Thursday, May 26, 2011

Language in Christian Community

“Okay kids, let’s all be like the silent coyote! His mouth is closed, and his ears are attentive!”


That was my favorite way to quiet down rowdy kids when I was a camp counselor, and it worked (almost) all the time. Either the kids cowered in fear, or they made fun of the corny camp counselor making a coyote with his hand. Until that first week I worked with the youngest kids. The ones who stared at me confused, and I stared back, wondering what I had said that was so difficult to understand. Then, a fellow counselor turned to me and whispered, “Erik, they’re eight. They don’t know what ‘attentive’ means.”


Immediately, I apologized. It was foolish to think these kids would have a full vocabulary before reaching the 3rd grade. How could I be so careless as to use that word around them?! But again, my fellow counselor scolded me: “Don’t apologize! You don’t have to only use words they know! Use “attentive,” and then teach them what it means!”


That day, I learned a very important lesson. Vocabularies are not universal. Some people have larger vocabularies, some have smaller ones, some know technical jargon related to their industry or field, and the teenagers are always up on the freshest slang. And sailors, so I’ve been told, have vocabularies chock-full of swear words. I also learned that vocabulary is never set; we can always expand our vocabulary or help someone else expand theirs.


I’ve noticed that in an increasingly secular culture, the western Christian church has finally discovered that we have our own jargon, a vocabulary that is completely foreign to all but the lifetime, card-carrying members. This is a valuable realization, because there’s nothing worse than a pastor preaching about soteriology to pews full of people who have never even heard the term. And lest we become even less hospitable than we already are, we shouldn’t assume that everyone knows the words to Psalm 23, the Gloria Patri, or even the Lord’s Prayer. (Let’s pause for a moment to absorb that shocking news. Cue the elevator music.)


In light of this reality, it’s time we reconsider language and how we use it in the community of faith. When planning worship, we must assume no prior knowledge, be it well-known liturgy, when to sit or stand, or even the cursory knowledge required to navigate through a hymnal. When leading Bible study or preaching, we must assume that attendees don’t know where to find Hosea, and avoid lines like “As we all know in the story about Ruth and Boaz on the threshing floor,” which instantly alienate the millions of people who don’t know said story. And we might put Tuesday’s SPRC meeting on the calendar, but that first-time visitor looking for a way to connect doesn’t know if that’s a committee in the church or a “Singles Playing Rowdy Croquet” mixer.


All these things are important to remember. We cannot and should not assume prior knowledge. Hence the recent phenomenon in many Christian churches to use the lowest common denominator with regards to language. But we should proceed with caution, or we will lose much of the rich Christian language we currently possess.


Sanctuaries have been renamed worship centers (these are not the same thing). Theology has become “God talk.” The Gloria Patri and Affirmation of Faith have been removed from worship with the explanation, “people don’t even know what we’re saying or why we’re saying it, so what’s the point it doing it anymore?” And for those of us who are United Methodist, we’ve seen our General Rules simplified. John Wesley stated them as: “Do no harm, Do good, and attend upon all the ordinances of God.” Bishop Rueben Job changed the third to simply, “Stay in love with God.”


Let me be clear, I do believe we are called to express our faith and the Gospel message in ways that do not require a college degree. It is time to stop assuming everyone around us knows our churchy jargon, theological terms, and liturgical movements (Why do you have ashes on your forehead???). Such assumptions are intellectually arrogant, and widen rather than bridge the gap between “insiders” and “outsiders.”


But equally arrogant is the assumption that others cannot be taught what we already know. Consider the aforementioned example of the General Rules. We cannot say, for instance, that people don’t know what it means to “attend upon all the ordinances of God,” therefore we should just tell them to stay in love with God. That is as ridiculous as a high school math teacher saying, “My students don’t know calculus, so we just do multiplication tables, and that will help them be great mathematicians.”


After all, I didn’t always know what it meant to attend upon all the ordinances of God. Somewhere along the way, in confirmation class or college or even seminary, I learned that it means showing up to worship, listening to sermons, engaging in study of scripture, receiving communion, praying alone and with my family, and practicing disciplines like abstinence and fasting when the situation calls for it. Bishop Job was on to something, because these ordinances do draw us into a deeper love for God and open us up to God’s love for us. But staying in love with God is the result of attending upon all the ordinances of God, not the equivalent.


