Holiness Reeducation

As Christians we live as Stanley Hauerwas has put it, as resident aliens in this world. We are in this world, and yet we are also part of the Kingdom. We live in our culture, in a specific time and place, and yet through Christ we are at the same time part of eternity. This tension, of the already but not yet nature of life in the kingdom of God, leads to the difficulty in understanding what is sacred and what is secular. We have had little trouble in the church defining our culture as secular, or not related to religion. For some, that which is not labeled very clearly as Christian is labeled as secular.

But, has this division of sacred and secular harmed both? Are we too quick to dismiss that which we define as secular, and to quick to accept that which we have labeled sacred? Take for one small example music. We have Christian labels and artists. This should clearly show us what is right and proper for us to listen to as Christians, or show us what honors God and what does not. In reality, however, there is some really terrible Christian music. There is plenty of Christian music that lacks imagination, spirit, passion, gifting and calling. Should we celebrate this music just because it is labeled Christian? What about secular music? There is secular music that although not created by followers of Christ or with the intention of honoring God, may communicate truth and offer blessings to our life because of its ability to help us see more clearly our own lives or the world around us.

This divide between sacred and secular seems wrought with danger. It is important for us to share the mind of Christ, to discern the false spirits of our world that would pull us away from Christ, and to walk as Christ walked. But, we need to ask difficult questions about our distinctions that we make. Do we too quickly assign things to one category or the other? Do we assign some things to the wrong category? Do we limit our vision of God when we label those things outside the church as secular? How does our view of sacred and secular affect our mission to take Christ to the world?

Reclaiming the Sacred

Sometimes it feels as if nothing is sacred in our culture anymore. Almost anyone or anything is open to mockery and can be removed of any intrinsic value and meaning. Part of that is the fault of the church as we have too often opened ourselves up for scorn or derision through our inability to live as the holy people of God. But, part of that is postmodernity’s reshaping of our epistemology. We are finding truth increasingly within ourselves and devaluing truth outside of our reality. Much of what society has considered sacred, consecrated, or worthy of veneration is now dismissed as silly, irrelevant, or an artifact of an unenlightened past. Places are no longer sacred. Vocations are no longer sacred. God’s word, worship, marriage, the truth, life, and (as mentioned last week) the cross have had any sacred value removed from them.

Part of our calling to transform the culture around us is to revalue and hold sacred the institutions and gifts of God. Take marriage for instance. When marriage is viewed as a holy gift, a blessing and covenant made between God and a man and woman then it will be treated with respect, protected, tended to, and honored. When it is merely a convenience, a feeling, or an act of short lived passion it will fail and its value will be lost. There are sacred places in this world. There are places where God and his people have met for thousands of years, or where God has done inexplicably divine acts. These places need to be honored and acknowledged. They shouldn’t be worshipped, but they should be recognized for their sacredness. We must reclaim the sacred for God and honor it as such.

Unmasking the Sacred within the Secular

So how do we determine what is sacred and what is secular? In our consumerist driven culture it certainly isn’t by the carefully designed and marketed wrapping. Much of the media, books, and too often ministries that are given a Christian label are not sacred. They don’t honor God, they don’t communicate his truth, and they aren’t done for his glory. This can be clearly seen by anyone who spends time in the average Christian book store. A Christian bookstore should be a place that supplies important books for discipleship, Bible study, and support of ministry. It should also contain Christian art, fiction, and creative works that honor God. Those things may be found in the average Christian bookstore, but you will probably have to walk past 37 aisles of trinkets, bumper stickers, horrific books, cleverly marketed self help guides, and celebrity pastor endorsed products to find things of value.

At the same time, if you look, you can find important literature, art, philosophy, and cultural commentary that carry no Christian label and weren’t even done by followers of Christ. They may not be sacred in the same way that say the works of Augustine are sacred, but they are not outside the work of God either. You will find secular work that informs our understanding of creation, ourselves, and human societies that honors God by revealing truth and educating us. Should these works be considered sacred? Should they be secular? Should we even have these distinctions?

Is Arthur Holmes Right?

Arthur Holmes, the noted Christian philosopher, published the book All Truth is God’s Truth in 1977. In the book he asserts the presence of truth in both the categories of secular and sacred. The presence of truth in both may in fact break down the distinctions we make between sacred and secular. Holmes says, “If the sacred-secular distinction fades and we grant that all truth is ultimately God’s truth, then intellectual work can be God’s work as much as preaching the gospel, feeding the hungry, or healing the sick. It too is a sacred task.” (Perhaps my friend Evan Lenz, who is a far more studied philosopher and Arthur Holmes fan, can add more to this discussion for us.) Is that true? Does the presence of truth outside of the secular break the divisions that we have created? I honestly don’t know, but it does seem that the elimination of this divide does properly reflect our worldview of God as creator and sustainer of all things. God is certainly located everywhere, and is at work redeeming all of creation. To deny God’s presence outside of the work and lives of Christians is to limit our understanding of God and the existence and work of the Kingdom of God. So we need to be sure to not dismiss off hand the presence of the sacred within realms normally considered secular.

Living in the Tension

So where does this leave us? How are we to view these ideas of sacred and secular? I am still wrestling with these categories and ideas, but I am convinced of a couple ideas. First, we need to recapture the idea of sacredness both in the church and in our culture. We need to seek out God, his truth, and his work all around us and honor them properly. Second, we need to explore the culture around us for God’s truth because as the church we are working for the redemption of this world. If we assume, as the church, that the fullness of God’s work and truth is within our work and understanding, we will miss out on fully participating in God’s redemptive work. Third, there are unquestionably things that are not sacred. There are actions, works, art, culture, etc. that do not honor God, do not contain his truth, and are not redemptive in any ways. We also need to be mindful of these things.

In Jeremiah 29, God speaks to his people who are living in exile. They are not in the promised land, but they know God will deliver them to it again. The tension of their lives is similar to the tension we experience as we live in this fallen world and await the full coming of the Kingdom of God.

God says, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” ⁸ Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. ⁹ They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. ^[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

To this people living in exile, waiting for God to fully deliver them, God tells them to settle down and engage the culture around them. He warns them to not be deceived by the false teachers around them, but to make sure they are seeking God in all they do so that they will find them. This is the call God gives to us as well. We are to seek him in all we do, in every place we live, with all that we have, and he will bless us and bring our deliverance. So, as you go forward, seek the sacred, reject false truths, and live into the truth of God, and may God strengthen and bless as we live in the tension of his kingdom.