Listen to the Globe (of People)
(Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18)
10:30 am, Sunday, February
24, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White
You learn things
when you go to a hockey game with your step-daughter and son-in-law. For instance, Sherwin said he had horns on
his head when he was born. Now, one
might automatically think of... the Devil.
Thankfully Sherwin grew out of his horns. But, being the scholar of arts and the Bible
that I am (ha ha), I thought of Moses.
Moses? you say. Yes, Moses.
Here is a
classic image of Moses. Michaelangelo's
1515 sculpture of him. And notice, Moses
has little horns on his head. Why did he
have horns? What did this
symbolize? It was a simple
misunderstanding in the Bible translation that was used. From Hebrew into the Latin Vulgate Exodus 34
said that when Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, he
had horns. When the people saw Moses had
horns, they were afraid to come near him.
Years later, the
scholars figured out what the Hebrew word meant here. Moses did not have horns, his face was
shining.
Now is a time
like many others, a time of misunderstanding the Bible, not understanding Christianity,
not being able to see the activity of Jesus in the world. After the life of Jesus, the Apostle Paul
made reference to the story of Moses with the shining face and covering himself
with a veil. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul
talks of the veil being analogous to the non-understanding of people in
Corinth, Greece. Whenever the [Old
Testament law] is read, a veil lies over their minds [and hearts]; but when one
turns to The Lord, the veil is removed. (3:15,16) Christ makes clear God's Way for humanity
that came out of the Hebrew religion, and was completed all that Jesus
did.
There are many
people very close to us - in our on county, our own communities, who do not
grasp Jesus or what we are all about here.
We must listen to the globe of people around us - glorious things will
happen when we do! We have a missionary
task, and it demands missionary efforts and methods. We must be good listeners to the various
cultures of people around us.
For there are
many cultures around us today. Many
folks are of the modern mindset: thinking is important, and facts, logic,
truth; prove what's true or false.
Others are of what's called the post-modern attitude: what's true for
you is fine; it just may not be true for me.
There is a secular culture out there: not religious at all, though many
secular people are spiritual and have their own spiritual practices. There is a growing digital culture in our
world today: how they communicate,
socialize, work and play uses all the technological tools.
I was at a committee
meeting in December, outside of this Church, and was actually the youngest
person there, by a long shot. When
scheduling our next meeting, the rest got out their little electronic things to
type in the appointment. I got out my
black book, and wrote it down with a pen.
One of the committee told me what my book is called: while others keep
their calendar on a Blackberry, or iphone, I am still using an elderberry!
But, in my
technological defence this is the first sermon I have sketched out with a ipad
on Google Drive. I still have lots to
learn about those in the digital culture in Nova Scotia; it is a different
culture from mine. I think the Lord
needs some of us to be missionaries to the digital culture. When we listen,
glorious things will happen!
Part of our
Vision for the next 5-10 years could be: take up the mission in our
neighbourhood. 1- Be missionaries in
West Hants, learning the cultures, languages, life of those living here. 2- Get to know our neighbours and be known by
them. 3- Listen to the surrounding
peoples, and by listen I mean we observe them in every way: hear and see, and
feel with them. 4- Become a fellowship
that is authentic, open, & integrates people efficiently.
When we listen,
glorious things will happen! The veil
can be lifted; they can see and know the Lord.
For the
so-called post-modern people, what we need to have to reach them is
authenticity. So says Dr. Steven
McMullen of Acadia Divinity College, a pastor and sociologist who has done a
great deal of research into the cultures of our day. One veil over the minds and hearts of many
folk today is the inauthenticity of Christians.
A church website declares 'a friendly fellowship,' but a Sunday morning
visit soon proves that wrong. A sermon
celebrates the grace of God with a heartwarming illustration; but the story is
not actually a true story at all, as a quick visit to the internet will
show. The Church message clearly is
about God changing lives from the inside out, but the people from the pews show
little signs of experiencing God or of much spiritual enlightenment.
McMullen and
others contend that for post-modern people authenticity is the real test. Is this not what Apostle Paul declared in 2
Corinthians 4:2? We have renounced the
shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify
God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the
conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
This is tough
work! With some, we might work to prove
what is true about Jesus. But the ones
listening might think, 'That's fine; it's nice to know what's true for
you. That's just not true for me.' What may be more transforming of this
unbeliever is to show by our lives how the truth of Jesus is working for
us. Our experience can be convincing,
more convincing than logical arguments and Biblical proofs. Dr. Phil's question is the question of our
post-modern age: 'How's that working for you?" How is Jesus working for you?
