Fools of a Unique Culture

In a couple of weeks it will be one year since landing in our host country in South Asia. As I sit here enjoying Andrew Peterson’s new cover album of Rich Mullin’s legendary “A Liturgy, A Legacy and A Ragamuffin Band”, there is definitely much to give thanks for.

A few weeks back a new European family, from our organisation, moved in beside us. Seeing people at the very beginning of their journey here, without language, without understanding the culture, has been encouraging to us as it shows up just how far we have come, with language and navigating life here. We feel a little less like guests and a little more like we live here.

Other examples include things like Dee having the opportunity to teach about diabetes in our new language. She worked hard on it and was able to do it well. A big one for me a couple of weeks ago was sharing the gospel deeply for the first time in our South Asian language, which is a story for another time, but nonetheless was such a boost for me.

There were definitely a couple of weeks of encouraging times.

Then there was this week.

• “Dónal, your language has not improved at all.” (From a local, completely deadpan)

• “So and so thinks your house is too dirty.”

• “That woman whose daughter sometimes plays with your kids is offended that you haven’t become a patron for their daughter” (Note: we have met the mother very rarely, and have never had any communication to that effect, so this was somewhat of a surprise)

• “But it’s ok, because then she thought about how you live in this area instead of where foreigners usually live, and she sees the clothes you usually wear, and so she knows you’re poor foreigners so you’re not able to sponsor her daughter.”

• “If you want your daughter to learn the local language, you shouldn’t allow her to learn it from those kind of people! She should learn it from better people.”

Ah, South Asia, the continent where compliments drip like honey from the comb, where encouragement flows like the great rivers that cover the land…

Needless to say, receiving all of the above over a three-day period certainly did nothing to stimulate encouragement in us. Even worse, they came immediately after those couple of weeks of small encouragements, so we didn’t even get time to bask in the progress at all. Alas.

As I prayed about these things yesterday morning, I came to thinking about Paul as he wrote of himself in 2 Corinthians. The NIV Application Commentary lists 4 things that the Corinthian society of Paul’s day valued (which I alliterated):

• Prize (How much wealth one had)
• Power (Self-sufficiency, impressiveness)
• Prose (Poetry, oratorical prowess, rhetoric)
• Prestige (accomplishments, high social standing, honoured by society)

As Paul writes he undermines these elements of his host culture as they assessed him, as he portrays his life as a miniature version of Christ’s that contradicts all of the above.

• He calls himself “poor yet making many rich”

• He acknowledges that his opponents characterise him as one whose “bodily presence is weak/unimpressive”

• His opponents say, “his speech is of no account”, which he verifies by saying, “even if I am unskilled in speaking…”

• And he lists his troubles as his “boast of the things that show my weakness”.

According to the Corinthian’s cultural mindset, Paul was a laughing stock. And yet, he writes:

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

– 2 Cor 12:9-10

As I rose from my knees, I turned to Leviticus to continue my studies therein. I was just beginning chapter 18. A chapter focussed on unlawful sexual relations was hardly going to yield much fruit as regards these issues, was it?

And yet, I read:

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. 

You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 

You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”

– Leviticus 18:1-5

Here, entering this second section of holiness laws we see one of the bases for them. By this stage in Leviticus we have already seen the need to draw near to God. The Israelites were to be a people who were to come near to him, to return, as it were, to Eden-like communion.

But then, they were also to act as a kingdom of priests, calling others to draw near to God and facilitating it, but also to be responsible for distinguishing between the clean and unclean, in order that fellowship with God may be maintained.

So how would these high callings be lived out in the midst of different cultures?

The temptations would be great. And old man who remembered the bitter slavery of Egypt might enter Canaan and think it was wonderful. How progressive! Everyone worshipped different idols, did what they want, and they didn’t have to live as slaves.

Someone else might look back with rose-tinted glasses, claiming the good ol’ days should be brought back. Never mind this new Canaan-land. It will never be great until we make it like Egypt used to be. We need to think and act like Egyptians if we want a land that flourishes. Look at how their agricultural system worked! Let’s start by planting leeks and onions.

Younger generations might mix and match. Wanting a better life, they might try to take the positives from both cultures and make a new one themselves.

But they are not to be passive imbibers of culture. They are called to a different culture. A unique culture that can be implemented anywhere in the world, and at the same time is not bound by any culture of the world. It is the unique culture of being the people of God. This is what they were to carry throughout their wanderings, and into the land of promise. Not to be like those they left, nor to be like those to where they were going. But to own a distinct culture in the midst of both of those places. One that was characterised by the priestly function of drawing near to God, in holiness, with others in tow.

This is the refrain of the New Testament too. As we see with Paul and the Corinthians, he was demonstrating a culture different to theirs. But not a Jewish one.

Peter, writing to the dispersion calls them to live as a royal priesthood, as sojourners where they are. He uses a lot of holiness and priestly language to draw out their unique identity that they are to bring to their host countries, whether in marriage, workplace, or government settings.

Paul again writes to the Ephesians as those who are in Ephesus, but also in Christ Jesus. And as is oft noted, he gives them three chapters of their identity as a newly-formed people of God, and three chapters of how they live that out in the world.

Now, of course, both Christ and Paul teach us that we should accommodate certain cultural aspects, inasmuch as we can. (Christ after all was incarnated as a man!) We make ourselves “all things to all men, that we may win some.” Hence, we learn language, wear local dress, follow certain customs, etc.

But he also wrote that to the Corinthians, and he wasn’t afraid or ashamed of his presentation before them as one upon whom the culture looked down upon in many respects. He was a fool. But he wasn’t a fool for his cultural ignorance. He was a fool for Christ. His centredness, his security in his identity as part of God’s people, meant that he could live a life that manifest the principles of God’s kingdom in weakness and perceived foolishness, that the unique culture of the kingdom of God might take root in Corinth.

Not the culture of Corinth, nor that of Jerusalem, nor that of Antioch nor Rome, but the counter-intuitive gospel culture of the Kingdom of God.

The ironic thing is that, should someone like Paul become so concerned about being seen as impressive by his local culture, he would be working contrary to what he was trying to do. For he would know less of God’s power.

And this is a pressure for all of us cross-cultural (and even home-culture!) Christians. We want to fit in, for people to like us, for people to appreciate the effort we make. But to fit in in every way actually denies us the chance to see our weakness. A weakness that shows up against any culture’s perceived strength, a weakness that may make us a laughing-stock of society, but also gives way to the power of God being manifest in our lives.

We want to proclaim the Kingdom here. A kingdom that crosses cultures, and embraces aspects of them. But also, a unique kingdom, that will rub every single culture up the wrong way. For it is not the culture from whence we have come, nor the culture in which we now live, but the culture of the Kingdom, where weakness is turned to strength, shame transformed into glory.

As I finish writing, Andrew Peterson becomes a conduit of Rich Mullins’ voice to my ears: “And the hope of the whole world rests, on the shoulders of a homeless man.” This is the One whose kingdom we proclaim.

Pray for us, that we may not inadvertently make cultural faux pas’s for no reason. That we may grow in knowledge of the language and get to grips with how to communicate well in this culture. Pray that we may not be fools for ignorance’s sake.

But in the same breath, pray that we may not be afraid to be fools for Christ’s sake. That we may not be grieved by “weakness, insults, hardships”, when they are not due to cultural inability, but our desire to follow Christ.

The temptation of God’s people, since Levitical times until now, has been to jump out of one culture and feel that we need to take on the new one in its entirety. Pray that we may live as those with a unique culture, neither Irish nor South Asian, but as that of the people of God, citizens of a heavenly kingdom.