Embracing faith’s many languages

May I start by wishing everyone a good and prosperous New Year.

Wednesday is Epiphany when we remember how the Jesus of Bethlehem was revealed to the nations.

This revealing of Christ is usually associated with the appearance of the Three Wise Men from foreign lands.

From the beginning of Advent to Epiphany we have been approaching our Christmas meditations through the Jewish nation with its history and religion Next week, we start a new series of studies leading to Ash Wednesday and Lent.

In their religion and cultural life, the Jewish people were very inclusive.

But, in their trade and commercial dealings, they were comprehensively cosmopolitan. This feature in their national character is clearly outlined by Simon Shama in his epic The History of the Jews.

The Jews followed their trade.

They established close-knit communities in countless foreign locations.

In these communities, the synagogues became so important.

For the emigrant Jew, the synagogue became his meeting place with his fellow countrymen.

The synagogue was also his place of worship and devotion under the teaching of the law and the prophets.

From these synagogues and its worship, a vitally important document appeared.

We call it the Septuagint, meaning literally‘seventy’.

Let me explain. Decades ago, many Gaelic-speaking families came from the Highlands to settle in the towns and cities of southern Scotland.

After a few generations, their children could no longer understand nor speak in Gaelic.

Now in the same way emigrant Jews, often referred to as the Dispersion or Diaspora, reached the stage where they and their children could no longer read, nor understand, classical Hebrew, the language of their holy scripture.

These younger generations conversed in Greek, the universal language of the ancient world.

They required a Greek translation of their Hebrew scripture.

This is the Septuagint. It is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

The Septuagint is often written in the Roman numerals LXX, the name Septuagint comes from a super story.

The legend runs that the Jewish community chose their 70 wisest scholars and locked them in a room overnight each with a portion of the Hebrew Bible to translate from Hebrew into Greek. They were to complete the entire translation by the morning.

A task which they supremely fulfilled, hence the name Septuagint, seventy, became the name of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.

This translation is important. Often we cannot be sure of the meaning of a Hebrew word.

When we see how the Greek version translates an obscure Hebrew word, we can gain a better understanding of the Hebrew text.

Epiphany’s message, making the gospel about Jesus meaningful to our contemporary world, is extremely challenging. Our younger generations simply live in a different thought-world, our means of expression are foreign to their mind-set.

Children exist in the computer age, think cyber ideas, and express themselves through social media.

Children still too young to vote, drive a car or get married are writing computer programmes.

They write their own codes, and create their own app and websites. Codes are their 21st century language.

Epiphany requires that we create our codes to communicate within this contemporary cyber world.

Such techniques are beyond me, but do not frighten me.

I am too old to write a code and create a website.

But is this the future pattern for the proclamation of the gospel?

We do not know if we will return to Sunday morning services with sermons from the pulpit.

Instead, we may well see social media worship available everywhere and at all times and for everyone.

If this is the case then, I believe God is raising up a new generation to continue God’s witness and worship.

We are already seeing this type of worship through visual reality services.

Let us be sufficiently courageous for our children that we will encourage these changes.

Such methods may be beyond us ‘oldies’.

But let us be young in heart and soul to embrace faith’s many languages.

‘But how are people to call upon God in whom they have not believed?

How are they to be believe in God of whom they have not heard?

How are they to hear without a preacher?

How can we preach unless we are sent?’(Romans 10. 14-15).