I Saw Satan Fall...Yet again - Part 1

How amazing would it have been to be one of Jesus' followers. I can't assume that I would get picked to be one of the elite (not that the twelve had much of a track record to earn such an honor), but maybe I could at least have applied for position among the 72 that he sent out in Luke 10. I can imagine the excitement that rushed across their lips as they gave their enthusiastic report, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!" Sharing in their joy, Jesus responds by saying "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven…" Wow, what great victories those apostles must have had the privilege of being a part of!

Although my level of rejoicing certainly has likely not exceeded that of those 72 apostles, a recent event in the translation office sent me into a similar state of elation. After all, we too, in a very literal sense, "saw Satan fall."

Those of you who receive our prayer updates know that we have repeatedly requested divine intervention in making the final key term decisions before publishing Luke's gospel. After months of revisited conversations, the list was whittled down to just three pesky little words (holy, baptism and the name of Satan) which at times divided the translation team in some very unhelpful ways. Each one had very different issues driving the discussion, very different barriers we faced, and very different emotionally-charged opinions among the translators, all of which had led us to repeatedly postpone their discussions in the hopes of solutions to come. Now, with the publishing of Luke on our doorstep, postponement was no longer an option…the days of decision had come.

Holy: As we shared in our July 2013 newsletter – "The Evolution of Holiness" – the discussion of this key term beautifully reveals the challenge of Bible translation as well as the significant impact our choice of words can have on the Gmz church, the Gmz faith, and the Gmz language. If you haven't read that article/story and want to, send us an email and we'll forward it to you. The short version is basically that there is NO Gmz word that completely overlaps semantically with the biblical concept of holiness. However, there is one word, makooçama, which has some overlap. My advice to the team was to use this word in Scripture, even when it doesn't work perfectly right now. By doing this, the word itself, and the Gmz language will be stretched and shaped by the biblical contexts to the point where, years down the road, this word makooçama will carry a much more biblical concept of holiness. Language is fluid and always changing, why not grab a board and ride that wave? My advice was seconded by our project's consultant, a former translator himself, who had done this very thing n his mother tongue some 15-20 years ago and seen firsthand the unfolding of this societal vocabulary development. And so, after almost two years of wrestling with this term, two of the translators were convinced that makooçama was worth a try. With the third only in mild disagreement, we inked our decision once and for all. And so, our remaining key term list was down to two. More on those in an upcoming post.

Unmarked Tombs

The last couple years, Andrea and I had the birthday tradition of individually choosing verses of Scripture that would become a theme for that next year of our lives. The one catch is that the reference of the chosen verse must contain the sequence of numbers that coincides with our age for that year. So, for example, last year Andrea and I turned 33 and so I chose Luke 6:33 " And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that." A challenging concept for us, especially in the context where we too often see ourselves as "givers" to those who either cannot or will not repay. In reality, I think I learned (at least intellectually, I'm still working on learning it practically) that we "give" far less than we think we do, and we are "repaid" in ways that we either reject or take for granted (ways like respect we have neither earned nor deserved).

 

Turning over another year meant I dug through the Scriptures once again looking for all of the different references that have a 3 followed by a 4. Turns out I didn't have to look far, for when I reached Luke 11:43-44 I couldn't help but feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it." Not exactly a "pick-me-up", now is it?

 

The Pharisees loved the outward show of being respected within their society and looked up to as symbols of piety. As for me, I don't feel that I pursue, demand or wallow in outward respect, in fact, I tend to avoid those things and downplay them when they do arrive at my doorstep. But don't read into that some sort of selfless humility. Not at all. Pride makes itself at home inside of me without any trouble at all. For me it takes the form of, "Look at all that I have done, all that I have contributed, all the struggles/challenges/rainstorms/sicknesses/heartaches that I've gone through to serve the Lord…" Pride, in all its forms, is ugly! And so this year I want to make conscious efforts in identifying that sin and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, uprooting it where I can.

