Letter to friends on sharing good news

Dear theology partners:

The first part of this email is cut and pasted from a recent prayer bulletin… God is working in Gonzalo. Actually God's working in me, too, in a significant way. I think Corrie is catching the bug, too. In the face of so much evil and death (street thugs robbing and killing each other, people seeking revenge thru witchcraft and drug dealers operating the street corner below our house) we're re-discovering the good news for these folks. And God is giving us opportunities to share it. Gonzalo has spoken with Calimero, the street thug who has robbed and beat him 2X in the last month (Yet right now Gonzalo is traumatized enough to only walk up to our house if I go down and get him and his family and walk them all home. Quite a recognition of need for a Latino.). Yesterday I got to speak with one of Calimero’s buddies. Corrie meanwhile had a deep conversation about God's good news with Darlin, the second in command of the drug dealing at our corner. (Keep in mind, these are the very folks that robbed Corrie, Jane, Birgit, Ryan, Karen KY and Gonzalo, and killed the son of Señor Oscar. Approaching these guys is not necessarily safe.

I'll share with you a simple illustration that has revived us as personal evangelists with these folks. Imagine a jail cell or a dark dungeon. Typically, we preach the gospel as "if you repent, God will forgive you." And we possibly teach, "your faith is the key that opens the door."

I've realized that that is NOT good news. And it's not what the bible teaches.

Now imagine a jail cell or dark dungeon, but the door is swung open. With this picture, we announce to street thugs and folks whose days are numbered because their evil is catching up with them: "Your sins are forgiven. God nailed them to the cross. They've been dealt with. Christ took them upon himself and did away with them. God opened to the door. He has set you free from your darkness and sin. Receive his gift and come out into God's light."

This is good news for sinners! It's been fun to see this truth put fire in my belly, put fire in Gonzalo's belly and also in Corrie's. We don't want a bullet of death to reach these guys before a word of hope.

Here are 3 challenges or questions that I’m asking (that come out of this reflection):
1. Finding images, symbols, stories that uniquely communicate this message to barrio street thugs.
The image of light breaking into a dark dungeon through an open door clarifies for us what we want these condemned folks to capture, but it’s not necessarily the actual image or presentation that will open their hearts. There’s no limit to the many ways (images, stories, etc.) that could convey this truth though. I like Bob Ekblad’s contextualized message with Hispanic folks to whom he presents Christ as the “good coyote”.

2. Presenting the gospel in such a way that invites people into the bigger picture of God’s purposes.
(And not just the me-stuff of “my sins” and my future in heaven, or the peace I want from an experience with God.) A recent experience in this was last Sunday. Eliz and Tati, Maria y Antonio, Luisa and Gonzalo came to our team base for a first-ever meeting of its kind; the first hour was a time of teaching and inspiration by yours truly (which I viewed as leadership capacity-building); the second hour was for the group to evaluate its life as a community and decide on a couple issues that were surfacing. The meeting was a huge encouragement for everyone. In the inspirational hour I played with the Venezuelan context; inviting them into an exercise of imagination in order to make a bridge between their Venezuelan world and the world of Jesus in the first century, so that they could feel the impact of Jesus’ message and ministry. I mention this experience because one thing I believe it accomplished was to draw them into God’s bigger picture. They saw how Jesus’ mission was directed to a nation as a whole and not an individualistic message deposited into the lives of individuals. It was encouraging to see how the response from the group was very collective in nature. Antonio expressed it beautifully: “We (the barrio community) are raising street thugs in our homes”. As I write this I also see something else in his response. Antonio and the others are still thoroughly integrated into the life of their surroundings in the barrio. They haven’t become isolated from their environment. We also discussed the crime and violence, in light of the Beatitudes, as a collective ‘we’ issue in the barrio.

3. How much do we ask for in repentance? Let me explain.
When I see Jesus’ proclamation (Marcos 1.15), he called people to a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’. That is, a ‘receiving’ and a ‘renouncing’…embrace God’s good news and turn from all other false “news”.
The specific experience that I’m thinking about is my conversation with Sr. Oscar, whose son was murdered in June. His household is a haven for witchcraft. He confessed to me that he using the family’s witchcraft beliefs to seek revenge on the killers of his son. In talking at length about revenge, witchcraft, the good news, reading the Bible, I invited him to receive God’s gift of freedom from condemnation, to walk in the light of God’s love (he believes that his physical condition is a curse from God; he’s been bedridden for 8 years. This is another whole area I want to pursue more with him.). I also called him to renounce revenge. To that he replied very firmly, ‘no, Juan, no puedo…’ Was I asking too much? On the one hand, John the Baptist asked for a clear outward sign of repentance. On the other hand, Donald McGavran and the Church Growth Movement have promoted a gospel presentation that leaves issues of racism and other social issues as discipleship issues once someone has aligned themselves with Christ.

What do you guys think?

John in Venezuela

P.S. As for the opening image of God’s forgiveness and salvation like a door of the dungeon opened by Christ’s death/resurrection, I have found it a very stimulating exercise to re-read the many New Testament verses that proclaim God’s forgiveness/redemption/reconciliation/salvation in Christ. Some could be interpreted either way depending on your lenses (e.g., Eph 1:7; 1 Cor 15:3; Col 1:13-14). Other passages seem to me to state quite clearly that God’s forgiveness was accomplished in Christ (e.g., 2 Cor 5:19; John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24; Heb 1:3; Rom 5:6-8, 10). I’m still processing this line of theological thought. So if you want to present a different view or a correction on this basic insight, please feel free. jss
P.S.S. I just got back from another visit to the bedside of Señor Oscar (the elderly man whose family is a bunch of espiritists and who’s son was killed recently). His eagerness to listen to scripture with me was very encouraging. And it’s funny, but I can see that in the course of our conversation that the message I shared moved in and out of the 3 areas mentioned above (exploring stories and images, pointing him God’s bigger picture, and calling him to a repentance with an outward evidence – that curiously connects the individual to God’s bigger purposes in the world; we actually read John the B and his advise to the repentant). jss