The idea of a meta culture came up during the first decent conversation for the last few months with Dad. We were talking about immigration, and how Samoans and Dutch and Rarotongans — bought out to work in our factories and build dams — integrated because of Christ.

Dad pointed out there are 23 languages spoken in his church.

For in Christ we have a meta culture: we have shared teaching that confronts our culture. In Christ we are a new creation.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

(Galatians 3:23-4:7 ESV)

Culture matters: it is the unwritten rules, the assumptions that make a society work. It is the level of trust, it is the way people share, practice hospitality, show kindness. From these folkways comes high culture, which is more able to be shared.

You don’t have to be Russian to read Tolstoy. You don’t have to be Lithuanian to enjoy Part.

But our salvation overcomes all. It is not that our culture is subverted, as the social justice petunias would do, nor conquered, as the Islamics dream, but that it is transformed into something better. Lewis said that we become more like ourselves as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us: It may be that a culture that is Christian becomes more of itself: more German, more Samoan, more Scots.

And this is glorious.