By contrast, my familial culture makes and keeps friends across generations of time. Small towns tend to know everything there is to know about everyone. Texas, of course, is another snob state but in a different way. Besides, you dare not say it to their faces lest you want to fight it out. And politically they were conservative. My dad, back in the late sixties, would fuss about the creeping socialism taking over the country. He was not impressed with LBJ's Great Society.

I want to segue from this to an experience from the other night. The final Thursday of each month we take a break from our normal Bible Study routine and play a family friendly movie. This is open to the community as an outreach. Two ladies who take the Pierce Transit/ shuttle bus attended this particular night. This para-transit service provides door-to-door service for those who, for various health reasons, can not drive.

At the conclusion of the movie I heard the shuttle bus pull up and the driver trying a couple of doors on the chapel, looking for his passengers. So I went up to tell him that the ladies would be out in just a minute.

The driver told me, "This place really creeps me out."

I responded that the campus is not well lit, the mansion and chapel can be a little intimidating in the dark.

He replied, "I have a third eye, you know."

Unfazed I asked him, "Does that mean that you can see spirits?"

And he answered, "I can't see them but I can feel them when they're there. And I'm really creeped out."

So much for a third eye. But what has this to do with my childhood culture clashes? Just this, each of us sees the world through the lens that is our worldview. This is a metaphor for the emotional, physical, rational and spiritual components which make up who we are. Think of it as the mental baggage that we drag forward as we live our lives.

Our worldview is affected by what we learn, where we have grown up, how we were raised by family. It is shaped by the happenstances which occur in our lives. Our culture impinges upon and modifies this worldview. And, our physical/mental abilities or inabilities may impact it. Finally, what we decide . . or should I say, what we choose for this life plays a major role in forming our worldview.

We face many different, and exciting, cultures and worldviews today. Wrapped into each is an understanding and appreciation for God. The gamut runs from animistic to New Age, from eastern mythologies to western Christianities, from paganism to satanism and beyond. And there is a tendency, even an expectation, toward a synthesis of belief sets. We now have churches that custom design their worship from many different beliefs; wicken, new age, christian, islam, etc. Reader boards and church banners proclaim, "One God, Many Names."

But we should not be so cavalier with our Christian worldview. Remember, it is who we are and what we believe. And our worldview, because it is who we are, has eternal consequences. The apostle Paul speaks of this in promoting unity. It is here that we get a clear indication of the purpose of a truly Christian worldview. In his benediction in Romans 15 he writes,

5 Now may the God of perseverance and comfort grant to you the same mind with one another with regard to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one voice together you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

Paraphrased this might read "May God grant all of you a worldview which is focused on Jesus Christ that you may worship Him in unity." Rather than synthesize erring belief sets and calling it worship, we are called to focus only on Jesus Christ that we may worship God with one voice.

It matters not from whence we came, it matters not to thence we go. It matters that we focus only on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Learn more in the sermon series A Christian Worldview which began August 9th.

I am reminded of one of Paul's teachings, of which many could apply here;

17 Therefore this I say, and I urge you in the Lord, that you are no longer to walk, just as the unbelievers walk in the emptiness of their mind, 18 having been darkened in their understanding, having been alienated to the life of God through ignorance which is in them, through the hardness of their heart; 19 everyone who, having become insensitive, greedily gave themselves over to indecency with regard to every kind of immoral practice. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

How easy it is to be deceived by the slogans of today, "I was born that way." Slogans are easy to remember, they slip quickly off the tongue, they mean what we deem them to mean, and they stay lodged in our psyche, polluting us. But we are encouraged otherwise;

20 But you did not learn Christ like this, 21 if indeed you heard and were taught in Him, that truth is in Jesus, 22 that regarding your former conduct, you are to throw off the old person, the one being destroyed through the lusts of deceitfulness, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new person, the one created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:20-24)

My minor bit of vandalism pales in the face of entire denominations being ripped asunder by this issue; the Anglican communion for some time and just recently the Lutheran Church. (I've provided some links below covering this latest tragedy) But it does highlight our social penchant for pursuing sin in the face of clear Biblical teaching. This is not to be unexpected.

3 For an age will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but with regard to their own lusts they will accumulate teachers to tickle their ears, 4 and indeed they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

We each have to ask ourselves, "Where do I fit in the picture? Am I part of the deluded, the ones with tickled ears? Or, will I stand up for clear teaching?" One hardly needs to wonder at the systematic destructuring of our mainline denominations, Scripture clearly prophesies it.

51 "Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? "No," I say to you, "but on the contrary division; 52 for it will be from now on, five in one household have been divided, three against two and two against three." " (Luke 12:51-52)

Given that division is a certainly, our task at hand is to choose the right side. There is no straddling the fence, it belongs to the enemy.

Links:

• Word Alone
  
• Christianity Today