jesus vernacular

i need to get to know my bible better. i wanted to start this post with a reference to the paul quote about being like the gentiles among the gentiles, like the jews among the jews, etc.... but i can't find it. ah well.

last sunday, i lead the prayers of the people at mbcc. not my favorite gig. it is a mix of MC/spiritual leader/interpreter for the congregation. we take joys and concerns from anyone and then ask that the whole community keep them in prayer, but that one particular person pray for that concern during the week. it is a cool system that keeps some accountability and real relationship as a part of the process. but for the person leading this process, it means that you have to repeat back the prayer request, get a volunteer and distinguish from people who are raising their hand for the next request and people who are raising their hand to volunteer to be the pray-er.

because of these many juggling functions and roles, it makes me nervous. plus, i don't feel very good at praying out loud on the spot (does anyone feel confident about that?).

so, last sunday, one person's request went something like this:

"i want to thank Jesus for helping us find an apartment that was even better than we had hoped"

my response:

"that is so exciting. who doesn't understand that feeling in the bay area. finding that great place to live, esp. when it is better or cheaper than you had hoped for is... like magic!"

peanut gallery response:

giggling from back corner (i deserved it).

insert foot in mouth.

pointed out after church:

"it's not magic. it's um... God."

chew foot.

well yes, that is our shared theological assumption. we thank God for our blessings. gifts are not magic, they are the movement of God among us.

what i notice happens for me is that i have the language i use in my head. not everyone else gets it. for me, magic is an active engagement in the world, the movement of the Spirit. in my head, it works out that way b/c of the vernacular i have grown up using and they varying ways that cultures understand "magic" that sometimes closely approximates the movement of the Spirit. yes, there are people who believe in magic as such.

whatever. i can justify my use of my own language all i want. we all make sense to ourselves (most of the time) in our own heads, before we put our thoughts into the world. but when we cross that threshold of articulating anything abstract in concrete words, we have to be conscious of the way words and used and how they will be heard.

i am not very good at the jesus talk. i don't have standard jesus vocabulary. sometimes that is fine. sometimes it can be a strength in talking about God to people who don't use or know the vocabulary either. but, when in the spaces and places where the jesus talk is used, i need to adapt and learn the language.