Good News Conversations

"The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold
And it's overturned the order of the soul
When they said REPENT
I wonder what they meant"
- Leonard Cohen, The Future

I don't want be in-house with this post (let's get outta the house!) and do want to get to something that's been on my mind since I last posted here. I think of it as communication in the situation. There's been some great discussions on my recent posts and while I don't usually put peoples comments into my blog posts, my friend Carol nailed something when she said:

"Do computer programmers use words us non-programmers don't use or understand? Do doctors? Do attorneys? Do architects? Do plumbers?
Any speaker or writer must consider their audience. If it is likely to be a mixed group of Christians and non-Christians, (plumbers and non-plumbers, etc.) he must address that group in appropriate terms or be prepared to quickly define his terms as he goes."

One of the things on my mind as we have been discussing language and communication has been that even when we use common words and terms we can become formulaic. I mean we can trot out our pet spiel without really considering who we are talking to or whether it's appropriate to their understanding. Anyone can fall into doing this. Ever been at a social occasion where some people talked shop all the time and you didn't know what they were on about? Not a great night out. I've taught two different young adult men how to read because they were barely literate and wanted to learn. Sometimes we had discussions about God and spirituality. The way we talked about God was different to the way I talk about God to a molecular geneticist. Different vocabularies and reference points. By the way, one of those young men was a new Christian and the other became a Christian in the middle of a reading session one day. I was busy concentrating on helping him learn to read, while he was busy evaluating his life and how it needed to change. I didn't think of it as a good news conversation when he started asking questions, but that's what it was. Now I didn't use the word repent with this man - he had a very small vocabulary. But he understood the spirit of what Jesus required of him - to admit he'd been wrong and turn his life in a new direction.

This brings me to a comment I left on a blog recently about Jesus' offer of forgiveness: "On using the word repent - I think we can - non-Christians and even the secular media do it. I think we can explain it. But I'd agree that the word itself is not a formula i.e. I use that word in a culture that uses that word. But I'm thinking about the times I haven't used the word but have conveyed the same meaning. I think implicit in the offer to forgive is the recognition of wrongdoing - and wrong condition perhaps. Otherwise why would one need to be forgiven, and why would one agree and want to be?"

I've had the privilege to have conversations about spirituality and spiritual realities with a variety of diverse people, from those who are society's outcasts to those society esteems as admirable. I love those kind of conversations - good news conversations. By that I mean we discuss what true spiritual liberty is, what needs to be turned upside down, and we talk about what Jesus really said and did. It's communication in the situation - it's using understandable language with that person, and explaining some things that are unfamiliar. This happens in all sorts of conversations. People explain things to me that I don't understand too.

We can use common terms and explain them, but terms which aren't in prevalent use take more explaining. And I think if we don't do that we are just talking shop, and in spiritual discussions what I call Christianese. I think it's Christianese when a whole lot of words are cobbled into a sentence, even though some may be common usage words, because they have a theological meaning. i.e. I could say to some-one, "Do you know that Christ is your substitutionary atonement and justification, and brings redemption, and you need experience the efficacy of regeneration and to submit to his sovreignty in repentance?" I could say that. Or I could say it in a more understandable way, not using Christianese - and perhaps take one common word like "justification" and explain how justification as we commonly refer to it in conversation points to a much more important justification. And then explain what that is - being justified before God because of what Jesus has done. So while I think some words, such as "justification" are actually in common usage much more than we might think, I also think we need to explain how they mean something greater, and spiritually life-giving, when talking to people. And I think rolling out a whole stream of words, or quotes, without explanation for folks is Christianese. The word gospel - good news - actually refers to all of Jesus life here on earth. Some people don't know what he was like or how he lived. One of the striking things that comes from reading about the life of Jesus is how he communicated with different people. No mantras, no lists of repititions, no formulas, but conversations that set lightbulbs off in peoples minds and conviction and love in their hearts.

Not everyone is at the same place. I had a Christian friend who talked to me over a two year time period. At different times we had spiritual discussions. Sometimes I waxed eloquent about what Jesus was really all about. It makes me smile now - I was right on some things and dead wrong on others. My point is it took two years. It was a process. Some people have a shorter process than others. I was a slow learner in the spirituality department. At the beginning of this post I quoted from Leonard Cohen's song The Future. (He puts REPENT in capitals in the lyric booklet with the CD - interesting). He is being ironic in that song. The person speaking knows what repent means at one level but isn't hearing the good news. He has a bleak and apocalyptic worldview. I was like that when I first started talking with my friend. I had a very caricatured impression of what being a Christian was and didn't have ears that really heard.

I've learned, as Jesus said, not to judge by appearances. Some people are easy to talk with because they are easy going about everything and don't really dig deep in themselves. Some are very oppositional because they are challenged and are weighing up the change they need to make. Some listen as if they are hearing from a long distance because they have so many other things on their mind and can't relax and focus. Who knows what is really in some-one's heart? Christianity is real life spirituality that can be communicated through words and actions in real terms. When I first saw the woman in this photo I thought perhaps she had been to a street parade or celebration. Or perhaps she just likes to be colourful. I'd love to sit on that step and have a real conversation with her. I bet it would be very interesting. I think Jesus would sit and have a conversation with her. A good news conversation. Would you agree?