So we had our last residential yesterday. Dave and I are not sure if we are going to do year 2...well we want to do it, but maybe not right away. It has been a great year. I have loved not only the reading and the studying, but the study groups. It has been great sharing insights with everyone.
Below is my presentation for our final residential. We had to give a 10 min presenting based on a prompt from one our four units...Character, Bible & Doctrine, Church, or World. This time I spoke on the prompt from the Church section, which was based on Church History. I really liked this section and I really enjoyed presenting as well:
Church- #2 “Choose one of the units to look at in detail. What principles can you learn from the period of Church History to help you be engaged in Jesus’ great commission? Give some concrete application for your church or Christian community.”
First off, I have to say that I really enjoyed this section. I have always loved history, and I have been looking forward to presenting this on this question since the beginning of the semester. The unit that chose to look at is the Medieval period, dating from 500-1500A.D. This is a huge period of time, and a lot happened to shape the church and culture, and I have 10 min, so I am only going to be able to highlight a few things.
The principles that I want to talk are tied together: contextualization (or telling the Gospel story with a particular culture in mind) and preservation & redemption of culture.
The missionaries of medieval period used contextualization to great effect. Early in the 7th Century Gregory the Great sent missionaries to England, they sent letters back to him asking what should be done about pagan practices, his answer to one of them (Mellitus) preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". Basically what he said was that it was alright to leave the outwards forms, but to change what was being honored.
One very clear example of this happening is the feast of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) and the Christ-Mass replacing the celebration of Odin during Yule or the winter solstice. Another example of contextualization is Boniface, missionary to the Germans in the 8th century, cutting down the Donar Oak, which was a tree sacred to Thor. By cutting down the tree he showed the Gospel truth of Christ’s Preeminence in a way that reached deep into the hearts of the Germanic tribes.
As the Middle Ages progressed literacy rates dropped and the Church in many ways became the keeper of knowledge. Monks and priests studied and copied the literary works of antiquity; as well they set the oral traditions of the people paper. As they did so, many times they infused these stories and myths with Biblical references and Gospel truths. The Old English poem “Beowulf” is an example of this. The poem dates from between the 8th and 11th centuries. In it we see pagan and Christian elements mixed together. The stories of the people were preserved, but re-told in a way that added the Gospel, and in that way were redeemed.
These principles are very important tools we can use in reaching people in our modern context. We need to see our movies, music, books and TV shows as more than just entertainment. These are the stories of our people; they show what our collective fears and joys are. We need to be able to see the kernels of light and truth that point to the Father of Lights, so that we can use them as starting points for speaking the Gospel into our culture.
As I began to think about this question I challenged myself to relook at a popular story and apply these principles. I chose to look at the Twilight Saga, and when I told Dave, he almost threw up…I read the books originally when Dave and I were a part of the leadership team for the Jr. High/High School group here at Southlands. A few of the girls in the group were reading them, and I wanted to know what the big deal was. My initial opinion of story was not very high. While the books were decently written, good pacing etc., the movies were just cheesy. I have seen two basic reactions to Twilight- One has been to go overboard in obsession (Twihards…) or to write it off completely as worthless.
As I reassessed it over the last couple of weeks, I was able to see it in way that highlighted some Gospel truths. The main character, Bella, is a young woman who is fully aware of her own imperfections, and in spite of them she is loved by Edward (the vampire), who she sees as close to perfect and as anyone could be. Their relationship challenges Bella to grow and in the end transforms her into everything she was created to be.
Perfection loving us in our imperfection, love transforming us to who are made to be…these themes speak to all of us, and I believe are at the heart of why this story was such a success. They are kernel light. Even here in this crazy weird story about vampires and werewolves, we see a glimpse the Gospel. The next time I have a conversation with someone about the Twilight Saga, more than pointing out bad relationships, weak characters and a contrived plot, I bring up these insights, and then talk about how only in Christ will we find someone who is perfect, and who loves us in spite of our imperfections, and only in relationship with him will we be transformed into who we were made to be.
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