Engaging Culture: Language Matters

Last Sunday night I urged us to speak the truth of Scripture in language and images that connect with the culture. "Revelation is accomodation." God has revealed himself using human language and images. We image Him when we "enter and re-tell the culture's stories with the gospel" (Tim Keller).

From Eugene Peterson:

The Christian gospel is rooted in language: God spoke a creation into being; our Savior was the Word made flesh. The poet is the person who uses words not primarily to convey information but to make a relationship, shape beauty, form truth. This is St. John's work; it is every pastor's work.

...The Christian communities as a whole must rediscover poetry, and the pastors must lead them... The word is creative: it brings into being what was not there before - perception, relationship, belief.

...We live in an age obsessed with communication. Communication is good but a minor good. Knowing about things never has seemed to improve our lives a great deal. The pastoral task with words is not communication but communion - the healing and restoration and creation of love relationships between God and his fighting children and our fought-over creation. Poetry uses words in and for communion... liturgy and story and song and prayer are the work of pastors who are poets.