Westerners face an identity crisis. Who are we? What do we believe about ourselves? About life? About death? About God? In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that "we hold these truths to be self-evident." What are those truths? Can we agree on what they are and list them? We know that we cannot. For every truth one person or group claims, another will call it a lie. Is it any wonder we are confused? We don't know who we are as a person or as a people. As our confusion grows so does our loneliness and despair. Western men and women are like muttering, aimless, and homeless amnesiacs. Not knowing who we are or where we are, we are easily robbed and the things taken from us in this crisis of identity are our most valuable possessions: truth, virtue, hope, and love. Robbed of the things of God, Western men and women live in a moral and spiritual dusk, but the way out is simple. Walk toward the light. It shines in the church sanctuary.
For two thousand years, the good news of Jesus Christ has been told and retold from one generation to the next through songs, scripture, sermons, ceremonies, and sacraments. It is how we understood ourselves and our civilization. Through worship, we know who we are as a person. We are created in the image of God, who knows our name and redeems us. Through worship, we know who we are as a people, because Judeo-Christianity is the cornerstone of the West's foundational story. The founding documents of our laws and justice system are the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Our rights, freedoms, and liberties are understood to be granted by God, not governments. All Western languages are enriched by biblical expressions, e.g., we "escaped by the skin of our teeth," (Job 19:20), and she gave her "widow's mite," (Mark 12:42). The West's oldest and greatest universities were founded by the Christian church. But, something has happened in all the nations of the West. A virus has slipped into our civilization. Everything on the outside looks the same, even while the insides are being changed. The disease manifests itself by corrupting our knowledge of God, negating our faith in Christ, and rearranging our foundational story. The vaccine to immunize us from this virus is to remember, to worship, and to tell our true stories.
"The Light of Home in the Western Dusk. How Worship Restores Us as a Person and a People" tells true stories of Christianity's influence on every aspect of our lives. We will travel to places, witness events, and hear stories of presidents and prime ministers, who like King Solomon, offered pastoral prayers for their nation. We will attend a stage play that debuted in Nazi occupied France and was acclaimed for its humanist philosophy. Yet, it unknowingly revealed deep scriptural truths about judgment, repentance, and redemption. We will go Down Under to discover a message from God to the world that was delivered in Sydney moments into the new millennium on New Year's Day 2000, and the messenger was the most unlikely person imaginable! Each story represents a specific part of a Christian worship service. From the Call to Worship to the Benediction, the story of our home is told. When all the stories are done, Westerners will know who we were, who we are, who we ought to be, and who we can be. We will be restored both as a person and a people. Now, let's begin our journey together.
