April 6 -- Third Sunday in Easter

Passages: Acts 2:14, 36-41, Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19, I Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. Acts 2:40-41

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. 1 Peter 1:18

The New Testament is rife with passages of disapproval of “the world” and, in the case of these two passages, the specific generation of Jesus’ age. It pushed against the materialism and corruption of not only Rome, but the Jewish religious order in which many of the very first Christians were raised. Even as someone who reads these passages 2,000 years after that generation has passed, it’s not difficult to hear the implications these passages have on our own generation. In fact, Christian counterculturalism is found alive and well in a various Christian groups from Pentecostals to postmodern emergent Christians. But is it possible to simultaneously reject the “corruption” of this generation while embracing an aged Christianity from our ancestors?

There is some debate whether the first Christians really saw themselves as starting something “new” or rather continuing the Jewish tradition. To the Early Christians, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Scriptures, actualizing the ancient values and vision found in them. Their rejection of society and the religious order of their parents was the rejection of a society they saw as incapable of living up to those ideals, a society of materialism and hypocrisy that kills its own redeemer. It was a society that got it right in word but failed in deed. The Scriptures it held up were sacred, but the cultural reality was “empty.”

I am of the opinion that every generation has its corruption. It’s the nature of our fallen condition. I’m also of the opinion that our sin and shortcomings are not solely individual, but systemic; they are found in the patterns and structures of society. Because of this, we should be wary of the values we learn from society, even from our parents. However, these shortcomings are not insurmountable, and we are not such products of our environment that we have no possibility for redemption or change. Just as every generation has its corruption, they each have their potentials and faith in transcendent ideals. Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of Scripture, living up to the Word of his faith. Because of the fallen condition of his time, this made him a revolutionary and an outcast. Ironically, living the highest ideals of his society made Jesus one of its worst criminals.

Likewise, I do not think Jesus would be received well in today’s society or religious order. As a minister, this has interesting implications for me. If Jesus’ narrative were to play out in a modern context, I’d be a member of the religious institution unable to listen to or accept the prophetic voice. As someone who is accepting and serving the religion I was raised with, passages about the corruption of the world and the unreliability of social teachings can be particularly troubling. But I’ve never really seen myself as a conformist (who does?), and to me becoming a minister was far from accepting a role as a social guardian. I saw it as a way of rejecting the materialistic society before me and choosing a life of service – not to the status quo but to the ideals of Christianity.

Christians in the first century were called by Peter and others to leave a selfish, sinful culture. Even after two thousand years, and even in many societies controlled or influenced by the Christian church, the call remains the same. The fact that the Church, in many places, is inseparable from the cultural fabric of the society and by no means immune to corruption, means that living the Word may even mean going against the Church. But this isn’t a complete rejection of the past, and everything that has come before us: Although Jesus went counter to the culture of his people, he embraced their faith and highest ideals in full.