|
...Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God
and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance, a foreign import ? Dear friends, Our greetings and love to each of you. All is well on the Western European front, at least for those whose hope is in Christ, "the ruler of nations...who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood." Wikipedia, the “web’s free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, offers an interesting look into French culture. I am often surprised at the difference between the French and English articles treating the same subject (rarely is one a direct translation of the other, rather each tends to represent the various held notions in its perspective culture). The differences between the two are very telling. Preparing for a message last week on Jonah, I was curious to see how our society defined “repentance”, and consulted Wikipedia. According to the French entry, repentance is an “Anglo-Saxon term, absent in French thought until 1990,” at which time the Pope happened to use it in a speech and thereby introduce the concept into French. As one can imagine, the equivalent English entry had a radically different take, giving a rather full and accurate description of Biblical repentance, and citing, oddly enough, a Frenchman who lived well before 1990, John Calvin. Unfortunately, his ideas on repentance are not part of pop culture just about anywhere. But the missionary task is greatly complicated if, indeed, repentance itself is viewed as a foreign import, not even as old as the World Wide Web or Coca-Cola. Admittedly, the difference between French and American culture is certainly less pronounced and less ‘problematic’ for missionaries than that between Jews and Greeks in Biblical times, or between American and Muslim Ethiopian in our own day (see my sister Laura’s plans). If you spent a few days with us in Toulouse, you would quickly notice the McDonald’s across the street, the Ford dealership nearby the church, and a strangely familiar selection of books and music at the local Christian bookstore, commodities which you would not find in Langano, Ethiopia or Timbuktu, Mali. Here, one can easily spot the strong similarities and ties that exist between our two cultures separated by the Atlantic. However, we have discovered that these similarities can be an advantage and a disadvantage to missionary vision and practice. Preliminary integration can be easier and daily ‘survival’ is generally less time-consuming. One goes from post office to supermarket to Tuesday night Bible study without much difficulty or persecution. As time goes by, however, fundamental cultural differences make their way to the surface and begin to weigh heavier, sometimes creating disillusionment or discouragement. The more one peers into the “windows” of culture, the more one realizes that there are great underlying differences, produced by a very different philosophy and a different religion, presenting a unique set of obstacles. These obstacles can become terribly oppresive for missionaries, and their wives, leading us to unhealthy comparaisons and longings for "home, sweet, home." Any missionary heading towards an Islamic culture will naturally gear up, mentally and spiritually, for ministry in such a radically different setting. As senders and goers in the West, do we gear up in like manner when heading towards a culture marked by an equally false and pagan religion, namely secular humanism? Pray for continued insight and wisdom in reaching the French people. --- As another year gets under way, we are thankful for a profitable and mostly restful summer, complete with
We are hopeful and depending on grace as we face
Your fellow
pilgrim in progress,
Toulouse, France |
The
church with a new layer of paint
Vincent
and I, with the church's newlyweds, at the civil ceremony
Some
of our children at the same
At
summit of the Lost Mountain, Spain
