On Culture

NOV 2, 2024

This week Susan James and I talk about how and why we ruin words. As always, we are discussing the latest dispatch from The Embassy - <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/on-ruined-words">Ruining Words</a> - here is an excerpt …… We don’t tend to use these words with their actual meanings engaged. I think many of us don’t even know their meaning as we use them.We begin to lose the ability to talk about reality …The flattening of these words mirrors and serves the polarization of our culture. We use words as we wish in order to please our cultural patrons and defeat our cultural foes. This negative trend in our culture I have noted many times. But I want to point out that flattening all words connected to our widening cultural divide into either “good” and “bad”, or “us” and “them” has effects beyond the cultural moment. We will miss these words, their history, their impact, their meaning. In an earlier post, I said that <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/well-miss-the-truth-when-it-is-gone">we will miss the truth when it is gone</a>. This is, I suppose, a way of saying the same thing. The truth of these words, something that might unify, might appeal, might challenge … we need that truth, those meanings. We will miss them when they are gone. We begin to lose the ability to talk about reality in many important areas of life, only able to describe our experience and views in terms of the cultural divide, only able to say “us” or “them”. But life is more than “us” and “them”. We need to avoid being complicit in losing the ability to say so.I hope you read the entire piece … Get full access to The Embassy at <a href="https://theembassy.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theembassy.substack.com/subscribe</a>

30 MIN

OCT 19, 2024

On Culture - Endings and Beginnings

Chad and I talk about how we face endings and beginnings throughout our life and how that connects with a life of faith. Here is an excerpt …Trying to find meaning in an alienated world. I’m not a Doomer Optimist, but that is actually pretty good. In fact, the Christian narrative offers meaning in an alienated world. More specifically, the Christian narrative of the end of all things, the Christian apocalyptic message is what we have forgotten in our alienated world. We have the apocalyptic message, certainly. In fact, much of our apocalyptic understanding had roots in this Christian understanding - but it has escaped, in what Jonathan Askonas called “<a target="_blank" href="https://comment.org/building-a-future-in-the-face-of-the-apocalypse/">kind of a theological lab leak</a>”, its proper context.Of course, the word “apocalypse” comes from the Christian narrative, even as it is used in our secular analysis of history. One of the central biblical meanings of the word is an in-breaking of God’s presence in this age that ends it and ushers in another. It is part of the Christian narrative. For the secularist, apocalypse is bad in any sense of the word. Not only that, all the agency lies with us and, therefore, all the responsibility to avoid apocalypse and usher in utopia. This has resulted, many have argued, in our increasing anxiety - one false move and all is lost. For the Christian, we believe an apocalypse is certain and necessary for the full redemption and restoration of all things - utopia is not in our grasp and apocalypse is not in our ability to avoid. We are called to faithfulness in presence and service and transformation by God’s power as preparation for any future, including an apocalyptic one.For Christians, the drawing near of the apocalypse should serve (as it has throughout history) not to paralyze us or make us anxious but to spur us to bold and hopeful action. The end is coming. There will be a catastrophe. But providence still ordains that all will be well. In the Greek myth, when all the evils have fled Pandora’s box, what remains inside is hope.Jonathan Askonas - <a target="_blank" href="https://comment.org/building-a-future-in-the-face-of-the-apocalypse/">Building a Future in the Face of the Apocalypse</a> - Comment - Fall 2024The New Testament biblical response to the prospect of apocalypse, this coming of Jesus to us is one of hopeful anticipation - even if it means the overturning of the world as we know it. In part because of this overturning. This is the way that justice is done, all is restored, and the brokenness of humankind is healed. Of course, it is true that throughout history and throughout the world, the church has and does most often occur in contexts of poverty, sacrifice, or persecution. Apocalypse means the end of all of that - and therefore perhaps more naturally viewed with hope.Read the whole thing - <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/endings-and-beginnings">Endings and Beginnings</a>. Get full access to The Embassy at <a href="https://theembassy.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theembassy.substack.com/subscribe</a>

35 MIN

OCT 5, 2024

On Culture - Belief, Doubt, Faith, Mystery

Trey Herweck, pastor of Refuge Church here in St. Charles, and I talk about faith and doubt and certainty and mystery. As always, we riff on the latest edition of The Embassy - <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/certainty-doubt-faith-mystery">Certainty, Doubt, Faith, Mystery.</a>Here is an excerpt:About that path to God - much of the New Testament interacts with this question - what is the way (or way back) to God? Almost the entirety of the book of Hebrews stresses the unique and irreplaceable role of Jesus as the only One who can bring us back to God. One of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas, responds to Jesus’ message at the end of His life that He is returning to His Father -Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”John 14:5-7As we read in Acts 17, Paul, in the early years of the church, arrived in the heart of the philosophical world - Athens - and saw idols all over the place. He did not respond with distress, though he was distressed, he responded with a loving, engaged, culture honoring and culturally informed call to a God they did not know about, referencing an idol to an unknown god that adorned the square among all the other idols. He walked through a door they opened in language they understood to tell them about one who died and rose to invite them back to God and called them to turn from their beliefs to a commitment to this path to the true God. Some believed, some scoffed, and some wanted to hear more.All of these are very particular invitations to a very particular, a scandalously particular, path. And there are dozens more I could reference. This is a central message of the New Testament that has been believed by the church for many centuries. Again, others have a different understanding of scripture and the way to God - and I respect their views. But the church has taught this central message for almost two millennia.Can God apply His grace, in Jesus, through His Spirit to those who don’t have all their beliefs in order? Yes, of course. At least I hope so. We all should hope so, because none of us has all beliefs in order, whatever that means. That is part of the central meaning of grace. God’s grace is God’s - He applies it as He sees fit. But he tells us something - something scandalously particular - about how He ordinarily applies that grace.Faith is required, and faith isn’t certainty - but it is a knowledge and foundation for life and action, grounded in our understanding of what God has said to us. It is a gift of the Spirit, so we can be transformed and transformative. Is there a mystery here? Yes. We are not promised a life without mystery. And, God being the one who loves us best and knows what we need the most, we shouldn’t seek a life without mystery if that is the life He has for us. But acting in the world requires us to assume some belief about us, about God, about others, about the world - even if are not aware of these beliefs, even if we claim uncertainty about them, when we act, we live out some belief. We can say we want to dwell in the mystery, but acting requires us to express some belief - held in faith, with humility … but held. We are not quantum elements existing in a state of indeterminacy - when observed, we particularize. And we are always observed … called to act under His loving observation. One of the tragedies of our moment is that some cling to a certainty that binds them in angry, fearful, pharisaical concrete. Another tragedy of our moment is that others drift - lacking agency and purpose because all is mystery and nothing holds any particular meaningRead the <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/certainty-doubt-faith-mystery">whole piece</a> … Get full access to The Embassy at <a href="https://theembassy.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theembassy.substack.com/subscribe</a>

