Talking to Ourselves

I have been blessed along the way by the people who have influenced my understanding of mission and ministry.  One of them is Onell Soto, formerly a member of the world mission staff at the Church Center and then the Bishop of Venezuela.  I had the opportunity to learn from him when he was the Assistant Bishop of Atlanta. 

Onell is a gracious man with a pastor’s heart.  He is also fundamentally a missionary, a call to which he has devoted his life.  He was a missionary in Venezuela.  He supported missionaries as a member of our staff, and after coming back to the United States, he continued to preach and teach about the Church’s missionary imperative, becoming something of a missionary for mission. 

He also speaks with the thick and lovely accent of his native Cuba, and he frequently compared himself to Ricky Ricardo (for those of old enough to remember “I Love Lucy”).  His Cuban accent became for me an object lesson in mission.  I vividly remember him saying on numerous occasions, particularly when people strained to understand him, “The Gospel has always been proclaimed with an accent.”  Yes, it has.  Indeed, it must be.  Otherwise, it is nothing more than insider jargon for those of us in the club.  Otherwise it is nothing more than talking to ourselves.  There is no health in talking to ourselves.  The very core of our life is to engage outward, and that requires an accent. 

The lessons for this week make the point, too.  John tells the story of the interaction between Jesus and John the Baptist (Jn. 1:29-42).  Three times John pauses in the story to translate for those to whom the words he uses are not known—Rabbi is translated as Teacher, Messiah is translated as Anointed, and Cephas is translated as Peter.  The Gospel is always proclaimed with an accent.

The Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 49:1-7, has a similar emphasis.  “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (v. 6).  The whole energy is about outward motion, from the familiar to the foreign.  The Gospel is always proclaimed with an accent.

The New Testament lesson is from an epistle of Paul, Paul the apostle to the Gentiles speaking beyond his home country to the Greeks of Corinth.  The Gospel is always proclaimed with an accent.  

It must be so if we are to be who we are by baptism, proclaimers of the Gospel in word and example.  Archbishop William Temple said, “The Church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of non-members.”  If we’re not speaking with an accent, it means we’re not being ourselves.  It means we are just talking to ourselves.

Is what we’re up to nothing more than talking to ourselves?  The way to tell is if we notice the accents.  It is only then that we might be hearing the Gospel.  It is only then that we might be experiencing the Gospel.  It is only then that we can be who God intends us to be.

Peace,