"EPIC Culture: Are You Immigrant or Native?:

The new issue of Salt Fresno is in the mail, and online...
including my piece on "EPIC Culture: Are You Immigrant or Native?," inspired of course by St. Leonard Sweet:

Often in seminars, I ask people to raise their hands if they are married.

Then I add, "Keep your hands up if you are in a cross-cultural marriage."

Inevitably, hands go down.

Inevitably, I argue that every hand should have stayed up.

My comment at that point is "I didn't say 'cross-racial' marriage; I said 'cross-cultural.’ Culture can defined as a way of viewing the world, and a set of assumptions for behaving.
How many have noticed that no matter how similar you and your spouse are, at some point you say, 'We are from two different worlds?'”

Then laughter erupts and every hand held high.
All marriages are cross-cultural.
Every interaction with another human is cross-cultural.
All of us in this world are from different worlds.

Everyone reading this--especially those born after 1974--know that “the whole world” has changed in our lifetime. Whether you are talking our era’s information explosion, the role of church, expectations of teachers, music styles, or gas prices...it seems almost everything has changed in our culture, some things exponentially, and many things many times over.

One of the most helpful grids through which to understand this change is to grasp that we have moved from what academics call the “modern world" or "modernity" into the "postmodern era" or "postmodernity." Ironically, this can be one of the most confusing grids, too...since everyone seems to mean something different by the same terms!

My favorite, simplified way of explaining this shift we have all somehow sensed, comes from Christian futurist Leonard Sweet. In his book "Postmodern Pilgrims," Sweet offers the acrostic, "EPIC," to capture and summarize the postmodern times we live in:

E stands for Experience, P for Participatory, I for Image-Driven, and C forConnected.

These are the foundational hungers of people in our postmodern culture and churches, particularly those born after 1974.

As compared to the “modern” world’s preferences, especially among those born into it; that is, prior to 1974:

Rational (as opposed to Experiential), Representative (as opposed toParticipatory), Word-based (in contrast to Image-Driven), and Individualistic (in contrast to Connected).

Too bad RRWI  doesn't spell anything catchy like EPIC!)

Which brings us to the question behind today's title:

                                           Are you immigrant or native to today’s EPIC culture?

Note that I didn’t ask you how old you were.

An EPIC-oriented culture is indeed the dominant culture today; but within that broader culture are both those who prefer it and are "naturally" oriented that way, and those who prefer the orientation of the culture that was previously dominant. That culture, the culture and mindset of the "modern" world, prevailed for hundreds of years (since the printing press, in fact)…until our lifetime. Sweet suggests that those born after 1974 or so, especially people young enough to have never known life without a computer, are "natives” to EPIC culture. People born before 1974 are thus "immigrants" in a new culture. The world they were native to was rational, representative, word-based and individualistic.

It might sound obvious to conclude that most older people prefer the RRWI approach, and younger folk opt for the EPIC way. But one realizes there are exceptions to the rule. Leonard Sweet himself, for example, is even older than me (imagine that!), so he "should" be an immigrant who is uncomfortable with an EPIC approach. But he says EPIC is his natural wiring. It is likely rarer, but there are also surely some twenty-somethings who function out of an RRWI worldview.

We don't have space to talk about all the implications for church, and being salt and light in our day. But begin imagining the issues that are raised. Traditional churches very often are Rational (logical arguments in defense of faith), Representative (one or two "professional" clergy to represent “laypeople”). Traditional churches might fear being Experiential, but an EPICwould suggest that a relationship with Jesus, or a sermon, must be experienced. Traditional churches tend to operate out of a representative leadership model, but EPICs actually want to participate. Traditional churches focus on Words, but EPICs are ministered to primarily by Images.

We are from two different worlds.

It’s extremely cross-cultural.

One can find Scripture for each culture. As one example, recall that Jesus is both Word of God (John 1) and Image of God (Col. 1:15). We preachers, especially those of us from an RRWI world should be thrilled that the culture actually would have us stretch, and become more like image-makers (not as in worshipping images, but as in telling stories, as Jesus did; and incorporating art into worship gatherings). Picture that! We become missionaries in our own culture.

Ecologist Rudolph Bahro writes, "When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure."

Christian speaker Graham Cooke adapts the saying for Christians, "When the old wineskin is dying, the new wineskin is created by people who are not afraid to be vulnerable.”

Holy insecurity and humble vulnerability enable this old RRWI to become a better missionary in these EPIC times.

Sweet concludes that though there are dangers in accommodating to culture, the postmodern hunger (which we have often condemned as being wishy-washy and far from God) actually positions people to hear, see, and respond to the gospel in beautiful ways not possible in the modern world.   That is, if we truly “get” that:

..in Millennium Three, Christianity faces the most powerful intellectual and spiritual advance in the history of civilization. Internet technology is amplifying the worldwide flow of new kinds of experiences, interactions, images, and connections. The doors of the future are there for Christianity to open for the glory of God. Our ancestors helped create those doors. Will we their descendants open them? Or will we sit back, entwined like mummies in safety-belt strips of protection, fear and suspicion--all death sentences--and let others open those doors while the future flies by?

There is no door we can't open with EPIC love.

- http://bit.ly/a2fV2s

We all wrote this sentence in our non-dominant hand. This was explained in the "Drops Like Stars" film

DROPS LIKE STARS:

The Art of Disruption

The Art of Honesty

The Art of Elimination,

Solidarity

The Art of Possession, which is not the same thing as ownership.

