Transcript: Lesson 1 - Worldview and Story

Lesson 1 – Worldview and Story 

Friends, fellow students, welcome to this time together. My name is Branson Parler and  I am professor of Theological Studies at Kuyper College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Uh, I'm also ordained as a pastor in the Reformed Church in America and I serve at a  local church as the director of Faith Formation Uh I'm excited to be with you for this  time for this class together as we dig into and explore sexuality and God's story to really  try to understand who we are as God's image bearers as people loved by Jesus and as  sexual beings. As we think about singleness, marriage, family, sexuality, and all of those topics together.  

A part of my own personal story that I'd like to share with you is it the fact that I have uh five kids. I've been married for sixteen years now and so when I think about marriage  and family and uh the challenges and the joys that go along with that, ah that's  something that's very much a part of my life. Uh I have four siblings. Uh I grew up a  pastor's kid in the State of Iowa and a part of my own family journey there as well has  been uh struggling with my parents' divorce and uh walking through that process along  with my siblings and all of that that entails. 

Uh and so you know when it comes to this particular topic a part of what I want to  recognize is that we can think about this topic uh biblically.We can think about it  theologically. Uh we can look at how different cultures approach this. Uh but it's it's  important to remember that at the end of the day, this was also uh for us all, I think a  very personal topic as well. And so, that's why, as we engage in this, really the question  is how do we think about how our sexuality intersects with God's story and what does  that look like. Uh and so as we embark on this course together, I want to highlight a few  goals a for the course. And so, one of the first goals is that we understand how our life  stories of singleness, of marriage, of family, of sexuality, how those things are actually  meant to put the gospel and the gospel story of Jesus on display. Now this is really  important to me because a lotta times when I talk to people, when I talk to my students  at Kuyper College, you know I ask them what what have you learned in your church  experience uh how how does your family talk about and and think about some of these  things like singleness, like sexuality, like marriage. And the response for many of them  is either a) they they don't talk about it at all or b) it it's maybe a really uh simple or  maybe a simplistic approach that basically says “look I'm save sex for marriage that's the that's the place and don't do anything else” and and really what they end up hearing is a  message of avoidance is a message of that essentially says no. And so what I want to  explore in this course is, what is the gospel vision, what's the biblical vision for marriage and singleness and sexuality that that it's not just perceived as as Christians saying no to  something or Christians rejecting something, but to be able to actually see how these  things, in the biblical narrative, fit into this this big picture and how my sexuality, my  marriage, or my singleness, how that fits into this big picture in a positive way and so 

rather than just avoiding the topic or rather than saying no, to to try to figure out the  richness of scriptures yes, uh to our sexuality to a truly biblical vision of marriage, a  truly biblical vision of of singleness and to understand how that all connects. Uh and so  we want to move beyond uh legalistic approaches. We want to move beyond just  avoiding the topic and and recognize this is a topic that matters to people and and it  matters that we as Christians can articulate this in a good helpful uh life giving way. And so that's one of the big goals for this course. Uh and so as we do this part of what we're  gonna do is be aware of how this this this big big biblical story of God's interaction with  his world uh does in fact, uh shape singleness, marriage, family, sexuality. and and so we want to get this this macro picture, this big picture of what the biblical story is and we  want to see how our individual stories are meant to map onto that. Uh and so there's this  big picture and individual picture that we want to try to try to bring together as we think  about these topics. A third goal is that we're equipped to engage a topic such as  singleness, marriage, the meaning of sex, bioethics. LGBT+ people and concerns. There  is it it's amazing when you start to dig into this broader arena, how many questions there are. And how many potential topics that are that we can investigate and and really how a lot of these topics are interconnected and how they are related to each other. And so it's  it's really important that that Christians um not just be reactive or in other words that that as topics arise arise things happened in the broader culture that that we're not just  reacting to what happens but that we're going to scripture and we're thinking about  things carefully um theologically a in a in a very reflective way so that we can actually  have a constructive approach. So that we can make clear to to ourselves and to uh other  people that were connected with our children, our friends. we can make clear to them  what is the biblical vision. So rather than just always responding and reacting we can  actually say, “here's a picture of of the life giving away a that God speaks about these  things and and what he calls us to.” And so those are some of the broad goals that we  have as we embark on this course together. Now in this first unit what we really want to  think about is how worldview and how are our stories are defined uh and how they are  lived out.  

And so, the term worldview I think is uh is a really helpful term. uh when we think  about a worldview it's important I think to define it this way, uh that Al Wollters in  Creation Regained says. “it it's the comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs  

about things.” Now if you're like me, maybe you read this and um this is pretty uh and  see it this is a pretty broad definition are parts of this might even seem a little bit vague  but that's because when we think about worldview it really is meant to be a this this  broad thing that uh you know you you look at the terms he uses comprehensive. A  comprehensive framework of one's basic belief about things. Right? Hard to get it's hard  to imagine a broader or maybe more vague term than things. But that's intentional  because part of what this term highlights is that we're not just talking about uh the bible  or we're not just talking about points of doctrine but we're actually saying. “what does 

God think about every aspect of our lives or how should we as as Christians and as  Christian leaders think about every aspect of life.Uh that that when we recognize who  God is as creator of all things and as redeemer of all things, then we start to realize is  that all things are connected to God. And so, when we're when we put on our our  worldview hats so to speak and and try to think through these things we're really trying  to be reflective about each and every dimension of our life and how that is connected to  who God is.  

