Mosaic Features

On the train home this evening a friend from college and I were talking to the man sitting opposite us.  We talked about reading - what we liked to read, and whether you should read some books (or any) more than once.  It was generally agreed that Tori Spelling's biography should not be read more than once (if that often).  When a remark was made about learning Greek he was wondering why we would try and learn it or Hebrew - "That's a lot of work, isn't it?"

Yes, Greek and Hebrew are a bit of work.  At varying points in first year I said to myself, mostly after taking an hour to translate one verse, that I could buy a whole Bible in English for $20 (and for that matter the Gideons will give you one for free).  But we all use language, and we can reliably reconstitute other dead languages such as Inca and Aztec, all be it with a lot of hard work by different people over many years.  Virtually all of us have at least one language, and that language is transferable in meaning.

"But it is worth it", I said. "It helps you see what's behind the English translation, and it gives you an additional insight into the way the original authors wrote." I also said that, while we can be confident of the English translations out there, studying the original languages gives a deeper insight, and helps to understand why translators have given different renderings of the text.

"But in the end, its all just interpretation, though, isn't it?"  And at that point he had reached his station and had to leave.  In some respects he had a point - translators do have legitimate options in how to translate, and occasionally there are gaps in our knowledge of the original (though on the finer more so than the larger points of the languages).

As I looked outside the train at the platform, I thought of a small tile:  if each verse of the Bible was a tile, then the Bible presents us with many tiles.  Most are in good condition, though some are cracked, chipped or stained.  Put together, though, and we see patterns - large, clear and amazing patterns which are there for all to see.  When we study the original languages it is like looking at the individual tiles in greater detail, and when we study theology (which I started this year) we take a few steps back to look at the broad sweep of the mosaic. 

To study this mosaic is not to find reason to obscure or ignore it but rather to find in it greater meaning, clarity and assurance and to more revere what it is we see in front of us.

The Gift of Personality is Greater than the Gift of Nationality

I am often saddened by people who see no value in their national heritage.  When individualism runs so rampant that we see no value in our past and only seek the joy of the moment we lose something - something which is powerful in providing us with the identity so many of us crave.  When we are among those with whom we share not only a common genetic link but also a shared experience of existence I believe we have an enhanced ability to understand ourselves.  To be ignorant of this is to be ignorant of ourselves.  This has dangers, of course - think of the nationalism which fed into the maelstrom which became the World Wars.  Or 'lesser' conflicts such as Bosnia or Rwanda.  The opposite extreem of denying your heritage is to so exalt it that you can commit any evil in the name of your country or excuse any wrong because of a perceived necessity or simply because 'we just do that sort of thing'.

Even when held in proper balance (neither blind nihilism nor blind injustice), however, our nationality is a lesser gift than our individual personality.  Within given nationalities there will always be those individuals who are more outgoing, those that are more critically-minded, those who are more concilliatory and those who are entrepreneurial - and those entrepreneurs will get together from time to time in cross-cultural settings and get along like a house on fire.  and those of other personality types will also have mutual understanding with those of the same personallity type than they do within their own nationality.  Looked at in terms of personality type alone, however, we end up with only another group identity - like class status, political affiliation or the generation we belong to.  Personhood - our individual identity and make up, goes much deeper than those factors which shape us from the outside.  There is something intrinsic within us which these things do not capture, either in describing us or giving to us the knowledge of our true nature.  We could be truely who and what we are should God have placed us in a different family, nationality, time, place and socio-economic situation and either prospered or buffeted by a completely different set of historical and life events and that would not change who we are intrinsically, nor what we will be when we stand before him.  These group identities are gifts which God has given to us in order that we might know him and glorify him (Acts 17).

When all else is scraped away and we look at ourselves free from acreitions, what we are beneath all else is that we are bearers of the divine image, the Imago Dei.  Whenever we devalue, even in the slightest way a person simply for belonging to another nationality or tribe we are devaluing that divine image which they bear.  And in the process we make ourselves less that what God intended us to be.

Within our thinking of nationality as Christians we also need to bear in mind that whatever our nationality (or nationalities if we have dual citizenship or mixed parentage) to which we were born or have adopted we have been born again by God into a new nationality, adopted by him into a new nation which includes people from every tribe, tongue, nation and generation.  This adoption does not rule out our individuality but enhances it.  It gives us an identity which enriches our individuality (as opposed to repressing or somehow subduing it).  In our repentance of our sin and our acceptance of Christ, then, we find that renewal of our true identity as well as a fuller expression of community in the body of the saints (other redeemed evil-doers).  Jesus redeems us as individuals, but this redeemed individuality is not diminished by our becoming part of a new people.