"Stories
matter. Many Stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and
to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize."
~ Chimamanda Adichie
Recently,
a missionary friend shared the following video of Nigerian-born
novelist Chimamanda Adichie on Facebook. Her presentation, The Danger of Telling the Single Story on
ted.com captivated me. "Show a people as one thing, as only one
thing, over and over again, and that is what they become," warns
Miss Adichie.
And
therein lies my dilemma.
I
am a missionary. I tell stories.
But
I do not want to misrepresent the people, the culture, or the nation
God has called me to.
In John
8, we read a well-known story. And if your Bible is like my Bible, the
title of this excerpt is, The
woman caught in adultery.
As
Jesus was teaching near the temple, the teachers of religious law and
the Pharisees bring a woman before him. They blab her
story to Jesus and to the crowd gathered to hear him: "This
woman was caught in the act of adultery," they say. "The
Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?" The religious
leaders exploit and expose this woman by telling her story with an
ulterior motive: "They were trying to trap [Jesus] into saying
something they could use against him."
But
Jesus does not take the bait. He does not allow them to
tell her story for their purposes.
If they wanted to tell a story, they would have to tell their own:
"All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first
stone!"
Have you ever wondered why Bible translators titled this story the way that they did? Are we guilty of telling the single story – the woman caught in adultery – the only story the religious leaders wanted everyone else to know?
What
if we told the story from Jesus' perspective? What
if we called it, The
woman protected, restored, and redeemed by Jesus? Or
why not, The
men who got caught throwing rocks, as Renovatus pastor
Jonathan Martin did in a recent series, and really turn
the story around.
I
am a missionary. I tell stories. I have a responsibility.
I
don't want to exploit or expose, like the religious leaders.
I
want to restore and redeem, like Jesus.
As
missionaries we believe God has commissioned us to tell His story,
the story of Jesus – his life, ministry, death, and resurrection –
to the nations. As missionaries we also share the stories of the
people God
has called us to – to the
people who
have sent us. We share them because we want you to know and cherish
the people of Mexico (or India, or the Middle East, etc). We want you
to know their culture, their beauty, their families. We want you
to hear
their stories because
we love them.
But we have a responsibility to let you know, our stories are not the only stories. We share from our perspectives and experiences. But I trust most of us do it with sensitivity, care, and sincerity.
But we have a responsibility to let you know, our stories are not the only stories. We share from our perspectives and experiences. But I trust most of us do it with sensitivity, care, and sincerity.
Jesus,
I hope I do.
Stories
are powerful. This Sunday your church will tell the most powerful
story of all time. Pray for us as we share His story
in Mexico. And pray also, that we share the stories of the people we
love and serve with the dignity they deserve.
(I encourage you to watch Chimamanda Adichie's presentation. She is a powerful story teller. Her video is less than 20 minutes long, but I believe it will captivate you as it did me. And for all my Connecticut friends, Miss Adichie graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001 and from Yale University in 2008.)
(I encourage you to watch Chimamanda Adichie's presentation. She is a powerful story teller. Her video is less than 20 minutes long, but I believe it will captivate you as it did me. And for all my Connecticut friends, Miss Adichie graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001 and from Yale University in 2008.)
