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Multikulturaliteit

Jesus wys die onreg uit

Lukas 19:45-48

Hoekom is Jesus dan so kwaad?

Elke mens het tog af dae en mense raak kwaad. Maar ‘n mens skrik om Jesus kwaad te sien. Die evangeliste Matteus en Markus beskryf Jesus se optrede nog in meer detail. Hy is woedend. Hy gooi tafels en stoele om. Hy verjaag mense selfs met ‘n sweep. Dis so vreemd om Jesus wat soveel deernis het en so sag voorkom so hard te sien optree. Het Jesus ‘n af dag gehad? Was Hy moeg en geïrriteerd dat Hy so optree, mag jy dalk wonder? Of kan dit wees dat Jesus nie van enige besigheid by die Tempel hou nie?; dat Hy vandag beswaar teen kerkbasaars sou aanteken. Nee, dit was oor iets anders gewees.
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Multi-kulturele ervarings uit Lusaka

Ek het die voorreg — en dit is ‘n enorme voorreg wat ek menslik gesproke vir niks wil verruil nie — om in my laaste amptelike skof in die NG Kerk in ‘n multikulturele gemeente van die Here in Lusaka, Zambië diensbaar te wees. Na 5 jaar in die gemeente begin die volgende dinge vir my effens duideliker word:
  • Dit is net die Drie-enige God aan wie ons persoonlik mag behoort, dws met wie ons in ‘n persoonlike verhouding mag saamleef, Wie ons multikultureel kan herskep en multikultureel kan hou. Dis slegs in verhouding met Hom wat as Vader, Seun en Heilige Gees in ‘n eenheidsverhouding met Mekaar leef, en ons met Hom, dat ons die eenheid van ons geloof oor grense heen kan leef en vier. As ons nie ons gemeente-identiteit as ‘Trinitarians’ in die Heilige Doop [in die Naam van die Vader die Seun en die Heilige Gees] gesertifiseer ervaar en leef nie, sal mono-kulturele gemeentes altyd vir ons die lekkerste en mees eenvoudige moontlikheid van gemeente-wees skyn te wees.
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Hoe breek ons uit die monokulturele gemeentes

Ek was die afgelope 2 weke saam met ‘n span op ‘n Missional Safari op reis deur Suid-Afrika, Zimbabwe en Namibië en het gemeentes en bedieninge besoek wat multi of meer kultureel is. Ons wou leer by hulle om uit te vind of ons nie patrone kan optel waarmee ons ander kan bemagtig nie. Ons het meer geleer as wat ons ooit kon droom, dit het ons dieper geraak en gestempel as wat ons vooraf kon verwag.

Hier is ‘n paar van my waarnemings/stellings wat nog meer verwerk en aan geskaaf gaan word. Hoop dit sit ‘n gesprek aan die gang en rek ons verbeelding so ‘n bietjie:

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The Holy Spirit made the church grow by crossing boundaries

Abstract

The crossing of boundaries is a key element in understanding the way the Holy Spirit grows the church in The Acts of the Apostles.  Whereas Luke’s Gospel focuses on the way the salvation of Jesus Christ impacted all levels of Jewish society in a vertical manner, Acts shows how the Holy Spirit inspired the believers in various ways to cross horizontal boundaries.  We read of the crossing of language, economical, sociological, geographical, cultural, ethnic, religious and intellectual boundaries.  This far-reaching boundary crossing forms an integral part of the dynamics of a missional understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, the way the church grew in the first century AD and indeed of what a missional church looks like.

The Gospel of Luke and Acts

1.  Luke tells the story about Jesus and the spreading of the gospel in two more or less equal parts, The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostels.  The Gospel focuses on the ministry of Jesus to the Jewish nation and Acts on the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the believers to the nation of the world.

The two parts of his story correspond to one another in an ingenious way:

  • Luke 1-9 tells about the spreading of the Gospel as does Acts 1-12 – the geography is just turned around: in the Gospel Jesus starts and works mainly in the rural areas of Galilee and Judea, whereas in Acts the Spirit leads the church from the city Jerusalem to the rural areas of Galilee and Judea.
  • Luke 10-19 tells a travel story as does Acts 13-20 – in the Gospel Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the consummation of his mission and in Acts Paul takes the gospel to Asia and Europe on three missionary travels.
  • Luke 20-24 tells the story of a hearing as does Acts 21-28 – Jesus and Paul appear before the same three tribunals, the Jewish Sanhedrin (Luke 22 – Acts 22), the Roman governor (Luke 23 – Acts 25) and one of the Herod kings (Luke 23 – Acts 25).

Luke’s Gospel thus focuses on the spreading of the gospel to Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish nation, and his Acts focuses on the spreading of the gospel to Rome, the heart of the Roman empire.

The implication for a missional theology, of this way the gospel spread in the first century, is that in its focus on the locality of people in the community, it must always also reckon with the communities across geographical boundaries, the Judea’s, Samaria’s and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).  Going local should never stand against going global.

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