04 - Chapter 4_Armed With Clarity

8/12/2019 04 - Chapter 4_Armed With Clarity

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4

Armed with Clarity:

Communicating the Message Clearly

You can take the boy out of Babylon, but you cant take Babylon out of theboy, our little grou! began to sing to the sound of thum!ing d"imbes# Babylonsymboli$ed e%erything our listeners from this American sub&culture, the 'ainbow!eo!le, were trying to esca!e: a modern (estern ci%ili$ation fragmented by

%iolence and consumerism, held ca!ti%e by materialistic world%iews, torn asunderby greed and !o%erty, and obsessi%e in its lust for !ower#

)n the late *+-s, the 'ainbow !eo!le began coordinating annualgatherings in remote !arts of .#/# national forests in an effort to create transiente0!ressions of a uto!ian society resistant to the influences of Babylon#1owe%er, o%er the years, many 'ainbows began to reali$e that the !roblems ofBabylon did not sim!ly go away by hiding out in the woods for a few weeks# 2o,the !roblem of Babylon was not !rimarily geogra!hical in nature# 'elocation didnot sol%e the dilemma of their souls# 3eo!le brought their wounds, hurts, greed,and lust with them to the woods# rugs and se0 could only dull the !ain for solong# 5ut of the womb of this disillusionment was born the adage: You can take

the boy out of Babylon, but you cant take Babylon out the boy# .nderneath thehumor with which this !hrase was 6uoted is a heart cry for freedom anddeli%erance#

'ainbows lo%e !oetry, and they lo%e to sing# uring their annualgatherings, which sometimes attract u! to twenty thousand !eo!le, the sound ofdrum circles can be heard for miles around# (ithin a radius of se%eral miles aremyriads of little cam!s, tucked away in the middle of nowhere# 7ach cam!chooses its own name and is known by its distinct characteristics and ser%ices#8or e0am!le, during the 9-- ;athering, one cam! called 3o! Corner wasknown for making different kinds of !o!corn throughout all hours of the night#esus ?itchen was a Christiancam! that ser%ed food and ran a foot&washing station#


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1e did with the )sraelites in the land of ;oshen during the 70odus 70# +:9#5n this !articular night, ;oshen Cam! had been in%ited to 3o! Corner to

!erform a drum circle# /omeone from 3o! Corner had a!!arently liked the%ibes he had felt while at ;oshen Cam! and in%ited us to his cam! for a!erformance# Before lea%ing for the gathering, our team had !re!ared a gos!el

!resentation that em!loyed 'ainbow terminology and culture as a bridge forcommunicating the gos!el# 8or those unfamiliar with 'ainbow culture, ) ha%eincluded endnotes that !ro%ide definitions of words and conce!ts in this the!resentation#*)


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@ong, long ago, ;od created the hea%ens and earth, and he calledhis creation good# 7%erything in hea%en and on earth was in!erfectly harmonized1L e%erything worked together in !erfect unity#


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ha%e rea!ed the conse6uences on the earthJ ;od ha%e *e#cyonusJ 1a%e mercyJ 1a%e mercyJ 5ur !roblem is too dee! for us tosol%e on our ownJ

Chorus: "o$, ha+e *e#cy% "o$, ha+e *e#cy% "o$, ha+e *e#cy%

1owe%er, !raise ;od, there is still ho!eJ


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us, he decided to facilitate25 !eace once and for all between ;odand human beings# 1e decided to take on the !unishment that wedeser%ed# esusharmoni$ed us with ;od, because he ga%e his own blood in our!lace# 1e took the sin and disharmony on himself, and ;oddestroyed it#

Chorus: /e al)+e% /e al)+e% /e al)+e%

2ow, we ha%e the o!!ortunity to turn away from our sin and /atan,and to consense with >esus and be united with ;od once again#7%eryone who turns to >esus, and walks with him, and lo%es him,and trusts him, all of themKman or woman, black or white, rich or!oor, children or adults, forest rangers,tramps,26 road dogs,27

gypsies,28yuppies29Kall can enter the kingdom of ;od# (henthey re!ent and confess >esus as @ord, they recei%e theforgi%eness of sins, and ;od also deli%ers us from the darkness,/atan, disease, death, and e%il# At the same time, in order tocon%ey us into his kingdom of light, and because it is im!ossible forus to !urify oursel%es, >esus anoints us with something called the1oly /!irit of ;od, who cleans our hearts and continues to li%e in usfore%er#


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As we sang, there were a number of times in which the /!irits !resence couldbe felt %ery strongly, es!ecially when we started singing about the cross andresurrection#


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sharing the gos!el# 5ne good !rinci!le of communication is that the intendedmeaning of a message is transferred to the mind of a rece!tor best whensomething already known to the rece!tor can be used for communicatingsomething unfamiliar#


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become a local legend in the region of Cilicia, and that some lines of his !oetryhad become a common !art of the local Cilician culture# 1owe%er 3aul came to!ossess knowledge of this !hrase, in his mind it did not contradict biblical truth,and could thus be em!loyed as a cultural bridge for the communication of thegos!el:

;od did this so that men would seek him and !erha!s reach out forhim and find him, thou(h he ) not fa# f#o* each one of u.8or inhim we li%e and mo%e and ha%e our being# As some of your own!oets ha%e said, 'e a#e h) off#)n(6uoting /toic !oet Aratus#h#)t an$ h)* c#uc)f)e$# ) came to you in weakness and fear, and

with much trembling# My message and my !reaching were not )th)e an$ e#ua)+e o#$, but )th a $e*ont#at)on of the ?)#)t

oe#, so that your faith might not rest on mens wisdom, but on;ods !ower em!hasis added#

