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Signposts Sermon

By Allan Paulin to the Synod of Otago and Southland (20 April 2002)

 

The Easter season has just finished-so we are a post Easter people-a Resurrection people. We see things in positive and exciting ways amidst our confusion and uncertainty. That is the emotional context of this sermon, which includes the gospel passage.

We are living on a cultural fault line between two major eras. During our lives huge sociological plates have met and created the disturbances we have felt in our everyday lives and culture. These two periods are the modern era and the post-modern era, and we are living in the transition stage as the former gives way to the latter. The modern era lasted many generations and petered out in the latter part of last century. Some, who need defined boundaries, say the modern age lasted exactly 200 years, starting with the Storming of the Bastile, in France in 1789 and finishing when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

What do these shifts mean? Are they good or bad? And what happens to the life we had built on the old landscape? Or, as David asks in Psalm 11, "when the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" I want to help us understand the inevitable changes for our church, to be unafraid, and to trust God. The God of post- modern culture too! Some of my thoughts and expressions come from Chuck Smith's book The end of the world-as we know it..

Knowing the contours and geography of postmodernism is invaluable. Understanding those we engage with, as well as knowing the best entry points, will increase the effectiveness of our work in the postmodern world. Christians who want to minister in this new era must therefore become students of the culture.

Our children or grandchildren are native to the postmodern world-they grew up in it! Those born from the 1960s are called Generation X and Generation Y follows. For most here, these are our children and grandchildren - the first young adults of the postmodern world!

We do not have to stretch our imaginations far to find important spiritual lessons about emerging generations in the story of the prodigal son. Looking at this story, we must first remind ourselves that Jesus conceived this parable because a group of crabby religious people felt that his concern for the outsiders, the outcasts, was inappropriate. This parable was the third of three -- a shepherd's lost sheep, a widow's lost coin, a father's lost son- all of which carried the same message; that the proper response to recovering something that was lost is joyful celebration. Our church has lost younger generations from the family of active faith-so let's engage with the issues of the parable.

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate" So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off to a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to feed his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:11--)

Baby boomers, born after the Second World War, became the first generation that did not return to church in numbers during adulthood. Therefore Generation X, their children, is the first generation who have entered adulthood with no religious background. You will find when you mention the word "church" to them, you receive a blank stare. "What's the point?" they ask. "Why would someone want to do church?" This was my experience, seven years ago, when leaving teaching and telling people of taking up the Co-director's position.

Generation X is searching for something big enough to give meaning to life, but only outside the church. Unfortunately, their search flounders in the post modern void where every path' s as good (or as bland) as any other and nothing is considered more important, or more worthwhile than anything else. Not surprisingly, like the prodigal son, the quest often has led to "wild living."

A life without boundaries, without moral commitment, without limits is hard to maintain. Individuals must constantly try to determine if they have gone too far or not far enough. They can never rest. Total freedom has negative side effects.

For all their celebrated playfulness, the irony is that Generations X &Y are spiritually starving in a secular wasteland where they sometimes try to feed their souls on media icons, which contain, at best, quasi-spirituality. Like the prodigal, they long to feed themselves on anything that may might satisfy their incessant craving, but nobody is likely to give them anything that will satisfy them- just as the prodigal, who was starving but "no one gave him anything"

Despite the challenges, there is great hope for these generations because life without hope often leads back home. Listen as Jesus unfolds the story of the prodigal:

When he came to his senses he said, "How many of my fathers hired men have food to spare, and here am I starving to death! I will set out and go back to my Father and say to him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men". So he got up and went to his father.

One of the biggest challenges facing many younger people is the task of finding their identity and destiny. This is an individual quest that requires ample social interaction, support and encouragement. Since our culture does not reward personal and spiritual growth, this becomes an even more difficult task.

The prodigal however, discovered himself when he began to reflect on his father and his father's house. This is significant for two reasons: First, identity is a composite of history plus memory, and second, identity is a gift of God and is formed in relationship with Him-- God being the one represented by the forgiving father in Jesus' parable. Many searchers will begin to discover who they truly are when they get up and head to their Father's house.

