When I arrived in Bahrain just over two years ago I asked the Church Council "What do you want me to do as dean of the Cathedral?"  One answer was clear: "To make the gospel accessible."  Whether or not I am succeeding is difficult to judge, although I hope I am going some way to fulfilling that objective.  One major concern of mine about the Church today is that it is failing to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with which it is entrusted.  Maybe the current spiritual malaise in the western world is that people are generally too preoccupied to listen.  But the church must carry some blame and address the issue.  One reason for the church's failure to communicate is that too often ordinary people don't readily understand the language the church uses.  The church loves to talk in jargon.  It requires effort to unpack the language and today's generation are accustomed to immediacy.

The church is not alone in being obsessed with 'jargonese'.  Modern technology has its own language which requires effort to access and understand; likewise the world of science and medicine, music and psychology and so on, even the world of cooking and clothing.

Why do specialist disciplines invent their own language?  It is of course to construct a language to communicate the inner complexities and details to other scientists, computer users, musicians, cooks or whatever.

Since earliest days the Christian church has constructed its own language to communicate profound concepts surrounding the understanding of God and Jesus, salvation, life and death.  Much of this language became so complex that only very few scholars extracted any understanding.  It was too often used as a device and sometimes a weapon to exclude 'undesirables', to protect the inner core of like minded believers, keeping ordinary people from getting too close to the 'holy of holies' the inner secrets of the sacred beliefs on pain of death.

This in no way reflects the way God has communicated with ALL people through Jesus.  Neither does it resemble the way Jesus taught.

In Luke 19:48 we are told "...all the people hung on his words".  Jesus' language and teaching methods, according to all four Gospels, is simple and straight forward, drawing a response from his hearers even if it was that they turned away and rejected what he had to say.  His most cryptic words were kept for the religious leaders of his day playing them at their own game and winning!

The most eloquent communication of the Gospel, the Good News of God's presence and activity in his creation, is not through words but the very events of the life of Jesus.

According to St. Matthew's Gospel at his trial before the Sanhedrin and before Pontius Pilate Jesus remains silent.  His silence is pregnant with meaning.  The symbol of the cross and the empty tomb of the resurrection have more to say than a million technical words.  God has spoken.  His word reverberates down the centuries and we hear it today in its pure and simple clarity, if we will but listen.

A Very Happy and Holy Easter to you all.


Alan Hayday