A week ago, Simmy had been at the Dutch Dime Store and they were giving this book away. Yes, that's right! It was free! Now, the reason for this was because nobody could read it so they decided not to take money for it.
Ironically, this book seems to be written in Dutch (correct me if I'm wrong), and the people who volunteer at the Dutch Dime Store can only read High German,... apparently.
Simmy could read quite a bit of it by: combining the High German she had learned in Choir with the Low German that had been spoken at home, converting it, mentally, into a written language... my brain just works that way... then, using recollection of Biblical stories that she had cataloged in her memory.
With these three 'tests,' she had determined that it would be worth investigating the author to see what the book was all about. The investigation led her to a website named 'Reformed Reflections.'
http://www.reformedreflections.ca/biography/johan-herman-bavink.html
After looking up the meaning of the two big words inculturation and missiology, she decided that reformed reflections was a very good simplification of those bigger words.
Theologically, there are a few Biblical stories that have always grated on me... like the grate of a key in a lock. One such story is of Naaman... after he has been healed... he tells Elisha that he needs God's pardon for...
"When my master, leaning on my arm, enters the shrine of Rimmon and worships there, and I'm with him there, worshiping Rimmon, may you see to it that God forgive me for this." II Kings 5:18 The Message translation.
The way the story is written, one can see that Naaman has truly had a conversion experience because he immediately identifies one of the activities of his 'everyday life' as sin and, knowing that his position and job or work will still be the same for his immediate future, he asks for a pardon, in advance of doing this same thing again, so he can have peace about it.
That is the best old time story I can think of for the inculturation of missiology.
So, this Christmas, I may not have felt like my action of 'giving a dog by the name of Delilah a stocking' (literally- see previous blog entry), was of a particular holy nature exemplifying my faith... but, I have peace about it.
Simmy heard the mailman clomp up the stairs and she excitedly went to see if anything other than bills had been delivered today.
Why yes!
Paint swatches from the Master Palette and a Christmas card from... I'm not making this up...
the Freedmans.
No comments:
Post a Comment