My wife and I stood around for forty five minutes with hundreds of Corpus Christians. We were waiting for the city Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Across the street, as the excitement built, someone turned on a PA system and began talking. His message was about Jesus Christ.
Hearing him was difficult. Amidst traffic and the laughing and carrying on, his words powdered into the air. Still, I know the gist of what he said. My wife caught it, too. I told her that’s because it’s our language.
All we needed were a few choice words to fill in the rest. You may not have even been there and I bet you could, too: Sin, Repent, Drugs, Hell, Heaven.
Gloria said she admired people who do that. To be fair, it’s not that I don’t. I’m just not sure the technique does what we hope it does. But maybe there needs to be somebody on street corners preaching
She asked me, “How would you do it?”
“I wouldn’t,” I replied.
Now, there’s no doubt the young man spoke with compassion and care for other people. I trust that. But a lot of insider language spoken into large crowds might not send the message you want it to any more.
What would I do? Well, I commit to the work of forming and sharing crucified life together. That’s more challenging than turning on a microphone.
Much of our insider language today comes from the Apostle Paul. Romans is a street preacher’s gold mine! But it’s not meant for street preaching. Reread Romans 6:1-11 and underline every time Paul uses the word we. The we is the church, and the message of Romans was to a divided church. They needed to understand what God brought together.
And you and I still need to learn that today, too. So, instead of microphones, we use the table and bread, prayers and conversation to allow God’s Spirit to mold us. To remind us we have died to sin and are alive in Christ. When we skip out on the people God brought us together with, we miss the life God desires for us. We miss the we God is speaking to.
All that to say that the Lord seems to want our new life in Christ to be molded by our experience with the Church.
Stay blessed…john