 

But I couldn't stop there, first of all, as I needed to add verse 44 in order to complete the 34 number sequence, but secondly as verse 44 contains the real heart of what convicted me: unmarked graves. The Jewish Law had/has great concern for ceremonial cleanliness. Without being ritually/ceremonially clean, a Jew could not enter into the temple complex, they could not gather with the community at the temple and participate in corporate worship of their God. Ceremonial cleanliness was a big deal and so everybody was careful to observe the laws which governed cleanliness as found in the Jewish Law. One such law, found in Numbers 19:11-22, stated that anyone who touched a corpse would be unclean for seven days and required to perform purification ceremonies on the third and seventh days in order to be restored to the community of Yahweh worship. Once again a big deal! Now, Jesus' accusation against the Pharisees compared them to "unmarked tombs", which people walk over without knowing it. In other words, whereas the Jewish people looked to the Pharisees for spiritual leadership, as symbols of piety, Jesus is saying that instead of a sanctifying effect on others, the Pharisees are actually having a defiling effect – causing innocent people to unknowingly come in contact with and be defiled by their hypocrisy. As I chewed on this verse a bit more, I was made aware of one area in which I also am like an unmarked tomb. But instead of hypocrisy, my corpse takes the form of a critical spirit.

 

We are surrounded by many different types of people in our lives. In one particular circle of relationships, I can identify one person who is often critical, judgmental, and doesn't hold back in speaking an honest opinion. I find it easy to join this person in critical slander of others. In that same circle of friends, there is another person whose speech and attitudes are seasoned with grace which rarely, if ever, speaks poorly of others. The first has a defiling effect on others, an unmarked tomb, as critical attitudes are highly contagious. On the contrary, the second has a sanctifying effect on his/her peers. When I asked myself which camp I would more often find myself in, the answer was obvious – I am no less an unmarked tomb when it comes to critical attitudes and words, than the Pharisees were with their hypocrisy. And thus, for the 34^th year of life God has given me, I have some heavy work cut out for me: mining for humility and sanctifying speech/attitudes. We'd appreciate your prayers as the Lord continues his sanctification process on us all.

Birthday Calls

"Yes! You've been delivered (caused to arrive)!" That is the literal translation of the Amharic greeting most often used on milestone holidays such as birthdays. The idea is that the well-wisher is rejoicing with you for God bringing you through another year with safety and health. The underlying presupposition, that God is actively involved in our lives and thus worthy of our praise, is found in many of their greetings and frequently used sayings. If we could only speak them with genuine gratitude each time (and not just as formal clichés), our hearts would be led into meaningful worship, contextualized in the events of our day. Something to strive toward for sure.

So yes, both Andrea and I have definitively crossed the 1/3 of a century barrier as we turned 34 on the 22^nd and 24^th of last month. Micah and Grace would probably speak most highly of the near back-to-back birthday cakes we indulged in, but for Andrea and me, we each had our own highlights, both in the form of unexpected phone calls. For Andrea, it was the call she received from her parents. Let it be noted that my in-laws are NOT night owls. Anything past dark-thirty and you're better off leaving a voice mail - maybe that's why Andrea and I smoke them in cards so often! J  But anyway at 7am on her birthday, that is 10pm Michigan time, Andrea's mobile phone rang with love and encouragement from home! It made her day for sure.

Two days later, on my birthday, my highlight came in the form of a phone call from not nearly so far away - Yitayel, the Dibate post office worker. "A package has arrived for you, will you come to town tomorrow morning?" Even though the next day was a market day on which I could buy some fruit and eggs and such, I opted for immediate gratification and responded, "No, I'll come now, today is my birthday!" After finishing the passage in Acts that I had been checking, I went home and stirred up two volunteers to go into town with me. A quick trip in, short visit with Yitayel and soon Grace, Micah and I were arriving home with the plunder – a grossly overstuffed box from my parents!

The Christmas box which got a late start had finally arrived, and the timing could not have been better in creating a special birthday surprise. After supper, the four of us dug into the box, finding it to be a treasure chest of candies, chocolates, clothes, books, toys, legos, etc. etc.

The pearl in it all for me was the monster Snicker's bar included in memory of a certain 5 lb. Hershey's bar I had once won in a drawing. It arrived in perfect condition, just prior to the seasonal wind shift that shot our temperatures up well above the point of melting chocolate.