Two Kingdoms and - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Two Kingdoms and Every Tribe, Language, People, and Nation:

1

Cultural

Proficiency

o

r

Counter-cultural

Proficiency

?

2Summary:Christian education, with the body of Christ, is committed to Christ’s ransoming people for God from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation; and to serving church and world by means of our Christian, Lutheran higher education.

We examine and consider programs such as Cultural Proficiency in terms of our Reformation insights on the Gospel and the Bible as our source and norm for decisions.

We will be informed when selecting our references, and faithful and precise when defining our goals and aims.

So what is the relationship ofCultural Proficiency with Christ-and-Culture?Christ conflicts with cultureChrist conforms to culture

Christ transcends cultureChrist in tension with culture

Christ transforms culture

Table Talk

: Use these standard themes to consider and critique our topic of cultural proficiency. How would our Lutheran two-kingdoms insight about the Gospel inform this topic?

3

4Would you characterize Jesus asculturally sensitive and

proficient

?

Mk 7:24, calling the

Syro

-Phoenician

woman a dog

Lk 10:25, the

Good

Samaritan and who is my neighbor

Mt 19:16, not accommodating the

rich young

ruler

Lk 7:1, engaging with the Roman centurion

Mk 7:1, dismissing human cultural mores

and

scruples

Acts 1:6, mission to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and all the earth

What other incidents from Christ’s ministry come to mind?

What’s the verdict:

C

ulturally proficient or no? What does this mean for us?

Bible Data Base:Cultural Proficiency and Counter-cultural Proficiency

We can catalogue several texts that inform a Biblical examination of culture, multiculturalism, cultural diversity, and cultural proficiency. One key theme across the Whole Counsel of God is Scripture’s condemnation of human culture and cultures, a theme that moves from Gen. 3 through the Revelation to John. Parallel to yet predominating that theme is the Gospel itself and what the Gospel says about human distinctions, divisions, and prejudice. Keep in mind that the institutions and programs of God’s left-hand kingdom do not resolve sin and its consequences. The left-hand kingdom keeps sin in check to forestall its chaos and allow for some justice and well-being while God’s right-hand kingdom does its work

.

Exercise:

To quickly gain an overview of the Bible’s complex and nuanced treatment of these themes

, scan the bolded texts

below. The bolded texts are not more important than the others. They are highlighted merely as a convenient way to note the scope of the Bible’s treatment of these themes

.

Gen 1 – 2, a very good creation

Gen 3 – 11, the corruption of culture

Gen 11, the tower of Babel: confusion, not diversity

Gen 12:1-3, blessing to all

nations

Gen 22:1, sacrifice of Isaac

­Dt 23:7,

etc

: welcome the stranger and sojourner

Joshua, destruction of the Canaanites

Ezra 9-10, mass divorce of non-Jewish wives

Isa 60:1, arise, shine…nations shall come to you

Mt 25:35, I was a stranger and you welcomed me

Mt 28:19-20, of every nation

Mk 6:14, John the Baptist condemns Herod Antipas’ sexual conduct

Mk. 7:24, Jesus calls the

Syro

-Phoenician woman a dog

Lk 10:25, the Good Samaritan and, “Who is my neighbor?”

Acts 2, Pentecost and reversing the tower of Babel

Acts 10:34, from every tribe and

nation

cont. on next page

Acts 11:19-26, Jerusalem and AntiochActs 15, no greater burden than these necessary [four] things [Is MLK day sort of like accommodating those Jewish Christians?]Acts 17, Paul in AthensRom chs 1 – 8, God has imprisoned all in disobedience (11:32)

1 Cor 7:1, case study on the conduct of the Corinthian Christians (penultimate); and 1 Cor 7:29, the form of this world is passing away (ultimate)

1 Cor 8:13, causing my brother to fall

Gal 3:28, neither Jew nor Greek

2

Cor

6:14, do not be yoked with unbelievers

Eph

2:11, Christ has broken down the dividing wall

Phil 3:30, our citizenship is in heaven

Philemon: sustaining cultural distinctions while subverting and converting them

Rev 5:9, ransomed men for God from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation

Rev 7:9, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages

_______________________ (What text would you add

?)

The Bible’s view on diversity and multiculturalism is not the view of the Enlightenment, modernism, or postmodernism, though all these movements have been powerfully influenced by the

Scriptures

and have their left-hand kingdom contributions to offer.

7How about Paul? Would you characterize him as culturally

sensitive and proficient?

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 

To

the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 

To

those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings

. 1

Cor

9:19-23

8Cultural Proficiency andthe Credibility of the BibleJoshua and destruction of the Canaanite tribesEzra and mass divorce of non-Jewish wivesThe sacrifice of Isaac and abusive religious parents

Jesus, divider of familiesThe standard sexuality texts

The exclusivity of the JewsThe exclusivity of the Gospel

_______________________

Perhaps the critics of Christian education are correct: the Bible does not fit with a progressivist program for society.

First edition, 1999(17 years ago—is that good, not so good, or neither?)

