I read a statement recently which set me thinking. The context doesn’t matter but I will tell you it came from The Times ‘Playlist’ magazine which is a kind of entertainment guide. It said:
‘Glastonbury isn’t the only counter-cultural Institution celebrating its 40th birthday this summer…’
My immediate response was to view the statement as a contradiction. How can something be both ‘counter-cultural’ and an ‘institution’? Whether intended or not, this makes a remarkable comment on our British society in 2010.
If you think about it, Glastonbury is not counter-cultural at all but it is most certainly an institution. Bold statement you may think but think about it.
Glastonbury, when viewed through the BBC (how institutional is that?) and through reports in The Times (the paper I occasionally read and also a bastion of the ‘Establishment’) appears to be the embodiment of mainstream British culture.
Whether we are talking about attitudes to spirituality or relationships or music, there seems to be nothing to shock and little that is truly ‘counter-cultural’. There doesn’t seem to be anything there you wouldn’t find in Manchester on a Saturday.
Recently, I was watching a programme about the ALPHA course. One man on the course, who went to pains to make it clear he was not a Christian, was asked what he thought about Jesus. His response came as a surprise to me. This person said he found some of the things Jesus said difficult to accept and he felt he didn’t like Jesus. I think this response is getting nearer to what it means to be counter-cultural and I’m speaking of Jesus here not the Alpha course attendee!
Jesus said some things that are truly startling. The amazing thing is they still shock today as they shocked people 2000 years ago. Try these for an example:
‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you’
or
‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one come to the Father except through me’
or (one of my favourites)
‘For a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his (Jesus’) voice and come out…’
Now that’s counter-cultural (and those sayings are only a taster). In my view, following someone who says that kind of thing goes against the grain. To follow him, believing and obeying his word, will find you swimming against the tide of popular opinion. It won’t get you on the BBC and it won’t get you in The Times but it will give you a life worth living. In fact it will give you life in all its fullness. This is what Jesus calls eternal life.
However, unless I sound less than impressed with Glastonbury’s dalliance with the Establishment, it’s worth considering what its popularity says to us about society. Surely the main issue here is a deep desire for community. Most agree that a sense of community has been lessened in recent years. An event like Glastonbury produces a sense of belonging and being with other people which perhaps is missing from our everyday lives.
Again, we see the prophet, priest and king Jesus taking a lead in this. He was (and is) a person who attracted followers. Around his word and Spirit communities have grown up. Where his teaching is taken seriously, those communities have huge power and attraction to people who are broken, lost and despairing. Yet these communities are also counter-cultural for they are made up from people of all ages, there is no dress code, no ‘in crowd’ or out crowd’, the only requirement from those who would belong is faith in the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus.
COLIN COOPER (Vicar of Whitfield)