Are you "cultured?"

            In case you stopped and hesitated over these words, let me help you.  The answer is "Yes."  You are cultured, perhaps far more deeply than you would imagine.  The reason for this is that culture, though it is visible in many ways, often exerts an influence upon us because we take it for granted:

                        "Culture is the scenery, the environment, the world into which one

                        is thrown when one appears onstage.  The cultural scenery

                        influences and conditions what the actors see, say, and do.  If the

                        world is a stage, culture provides the props that fill it."

                                                                        ("The World Well Staged?", Kevin J. Vanhoozer)

            Christians, no less than anyone else, live their lives in culture.  But we are given the responsibility of being both wise and innocent concerning culture's reality and workings.  The reason is simple.  Jesus Christ is to be first in our lives and our allegiances.  If we fail to see how our culture's understanding of some aspect of life (think, for example, of things like money, marriage, work, or leisure), we may find ourselves conforming to it, rather than be transformed by the gospel.

            This is why, this summer, our Sundays will consider "Gospel and Culture."  I hope you'll be present to read the Word and read the world.

In Christ's fellowship,

Brad