I think, in the end, it all comes down to this: Do you believe in the Word?
Last week, four American Bible missionaries were killed by pirates off the coast of Somali. Yes, modern-day missionaries, as well as modern-day pirates do exist. Strangely, half the people I mention this incident to at work didn't know that either one of these "archetypes" were anything more than players from history.
So let's say you read a book. It isn't perfect (and no, I'm not going to hell for saying that) but it has some action, some passion, some epic twists, and a great universe mythology. Plus, in the last third, there's this amazing hero -- strong, gentle, unwavering, so real -- that just opens everything up. You want to share that book, don't you? You want to buy fifty copies and give them as gifts to all your friends and family.
But wait! If you act now, there's more...
What if, when you were reading this book, it wound up answering a whole bunch of questions for you. Little lingering worries and concerns. What if, while reading this book, you found a kind of peace, felt a kind of connection. What if... just what if... while reading this book, and contemplating the whys and whens and whats of it all, you started to hear whispers. Whispers not in your head but directly from your heart.
You would buy fifty billion copies and give them to the whole wide world.
Some people preach to convert. They believe in the power of their own words, or at least, they believe in the skill they have in conveying the Word. Others simply smile, nod, and gently hand over a Bible. They trust, that if given the right tool, if handed the words on paper, that the Word will find its way into the reader.
Do you recruit? What risk would you take to save a life? To introduce someone to Christ? To just hand over a Bible?
I had a friend who wanted to spread the Word but not the word. Meaning, he wanted to give non-Christians a more uncensored view of the scriptures. He printed many of the "lost books" and apocrypha and other texts found at the same and in the same region as the books of the Bible that we all know. He bound it all together (at no small personal expense) and just handed them out on street corners. Then he designed grunge and tribal and abstract and even sensual covers. He bound his editions and handed more of them out. Was his work successful? He had to get a second mortgage on his house. He was twice mugged and once badly enough that he wound up in the hospital. But the email that he printed small on the back cover? More than two thousand messages. None of them were spam.
I think that missionaries have a bad rep to non-Christians. This image of Great White Man dragging his modest white wife and skinny yet devout white children traveling into the bug-invested, steamy jungles of some "third world country" and converting all the brown heathens, turning them away from their strange and furry gods, and white-washing (pun-intended) their culture and social rituals... well, I don't know any missionaries like that any more.
Today's missionaries travel everywhere -- Brazil, England, Japan -- to towns, villages, jungles, metropolis cities, and they open community centers, build houses, feed the elderly, open schools, teach English, teach kindness. As a matter of fact, of the four missionaries that I support (financially, I mean), only one of them is in a country where they can be "out." The others are risking their lives in countries that don't have freedom of religion. They're teaching English or math or science in secondary schools. They can neither say they are Christians nor hand out Bibles. Publicly, that is. Of course, as Christians, as missionaries, they do both those things... but quietly, carefully, and at great personal risk.
You all know that I am not so big on the compiled scripture that we call the Bible. I think it has been greatly edited by men (meaning humans) over the years and "modernized" and "clarified" to create something more akin to the line those in power what us to toe. But Christians (meaning followers of Christ), if following strictly in the foot steps of Christ, never toe the line. Did Christ toe the line when He stopped the stoning? Did Christ toe the line when He toppled tables of offerings?
But I am big on the Word. Those whispers that we hear when we hear Him. And I do believe that the scripture can open the door (or turn up the volume) on those whispers. Is there a risk that the reader will find only the word and not the Word?
Yes, of course. But there's risk in standing on a street corner, teaching in a classroom, or even sailing on the sea with a hold full of Bibles. Risk is part of being a Christian.
A blogger I found on Google said with some (very dark) sarcasm, "Four missionaries were killed by pirates. Distributing Bibles. See where that got them?" Yeah. Christ spoke the truth. See where that got Him?
And see where He got us?
Amen.
