A post-cultural future?

We just wrapped up a series of sermons on “being” and “doing.”  They dealt with the reality that in the Church we are often so busy doing things, that we forget what we are all about.  We forget that we need to take a breath and to seek God’s presence.  Similarly we need to take time to really be present with people.   Asako Tokuno said the messages made her think of our vision and mission statement.  She has a point:  our vision has to do with who we “are” and our mission addresses what we should”do.” She asked me for the statement the other day and I let her read it.  It is about fifteen years old. This is what it says:”We the members of Parkview Presbyterian Church seek to honor our Japanese American heritage wrought out of the unique blend of communal and Christian values, immigrant experience, and the suffering of internment. This heritage has shaped us to become a unique family of faith, imbued by a spirit of tenacity, loyalty and genuiness, compassion and solidarity. Rooted in our Sacramento community, we wish to share this spirit with others in efforts to build a new multicultural community of believers committed to their faith in God through Jesus Christ and to the service of God and suffering humankind.” When Asako read this, she said that the mention of the internment “doesn’t appeal to people anymore.” I explained that it is significant, because the experience defined this congregation. People who go through something like that don’t sweat the small things. They know what is important in life and what is trivial.  The bitter cultural experience of the founders of this congregation will always relevant for it has shaped the character and personality of the church.  Congregations like people have memory.  On the other hand Asako is right that that experience is shared by very few of our members.  It is only something that they have heard about.  We have moved a long way since then.  We are no longer one culture and we have become multicultural.  Beyond that we could even say that we have achieved our multicultural vision.  Moreover, one might even say that the cultural background of those who come to Parkview is less and less important.  In a way we are becoming post-cultural.  Sure we remember our past but our ethnic identification is less and less important. It is as if we have realized that our common humanity is more important than our ethnicity.  Nevertheless we had to go through this process.  We had to understand the culture of the founders of this congregation and we had to struggle with the multicultural question in order to get where we are. Let’s say a congregation that is made up exclusively of people from the majority culture could not be post-cultural if they had not dealt with these questions. You could almost call them pre-cultural, because the cultural awareness of the majority anywhere tends to be really low.

What does this mean? It means that as we have our session retreat in a few days we need o start reflecting on our vision and mission statement or our “being” and “doing” statement and edit or expand it. We need to understand who we will be and what we can do or … what we are called to do at the dawn of our second century.  We welcome your prayers and suggestions in this process.  Being and doing have a mutual relationship: what we do as a congregation impacts who we are and who we are impacts what we do. My hope and prayer is that like a flower our congregation will open up more and more as time goes by, open up to God, but also to the shared humanity of all who might one day step across our threshold.  May God bless our ministry in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.  See you in church.  Aart

P.S. If  you are not able to participate in Communion on first of the month and you wish to receive it at home, please let the church office know and I will try to come serve you communion.