every false worldview out there. We just need to know what the truth is, and once you know what the truth is, everything else that is not the truth is falsehood.
Speaker 1:More than 20 years ago, when I first came to the US, when I moved to the US, one of the sub-cuisines in India is well, we have Indian cuisine, obviously we have Chinese cuisine, but one of the sub-cuisines that I really, really loved was Indo-Chinese cuisine, and just like you have Indo-American cuisine, here there's Indo-Chinese cuisine and I loved it. So when I moved here about 20-plus years ago, I looked for a place where I could get that same taste again. We stayed two years in Chicago. I went to multiple Chinese restaurants to get that taste again. Never got the taste. We moved two years to Boston. We went to multiple Chinese restaurants, never got that taste. I moved to New Orleans. At that point I had stopped trying much. I moved to Kansas City for eight years. We went to multiple Chinese restaurants.
Speaker 1:At this point the issue was I didn't even know what it tasted like. What was it supposed to taste? I forgot what it tasted like. Yes, I was trying all these different Chinese restaurants for Indo-Chinese tasting food, but I had forgotten what the original taste was like. What I should have done is gone back frequently and had the taste and tried to compare. But I mean, it doesn't matter, I still wouldn't have found it. But that is the point. We need to keep in touch with the truth, to know what the falsehood is. In touch with the truth, to know what the falsehood is.
Speaker 1:The second method by which we can have intentional grounding is through fellowship with other Christians. Fellowship with other Christians, with God's people that follow God. As we know, community is one of the best ways to get anything done right. I mean, if you want to lose weight, get a friend and go to the gym. If you want to learn a new habit, get a friend and do whatever. If you want to learn how to play I don't know the guitar, rather than looking up YouTube videos and trying to strum to it, it's better to get somebody else to look at YouTube videos with you or Go to a teacher who will teach you. So there is more than one person. Community is one of the best ways to grow spiritually as well.
Speaker 1:In Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24 and 25, the writer of Hebrews writes this. He says and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. Even then there were people that didn't show up, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers is a great way to stay grounded. And I also said that we need to be intentionally grounded, because it's easy to drift away. If we don't do anything, we will drift. Now, if we lived in a committed Christian culture, right. If that was a culture that we are in, a committed Christian culture, if that was a culture that we are in, we don't have to do anything. We will go with the flow. But when we are living in a secular culture, if you don't do anything, you'll go backward, and that is why we need to be intentional in our grounding. We need to intentionally make time to read the Bible intentionally. Make time to pray intentionally. Make time to read the Bible intentionally, make time to pray, intentionally, make time to meet with other people.
Speaker 1:How does a fish in the ocean keep from getting salty? How does a fish in the ocean keep from getting salty? Based on the regulation of salt, there are two types of marine creatures. One type are the osmoconformers. Those are, for example, sharks and most invertebrates. And the osmoconformers, what they do is they don't do anything. And so if the sea is salty, they get salty. They don't do anything at all to change that dynamic. And then there are the osmoregulators, and this includes most fish in the sea. And so for these fish, they have to actively get rid of the salt in their excretory system. You will remember from your Guyton reading when you drink salty water what happens in the loop of Henle. You will remember that right. So these fish have to do the same thing. They may not have the loop of Henle, but they've got to do the same thing A lot of work, active, intentional work in order to not be salty. If they did nothing, they would immediately become salty.
Speaker 1:So if you went to a restaurant and you ordered shark, what do you expect it to be Salty? Why? Because it is an osmoconformer. If you ordered fish that wasn't salted, you expect it to be non salty. What if you ate a fish and that was salty? What I'm gonna say now is gonna be gross, but you guys have already eaten, so it's okay. If you ate a fish that is salty, that means the fish has been dead in the water for a while. Right, because that's what happens when you're dead in the water. You go from becoming an osmoregulator to an osmoreconformer, and that is why we need to be intentionally grounded, otherwise we will drift.
Speaker 1:Fourth, let's look at the balance. I said that we should not compromise, but that doesn't mean we go and sit in some secluded place in a hillside, away from secular culture. There needs to be a balance. You know, when you pop popcorn in a microwave, there's a balance. You don't want to pop it too less because you'll have so many unpopped kernels, but you don't want to pop it too much because there'll be burnt popcorn, all right. So it's like a balance. You want it to be popped, just right, but not too many unpopped kernels. So that is what we're talking about. We want a balance. So I want to give you two ways to balance, two things to balance. First is to interact in our culture without compromise. Interact but not compromise.
Speaker 1:The Christian faith is about engagement with people, and Jesus wants us to engage. Jesus wants us to interact. Let me read our last five verses, and this essentially what Jesus says here, summarizes everything that I said in the last 20 minutes. Let me just set the context of these verses. This is Jesus talking to his father about the disciples. Jesus talking to his father about the disciples the day before Jesus died. This is what he said.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 17, verses 14 through 18. Verses 14 through 18. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. We need to engage, we need to interact, but not compromise in our culture.
Speaker 1:Second, we need to be loving but not judgmental. This is one of the easiest things to say, but so impossible to do. It's incredible when you look at the life of Jesus. It is so amazing how he walked that fine balance between love and justice. People of all shapes and sizes, especially in the bottom rung of society, wanted to hang out with him, and yet you never get the feeling that Jesus was judging them. He welcomed them. They wanted to hang out with him. It is incredible when you read the Gospels, and that's why it's so hard for us to find that balance of being loving but not judgmental. I mean, we go back and forth Sometimes we are loving, sometimes we're judgmental, and it's just so hard. How can we be interactive but not compromising? How can we be loving but not judgmental, okay, so let me give you a last suggestion how to find this balance, to do both. Think of it as a family relationship.
Speaker 1:What if you had a twin who is a drug addict? Okay, what if you had a twin who's a drug addict? How would you deal with that twin? You would interact with the twin but not compromise In this arc of the story. I'm assuming that you're not a drug addict too, and that would change things around. Your twin is a drug addict, but you're not. So in this story, that's what it is you would interact. It's not like you're going to shun your twin and not talk to them anymore. You would interact, but you yourself will not compromise. At the same time, you may advise your twin, but there is always love. There isn't there, maybe, if we consider treating people in our culture, in our secular culture, as we would a twin who has become a prodigal. Let me end with a story.
Speaker 1:In 1995, the relic of a hand of Joseph de booster was brought to the town of Kalawao in the island of Molokai in Hawaii, and there was widespread celebration. Why, why? Joseph de Worcester, or Father Damien, was a Belgian priest that was born in 1840 and from a very young age he wanted to be a missionary. He heard about the need to serve 700 leprosy patients who were in this isolated place in Kalawao in Hawaii, and they were banished from their communities because they had leprosy.
Speaker 1:In 1873, father Damien came to Kalawao and he changed it from a place where outcasts would go to die to a place where outcasts would go to live. Because he learned the local Hawaiian language, he started schools, he started churches, he started bands and choirs, establish a water system and he did a lot of things for the community. But 12 years after he got there, the people in that community got to understand the depth of his love for them, because he himself became a leper and at the age of 49, father Damien died in Kalawao. Ladies and gentlemen, no one can argue when the basis of our interaction is self-sacrificial love. No one can argue when the basis of our interaction is self-sacrificial love, and that is what we see. 2,000 years ago, when Jesus came, he was killed and tortured by the people he came to save. Thank you,