Orientation is vital
Every person forms a worldview with which he or she interprets the world. Often this is unconsciously adopted by the surrounding world. Our worldview influences our interpretation of the Bible and how we live out our faith life. God wants to change our thinking so that we align ourselves with Him and do not become a product of this world. Am I aware of how I think and form my opinions?
Orientation and goal
My first paragliding flight was so exciting that I was fascinated by this sport for years. My boyfriend at the time and I took every opportunity to go for a flight. So it was on a foggy Saturday, no one was thinking of flying, but we couldn’t resist and went to the Engelberg valley. There was good visibility at the landing site and up to about 200 metres above it, but further up there was a dense blanket of fog. The plan was to take off anyway and to follow my friend who had a GPS. We took off, but within seconds he disappeared into the fog and I found myself disoriented in the dense fog. Long minutes followed with the fear of flying into the mountainside. With this layer of fog, there would not have been enough time to react and avoid the slope. Suddenly I got scared and realised that I was flying straight into the slope. No, that can’t be true. I learned something from it: Being able to orientate yourself well is vital.
If we do not recognise our surroundings, we cannot orient ourselves. And if we have no orientation, we will never arrive at our destination. In life, orientation is the be-all and end-all. Take orienteering, for example. Runners don’t just run off and expect to arrive at their destination. No, they first orient themselves, determine where they are. Only then do they focus on the goal and how to get there. They have to reorient themselves along the entire route in order to reach their destination as quickly as possible.
What is standard in orienteering should also be the rule in our faith life. Our goal may be noble, but if we do not orient ourselves, we will not reach it. If we want godly holy living, we must intellectually deal with what time we are in. Jesus said: «And when the south wind blows, you say, «It’s going to be hot». And that too comes true. You hypocrites! You watch the earth and the sky and könnt judge the weather like that. Why canöCan you not then judge the present time?»(Luke 12:55–56 NGÜ). Jesus meant that they knew the weather but could not recognise the spiritual time. In Romans we read: «Do not fit the Standards of this world but let God change you, so that all your thinking is realigned. Only then canöou can judge what God’s will is, what is good and perfect and what pleases Him.» (Romans 12:2 HFA).
We are not to orientate ourselves by the standards of the world, but to reorientate our thinking. To do this, we need to understand what the world’s standards are. Which is the leading worldview?
A worldview is like computer software
A worldview is the framework of thought with which we interpret the world around us. We all have a worldview, we need it to be able to interpret the world around us. Our worldview has a great influence on our faith. Many times we use our worldview to interpret the Bible. Let us briefly look at two of these worldviews.
The Modern Age
The twentieth century was shaped by the modern worldview. In this view, science is the centre. Truth is absolute and comes from science. What cannot be measured does not exist (God is dead). Faith and feelings do not count. Modernity feels measuring, cold and impersonal. At the end of the 20th century, a new worldview overtook modernity: postmodernism.
The Postmodern
Postmodern thought has its origins in science, in Einstein’s theory of relativity. Albert found that time depends on the speed at which an object is moving. Time is not absolute, but relative, depending on location. Not only Einstein, but many people realised that not everything is linear, but relative. Over time, this discovery seeped into our worldview. Truth became relative, personal and dependent on feelings. The individual person is the centre, their feelings determine truth. Postmodernism feels warm and personal.
There are a few feature films that illustrate this shift into postmodernity. Titanic, the 1997 classic, embodies for me the departure from modernity and the dawn of postmodernity. Rose, the young protagonist, is at first torn between the two worlds. In the end, she says goodbye to her mother’s alienation and the rational decision to choose her rich husband, Cal, to whom she is engaged. She doesn’t care about class society and lets her feelings alone guide her. Jack and Rose live «true» love and decide for each other. But a stroke of fate separates them. In the film, the Titanic sinks, and with it the cold, impersonal worldview of modernity. Most viewers agree with Rose’s perspective; the new ideology of emotional individualism has triumphed.
Our worldview influences our faith and interpretation of the Bible. In modern times, believers were more oriented towards the Apostle Paul and his clear instructions on how to behave as a Christian. To behave correctly, holy so to speak, was extremely important, there was a tendency towards legalism. In modernity, the leader explains to the small group how to understand the Bible passages correctly. This has changed in the postmodern era.
It is more personal and the opinion of each individual is asked for. The focus is not on legalities, but on God’s love.
This year we have already heard a lot about God’s holiness. Two sermons were about God’s holy love, a very difficult subject. Many people, mainly those who have grown up in the modern worldview, find it difficult to imagine that the dangerous holy God can also be a loving God. People often try to balance the holiness of God and love so as not to fall into one extreme.
In the postmodern worldview, it is easier to reconcile holiness and love. In this ideology, everything is already relative, many things fit in. But the understanding of the holiness of God is sometimes not there at all. Black and white don’t really exist, everything is a bit mixed, like in the Yin Yang sign.
Further, it is difficult to grasp biblical love. We read in Galatians: «For the whole law is summed up in one word, in the commandment, Thou shalt love thy fellow man as thyself.» (Galatians 5:14 NGÜ). When everything is summed up in one word, it is all the more important to understand exactly what is meant by love. It is guaranteed that it is not what the Beatles say in the song «All you need is Love» sing about. It is also certain that we do not learn from Hollywood what real love or holiness are.
Apart from worldview, another difficulty in understanding real love is our language. In German, as in English, we have too few words to express the nuances of the different expressions of love. The other day I read that in Tamil there are more than fifty different words for the English word love. I found this hard to believe and asked a Tamil work colleague, but he confirmed what I had read.
Last but not least, the biblical worldview. Here, truth comes from God, it is dualistic and absolute. There is right and wrong, light and darkness. Our faith is personal, our life has meaning and purpose. In the Bible we get to know God who is holy, holy, holy and love is part of his holiness.
God never has to balance his love with his holiness. He never has to ask himself whether it should be less holiness and more love, or vice versa. No, the love of God, is always a holy love. God’s holiness is the core and love is a part of it. As we have already heard in sermons from the vision of Ezekiel, life flows from the pure holiness of God. «For the river that gave rise to their roots Water gives, comes from the Sanctuary. Month after month they produce new, tasty fruits, and their Leaves serve the people as a remedy» (Ezekiel 47:12 HFA).
Furthermore, we read that wherever this water flows, it brings life. Life flows from this holiness. Only from the sanctuary comes real life. All good comes from the sanctuary.
Which software have I loaded?
I am aware that these were a lot of thoughts in a short time today. For some these thoughts are nothing new, for others it may be difficult to comprehend everything. My hope for this sermon is that we will not simply slumber away, but think about how we form our opinions. I want us to go into this week with a question:
How well do I orient myself in the world? Maybe some are wondering how the paragliding story ended. What happened after the shock of realising I was flying straight down the slope? One thing in advance, I’m standing here today, I couldn’t have died like that. All joking aside. I yanked down the control line of the paraglider with force, it turned in time and fortunately without a stall. I got away with a scare. After that I vowed never to get myself into such a situation again. Orientation is vital in daily life, as it is in faith.
Possible questions for the small group
Read the Bible text: Romans 12:2
- Have you already thought about the different world views?
- After a feature film, do you think about what the message of the film is?
- Do you know TV series that have a very clear ideology? They may not be obvious at first glance. For example, the «Modern Family» Seri,e which conveys a very clear western, secular and postmodern message.
- Do you actively think about the different world views?
- Do people choose a profession or a new church differently today than fifty years ago?
- How does the worldview influence how you understand the love and holiness of God?