And now Wolters I think he says it's a comprehensive but he also says it's a framework.  And when we reflect on that word a little bit, I think we see that part of what he's trying  to get at is this idea that that there is some there is some interconnection. Uh and maybe  even that that that there should be some consistency when we think about our what our  

worldview is and how we approach a number of a number of different topics how we  live our lives the kind of values and priorities that we have.That really there is the sense  that you we want we want it to be something that's consistent something that is that is  clear something that is comprehensive. 

Uh when he talks about basic beliefs, one other phrase I want to highlight here, is part of what he's getting at is this idea that if we if we dig down into our our beliefs and how we think, how we operate, the things that we the things that we value, that that there are  some basic beliefs that there are are some foundational beliefs are that really guide and  set the trajectory uh for everything else in how we operate and how we think, in how we  live. Uh and so when we think about what a worldview is as this comprehensive  framework of one's basic belief about things, It it's really trying to get at the fact that  there are these things that guide us that affect how we live, how we think, how we see  the world it very much frames and shapes our approach to all kinds of different topics.  Uh and you can see this when you for example, if you're on social media, you go to your social media feed and I don't know about your feed but part of what I see uh day in and  day out is that, people are reflecting on a wide variety of topics. It could be a specially  a big one uh politics. Uh it could be uh matters of race. It could be matters of education.  It could be things like like gun control. And you see people often times engaging these  and oftentimes approaching them maybe as the separate and distinct ah topics and  issues. But when we think about what worldview part of what we're trying to to to do is  to cultivate the ability to see how all these things are are linked together and how we  think and how we operate.  

Now what does it mean to say our worldview is pre-scientific or pre-theoretical? Part of  this is, it's it's a little bit of a strange way to talk, but Wolters, Al Wolters uses these  terms to try to help us understand the fact that uh world views are often caught more 

than they are taught. Uh, in other words that really when you think about what  somebody's worldview is, it it's it's not as simple as just asking them “you know hey  what do you believe about this?” Uh but that worldview is something that we're actually  in embodying in our life, day in and day out whether we've taken the time to kind of step back and theorize our worldview, it's something that we're already living out there were  already in a lot of ways a living from. And so, it's important then uh when we're thinking about worldview to reflect on the link between belief and action. This to me is one of the most interesting things about human beings, the reasons why we do what we do are  often different from the reasons why we say we do what we do. Uh in other words our  motives are often mixed or our motives are often even unclear to us. And so it takes  work to be reflective. It takes work to to to be thoughtful and think about the interplay of what do I say I believe and what do I actually do. How do I actually function uh in my  daily life. So we're going to be talking about marriage or relationships in that way and  that's an interesting one for for me. As a husband I say, “I love my wife” and i do. Uh  but oftentimes ah I find myself, maybe are not willing to do things or less than willing  then I should be to do things to show my love and care for my wife.  

Now whether that's a helping with things that need done around the house, or whether  that's uh engaging with our kids in different ways, or maybe it's just taking the time to to show her through what I say and how we interact that I care about her. That I'm that I'm  thinking about her. It's it can be easy to slip in to this kind of disjunction between what I  say and what I actually do. That I might say, “I love you” but my actions might might  not always show that. Something similar is like like that is going on when we think  about world worldview. Uh and so when we reflect on this uh Wolters points out but uh  our cognition. our thinking, and our actions don't always align. He says this he says.  “belief is the decisive factor in our lives even though our professed beliefs may be at  variance with the beliefs that are actually operative in our lives.” So what do we actually believe? Uh, Wilkens and Sanford, co-authors of a book called Hidden Worldviews uh  talk about this this disjunction or sometimes there's a misalignment of our belief in  action in language of confessional versus convictional or beliefs. And here's how they  describe it. They say “your confessional beliefs is what somebody says they believe ah  but their convictional beliefs are what they actually do.” And that's the place where we  where we start to see, deep down, what people really do believe. 

One example of this is in ah how people use their money. Uh Martin Luther talked about how people undergo multiple conversions in their life uh and one of those conversions  that he talked about was actually the conversion of the wallet. He says. “a lot of people  are willing to profess their belief in God to secure their soul for eternity but not  necessarily to secure their life and well being in the present age.” And so. you know, he  pointed out that we oftentimes say uh “I surrender all to you lord.” Uh but in terms of 

what actually we're willing to give God, uh we we oftentimes hold some back and and  I'm not talking here about just uh you know, are you willing to put money in the offering plate or or or give to worthy organizations, but recognizing that all of what we have is a  gift from God. And so that everything that we do, how we think about our priorities, and  values for how we use all of our money, all of the the resources that God has given to us  uh should all be surrendered to him.  

and so we want to think what we're thinking about worldview we want to think about  not only what do I believe up here sort of in my in my intellect, what I would say I  believe but to also really look at our lives to examine where there are points of  connection with that and points of of disconnection. 

And so this means that to analyze our worldview we can't just ask doctrinal questions.  We can't just say you know, “Do you believe this about God as Father, Son, and Holy  Spirit? Do you believe this about salvation by by grace alone?” but that we actually have to dig into practical everyday questions like, Um, you know, how well do you know  your neighbors and interact with them or how do you treat your coworkers. Uh how do  you treat maybe people who can't benefit you in any kind of like immediate earthly  sense. 

Those are the kind of questions that start to really get at our convictional beliefs. What  really drives us. Uh but as Christians, what we want to continue to strive for is to bring  these things into alignment. That as we surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit, and as we  

continue to be reflective ourselves of how we think and how we live, we can start to see  how our confessional beliefs and our convictional beliefs come more into line. That what we say we believe about who God is uh shows up in the actual pattern in the story of our lives. And so as we continue, uh we're going to think next time a little bit more about worldview as story. How this worldview that we have does get embodied in how we live and how we function in our everyday life. And so until next time, blessings.