In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus didn’t say, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…and teaching them to obey everything that I have told you. And remember, those people you teach will have the comprehension skills of a 6 year old, so when you teach them, don’t use big words and only talk about basic concepts.” Meaning, we’re not supposed to shy away from asking eight year olds to be attentive. But when they don’t know what that means, it’s not because they’re unable to. It’s because no one ever cared enough to teach them a new word, so like a silent coyote, they had no proper language to fully comprehend the message.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Gone Fishin': There's a sign upon your door

The life of a pastor is busy. If you can track one down, ask, "How's life?" The response will probably include words like busy, crazy, chaotic, exhausting, tiring, REALLY busy, SUPER busy, or any other busy you can think of that's busier than your busy.

I'll admit to being a prime culprit of rattling off this type of response. That's because it's true: even the life of a small-town pastor is busy most of the time. But do you want to know a secret? I like being busy. Most pastors do. That's why, if we're not actually busy, we figure out a way to be anyway. We won't admit it, but we like being busy because it's usually the only way we'll ever feel a sense of accomplishment. We don't build stuff or seal a big business transaction or win a case. So we have to measure our accomplishments primarily by work ethic.

It's an illness. I'm a recovering workaholic, the son of 2 workaholics and the brother of a workaholic. It runs in our family, the incessant need to be busy. Which is why today, on my day off, I have a list of chores (including but not limited to: laundry, cutting the grass, cleaning the house for company this weekend). I could take this whole day to read a magazine, take a bike ride, watch TV and fall asleep with a cat on my lap, but then Kramer would burst in and yell at me.



Not today. It's the first day in over a week that it's not raining. I'm going golfing, and I'm not going to feel guilty about it, because we're not Puritans. We're allowed to do something that makes us feel good from time to time.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Christian Reflections on the Death of a Terrorist

“Osama Bin Laden is dead.” These five words contain tremendous power, and are capable of eliciting many emotions and reactions in each person. I share in this space my own initial reflections, as someone who is proudly American yet professes even greater allegiance to Jesus Christ, who is the incarnation of a merciful God.

I am thankful for what this news possibly means: the prevention of future atrocities against humanity, and the weakening of Al-Qaeda. As a citizen of the country that committed this action, I am also thankful for the courage and service of our military, and the government’s and military’s leadership, including the leadership of both President Obama and former President Bush. This was made possible by the hard work and leadership of many.

I am hopeful that this is indeed a step toward peace and human dignity. However, my hope is tempered by the fact that violence begets violence, and peace cannot ultimately be achieved by violent means. In a 1963 speech Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” Indeed, only the light of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to destroy the evil and hatred that persists in this world. It is foolish to believe our acts, however noble, can ultimately rid the world of evil and establish justice.

However, we do live in a world where at times, acts such as this one may be considered necessary and just. This is a reality that elicits deep sadness within me. Equally sad and troubling is the outpouring of celebration, joy, and excitement over the death of another human being. No matter who has died, responding in jubilation is never appropriate. When we dance, chant, and sing in celebration, then we are no better than those whom we disdain for celebrating in the same way over the loss of American lives.

Finally, I am in prayer. I pray for those who lost loved ones in the events of 9/11 or other terrorist attacks orchestrated by Al-Qaeda. Surely their pain and grief has flooded back as a wave of emotions in the wake of this news. I pray for a world so broken that military force and the killing of a fellow human may be considered justice. I pray also for the soul of Osama Bin Laden. I believe that redemption is possible even for the soul of a man who committed horrific evil against humanity, and I am thankful that God is far more merciful than we have the capacity to be.

I do not fully understand what this news means. I do not know the will of God in this. What I do know is this: when we fail to live as Christ calls us to live – be it orchestrating murder of thousands with terrorism, responding inappropriately or de-humanizing the death of a fellow human, or simply being arrogant enough to claim we know what justice is – there is a God of mercy with incalculable capacity to forgive. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.