This is but one
example of cross-cultural ministry. For some of us, reaching our neighbours in
West Hants is cross-cultural
ministry. It is becoming more and more
like the stories of mission work in far off places, in foreign languages. I was reminded recently of the classic
missionary story of the Peace Child. In
1962, Canadians Don and Carol Richardson, with their baby, entered an isolated
tribal village in New Guinea, Indonesia. The group, the Sawi, were known as
cannibals, but also as folk who appreciated and revered 'white people,' for
they brought wonderful tools with them to the jungle: saws and blades and nails,
and so forth. So, the Richardsons
settled into the hard struggle of learning the very difficult Sawi
language. Because these white people
were in the village, two other villages moved into the neighbourhood. The
mission field came to them!
Eventually, Don
was able to start teaching about Jesus.
But when he got to the story of Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion, the
Sawi rejoiced in Judas and acclaimed him as the hero of the story! Then it was clear to Don that, in these
tribes, there was a culture that honoured treachery as a virtue, and so Judas
was a great success. It seemed the whole
mission had failed. Don and Carol prayed
for wisdom from The Lord. And for help,
because two tribes, now together, were starting to fight. War was starting! The tribes were jealous for the attention of
the Richardson family. So Don and family
decided they must leave.
The head of the
tribe who first welcomed them then intervened with a cultural practice that was
the amazing door to Jesus and the gospel.
To make peace, the man took his infant son, and gave him to the chief of
the enemy tribe. He gave what they
called a 'peace child,' entrusting one of their own to the enemy, to be cared
for and raised. This sacrifice would
make peace. In their culture of
idealized treachery, this was the one way to make peace.
Don Richardson
now knew that for these folk, Jesus wanted to be their Peace Child. The very Son of God was given to humans to be
one of us. This would make peace between
Creator and creatures. And it did, for
the Sawi in New Guinea.
When we listen,
glorious things will happen! The Spirit
of God wants to encourage us, amid the daunting obstacles to our mission for
Jesus.
Look with me at
those chapters in the first half of 2 Corinthians: Paul keeps encouraging and
encouraging. Paragraph after paragraph begins with strong, hopeful words. (3:12) Since, then, we have such a hope, we
act with great boldness... (4:1)
Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we
do not lose heart. (4:13) But just as we
have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with the scripture... we
also believe, and so we speak. (4:16) So
we do not lose heart. Though our outer
nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. (5:1) For we know that if the earthly tent we
live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. (5:6) So we are
always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we
are away from The Lord... (5:11)
Therefore, knowing the fear of The Lord, we try to persuade others; but we
ourselves are known to God...
In the midst of
all these encouraging words, the Apostle speaks of ministry to people whose
understanding of Christ and the Word is veiled.
We can tune in to these people in our lives, to reach them for
Christ.
This next story
was told as a parable of sorts, about getting to recognize our Master’s voice,
Jesus. But I think of it as a parable of
listening to those who need Christ…
Brian Brown tells the story of being at the community
pool with his family. Kids were screaming, playing, and splashing in the pool,
music was playing, the lifeguard whistles were blowing and in the midst of the
conversation, his wife shooshes him. He said, "What are you doing?"
"Shoosh, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" he said.
"Listen!"
And over all of the noise, she had heard their youngest daughter
screaming. As she listened to it, she then said, "OK, everything's
alright. That's a happy scream."
He said he was blown away that, over all of the other
voices, she not only recognized her child's voice but was able to identify what
type of scream it was. Why? Because every day she talked with them and in the
process knew
the sound of their voices.
There are many
voices out there, several cultures in
West Hants today. I may be prepared well
by God to hear and understand the biologists and environmentalists in the
neighbourhood, and help remove their barriers to faith in Christ. You may be placed in such a time as this
because you connect well with teens, and speak some of their language. Or, you may be deployed by Jesus out there to
hear the call of retirees for meaning and spirituality. You or I alone do not have to do it all, or
be able to understand and reach every kind of person out there. But together,
there are many in our communities we
can reach, with our open ears, and open hearts.
It may be that
our keenness to know our neighbours on our mission field will come in
stages. Before WE can listen well to our
diverse neighbours, we need to learn more how to listen to one another, dear
believers. And under this must be a
better listening to our God and Master, Jesus Christ.
When we listen,
glorious things will happen!
