“Visit and talk to five different types of people in a hospital (e.g. doctor, nurses, ward boys, compounder, radiologist and pharmacist). Attempt to share the Gospel and write your experience. (Please don’t sell literature to them. Just try to talk with them).” My heart and mind crunched when I read these instructions that are part of the training manual for Indian students that are in the organization’s Masters or Bachelors program. It brought to mind a passage in Kosuke Koyama’s Waterbuffalo Theology, in which he recalls a conversation with a Thai woman in distress. With his limited knowledge of the Thai language he is determined to bring to her the message of Christian hope. She dismisses him with the words “you missionaries are always trying to teach people while you really do not understand the people,” and calls for a Buddhist monk to comfort her instead. Does the command that Jesus gave His disciples to go into the world and make disciples of all man imply preaching as its methodology? One could easily build a case that supports this idea. We find the disciples preaching left, right and centre, and the apostle Paul seems to encourage it. So why does my heart and mind crunch when reading the assignment to students who want to learn to be effective preachers of the Good News? What seems to be the problem?
I’d like to problematize the issue from an ethical perspective. Let’s call it an ethical exercise. The unmatched thinker C.S. Lewis suggests that there are three parts to morality: 1) Fair play and harmony between individuals, 2) Tidying up or harmonising the things inside each individual and 3) What man was made for… what tune the conductor of the band wants it to play. He uses the image of a fleet of ships sailing in formation; “The voyage will be a success only, ..if the ships do not collide and get in one another’s way, and .. if each ship is seaworthy and has his engines good in order.” Applying this to my “crunch” it seems that I am experiencing an inner collision, the place where methodology and place meet and compete. The methodology can be regarded as the instruction to go and preach. One could follow the instruction as is but that would reduce the activity to a mechanical exercise. Regardless of the methodology we always act out of a ‘place’. Place in this context can be different for each individual.
Place, the context in which we act out our life at a particular moment and in a specific context, could mean several things. Doing the assignment as described in the introduction can, for instance, be motivated by:
· Meeting the academic requirements (reducing it to an academic exercise)
· Fear of sanction (either by faculty, team leader, or God)
· Peer pressure (in order to belong, one conforms to the expectations of and obligations to a group)
· Genuine zeal and enthusiasm for the assignment (one could have or aspire the gift of preaching).
In real life our place is always a combination of motives.
What does the Bible say about place?
When studying the life of Jesus and the apostles we can distil some generalisations that help us understand the role, importance and, non-negotiable components that needs to be present in place.
Motive
Jesus operates from a place that is defined and characterised by love. This is “the essence of the ethical teachings of Jesus. Jesus summarised the moral law of the Old Testament in Matthew 22:37-39. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God… and thy neighbour as thyself.’” It was this love that made Christ to lay down His life and die on the cross and this is what compelled the apostle Paul to preach the Gospel. This same love describes the basis of human relationships. This is demonstrated in doing to others what you would have them do to you. This love “transfers self-love into love for the neighbour: spontaneous care, concern and kindness to our helpless, suffering, stricken neighbour.” The cup of water to the thirsty, the feeding of the hungry, visiting the sick and those in prison, clothe the naked, returning good for evil, pray for those who hate us, loving our enemies; maybe some of these could be done mechanically but it’s unlikely that in the long run these can be done without love. A collision, to go back to Lewis’ analogy, would be inevitable with its subsequent damage. Context
Another important component of place is context; understanding the world in which we live and the ability to relate to it well. Not only was the apostle Paul motivated by love, what gave him his authority was his ability see the broader picture of the lives of the people he attempted to reach. The classic example to illustrate this is Paul’s approach in Athens. He observes and places in context the religious practises of the people of Athens. He purposely looks for and finds common ground that demonstrates respect and serves as the basis for some real and promising conversations.
Purpose
One other component is intentionality. One might be compelled by love to serve and preach, endeavour to understand one’s audience well but lack purpose. Jesus was rather outspoken about His purpose. He came to save the lost. Traditionally the emphasis would be on “saving from hell” but the Bible gives stronger reasons to believe that Jesus came to save people for the Kingdom (which incidentally and subsequently would save them from hell). His emphasis was on bringing Good News and that Good news was and is the Kingdom. His very first words when starting His public ministry were about announcing the Kingdom and the forty days between His resurrection and ascension that He appeared to His disciples from time to time, focussed around His talks with them about the Kingdom of God. Followers of Jesus are representatives of this Kingdom in the here and the now. This awareness will impact and shape our motive and context. Reframing the assignment to preach
The history of Christianity is a colourful one, to say the least. The reduction of the commission to go into the world and preach the gospel, into a mere technical exercise where force, subduing nations and sublimation of the church’s authority and power, has and still puts the believers with shame. The modern church still battles with the consequences of the major collision between the original Biblical intent to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom by true representatives of the Kingdom who are transformed by the realities of loving motives, critical and respectful understanding of our world and life giving purpose. With that understanding the fleet of ships will sail in sync with Gods loving purpose and our loving obedience to the mandate to go and preach.
Conclusion
Ethically sound preaching is not just concerned about a technical or mechanical delivery of “the goods”. It is concerned about delivering the Good News of the Kingdom in a morally embedded way that honours God and respects people.
It is next to impossible to reduce that to a program and leaders should be concerned about helping students understand the wider context in which the mandate to preach is placed. Then it is the student’s job to reflect on his or her motives and wrestle with internal struggles which requires honesty and acknowledging those struggles.
Pure motives don’t exist. We are a mix of motives, involved in a perpetual struggle to hear and understand the conductor well, reconciling our inner struggles and get these in sync with the music that the Master wrote. That will liberate us and create the necessary space to love our neighbour in a way that this neighbour understands that our first and foremost concern is them and not our program. That is the place where we have earned the right to be heard. And that is what ethically right preaching looks like.
The challenge, not just in Member Care, but in life in general, is to find effective ways to overcome that distance. We all know that it’s not going to go away and we will need to work hard to maintain healthy relationships. Distance can be devastating for the ministry and especially our relationships. Jesus was aware of the “distance dynamic” in His life and ministry. He didn’t feel the same compassion for people when he was alone in His bedroom, or remote places, as what He felt when he saw the crowds. Only in the meeting of other people true compassion (can) kick in.
