Audio, Video, Disco – Email, Snail Mail
CROSS PURPOSES # 75
Some years ago in London, well after audio tapes had been invented, and not long after video clips had gotten a foothold in music promotion, and about the time schools began running discos, some company or other was doing foundation work for a new building, when a stone with an inscription was unearthed. It was in Latin and it read Audio Video Disco. Archaeologists dated it around 200AD.
It translates to I hear, I see, I learn. The archaeologists believed it to be the headstone from a Roman School in Londinium. Those who chiseled it out, or those who taught there, would never have guessed how it might look and sound in 1990!
I don’t suppose one day another store will be unveiled which has “Audio, Video, Disco, E-know”. (We do have emailscam but that’s a different matter).
What is true is that the original stone captured something about learning in any culture, in any time, in any place. I learn by hearing and by seeing. Teachers know it to be true. Jesus Christ taught this way as well. His Parables were straight out of life.
A farmer went out to sow…
A merchant found the finest pearl…
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed...
A King goes to war against another twice as strong...
You put your hand to the plough… and look back...
A man had 100 sheep…
Jesus taught from the agricultural perspective of his listeners, and from the domestic perspective as well.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a barrel.
I am the Light of the World…
A woman has 10 coins…
A man had two sons…
Five virgins were wise, five were foolish! – this one is straight out of the wedding drama.
The Apostle Paul sought for images in his teaching that were appropriate to his context. His image of the armour a Christian wears in Ephesians 6 is straight from the usual practice of a Roman Soldier. His call to ‘higher service and awareness’ is based on what his people knew about being citizens of an empire as distinct from slaves and servants. Perhaps my favourite one of all is his image of adoption for Jesus Christ’s followers – drawn straight out of a Roman concept of adoption ahead of any other. What is brilliant in his use of ‘adoption’ to describe the status of Christians with their Heavenly Father in that a Roman ‘Paterfamilias’ – Head of the House - could not disown an adopted son. He could disown his blood children – but he could never, ever, disown children he had adopted. It’s this image Paul uses to describe the joyful, unbreakable commitment of the Heavenly Father to his adopted children. Fantastic!
Which leads me to ask, in this cyber space, computerized age – with which I’m barely familiar, what are the concepts, ideas, realities that are useful for communicating the good news of Jesus Christ?
Some I’ve heard of or know, off the keyboard:
Delete – for forgiveness and complete removal of sin?
Back – one can begin again?
Send / Receive – for prayer?
Junk/empty – for forgiveness?
Find / Search – for lost sheep?
Undo delete – for repentance?
Restore - for absolution?
Go – for the charge to get out there with the good news?
The issue here is that the modern world brings challenges to communicating. I guess we’re all confronted by a generation that is biblically illiterate and totally disconnected from the rural stuff of the Bible. I read just this week that most people are not agnostic, but ignostic!
I’d love to hear any of your ‘parable’ suggestions for those who live inside computers, inside cities.
Eg “Live the Brand” – Like Steve Irwin – for Discipleship.
Fred
Some years ago in London, well after audio tapes had been invented, and not long after video clips had gotten a foothold in music promotion, and about the time schools began running discos, some company or other was doing foundation work for a new building, when a stone with an inscription was unearthed. It was in Latin and it read Audio Video Disco. Archaeologists dated it around 200AD.
It translates to I hear, I see, I learn. The archaeologists believed it to be the headstone from a Roman School in Londinium. Those who chiseled it out, or those who taught there, would never have guessed how it might look and sound in 1990!
I don’t suppose one day another store will be unveiled which has “Audio, Video, Disco, E-know”. (We do have emailscam but that’s a different matter).
What is true is that the original stone captured something about learning in any culture, in any time, in any place. I learn by hearing and by seeing. Teachers know it to be true. Jesus Christ taught this way as well. His Parables were straight out of life.
A farmer went out to sow…
A merchant found the finest pearl…
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed...
A King goes to war against another twice as strong...
You put your hand to the plough… and look back...
A man had 100 sheep…
Jesus taught from the agricultural perspective of his listeners, and from the domestic perspective as well.
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a barrel.
I am the Light of the World…
A woman has 10 coins…
A man had two sons…
Five virgins were wise, five were foolish! – this one is straight out of the wedding drama.
The Apostle Paul sought for images in his teaching that were appropriate to his context. His image of the armour a Christian wears in Ephesians 6 is straight from the usual practice of a Roman Soldier. His call to ‘higher service and awareness’ is based on what his people knew about being citizens of an empire as distinct from slaves and servants. Perhaps my favourite one of all is his image of adoption for Jesus Christ’s followers – drawn straight out of a Roman concept of adoption ahead of any other. What is brilliant in his use of ‘adoption’ to describe the status of Christians with their Heavenly Father in that a Roman ‘Paterfamilias’ – Head of the House - could not disown an adopted son. He could disown his blood children – but he could never, ever, disown children he had adopted. It’s this image Paul uses to describe the joyful, unbreakable commitment of the Heavenly Father to his adopted children. Fantastic!
Which leads me to ask, in this cyber space, computerized age – with which I’m barely familiar, what are the concepts, ideas, realities that are useful for communicating the good news of Jesus Christ?
Some I’ve heard of or know, off the keyboard:
Delete – for forgiveness and complete removal of sin?
Back – one can begin again?
Send / Receive – for prayer?
Junk/empty – for forgiveness?
Find / Search – for lost sheep?
Undo delete – for repentance?
Restore - for absolution?
Go – for the charge to get out there with the good news?
The issue here is that the modern world brings challenges to communicating. I guess we’re all confronted by a generation that is biblically illiterate and totally disconnected from the rural stuff of the Bible. I read just this week that most people are not agnostic, but ignostic!
I’d love to hear any of your ‘parable’ suggestions for those who live inside computers, inside cities.
Eg “Live the Brand” – Like Steve Irwin – for Discipleship.
Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 1:01 PM
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