It is such a long time since I posted. Now I am back. Keep tuned. As a writer I am fascinated by language so here is a post about it.
Nothing irks me more than religious
jargon. I guess since I have been
working with a congregation that is made up of twenty-eight different
nationalities for the last three years, I have become even more sensitive to
the understanding of those whose first language is not English. Now that means that they have trouble
understanding the English that is spoken today.
If that were not enough of a challenge, to try to communicate spiritual
ideas to them in an ancient form of English, just frustrates them as they try
to understand another language they have never learned and will not usually
hear outside of gatherings of church people.
Why would we try to make it more difficult for them? To me, that is not showing love for
them.
For
example, a longtime believer will speak to them glowingly and sincerely of the
bliss of abiding in Christ. The
quizzical expression with which they respond is not a mark of their lack of
spiritual depth, but rather manifests their confusion about the language we are
using. What on earth does it mean to
abide in someone? There may be a small chance that they have heard of staying
in a particular place as being described as abiding there. But to abide in a person, or in God, what
could that mean?
If
we were to express to them the joy that we experience as we daily practice
putting our trust in Jesus to help us face the challenges we meet, we might
just pique their curiosity, rather than confuse them. They might want to raise questions with us
about how we could place our trust in Someone who once lived on this earth but
according to what they understand the Bible to stay, left here to return to
Heaven. What an open invitation to
introduce the person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who lives in us
and among us here and now.
Such
clear communication might evoke questions about whether God is really
interested in the details of our lives enough to be concerned about the
challenges we face each day. This opens
the door for us to share our unspectacular yet faith-building stories of the
activity of God in our daily lives. Not
only can we share our stories, we can also ask our friends if they have ever
had experiences that have caused them to wonder about the world that is beyond
the senses and how it might have some kind of influence upon their lives. We will be amazed at what God is doing in the
most unexpected places with the most unlikely people.
There
is nothing as exciting as discovering the activity of God in our everyday world
and clear communication of spiritual realities in everyday language opens the
door. It gives us opportunities to
become bilingual. We learn to speak
Christianize in ordinary English. I dare
you to give it a try. Then tell me about your experience. I can't wait to hear.
