Culture vs the Vision of Genesis
OUR CULTURE
What are the “narratives” our culture would have us believe?
- That we are consumers – “I came, I stayed, I did a little shopping.”
- That we are self-made individuals who live by the motto, “Look out for numero uno.”
- That we are masters of our environment and we can exploit it for our immediate uses.
- That we are owners of all our stuff – “I’ve earned it, it’s mine to do with as I please.”
- That we are creatures who are time-bound and oriented-to-the-material, and our goal is to acquire as many things as possible.
GENESIS
The first two chapters of the Bible proclaim something that is quite different than what our culture offers us. The vision of Genesis is that human beings are stewards, entrusted with incredible gifts, responsibilities, and opportunities; challenged to be in the world and in relation to each other as God the creator is to the world and to humanity. This is what we are being asked to believe.
Are we going to fill our imagination with the attitudes found in Genesis, or will we conform our attitudes about life to our culture?
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalms 8:3-8).
Excerpted from From Grateful to Generous