The Art of "Failure"

Look also for these class themes:

-a Prodigal Son paradoxical hemistiche

-the liminality (see "Radical Loving Care," pp, 82ff) of the hospital hallway

-removal of "insulators"

-listen for the word "lament"

-removing the boundary (or "box") of a bounded set.

-how "texting" can literally save lives

-the power of unplanned and unscripted interruptions

-help for Philemon. Listen for a Paul text: 2 Corinthians 6

see complete album of sketchnotes here

There is a difference between ownership and possession. I own the guitar, but Joey possesses it in ways I can’t. We own the Jeff Condon painting, but our friend possessed it in ways we don’t.
You can own something and not possess it.
You can possess something and not own it.

One of the first Christians, a man named Paul, wrote about his “troubles, hardships, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger.” This is a man who suffered, yet he doesn’t end his list with despair.
-Bell, Rob (2012-07-24). Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

Chiasm from the film:

--When Jesus died, he:

---

N.T. Wright video: Why begin with Philemon? It's "pressing your nose against the window to see the landscape"

\This week, the topic is "Worshipping and Singing in Community: Psalms Lament and Suffering"
Here is a slightly different version of this week's presentation, filmed for an online class. It's a multipart video (7 parts, but only a half-hour total! Watch it in order) by Dave Wainscott (and a few friends) on Psalms and Lament.  Watch carefully if you need to review and take notes, as you will be responding in Forum 1.

Part 1 is below  Listen to the song which is part 1. Open the lyrics here, and read along as it plays. In a way, treat it like other songs (and Scriptures) we have used in this class: as a text which calls for context and your Three Worlds skills of interpretation. Do your best to discern the main characters , genre, backstory, storyline etc. (It's easier than Philemon!).  But also be prepared to process how it made you feel.
part 1:

part 2:

part 3:

part 4:

part 5:

part 6

part 7: Finish with this song, which Dave prepared you for in part 6:

Here are some notes on the above:

PSALMS

PSALMS are the Jewish prayer-book that the early Christians used. What's wonderful, refreshing, honest...and sometimes disturbing (to us in the West) is that they cover the whole breadth of life and emotion. They are all technically songs and prayers.. But note how some weave in and out from a person speaking to God, God speaking to a person, a person speaking to himself. Somehow, Hebraically, holistically, it all counts as prayer.

...And as "song" Note in your Bible that several psalms have inscriptions which give the name of the tune they are to be prayed/sung to. Some seem hilarious, counterintuitive, and contradictory, but again not to a Hebrew mindset and worldview, with room for honesty, fuzzy sets and paradox:

Psalms (click) with the line "Destroy my enemies", "break their teeth!!" ... To be sung to the tune of "Do Not Destroy" !! (Psalm 58:6)
Psalm 22, a depressing ditty about someone in the throes of rejection despair and death. To be sung to the tune of "Doe in the Morning" ??
Psalm 137:9 "Blessed is the one who
seize yours infants and violently dashes
them against the rocks"

Remember the Bono quote:

Click here for the audio (or watch here on Youtube) of this delightful statement by Bono:

"God is interested in truth, and only in truth. And that's why God is more interested in Rock & Roll music than Gospel... Many gospel musicians can't write about what's going on in their life, because it's not allowed . they can't write about their doubt....If you can't write about what's really going on in the world and your life, because it's all happy-clappy... Is God interested in that? I mean, 'Please, don't patronize Me! I want to go the Nine-Inch-Nails gig, they're talking the truth!
-Bono

From a 2003 discussion with New York Times, more audio here

"The Jewish disciples all worshipped Jesus, and some of those worshippers doubted." (matthew 28:17)

---------

There are several ways to categorize the psalms.

The first is the way the Bible itself does: Psalms is broken down into 5 "books" Hmm, 5...does that sound familiar? Name another book with 5 sections and suggest an answer for "Whats up with the number 5?"

Note the 5 sections are not comprised of different kinds/genres of psalms..but the styles and kinds are "randomnly"

represented throught the book..

kind of like life..

Here is one way to categorize the styles and genres:

lament

imprecatory

praise

thanksgiving

petition

Walter Brueggemann suggests another helpful way to categorize the Psalms.

Orientation:

o Creation - in which we consider the world and our place in it

o Torah - in which we consider the importance of God's revealed will

o Wisdom - in which we consider the importance of living well

o Narrative - in which we consider our past and its influence on our present

o Psalms of Trust - in which we express our trust in God's care and goodness

q Disorientation:

o Lament - in which we/I express anger, frustration, confusion about God's (seeming?) absence

§ Communal

§ Individual

o Penitential - in which we/I express regret and sorrow over wrongs we have done

§ Communal

§ Individual

q Reorientation/New Oreientation

o Thanksgiving - in which we thank God for what God has done for us/me

§ Communal

§ Individual

o Hymns of Praise - in which we praise God for who God is

o Zion Psalms- in which we praise God for our home

o Royal Psalms - in which we consider the role of political leadership

o Covenant Renewal - in which we renew our relationship with God

-Bruggeman, source Click here.

note how astonishinglyHONEST the prayer/worship book of the Jews (and Christians) is!

We'll spend some time on the "three worlds" of Psalm 22, which Jesus quotes honestly on the cross:

Here (click title below) 's a sermon on Psalm 22, which is another amazing psalm to use in a worship setting...How often have you heard "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?" Or "God, where were YOU when I needed you!!"

(see

Sixpence and God both sneak a smoke

and

"Is there such a thing as Christian music?")

in a church song?

Yet how familiar is the very next psalm: 23.

Life is both Psalm 22 and 23...sometimes on the same day, in the same prayer.

If we think both/and...we think Hebrew.