TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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the same time a young man came to say that his wife, Norma, had begun labor pains and could I please get her to the hospital? So we set off in the Land Rover with the eight members of the evangelism team, Norma (great with child), her husband (greatly anxious), and myself. How was Norma feeling? Not well. . .we took hot water in a coffee thermos in case the baby should be born on the road (although I had no idea what to do with the hot water). It was a slow trip. The road was covered with water. As it ran by the river's edge, we could see that the river had risen ten or twelve feet overnight. The river and the road were nearly one and the same. Where water did not yet cover the road there was deep, thick mud. We held our breath and wondered whether this 21-year-old vehicle would pull through as time after time we crawled into and then out of a deep muddy patch. In places we churned through water higher than the floorboards and hoped we would miss potholes in the road surface. I could easily imagine my vehicle being carried off by the raging rivers, but we had to keep going. Norma said that her first baby had to be delivered by Caesarean section, and she expected this one to be born the same way. I did not relish the thought of attempting such an operation in a stuck truck with the river rising around us. The windshield wiper blades broke, but one of the women came up with some thread to tie them back on. The brothers and sisters chided me gently for my doubts. We kept on singing and grinding through the mud, not knowing if the road was still there or if the loaded Land Rover or its eleven passengers would stand the strain. There were no other vehicles on the road. But just as I knew we had come too far to turn back an amazing thing happened. Around a bend in the muddy road ahead, in the waning light of dusk, there appeared a mirror image of ourselves. Yes, another Land Rover, painted sky-blue, and even older than ours. As we passed each other, the blue Land Rover honked its horn. We knew there was still a road ahead of us. And we knew that it was passable, if only by a rugged vehicle like ours. Norma's baby was born that night. The preparations for the operation began moments after her arrival at the hospital. Although her child was born with jaundice, Norma, the baby, the father, lay evangelists, missionary, and Land Rover are all doing fine. But Perales, Lonpulla and Vegas were cut off from the world for a 74 QUARTERLY REVIEW/SPRING 1993
week. The river wiped out the road only hours after we made our escape. If I ever see that other driver again, I'll tell him how hope and grace rode in his blue Land Rover that wet Sunday afternoon. And maybe he'll answer that we were his hope, too, as we honked and slid past each other in the mud and rain before the flood. For the folks in Perales, Vegas, and Lonpulla, the task of the church may be only to confirm that there is still a road up ahead. To know that the road is open, and that on it we are not alone—just that!—may make it worth keeping on. For many years now I've been going where the gospel has led. Mission contexts and mission places. The inner city of the U.S. Forgotten villages in Europe. The jungles of Ecuador. The new teeming colonias of the world's most populous city. The war-torn areas of Northern Ireland. Mental hospitals and orphanages. Universities and seminaries. Rich churches and the poorest. Central America, Andean Indian villages and fishing shacks in Chile. Through all of these contexts, I've learned that my task as a minister has more to do with being attentive to other people's stories and agendas than relating my own. It's what the Latin Americans call "acompaflamientopastoral." Just being there is most of it. But being able to actively mediate some sign of hope, some human affection, some ministry of the Word—that is really the job description. And through this attentive presence, I've come to notice that only occasionally am I the one with the most t> give. I'm usually on the receiving end, one way or another the beneficiary of grace bestowed through the faith and works—the stories—of humble people. When a moment looms chock-full of mystery ar d meaning, a moment such as that weekend in Perales when the stakes were high and the drama went on and on, I can only make sepse of it by trivializing somewhat the intensity of shared feeling that I experienced. There's a danger in too much explanation. Once we think we can make it "make sense," we are already on artificial turf, while the real stuff grinds through the mud and the flood . . . and the blood. Such narrative of ministry, or mission, points to another agenda and a reality beyond itself. As a record of grace or tribulation, tragedy or achievement, a parable doesn't need to be explained or FROM THE SOUTH 75 f
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Quarterly Review/Spring 1993 55.00
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Quarterly Review A Journal of Theol
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VOL. 13, NO. 1 SPRING 1993 Contents
Page 8 and 9:
I have always rather liked the gruf
Page 10 and 11:
of discipleship in the New Testamen
Page 12 and 13:
imagine a week without visiting the
Page 14 and 15:
transform all of life, and all that
Page 16 and 17:
Contemporary North American Christi
Page 18 and 19:
We must now see what it is that cha
Page 20 and 21:
saying "call no one your father in
Page 22 and 23:
13:12). There is no following of Je
Page 24 and 25:
Both New Testament discipleship and
Page 26 and 27:
17. "The Duty of Constant Communion
Page 28 and 29:
earliest Christian congregations be
Page 30 and 31: his baptism to the experience of Ch
Page 32 and 33: Holy Spirit comes down willingly fr
Page 34 and 35: The Sacramental Nature of the Bapti
Page 36 and 37: to save them from "the wrath to com
Page 38 and 39: aptism—for mature youth and adult
Page 40 and 41: purpose of a rite of maturity is to
Page 42 and 43: church, namely, thatbaptism-chrisma
Page 44 and 45: 31. John Wesley, Works, X: 151. 32.
Page 46 and 47: In Baptismal Covenant I, in the "In
Page 48 and 49: of God without being born of water
Page 50 and 51: they urged a stronger claim for a p
Page 52 and 53: After analyzing how American Method
Page 54 and 55: eferred to as "a symbol of an inner
Page 56 and 57: of baptism is "the washing away the
Page 58 and 59: Although there is only scant likeli
Page 60 and 61: ut the inner man, where we have put
Page 62 and 63: Notes 1. Lawrence Hull Stookey, "Th
Page 64 and 65: 44. Borgen, 159f.; Stein, 319, f, 1
Page 66 and 67: I am not a liturgical scholar or pr
Page 68 and 69: ounden duty...to consecrate our chi
Page 70 and 71: formed in the gospel not only by le
Page 72 and 73: life, for one could always lose gra
Page 74 and 75: However, I have focused on human ac
Page 76 and 77: Osborne, Kenan B. The Christian Sac
Page 78 and 79: It was raining pretty hard one Satu
Page 82 and 83: theologically unpacked. A pastoral
Page 84 and 85: Elizabeth Achtemeier's Preaching fr
Page 86 and 87: prophets by the traditions of ancie
Page 88 and 89: eading; it seems as if one is heari
Page 90 and 91: Brueggemann's discussion of royal v
Page 92 and 93: limitations, even in quite valuable
Page 95 and 96: M. Eugene Boring Interpreting 1 Pet
Page 97 and 98: particular way. The particularity o
Page 99 and 100: in the capital of the empire felt m
Page 101 and 102: location but about the way we relat
Page 103 and 104: answer: Read. Interpret. Examine. B
Page 105 and 106: in liturgical settings. Yet all of
Page 107 and 108: word accomplished by Jesus, who cal
Page 109 and 110: community that does what priests do
Page 111 and 112: kings, slavery as a divinely author
Page 113 and 114: wives and husbands. To each it migh
Page 115 and 116: etained some of the oral style appr
Page 117 and 118: Brox, Norbert. Der erste Petrusbrie
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