I was talking to my wife the other night and she was explaining about the word manna or man hu in the Old Testament (Exodus 16). I thought it meant bread or bread from heaven. I didn't realize that man hu means, "What is that?" What a strange name for such a beautiful gift. Yet it sort of makes sense. Put yourself in the Israelites shoes. How do you give name to something that you have no experience with?
Define chair. It's easy right? Of course it is. You've seen one, touched many, used hundreds, and probably even misused several on occasion. In other words, because you've physically interacted with a chair, you understand what a chair is. How would you describe a chair to someone who'd never interacted with one? There would be no context for understanding chair.
Isn't this true for the emerging church right now? We're trying on new theologies, structures, activities, relationships, but there aren't really names or contexts for these new experiences yet. We're trying to express this God given longing in our hearts, but the language we've inherited seems so inadequate to the task.
I'm sure it took more than a few tries around the campfire before the Israelites got the hang of transforming manna into something tasty and then developed community wide recipes and traditions. We too must dive in and get our hands dirty experimenting with this cultural man hu we find ourselves within. Some days will be better than others, but it is the only way we'll discover the names God has waiting for what the Spirit is doing in our midst.
Define chair. It's easy right? Of course it is. You've seen one, touched many, used hundreds, and probably even misused several on occasion. In other words, because you've physically interacted with a chair, you understand what a chair is. How would you describe a chair to someone who'd never interacted with one? There would be no context for understanding chair.
Isn't this true for the emerging church right now? We're trying on new theologies, structures, activities, relationships, but there aren't really names or contexts for these new experiences yet. We're trying to express this God given longing in our hearts, but the language we've inherited seems so inadequate to the task.
I'm sure it took more than a few tries around the campfire before the Israelites got the hang of transforming manna into something tasty and then developed community wide recipes and traditions. We too must dive in and get our hands dirty experimenting with this cultural man hu we find ourselves within. Some days will be better than others, but it is the only way we'll discover the names God has waiting for what the Spirit is doing in our midst.
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