Speaking with an Accent

On Saturday I had the privilege of attending the funeral of my friend Bishop Onell Soto.  Onell was born in Cuba and left after the revolution as a young man.  He was once a staff member of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society working in world mission, and he was most certainly a missionary at heart.  He went on to serve as Bishop of Venezuela.  From there he became the Assistant Bishop of Atlanta, which is where he entered my life as a great blessing.  Then he was the Assistant Bishop of Alabama.  He was a dear man, a devoted husband and father, and a faithful pastor to his people as both priest and bishop.

When he visited my parish in Atlanta, he almost always compared himself to Ricky Ricardo.  He began virtually every sermon by reminding people of his Cuban heritage and saying, with great delight, “Lucy, I’m home” in a thick, Cuban accent. 

But his joking around was not without a point.  There are few sermons I remember from my life, either ones I’ve heard or ones I’ve preached.  But one I do was preached by Onell Soto.  In it he went on from his “I Love Lucy” routine to make a profound missionary point.  “The Gospel,” he preached, “has always been proclaimed with an accent.”  The Gospel has always been proclaimed with an accent.

The Gospel’s hometown is Jerusalem.  Its original accent and ethos are Jewish.  Its original proclaimers, first the women at the tomb and then the apostles sent to the ends of the earth and chiefly Paul, spoke with an accent everywhere they went.  The Gospel has always been proclaimed with an accent.

The first missionaries to Britain, whose names are now lost to us, spoke with an accent.  St. Augustine, who led a second wave of missionaries in the sixth century, spoke with an Italian accent.  Later missionaries to Britain spoke with an Irish accent. 

British missionaries, too, spoke with an accent in the Americas and elsewhere.  American missionaries, in turn, took the Gospel to new places. They spoke with an American accent, sometimes, I hope, maybe a Southern one.  The Gospel has always been proclaimed with an accent.

We are living in a time when lands to which missionaries were once sent are now sending missionaries of their own.  Desmond Tutu is South Africa’s missionary to the world.  He speaks with a delightful accent. We will be visited this month by Pope Francis.  He speaks with an Argentinian accent.  Malala Yousafzai, while not a Christian, is Pakistan’s missionary of peace, and she speaks with a beautifully soft accent.  The Gospel, however known, has always been proclaimed with an accent.

The Gospel has always been proclaimed with an accent because it is inherently foreign, not just to a particular time or place, but to humanity.  The Gospel entered the world from outside the world.  It was, from the very beginning, proclaimed with an accent because God necessarily speaks with an accent.  The Word become flesh was spoken with a heavenly accent very difficult for human beings to understand. 

I am grateful to Onell for teaching me that.  He has taught me, when I hear an accent, to listen up for the Gospel.

And finally, it is true.  “Lucy, he’s home.”

Peace,