Day 6: Translation Station

I'd been struggling to connect with the previous couple of chapters, lots of the details spoke of an Amercian culture of Christianity that I didn't recognise (the national flag near the altar, for instance). This chapter seemed to return to an earlier theme duality but now, through experience of the complexity of people's character, the binary us-them logic was being remade into a much fuzzier logic. This was encouraging in that it seemed like a better, more faithful, response to the complexity of the world around us. But it created a new question... why bother? To be fair, I've never set out to evangelise anyone; I''ve never had that us-them framework that leads me to look at people who need to be got for God. But by then end of this chapter I was left feeling like I'd been let off the hook. If in the richness of each person's character there is wisdom to be treasured no matter what their professed faith and if we should worry less about the differences between us.... this came across as a clarion call for un-missionary work.

I also loved Tony being able to see the imams as magi. Couple of interesting translation issues in the chapter: Tony's pastor is warning him he is way off base over the difference between two bibles in English - and this is a deep issue in how he looks at this guy ever after. And Tony's initial perception of the imams as extremely threatening to his mission is based on their preaching in a language he doesn't understand being translated into Albanian - which he has no great command of.

"Our words & ideas not only help us interpret our experiences – they also help create the experiences.”

When Tony has few clear words, limited perception of the imams they are threatening. When they tell him in his own language "He [God] does not need you to do his fighting for him,”they become magi.

Not feeling any great need to unveil the shadow side of my character tonight, been really enjoying the image from 2 Cor on Transfiguration Sunday of Jesus being the bright mirror that is gradually transforming us into His image. Interested in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral if it opens the door for us to use our experiences of Mother/Son/Spirit in coming to an understanding of Scripture/Tradition/Reason. How can we help each other have the vocabulary to experience the Kin-dom coming near?

It's the end of this chapter that touched me the most. "I sat back in my chair with a new peace... I had an odd little smile on my faith as I accepted my pastor for who he is: complicated, paradoxical, and beautiful... Could I simply accept them for who they were? Could I honestly consist their spiritual insights, even though they were not Christians like me?" The dualistic, two-team world view goes so deep. Like in my church that owns every Norman video, but where, since Love Wins, you practically have to apologize and renounce the devil before mentioning anything Rob Bell ever said. Or how we have feel the need to background check the author of every quote in a music video we show the kids and throw out the whole thing if the author was billed a socialist. People are either all good or all bad. White hats or black hats. I read an article recently about the fact that there is one picture of Hitler shaking have with Jesse Owens (who said Hitler was actually very respectful during the exchange) but no one would publish it because no one wanted to be the one to risk being seen as painting Hitler in a positive light. We don't have a mechanism for processing that gray, non categorical reality. This realization, though still a work in progress, has been a source of such freedom in my life. Learning that I didn't have to wholesale write someone off because of one point of disagreement was, embarrassingly, a huge deal for me. The richness of relationships that have developed since then is my deepest source of joy. And a smile on my faith? I love it! You have such a gift with words, Tony.

"One of the arts of discipleship and developing christian character is acknowledge and addressing the shadow side." I love this idea.  I wish I had had it modeled for me as a kid in church. It seems that more often I was encouraged to change the shadow self without ever really taking it out, shedding light on it, and questioning the reason for it's existence. Calling it "sinful nature" and asking to have it extricated is the prescription I remember. It was guilt/shame driven. It simply didn't work. It is hard to change your heart or your behavior without a generous helping of authenticity. It is pretty freeing to acknowledge shadow shawn when she is obvious, ask myself what need she's meeting in my life and see if there's a healthier way to meet that need. Often the shadow is really just the back side of good character out of balance. Other times that's not the case, and  all I can do is apologize.  Either way it's better than pretending she doesn't exist.