the gospel translated, or angelic orthodoxy just doesn't cut it

When it comes to communicating the gospel, I wonder if we provide a message that is blurred, thus often misunderstood. I am speaking here not just of “preachers,” but any of us who attempt to say something, anything, about God, Jesus, the Bible, or the Christian faith. Just how clear or even appropriate is our rhetoric when our motives are more concerned with winning than loving.

“If I speak in the tongues of…angels,” perhaps only angels will understand what I am saying.

Furthermore, it is often the case that what we speak isn’t the real problem. “If I…do not have love,” what I am saying might be the noise of arrogance, pride, or selfishness. But, love transcends. Love goes deeper. Love clears the muddy waters. Love translates our foreign words into the native tongue.

Frederick Buechner puts it this way.

English-speaking tourists abroad are inclined to believe that if only they speak English loudly and distinctly and slowly enough, the natives will know what’s being said even though they don’t understand a single word of the language.

Preachers often make the same mistake. They believe that if only they speak the ancient verities loudly and distinctly and slowly enough, their congregations will understand them.

Unfortunately, the only language people really understand is their own language, and unless preachers are prepared to translate the ancient verities into it, they might as well save their breath.

Communicating the gospel takes more than just preparing our words, what we think, what we believe, and so on. We must prepare ourselves to love perhaps even before we speak.

Who knows? Maybe that love will translate our words into gospel.

(Repost from 30 August 2004)