Everything is Different Here
What is normal there and what is normal here and why they aren't always the same
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I am writing this from my familiar desk in front of my familiar computer screen in my familiar home office, from notes and remembrances from a recent trip to a very unfamiliar place. Those of a certain age will remember Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band singing Katmandu (sic) - using the capital of Nepal as a symbol of complete escape - impossibly far away. I recently spent some time there and, as is always the case when submerged in a different culture, the differences are what you notice. Everything is different there.
Reflections from Kathmandu, Nepal:
You may not know this - I didn’t until I showed up there - but Kathmandu time is 11:45 minutes ahead of Central Standard Time. Why 45 minutes? (Or 15?). It isn’t that nobody here seems to know, it is that nobody here seems to care or thinks it is a problem. It is just what time it is here. It is the rest of the world that must explain themselves.
When we arrived in Kathmandu, we drove past a celebration that was called either a Deva Rathaarohan or Deva Ratha Shanthi. I don’t know if those are the same thing, two versions of similar things, or different things - but anyway, it is a celebration of someone turning 88 years, 8 months, 8 days, and 8 hours old. Why is this a Hindu custom? I am sure there is a reason why 8 is significant. But for most, that isn’t a question they ask, they might be surprised to find out we don’t care about the 88th year, 8th month, 8th day, and 8th hour. Everything is different there, but in a way that seems completely normal to those who have their home there.
I worked with a number of Christian pastors and leaders in Nepal, helping to provide some theological training for them, as part of a larger village development framework seminar. At the Q & A sessions, these leaders had a large number of ‘origin story’ questions related to Christianity - or what seemed to me to be a large number of ‘origin story’ questions. In their Hindu world, the deities had origin stories and relationships to one another that are not dissimilar (in concept, at least to me) to the Greek or Norse pantheon of gods and goddesses. So they were naturally curious about, and were surrounded by people who were curious about, origin stories. These questions and concerns seemed perfectly natural to them. But I was only half ready for them - because I went there not reflecting on their cultural reality.
I could go on and on, speaking of cultural differences that are unique to Nepal and those that are common throughout the developing world. But my point at the moment is these are not cultural differences to them. To state this is to state the obvious, and it seems obvious when I am a guest in Nepal. Or it should seem obvious. Much of the ‘ugly American’ trope revolves around Americans assuming the rest of the world either is or should be just like here.
But this truism is less obvious in other places and other settings. We are surrounded by cultural differences right here - a fact we sometimes bemoan. Sometimes we should bemoan them, depending on the difference - but we shouldn’t bemoan them simply because they are different.
While submerged in a different culture, everything is different there, but only to me. It is completely normal, expected, and assumed to them. It is the water they swim in. In order to understand, connect, and communicate, I had to get into that water - that water that seemed so strange to me. Of course I did - what did I expect, that they would all adapt to me?
But I am back, where everyone is just like me. Except everyone isn’t just like me. And in order to understand, connect, and communicate - I need to recognize that fact. I am surrounded by different cultures, different views of identity and sexuality and meaning. Do I expect all these people to adapt to me? Do I see these people as fellow image-bearers, precious to God? To what extent does loving them mean moving toward them? And what level of discomfort am I willing to endure in order to move toward them?
The apostle Paul reflected on these questions, as did Jesus and other apostles. Just before the passage (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) from which I borrow the idea of “The Embassy”, Paul states his motivation for this difficult work of movement toward others.
For Christ’s love compels us …
2 Corinthians 5:14
Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul related that in order to translate the truth of the gospel into terms that (insert cultural group here) could understand - he needed to become more culturally relatable to (insert cultural group here), without sacrificing the truth of the gospel being conveyed in that cultural setting. Some might have noticed that many in the Christian world aren’t very good at that. But that isn’t my point. It is difficult. I am not saying that I am very good at it. My point isn’t that we need to get better at this thing that is difficult, but that we all agree needs to be done. My point is we often seem unwilling to do it. We often seem unwilling to admit that it is a good thing to do. We often want everyone else to adjust to us. But that isn’t what an ambassador does - we need to get out of the embassy to exemplify and explain the Home Kingdom in culturally understandable terms, or we will be irrelevant to them.
All this is difficult and probably met with misunderstanding or opposition. But Christ’s love compels us. Or it is supposed to.
Christianity is supposed to be trans-cultural. I mean Christianity is trans-cultural, but we often hear talk about a ‘Christian Culture’ in America - finding it, protecting it, restoring it. I think there is a real, actual Christian Culture. But this Christian Culture is supposed to be counter-culture in every earthly cultural setting - including ours. It is strange to forgive your enemies. It is not a normal part of human cultures to turn the other cheek or to lay down your life for others. It is not a normal part of human cultures to sacrificially love those who do not love you, or to care more about justice that about getting what you want. Joy doesn’t spring up all over, naturally. Peace isn’t breaking out everywhere. Patience and faith and kindness are too rare. But that is what the culture of Christianity is, properly understood.
One of the basic purposes of the church is for everyone else to say ‘everything is different there’ - and to be attracted to the difference. To see a place of joy and grace and meaning and belonging. I don’t mean to sound like I am rallying the Christian troops to better effort. What is needed is a deeper reliance on God’s purpose for us we see in the Bible, the transformation the Spirit of God brings, a humility springing from a better understanding of the task and how well we are (or aren’t) accomplishing it, a curiosity about the fellow Creatures who surround us, the recognition that all of this will cost us something - and, accordingly, the love of Christ to compel us.
Links
Here is a bit of time-zone info (including something about Nepal’s time zone) that you now have to have.
A review of a book in Christianity Today called What Are Christians For?: Life Together at the End of the World by Jake Meador that addresses a few of the questions discussed here. (I generally like Jake Meador, though we don’t always agree - and I haven’t read the book yet, but the review is interesting.)