46 MIN

SEP 14, 2024

On Culture - All Who Thirst

This episode of On Culture interacts with this latest dispatch from The Embassy. Here is an excerpt - Some commercials stay with you. Perhaps they resonated during a particular time or place, or became a cultural talking point like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwS24cBZPc">Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl spot</a> introducing the Macintosh or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FZNYXKHwNw">Wendy’s iconic question</a> - also, interestingly, from 1984. Or perhaps they resonated with you because you just enjoy them. Or maybe you like the product and a good commercial for it validates … you somehow. Because commercials are about desire. And your desire, met by this product in some way, is validated by this commercial, this 30 second expression of why anyone would or should desire this thing. You probably have a favorite or two.Infiniti <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/01/business/quietly-infiniti-creates-excitement.html">made a splash in 1989</a> with its introductory commercials. It was a new luxury brand - we had seen, and desired as symbols of luxury, Mercedes and BMWs for years, and this was to be a new offering in this status driven category. How did they introduce us to their new luxury car? They did it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_a3fZVo12M">without really showing us the car</a>. It was about a feeling, a sense, a “true idea of luxury”. These spots were both widely criticized and widely successful. We bought the idea, the feeling, the vibe.A more recent series of ads has an update on this vibes strategy. Matthew McConaughey stars <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QEAA94FjHc">in a number of Lincoln spots</a> where the car is present, but secondary. We are encouraged to identify with the driver. Not the particular idiosyncrasies of this particular movie star, but the person of means who goes his own way - who has his (or hers, I suppose, but men appear to be the target here) own idiosyncrasies. It may seem strange to appeal to a vision of unique idiosyncrasies in a mass market ad, but we don’t analyze the appeal, we experience it. I can drive anything, and I know other things might appear to have more status, but, because I am me, I am bestowing my own status on this Lincoln (along with Matthew McConaughey - who may not actually drive one).…God’s people - and all people with them - have been faced with this question from since there were God’s people. You may be familiar with the tragic history of God’s people in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel. Most of that history can be explained as a cycle of failed attempts to get what they wanted instead of what was offered them by God. Instead of blessing, they, over and over, sought what seemed like security from pagan gods or alliances with neighboring kingdoms. Over and over, God called them back to a simple dependence on Him, which is what would truly satisfy them. Here is just one of those appeals, through the prophet Isaiah -“Come, all you who are thirsty,come to the waters;and you who have no money,come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milkwithout money and without cost.Why spend money on what is not bread,and your labor on what does not satisfy?Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,and you will delight in the richest of fare.Give ear and come to me;listen, that you may live.I will make an everlasting covenant with you,my faithful love promised to David.Isaiah 55:1-3Read the whole piece! Get full access to The Embassy at <a href="https://theembassy.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theembassy.substack.com/subscribe</a>

34 MIN

AUG 24, 2024

On Culture - A Redemptive Arc

This episode of On Culture is an extension of the latest article there - <a target="_blank" href="https://theembassy.substack.com/p/a-redemptive-arc">A Redemptive Arc.</a>Here is an excerpt:When I showed up for that coffee with my friend, I wasn’t thinking about redemption. Because, as far as I knew, it hadn’t arrived. As far as I knew, the redemption that has seemed to arrive, wasn’t going to. It is a thing that takes many forms and often arrives in an unexpected packages. Sometimes you don’t know it has arrived until sometime later - in the moment, you may not think of it as redemption at all. That is the thing about it - we reach what we think is the end of our rope, and redemption may show up - or we may discover that someone has given us more rope, or tied us in more securely, instead of pulling us up from the darkness. Sometimes, that is the only redemption we will receive in this part of our story.I know that my redeemer lives,and that in the end he will stand on the earth.And after my skin has been destroyed,yet in my flesh I will see God;I myself will see himwith my own eyes—I, and not another.How my heart yearns within me!Job 19:25-27I’m not sure we think of Job’s story as a redemption story. But that is our misapprehension of redemption. It is most obviously the classic case of someone dealing with suffering. But redemption comes through suffering. We are redeemed not only to something, but from something and through something.But redemption comes through suffering. We are redeemed not only to something, but from something and through something.Thanks to Susan James for the conversation.Until next time - grace and peace. Get full access to The Embassy at <a href="https://theembassy.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">theembassy.substack.com/subscribe</a>

31 MIN

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