The Hijacked Rainbow and Our Call to Transform Culture
As June rolls around each year, many of us who follow Christ find ourselves navigating a cultural landscape that often feels worlds apart from the teachings and values of the Church. It’s a time when the big issues of the day seem to highlight a growing divide, and it can leave us feeling a bit disoriented, wondering how to faithfully live out our beliefs in a world that increasingly marches to a different drum.
I was thinking about this the other day, and a childhood memory surfaced. I remember when the rainbow was, for me, an uncomplicated and beautiful symbol of hope. One of my favorite crafts in Vacation Bible School was building a little Noah’s ark. We’d hammer tiny nails into a scrap of wood and then weave colorful yarn around them to create a vibrant rainbow. A simple craft we hung on the wall for a few years that reminded us that God was a God who would offer hope.
Fast forward to today, and that same symbol has become… let’s just say “complicated”. I find myself wondering if a our church sent kids home with the same craft, would parents question our church’s theological stance on marriage and sexuality? It’s a sad reality when God's covenant sign of unwavering hope feels like it’s been hijacked to represent something very different from its original, divine intent.
This isn't just about a rainbow, though. That’s merely a symptom of a larger, ongoing challenge. Nearly every day, as Christians, we’re faced with the question: How do we meaningfully engage with the culture around us? Do we retreat? Do we assimilate? Do we fight? Or is there another way?
This isn't a new dilemma. For centuries, followers of Christ have wrestled with how to relate to the societies they inhabit. One of the most insightful explorations of this challenge comes from H. Richard Niebuhr in his landmark 20th-century work, Christ and Culture. Niebuhr masterfully categorized the various ways Christians have historically approached this relationship, offering a valuable framework that still speaks to us today. He outlines five primary models:
Christ Against Culture: This posture emphasizes a clear separation from the world. It views many cultural values as inherently conflicting with Christian faith and therefore calls for a distinct, often counter-cultural, lifestyle. The focus here is on maintaining purity and prioritizing a separate community of believers, sometimes leading to a withdrawal from mainstream society.
Christ of Culture (or Christ the Culturalist): This approach takes a more optimistic view, seeing Jesus as the fulfillment of society’s highest hopes and aspirations. It often involves aligning Christian faith with the prevailing cultural values of the time, sometimes to the point where the lines between faith and culture blur, and cultural norms may even be seen as divinely ordained.
Christ Above Culture (or Christ the Synthesist): This perspective places Christ as supreme over all culture. Christians are called to live in the world, participating in its structures, but always maintaining a higher allegiance to Christ's teachings. It encourages critical engagement with cultural values, seeking to synthesize faith with cultural life while upholding Christian principles.
Christ and Culture in Paradox (or Christ the Dualist): This view acknowledges an inherent and ongoing tension between faith and culture. It recognizes that Christians live under two distinct authorities – God and the secular realm – and both have legitimate claims. The believer navigates this world by embracing the paradox, remaining true to Christian values while acknowledging the complexities and often conflicting demands of cultural existence.
Christ the Transformer of Culture (or Christ the Conversionist): This approach is dynamic and proactive. It emphasizes the powerful potential of Christian faith not just to coexist with culture, or to stand apart from it, but to actively transform and uplift it. This involves working diligently to promote values like justice, peace, mercy, and compassion, and courageously challenging cultural norms that are seen as harmful, unjust, or contrary to God’s design, all with the aim of bringing culture more under the Lordship of Christ.
These five models aren't just abstract theories; they represent real postures that individuals and church communities adopt, consciously or unconsciously, as they interact with the world.
For me, and for many within the Reformed tradition, the Christ the Transformer of Culture model resonates most deeply. It’s a vision that sees us not as cultural separatists or uncritical accommodators, but as active agents of positive, God-honoring change within the culture. Why this approach? I believe there are profound theological reasons for it.
Firstly, the Incarnation itself is our blueprint. Think about how God chose to redeem humanity. He didn’t stand aloof, shouting instructions from heaven. He entered in. The Gospel of John tells us, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Jesus became incarnate – one of us. He stepped into our messy, complicated human culture, lived within its constraints, and experienced its realities. The book of Hebrews beautifully describes Him as a "sympathetic high priest," one who can understand our weaknesses and struggles because He faced them Himself, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). If God Himself engaged culture so directly and intimately, how can we do any less?
Secondly, this transformative approach cultivates humility and connection, dismantling the "us vs. them" mentality that can so easily creep into the church. Let’s be honest: people rarely listen to, much less are influenced by, those who approach them with an air of moral or spiritual superiority. The "we’re better than you" attitude is a non-starter for genuine engagement. And the truth, as uncomfortable as it might be to admit, is that we aren’t inherently better. The church can never authentically claim that we’ve chosen God out of our own superior righteousness or insight. Reformed theology, in particular, drives this point home with its emphasis on God’s "sheer grace." We are chosen, saved, and sustained not by our merit, but by His unmerited favor (Ephesians 2:8-9). This profound truth should dismantle our pride, fill us with gratitude, and make us far more empathetic and relatable to those who haven't yet encountered this grace.
I often think of the role of a catalytic converter in a car. It’s a fascinating piece of technology. A catalytic converter is an unchanging agent of change. It’s situated right within the polluted environment of a car's exhaust system. Its very purpose is to take the harmful pollutants generated by the engine and transform them into less harmful substances before they’re released into the atmosphere. It doesn’t run away from the pollution; it stays in the midst of it and actively works to purify it.
That, I believe, is a powerful analogy for the calling of the Christian and the Church in the world. We are called to be in the world, but not of it. We don’t remove ourselves entirely from the culture, though we must always be discerning and guard our hearts against its corrupting influences. Instead, we are called to be like that catalytic converter – steadfast in our core identity in Christ, yet actively working within our cultural contexts to bring about positive, redemptive change, to filter out the "pollutants" of sin and injustice, and to release something more reflective of God’s goodness and truth into the world around us.
So, as we navigate this month, with all its cultural declarations, and indeed, as we live out every day, let’s resist the temptation to clench our fists in anger or to withdraw into safe, isolated Christian bubbles. Instead, let’s lean into the discomfort and complexity. Let's prayerfully ask God: How can You help us step into the cultural spaces around us – our neighborhoods, workplaces, online communities, and families – not as combatants or conformists, but as grace-filled transformers?
May we be people who, grounded in God’s truth and compelled by His love, seek to reflect Christ so clearly that we become agents of hope, healing, and redemption, pointing a watching, and often weary, world to the One who alone has the power to make all things new.
With You;
Pastor Tim
