MMW A Question to be Answered

A Question to be Answered

An email came through my system a couple of days ago That the Pope had qualms about certain parts of the prayer we call The Lord’s Prayer.  As he went on to explain his issues with the words “lead us not into temptation”: the Pope explained that to his reading of that passage it leads us to suggests that God may not be averse to a situation where we get deep in the mire of sin.

Of course this is not at all true and the situation is a frequent appearance with translation. But getting back to the Papal pressure, found an acceptable prayer  line from a french church which reads “do not let us fall into temptation” His leading is gone and the responsibility is personal when we fail.

The above however is only, one example, as we know from mega ice bergs it is only 10% above the water so there is a lot of ice under the water ready to do as much damage. Without stretching the point too far there are churches that, at some level or another also have kinks in the Bibles that they read. It is not intended but language is a process of change that is a constant process; it is our task to be ready with an answer at whatever level our people and seekers come from.

The Pope is not the only one who has reached this enlightenment. Marshall Mcluhan in 1964 wrote a book called “The Medium is the Message” about the appropriate use of language and how we blur the statement when we use words  carelessly. To my mind these two people are making the same statement albeit decades apart and in different contexts.

We need to be aware, especially, when making Kingdom statements as the audience to whom we are speaking can easily be turned off, or at least confused, by the words we use. It is so very easy when using church terms to use century old words, “Thee, thou, thine” that we have grown comfortable with when our listeners go not have that same comfort line.

Pope Francis comment while being at a higher level of difficulty stopped me for a while where he criticized a line from Jesus answer as how to pray as suggesting that God was the one who “lead” people into temptation. The problem was that he was dealing with was a Nazarene Jesus who was recorded into Greek and then was re-translated into old English as the “Lords Prayer”; an intention that was not intended.

I recall an instance in New Guinea where two tribes would turn up for a fight at a minutes notice. Well they had no word for Saviour, or was that forgiveness? Anyhow after one battle the first child of the tribal head was given to the other chief as the “peace child”, as long as that child lived there was to be peace between the tribes. So it was that, for two tribes from New Guinea, that Jesus became the Peace Child between God and man.

The Peace Child story is only one of many where lateral thinking gave rise to fluidity in the presentation of the Good News appropriate to the way that words are used in a culture; even in English today

How in touch with the language of your culture to be able to express God’s Good News in your neighbourhood?