MULTICULTURAL SUNDAY
Dr. Brendan is the Pastor of Hope Adelaide with his wife Helen. They shepherd a multi-cultural church with about 150 attendance every week. Dr. Brendan graduated from the
View Hope Adelaide Photos Website
As a Post Doctoral Fellow at CSIRO, he derived a new theory , and also set a new world record in his field of studies. He spent four years studying X-ray physics at 
MULTI-CULTURAL SUNDAY!!
Below is a sermon by Ps Brendan Kirby, Hope Adelaide
Rev 7: 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
- FAITH THAT APPRECIATES ALL CULTURES
God loves all people groups, nations and tribes and tongues! Lets celebrate our differences – different mannerisms, different dress, different skin colour, different languages – and strengthen a common foundation of faith and love!
What is a Culture?
Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance (Wikipedia).
In general, the term culture denotes the whole product of an individual, group or society of intelligent beings. It includes technology, art, science, as well as moral systems and the characteristic behaviors and habits of the selected intelligent entities. (Characteristics of a culture are Dance, theatre, clothing, education, song and music, art, sport and entertainment, architecture, government, family relationships and different ways of having fun!)
Culture can also refer to the universal human capacity to classify, codify and communicate their experiences symbolically. It can be also said that culture is the way people live in accordance to beliefs, language, history, or the way they dress.
Roger G. Ingersoll said, “The true civilisation is where every man gives to every other, every right that he claims for himself.”
Key components of culture
A common way of understanding culture is to see it as consisting of four elements that are "passed on from generation to generation by learning alone": values; norms; institutions; artifacts.
Values comprise ideas about what in life seems important. They guide the rest of the culture.
Albert Camus (Nobel Laureate for Literature) said, “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle.”
Norms consist of expectations of how people will behave. Each culture has methods, called sanctions, of enforcing its norms. Sanctions vary with the importance of the norm; norms that a society enforces formally have the status of laws.
Institutions are the structures of a society within which values and norms are transmitted.
Artifacts are things, or aspects of material culture—derive from a culture's values and norms.
| Dance and Theatre | |
| | Family structures |
| | Building architecture |
| | Music, song & Entertainment |
| | Sport, athletics and competition |
| | Art, pottery, jewelry |
| APPLICATION OF JUSTICE | Laws & sanctions, penalties |
| FORM OF GOVERNMENT | Democracy, Monarchy or Dictatorship |
| Systemic Problems: | Rebellion of Mankind and Departure from original plan |
| COMMON FACTORS: | Knowledge of Justice, right & wrong |
| FOUNDATIONS: | Faith in God; God’s law and morality |
President James Madison said, “Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe”. (4th president of the
Daniel Webster said, “There is no solid basis for civilization but in the Word of God”.
Cultural Change:
When one wants to change something in the culture of a company one has to keep into consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change.
Western culture tends to be more individualistic than non-Western cultures. It also sees man, God, and nature or the universe more separately than non-Western cultures. It is marked by economic wealth, literacy, and technological advancement, although these traits are not exclusive to it.
Culture change is complex and has far-ranging effects. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that a holistic approach to the study of cultures and their environments is needed to understand all of the various aspects of change. Human existence may best be looked at as a "multifaceted whole." Only from this vantage can one grasp the realities of culture change.
Multiculturalism is an ideology advocating that society should consist of, or at least allow and include, distinct cultural and religious groups, with equal status.
History of the world’s cultures:
Genesis 11: 6, 7 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
- FAITH THAT ENHANCES ALL CULTURES
Le Roi Jones said, “Culture is simply how one lives and is connected to history by habit.”
Every culture has a foundation of values and beliefs that govern explicit and implicit behaviour. God wants to restore faith in Jesus Christ as a solid foundation for all cultural groups, and thereby enhancing that culture to be more closely what God originally intended.
The sinfulness of man warps and distorts the beauty of a culture that the Lord has created for each people group. Often witchcraft, rebellion, animism, superstition, idolatry, immorality, lust and perversion can come into a culture and twist the purity and simplicity of love and kindness that the Lord was desirous of revealing through that particular people group.
I believe that the Lord desires to establish a foundation that removes the bad, wicked or immoral aspects of each natural system of living (culture) and raise people’s attitudes to a higher level of love, purity and kindness toward all men, and faith toward God. From the Table above indicating “Aspects of a Culture”, this is the fundamental (bottom) level, at which every culture should have God’s principles and His Word as a “sure foundation”.
When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles in
Acts 2: 5 – 11 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8“And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10“Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11“Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”
[Missions trip to Liberia, Africa]
- FAITH THAT RESPECTS ALL CULTURES
“We have ignored cultural literacy in thinking about education … cultural literacy is the oxygen of social intercourse.” E. D. Hirsch Jr.
Christians should not impose cultural traits onto other cultures; as there is no national bias or cultural favoritism in God’s kingdom!
Gal 3: 26 – 29 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
We must guard our heart against all forms of prejudice and racism! God has not created any inferior people – all races, nations and tribes are all precious in God’s eyes!
Matt 25: 40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
- FAITH THAT TRANSCENDS ALL CULTURES
US President Woodrow Wilson said, “Unless our civilization is redeemed spiritually, it cannot endure materially!”
Develop and cultivate a Christian foundation to all cultures!
Jesus died for all people groups for all time! He shows no partiality – He loves all of us!
Each culture or people group has suffered some degree of persecution at some point in their history. God desires to communicate to us all that He has not elevated Himself above mankind’s sufferings, but that He has come as a Man and has also felt the pain and hardships of the world – its rejection and its prejudice.
Suffering exists in the world because of man’s departure from the Lord’s plan. God communicates His love to us, by bringing correction into our lives if we do any wrong. Nations have turned away from the Lord, and by so doing, have brought the consequences of their errors into their own lives and countries. Let us turn back to the reality of God, and receive His forgiveness, grace and mercy, amen!
CONCLUSION:
Let us receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour today – He died that we might be forgiven and have eternal life with God! Lets turn away from any pride or stubbornness, and love one another more, and honour and respect all people groups and cultures more than we have before!