Assess Culture:Name the Differences

Value Diversity:Claim

Your

Differences

Manage

the Dynamics of

Difference:

Reframe the Conflicts Caused by Differences

Adapt to Diversity:Change to Make

a Difference

Institutionalize

Cultural

Knowledge:

Train About Differences

In terms of the two kingdoms, are these kinds of programs

a benefit from studies and research in God’s left-hand kingdom?

an education-and-cultural trend?

an ideology with a set of pre-suppositions?

9

These are the

f

ive CP standards

Cultural proficiency is a mind-set, a worldview, a way a person or an organization makes assumptions for effectively describing, responding to, and planning for issues that arise in diverse environments. For some people, cultural proficiency is a paradigm shift from viewing cultural differences as problematic to learning how to interact effectively with other cultures.Culturally proficient leaders

display personal values and behaviors that enable them and others to engage in effective interactions among students, educators, and the communities they serve. Cultural

competence is behavior that aligns with standards that move an organization or an individual toward culturally proficient

interactions.

Source

: Cultural Proficiency: A Manual for School Leaders, by Randall B. Lindsey,

Kikanza

Nuri Robins, and Raymond D.

Terrell, p. 4

● What axioms and presuppositions shall we set our

mind

on? What

view

of the

world

?

● What

effects

are we seeking to attain?

● What are these

standards

and what is their source?

These questions don’t get answered.

But not a bad book—basically a cultural diversity application of the golden rule (2

nd Great Commandment) and the Teacher Effectiveness Training of the 1970s.10

11So which is it?Jesus, the stumbling block and the offense (1 Cor. 1:18ff), despised and rejected (Isa 53)?

For many are called—but few are chosen. Mt 22:14Or the Jesus, the magnet?

“And

I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself

.”

Jn

12:32

12As practitioners in Christian and Lutheran education, and with regard to our current culture’s many social divisions, how might we, for our students, effectively fashion a ministry and application of the 2nd Great Commandment and the Gospel so that we

Include valid research from God’s left-hand kingdomDon’t simply adopt and mimic some generic or popular program we saw in the

Chron of Higher EdAddress actual needs and concerns for our students

Recognize the complexities of individual, corporate, and systemic sin (

cf

1 & 2 Sam, 1 & 2 Kings)

Employ God’s word and the Gospel on behalf of sinners

Avoid being co-opted by regulators or targeted by advocacy groups

Contribute to our

raison d’etre

:

using Christian higher education to advance God’s right-hand kingdom of grace?

IN-REACH AND OUTREACH

Implosion / Explosion

Is it the mission of Lutheran education to bring in “the worldly” and those still “of the flesh” as a ministry of outreach? Is it in-reach to already-committed young Christians? In-reach or outreach: which can CUNE do best as an institution of Lutheran higher education? Can it do both? Why or why not?

13

Worldly, of the Flesh, and SpiritualThe natural [worldly] person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.The spiritual person

judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him

?” But we have the mind of Christ.

However,

brothers

,

I could

not address you as spiritual people but as people of the

flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for

you are still

of the

flesh

. 1 Cor. 2:14 – 3:3

Table Talk

: Which of Paul’s three distinctions would you say describe our students? And if it’s a mix, what does that mean for us?

14

15An analogy to consider:A hospital has lots of warm, safe rooms and beds.A hospital has food services for lots of people.Hospitals should open their doors to house the indigent and homeless.

When Wittenberg University began receiving lots of requests from families and towns to enroll students unprepared for the rigors of the liberal arts, Melanchthon opened a prep school in his own house at his own expense.

16Here’s a key issue for us:If we bring in increasing numbers of 18 – 20 year-olds who do not understand our Biblical sources and our Christian, Lutheran identity at the level of higher education (not pre-school or day school),and we do so, thinking that this is effective evangelism and outreach,

and we do so without the requisite in-reach and educing (as in the word “education”) from the 66 books of Scripture and grounding in Christian community,

then their culture-capture to the world they come from will inevitably compromise our Christian counter-culture and our counter-cultural proficiency.

A Christianity without Christian formation is no match for the powerful social forces at work within our society.

-

William

Willimon

from his 1986 essay, “Making Christians in a Secular World”

Suggested Recommendations for your critique:Rather than some typical generic office (“Cultural Diversity Czar”) soon outdated by pejoration, let’s be who we say we are: Broken Wall Ministries (Eph 2), The Onesimus Office (Philemon), Ransom Ministries (Rev. 5), or ___________.Select a person of color who has already been effective in ministry among us, academically successful, knows us our community, is experienced in and understand athletics, knows how to welcome the stranger, can patiently build credibility and community, and can work with St. John to foster community “adoptions” and opportunities.

Strengthen our in-reach for spiritual formation and biblical literacy.

Re-arrange our already-available resources to locate in the first two weeks of the fall semester

those students who will need academic, spiritual, and social assistance.

17

18MethodsAlone, Jesus went to the mountain and prayedAll night long before the decision he made.The following day, the twelve he would choose:All would be local. All would be Jews.All twelve would be men, and four of them brothers.One tax-man, four fishermen—as for the others,Who knew their professions? Not even elected!What an unrepresentative choice God directed.

- Jessica Shaver