3aul wrote this to the belie%ers in Corinth, the city he went to "ust after he had!reached his now&famous sermon in Athens# (hy was it that he had to #eol+etoknow nothing O e0ce!t >esus Christ and him crucifiedN Could it be that he wasgra!!ling with the fact that though he had !reached a seemingly elo6uentsermon in Athens, only a small handful of con%erts had resulted Acts *:I4N3ossibly so# All of us should be %ery wary of our !ro!ensity to trust in our ownabilities and strength when !roclaiming the message# ;od lo%es to show 1imself

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strong in the conte0t of our weakness 9 Cor# *9:G+#ohnson, the lesson is that weshouldnt do any of these things at the e0!ense of making room for ;od to showu! and say PAmen to 1is own word through the signs and wonders that follow#IIAll in all, 3auls message here in Acts * is a source of great encouragement forthose called to !roclaim the gos!el in cross&cultural settings#

'ece!tor&5riented Communication

According to Charles ?raft, the !ur!ose of communication is to bring arece!tor to understand a message !resented by a communicator in a way that

substantially corres!onds with the intent of the communicatorO esusNmore than likely he would think, 5h, ;odJ Another alcoholicJ Christian being

e6ui%alent to (estern culture in his mind# 1e would !robably res!ond, ) dontknow >esus, but he might be down at the bar# (alk two blocks and take a left#5r if ) go u! to a grou! of unbelie%ers in @os Angeles and say, You need to be

"ustified and sanctified by the blood, they would likely be clueless about what )am trying to say# 1owe%er, if ) say, Man, we are totallymessed u!, and wedes!erately need someone who has the goods to set us free, this is much morelikely to translate# )n the case of the young man from 3o! Corner, the way wecommunicated the message allowed him to not only hear information, buto!ened his heart to e0!erience the emotions of ;od through song#


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(e must be %ery careful about the formsKterms, symbols, and conce!tsKwechoose to em!loy when communicating our message: h)l$is a worthwhileread on this to!ic#I'ichardson relates his disco%ery of a custom among the/awi !eo!le that ser%ed as a natural bridge for communicating the gos!el# udas for his betrayal of >esusJ As 'ichardson and hisfamily !re!ared to lea%e the area because of escalating fighting, some of the

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/awi tribes, not wanting them to lea%e, came together to make !eace# Central tothe !rocess of !eace&making in /awi culture was the custom of the !eace child,in which a man from one %illage %oluntarily gi%es his son away to be raised by hishated foe in an o!!osing %illage# As long as the !eace child li%ed, !eace betweenthe two %illages was assured# .nlike other killings, murdering a !eace child was

considered taboo#


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why the im!ending !oint is necessary#esus mercy in healing, ) would make motions as if ) were laying hands on!eo!le# (hen ) !resented it in the hos!ital, ) actually laid hands on real sick!eo!le# (hen talking about our sinful blood, ) would !oint to the %eins on the

wrist of my left forearm the left hand, used for the toilet, being !ercei%ed asculturally unclean# )n contrast, when talking about >esus sinless blood, ) would!oint to the %eins on the wrist and bottom side of my right forearm the righthand, used for eating, being !ercei%ed as culturally clean# (hen we got to thecross, ) would stretch out my arms to both sides, making a cross sha!e# (hen

we got to the resurrection, ) would make the sha!e of a tomb with one hand, andthen use the other hand while make a blowing, wind&like sound to indicate the!ower of the 1oly /!irit raising >esus from the dead# My goal was to #e&!resent

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Christ %isibly through my own !erson, both %erbally and non&%erbally#


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deser%e because of their rebellion against ;od: the lake of fire#)n conclusion, this good news about the kingdom of ;od is

like the !ro%erb that says, A man who gi%es you !oison, gi%e himbutter# Although all of us ga%e ;od !oison, 1e ga%e us butter

when 1e sent >esus to us# (e were all 1is enemies, but 1e

forga%e us#

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esus, we now ha%e !eace with ;od,and that !eaceKboy, is it sweet#

.nfortunately, today there are many !eo!le who mistakenlythink that >esus came to bring another religion# But, as you cannow see, he did not come for that reason# 1e came to o!en to usthe door for inclusion in the kingdom of ;od# 1owe%er, though thedoor is flung wide o!en, ;od is not going to force us to enter#esus is @ord,

and belie%es from his heart that ;od raised him from the dead, hewill be sa%ed# 1e will recei%e the 1oly /!irit as an assurance of hisinclusion in >esus kingdom# 1owe%er, if he makes this decision toenter the kingdom, he must know well that there is also a difficultside to this decision# /atan doesnt want anyone to acce!t >esus orrecei%e the blessings of ;od# esus#1owe%er, that being so, the /!irit of ;od hel!s us to endure thesufferings that will come against us as we wait for >esus return# )

will now sing you a song that shows both sides, the cost and theblessings#F9

esus to meet us dynamically in the !rocess of searchingout creati%e ways to make our !resentation of the gos!el more rece!tor&oriented#

7ndnotes

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and wanting to settle down for a s!ell#

19Money#

20A dead animal found on the roadL dead animals in general#

21A non&%erbal signal or feeling# Also can be used to describe a mood#

22A !icture of how things should, could or will be#

23


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IGMora%ian !ro%erb#

I+As with many languages, in Mora%ian there is an inclusi%e we and e0clusi%ewe#


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04 - Chapter 4_Armed With Clarity