At Home in a Foreign Land

I spent my Monday in a Spanish class at the High School. I never took Spanish myself. I took German, Latin, Greek, and a little Hebrew, but not Spanish. As I looked around the room I saw all sorts of funny looking words I did not know how to pronounce nor did I know the meaning of them. As the students read aloud there books and worksheets, I felt an eerie feeling of being lost in my own city; like my home had transformed into a foreign land all at once. I felt as if I had entered an alternate dimension as I traveled down the long and winding hallway that is the foreign language department.

Have you ever felt that sensation? Perhaps on a trip, or in an airport? Have you ever felt that way at church? I hope not, but it's possible. The way we pastors talk sometimes I wonder if anyone gets it. And I sure hope there are no non-Christians in the service when that happens. They may feel as if they will never understand the religious we are practicing. Like we are in some secret society that wants outsiders to stay outsiders.

Hopefully the non-Christians you have conversations with don't feel like I did in that classroom; all left out and alone. Hopefully you don't feel like me when you are trying to teach someone about the subject of Christ! If we don't understand the language why do we use it? If we don't understand the language why do we think others will? If we don't understand the language of the religion we subscribe to how can we understand the language?

So, are we to learn a whole new language to go along with our religion or are we to change the language of our religion to match our everyday vernacular? Both. We need to understand the language used by the writers of the Bible and we need to be able to 'translate' those words into our everyday language. That souns like a lot of work, but it's worth it to those who need to grow in Christ or meet Him for the first time. 2 Tim 2:15 - look it up.