valley vine
Valley Presbyterian Church December 2017 Volume sixty-two, Number eleven Dear friends, Christ and Culture. Saint and Citizen. Christian and American. You and I live out two main identities, within two primary stories. Where do our two identifies merge, and where do they diverge? Where do the two stories connect, and where do they clash? For followers of Jesus, similar questions arise in every time and place. How did Christian identity fit with Roman citizenship and with Greek values? Paul had to wrestle with this question. What does the enlightenment, the rise of science, or the tide of secularism mean for our faith and life together? Thoughtful disciples must learn to read the questions of their culture within the larger and more ultimate story of God’s Kingdom. Our cultural practices feel essential and inevitable, but in reality they are temporary and contingent. Medieval life with its hierarchies spanning politics and society, seemed at the time to reflect a necessary and natural order. The “divine right of kings” to rule now seems dangerous and incompatible with basic human rights and freedoms. I believe that all forms of cultural expression and identity are best understood in relation to the truths of scripture. They fit, finally, within a larger context of God’s creation, redemption, and renewal. All earthly kings, and indeed all earthly powers, are not fully known until they are seen in the light of the one true sovereign, whose reign is perfect justice and mercy. So you and I must look at world events, social mores, artistic endeavors, and political claims through the lens of Christian faith and practice. We must ask how the stories of our culture fit into God’s story. At the same time, God is active within every culture. His Lordship is real beyond the church! That means we should expect to find echoes and signs of Christian truth within the secular sphere. Missionaries to other cultures find points of connection that illuminate the narrative of Jesus. Outreach to the Dalits of India opened up new reflection on the Incarnation, because God chose to arrive among unclean animals in a barn, thereby elevating those whose exclusion was based on that same circumstance of poverty. You and I are missionaries to the American culture of our day. We must read events and movements in a Christian light, if we are to transform our culture and maintain the truth of our faith. But we must also seek the traces of God’s work among the longings and struggles of our time.
This will include hard questions and places where our values clash with broken behavior or confused norms. How should we approach questions of sexual harassment under the authority of a Lord who lifted women up toward equality and dignity in a radical way? How shall we recover an ethic of care and respect for women and men within a culture where people are presented as objects of casual desire? Where sexual activity is separated from covenant and fidelity, which are the best ways to honor and protect another? It will also mean we look at the positive connections between God’s story and our culture. This Advent we will examine classic Christmas movies that reflect deep truths of the Gospel, relating scripture and cinema. Here is a list of texts and films: December 3| First Sunday of Advent Sermon Title | “Frosty and the Great Return” Scripture | Acts 1:6-11 Movie | “Frosty the Snowman” December 10 | Second Sunday of Advent Sermon Title | “The Last Reindeer Shall Be First” Scripture | Luke 1:50-53 | 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Movie | “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” December 17 | Third Sunday of Advent Sermon Title | “Scrooged” Scripture | Luke 16:9-31 Movie | “A Christmas Carol” December 24 |Fourth Sunday of Advent Sermon Title | “The Grinch Grows His Heart” Scripture | Matthew 1:18-25 Movie | “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” Christmas Eve Sermon Title | “The Perfect Christmas” Scripture | Luke 2:1-20 Movie | “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” December 31 Sermon Title | “George Bailey and the Wise Men” Scripture | Matthew 2:1-12 Movie | “It’s A Wonderful Life” By invading our history at Bethlehem, God has made a claim to be the central character in the human story. In the coming weeks, we celebrate this fact as unavoidable truth and wonderful good news! Blessings to you in this season. Yours faithfully,
6947 E. McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-5342 Phone: 480-991-6424 Fax: 480-991-6427 Email: church@vpc.church Website: vpc.church