The Pearl

Talking about God, even though he's the God of the universe and gives us immortality, can seem so complicated, so guache. You have to figure out how to make this particular news sound relevant to your neighbor, who’s heard it on the radio, seen it on a billboard sign, been blasted with it in a thousand ways, and is bored to death with it. As the apologist/novelist Walker Percy explains in Message in a Bottle:

“It’s like a man who found a treasure hidden in the attic of an old house, but the people  [who lived in it] have moved to the suburbs, sick of the old house and everything in it.

“It’s like a starving Confederate soldier who finds a hundred-dollar bill on the streets of Atlanta, only to discover that everyone is a millionaire, and the grocers won’t take the money.

“It’s like a man who goes to a wild lonely place to discover the Truth, who finds an apostle there who gives him great news, who runs back to the city to announce it, only to discover that the news he carries has been on the broadcast for so long that in fact, it is now in the weariest canned spot on TV, more commonplace than an Exxon commercial, so he might as well be shouting “Exxon! Exxon!” for all the attention anyone pays attention to him.

“It’s like a man who finds a treasure buried in a field and sells all he has to buy the field, only to discover that everyone else has the same treasure in his field, and that in any case, real estate values have gone so high that all field-owners have forgotten the treasure and plan to subdivide.”

This is our culture. But what we forget is that not all cultures are this jaded. While we research new ways to make good news sound like good news to those around us, other cultures respond to the original story just as the people heard it in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, or the Gentiles heard it when Paul preached in their streets. So when we take the Good News to cultures that aren’t jaded, we do well to stick to the original story: “It was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. This message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations…there is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.” or as Paul taught, “I passed on to you what was most important…that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day…”

Missiologist Rolland Allen observes that Paul’s sermons resulted not in mere believers but in true disciples. He stuck to a few key elements: he established common ground with his listeners by appealing to the past; he stated the facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; he answered the objections people might have; he appealed to people’s spiritual needs; and finally, he gave grave warnings of the consequences of rejection. All this he did with respect and even sympathy for his listeners (he never attacked the gods of the day, though he did expect absolute commitment to Jesus). He showed courage by facing the difficulties of his message without watering it down or disguising what might give offense. And he spoke with confidence in its power to fulfill those who responded.

I have seen the power of this kind of preaching in Mixtec culture and heard of it in other cultures, too, where good news has been announced for the first time. In this culture, today, it is just as powerful as ever, but it's so hard to hear above the media storm--a pearl buried in a field of noise.