I knew a student once whose goal it was to enter into the Department of State as an ambassador. In preparation she learned several languages during her undergraduate degree and took courses in political science and international studies. When we were talking about her course work, however, she noted that it was surprising that there was no “diplomacy” course. No course that specifically taught the human skills of doing things like negotiating a deal with someone who spoke a different language.
Sometimes I wonder if Christian churches should require such a course in diplomacy. In an era where Christians hold to values and ideas that are seemingly more foreign to the world around us, I wonder if it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for us to consider *how* we are communicating those things, not that *that* we are communicating them.
For the next few weeks, we are going to be in a new sermon series called “Ambassadors”. In this series, we will be challenged with the idea that we are ambassadors. That is what Paul calls us in 2 Corinthians 5, and it is written in more subtle ways in Romans and the Gospel of Matthew. Being an ambassador is a strange thing because they live at the crossroads of belonging and not belonging. An ambassador is always a foreigner – to be other than a foreigner would be to deny their diplomatic mission. But an ambassador is also called to be at home in a place that seems foreign, learning the culture and the place. Likewise, we as Christians are always living at those strange crossroads. We are called to be distinct, holding firm to our allegiance of Christ and His Reign. But we are also called to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” (Matthew 10), learning about our context.
One of the things I remember about growing up overseas was that my parents every now and then needed to get us to do or have “something American”. Whether it was getting a bag of M&M’s imported from the States or watching a month old baseball game when it was finally aired in our country – it was worth it because it aligned our family with our country of origin. Every Sunday for us as Christians is like that. We receive Christ’s gifts and engage in His worship because it re-aligns us to His Reign while we are at the crossroads.
Join us this Sunday as we re-align and then as we are sent out on diplomatic missions into our world.