Talk 5 | Unmasking Reality
Venom was the archenemy of Spiderman. Venom came from a symbiote, a term for a parasite, that Marvel Comics used in 1984 [1] for this character. In the comic books, a symbiote was an alien who was unable to exist on its own, so it must suck out all the life energy from another. Once inhabiting a human, the symbiote absorbed their life energy and morphed into the evil villain, Venom. Venom’s symbiote occupied its hapless victims while inhaling their souls and they became hideous caricatures of themselves, unable to resist his beguiling allures. Once, when the symbiote left a trace of Venom behind in Spiderman, it was almost impossible to tell them apart.
Western civilisation, which was rooted in the fertile ground of a Judeo-‑Christian worldview, is now ‘a cut- flower’ culture. Cut off from its roots, but still yearning for human rights, equality and economic progress that arose from a Biblical understanding of human life, made in the image of God. Western education still promotes these values but is committed to finding ultimate meaning in the self and its vision of the good life, where the highest virtue is personal autonomy. Hence, it gains its energy from the ‘real thing’ but has a soul‑sapping impact on those who inhabit this story.
As author Mark Sayers says, our culture wants “the kingdom without a king.” [2] The end result, where there is no ultimate truth, power is the lens through which life is seen and conflicting powers seek to dominate. Many of our young people who have a sincere desire to see justice flow, end up being social activists, without a story of hope anchored in a true vision of life now and into the future. In a cut‑flower, post‑truth civilisation, it becomes a descent to barbarism, a culture of death.
Contrast, however, is the mother of clarity. We need to assist our students to have one eye on discerning our present day culture and one eye on the reality of life in the Kingdom of God and the final restoration of creation brought about by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This means training them to be resident aliens, those who are called to live out the ‘shalom’ life (Matthew 5: 1 – 12) in their culture and love others in our society who have forgotten their Creator and pray for them (Jeremiah 29: 4 – 7), embodying what it means to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom. An alien residing in this world, blessing the world for Jesus’ sake.
The Christian school then is a “forward ‑living, eternity ‑anticipating, hopeful and prophetic community, a city on a hill in the overlap of ‘the now’ and the ‘not yet’, witnessing to the present world as the first‑fruits of the new world.” [3] Instead of letting dispositions, attitudes and actions that reflect a broken world choke our own school culture, Christian teachers are called to nurture a community where students learn the character, habits and practices of the renewed creation, where Jesus is Lord. Shalom produces a right ordering of God’s good creation, where people live in a community according to the wisdom of God; a civil culture that is positive and life‑giving at a personal and societal level. We are to teach our students to work for the peace of our nations, cities, communities and families. However, recognise that a teacher who wishes to live as a non-anxious presence amongst students and families who live in a culture of anxiety, “must keep their nerve through the backlash…criticism and emotional pain, and keep growing toward the higher vision in a non-anxious way.”[4]
Ours is a cosmic story about God’s action in history and is far more than a subjective personal event. If we give a small view of the Christian faith to our students, then the likelihood is they will end up with a privatised faith, or none at all, as they consider it irrelevant to much of life. Jesus, whose life was full of grace and truth, revealed to us through His words and the events of His life, the nature of the Kingdom of God. God came to us and revealed the new way to be human in His created order. This is the community where leadership is about sacrificial service, and where peace is bestowed through forgiveness that ripples out to restore broken relationships. Here, males and females are treated as equals, and the marginalised children are valued and given a sense of belonging. The teachers are to make visible to the students what it means to love God with their whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and where the justice and mercy of God flows like a river. The school is not a place of protective custody, it does not retreat in the face of evil, but trusts the Lord for His power to fight the spiritual battles faced. No longer is the self the ultimate reference point. Jesus is King. Those being renewed in the ‘Imago Dei’ are called to embody a social reality “alternative to the violent and deathly formations and practices that dominate the world … the Church manifests God’s rule and participates in God’s mission to flood the world with His presence.” [5]
God’s salvation is as wide as the creation itself. (Romans 8: 20, 21). This is reality and makes sense of the existence of all things. What a story for our students to locate their lives in, one that is both countercultural and transformational. Let us lead them to King Jesus that they may choose real life.
Grace and Peace
The Excellence Centre Team
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
[1] Story adapted from Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian – What the Faith of our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p 13
[2] Mark Sayers, Reappearing Church – the Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post‑Christian Culture, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2019), 24
[3] Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory – How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022), 478
[4] Mark Sayers, ibid, 101
[5] R. Dean Drayton, Apocalyptic Good News-Christ in the Cosmos, (Oregan: Resource Applications, 2019), 134