Thursday, April 14, 2011

You Did Good Today, Uncle (part 4)

Keith had never been to a Ugandan funeral before. So when he, his wife, and two small children showed up to the family home of a young woman who had just delivered a nearly full-term stillborn baby, they did not know what to expect. But like all good missionaries, they quickly fell into the Ugandan routine for such occasions.

Everything went in a very Ugandan way until the older women—only the older women—took the tiny lifeless body into the backyard to bury it. It was only at that moment that my friend started to ask questions.

He learned that in this village only the older women touch and are exposed to a dead baby, because they believe that evil spirits have killed the baby in the womb. To Keith’s horror, he was told that the mother of this precious little one, a woman who happens to be a believer, had not even held her baby and would not (nor would any man or woman of childbearing age) be a part of the baby’s burial.

It was at this point that my friend moved into action. He went to the mother and asked her if she wanted to be a part of her baby’s funeral. She said that she did. And when Keith asked her if she was afraid of evil spirits, she responded that as a follower of Jesus she trusted Him to keep her from all evil.

With this, Keith, the mother, and the rest of the guests, young and old, men and women, went into the backyard. Keith took the shovel from the old woman who was digging the grave and began to dig. As he dug, he shared his faith in Jesus as the Lord of the living and the dead. He did not fear the evil spirits because his Lord was their Lord too.

Later that night, one of Keith’s Ugandan brothers in Christ had these words for him: “You did good today, Uncle. Today you were Ugandan when you were supposed to be Ugandan. You sat like a Ugandan. You ate like a Ugandan. You talked like a Ugandan. But when it was time to be like Jesus, you were like Jesus. When you needed to be like Jesus, you were like Jesus. You did good today, Uncle.”

This is my prayer for you today. I pray that you will know when it is time to be “Ugandan,” and when it is time be Jesus.

Monday, April 11, 2011

You Did Good Today, Uncle (part 3)

I think what Paul was trying to tell us in 1 Corinthians 9 has do with being for the purpose of becoming. The issue is not that he acted like a Jew when with Jews; it is that he functioned in a way that gave him the greatest degree of acceptance for the sake of the good news of Jesus.

The issue was not primarily Paul’s behavior as slave or free, Jew or Gentile, but the purpose to which he lived as he did so. His desire was to remove any amoral inhibitor that might prevent men and women from coming to know Jesus.

Paul was telling us that when he was with slaves, he acted like a slave so that all slaves would see that the gospel was for them just as much as it was for the free.

Paul fit in until his allegiance to Christ made him stand out. When with the weak, he lived like one who was weak so that the truly weak could see how they might find life in Jesus.

How far would Paul go? How far should we go? Should we be willing to do anything short of sinning in order to share the life-changing message of Jesus with someone? I know some who would say yes, and I know some who would say no. What do you think? What do you think Paul was thinking?

Friday, April 8, 2011

You Did Good Today, Uncle (part 2)

“To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law . . . so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law . . . so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:20-22).


What does it look like when you become someone in order to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to those who desperately need to hear and experience it?

One of the dangers we can fall into is thinking that the verbalization of the propositions about Jesus are the sum total of the good news He came to deliver.

When we fall into this trap, we reduce the message of Christ to its lowest common denominator and thus morph the epic redemptive story of God’s unfailing love expressed in Christ into a mathematical equation.

Is it possible that what Paul was trying to tell us in 1 Corinthians 9 is that when we present the gospel of Jesus to those we encounter, it’s incumbent upon us to contextualize the news and ourselves so that those who need to understand and engage the truth can do so?

What does this mean? How can we present the message of Christ with integrity in our context? I think we need to develop the cultural intelligence to know what is temporal and what is eternal. What can change, and what must stay the same?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

You Did Good Today, Uncle (part 1)

What happens when someone encounters the deep truths of God’s Word and refuses to be changed? What would it look like if all of us who call Jesus Lord would be impacted to the point of action when we encountered God’s deep truths? I think it would start a revolution that could shake the planet if we could just figure out when to be what to whom.
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23 NIV).
How can someone who is a slave be free? Is it possible that a person only begins to grasp the true measure of his or her freedom when he or she chooses to lay it down for the sake of another?

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Nelson Mandela