But while he was still a long way off, his Father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arm around him and kissed him. The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But the Father said to the servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is now found." So they began to celebrate.

Now we come to the role we can play as a church in helping emerging generations find faith in their turbulent postmodern world. The actions of the father in the story are an idealised version of the way believers should welcome newcomers to the family of God. Carolyn Kitto encourages us to treat newcomers to our church as we do our grandchildren in our homes and lives. They change our lifestyle, attitudes and actions, as well as our homes. (So I understand!)

Contained in this lively book by Stan Stewart are helpful strategies in working with young people. I have some extra copies and others are available from the Church office in Wellington. My own study leave report addresses similar topics, so please ask if you wish an electronic copy. Let me remind you that the current statistics show that 46% of all Presbyterian worshippers are over 65. No wonder I am passionate about shaping our church for emerging generations.

Because postmodern culture is not like any other the world has ever seen, we must realise that the needs will differ from any other kind of ministry we have seen before. It is not just intergenerational differences; it is a completely different era. Modern and postmodern people think and act differently.

We are looking at a new world, and that requires new strategies. I have friends who wonder if the church, in its present form, has a hope of surviving the 21st Century. I think there is hope, but only if we are flexible enough.

Interestingly, in our gospel story, the father did not begin by laying down rules for the prodigal, nor tell him how life was to change for him now he was home. Instead he filled his home with music and dancing, the kind of activities he believed his son would enjoy.

The future church will be quite different from the church we know. Attending Faith Festival, held last month, confirmed this for me. Young people will want to bring in their raw emotional energy into worship. This is the generation that invented moshing, and they will need a style of worship that helps them feel and release their emotions. They will need an environment where they can freely express themselves in laughter and tears. Their church will be dynamic rather than static, experiential rather than cerebral, and more like a party than a funeral.

Churches must re-examine the way they respond to Generation X & Y and give them encouragement to develop their own forms of worship, their own ways of studying the Bible, and their own ways of practising the faith. Will our churches host the party for those who want to return to the Father? The problem, staying with the story of the prodigal, is that most of our churches are not under the administration of the father, but of the older brother.

We need to let young people know it is possible to be in the world, yet not of the world. It is possible to live in popular culture without being committed to its values, obligated to its weaknesses or defined by its worldview. Conversion does not mean a return to modernity--a past that means little to people born since the sixties. Young Christians will need churches that can assist them in interacting with contemporary culture. Please encourage them to engage their generation in ways that meaningfully represents Christ.

The Older Brother of the prodigal provides the final part in Jesus story:

Meanwhile the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. "Your brother has come back", he replied, "and your Father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound."

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So, his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, "Look! All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeying your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home you kill the fatted calf for him"

"My son", the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we need to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is now found"

The father's goal was to reconcile the brothers but especially to convince the older son that he should rejoice in his brother's return. The purpose of the parable was to teach those of us who are "older brothers" how to respond to the salvation of our younger and different siblings.

Provided churches have faith in young Christians, they will be a redeeming presence in the culture, that will operate through the power of God, in a biblical, albeit postmodern, way. In typical postmodern fashion, such churches are likely to borrow from a lot of different Christian sources. Expect them to plunder many traditions: to mix liturgy with spontaneous prayers, hymns (drums included) with contemporary choruses, and Celtic devotion with Benedictine spirituality. If you are an "older brother" believer, expect them to worship God in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. But, so long as they are faithful to historic Christian teaching, don't interfere with them or criticise their relationship with God. Rather rejoice that they have returned to the Father.

Young people are equipped to do God's work in the postmodern world. They are not afraid to enter it, either in person or by modem. God has prepared a new generation for this era, and I am certain He will be pleased if His older sons and daughters stand ready to be joyful mentors and sponsors.

Finally, one detail is easily overlooked in Jesus' story: the father reaches out to both his children. Not only does he welcome the returning son, he also goes out from the house to meet the responsible son who has heard the sound of music and dancing. The same hands that embraced the prodigal wait to embrace and warm his older brother. Both moderns and postmoderns are embraced in God's unity, love and abundance.

Amen