How Do We Represent?

Are we Tourists, Businessmen, or Ambassadors? (Part 3)

So far in this series of blog posts, we have considered two modes of engaging other cultures as tourists and as businessmen. We saw that tourists either run roughshod over indigenous cultures (directly or indirectly) or consume indigenous cultures for their own entertainment. We also saw that businessmen who are good at what they do understand the importance of knowing the culture and listening to those they today we will consider a third mode of 
engagement, that of Ambassador for Christ.

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to see what it means to be an ambassador is to see what it is not. It is not a vacation trip spent in personal comfort and enjoyment. It involves important business but not for personal profit. It is not simply the role of a messenger but one that involves the power and authority of the one who sent him/her. They don't demand, they woo. They don't cave in but stay true to their convictions. They don't walk away but stay at the table. They don't lose hope but give time and space for the message to do its work. They don't forget where they are from, why they came, or to whom they must answer.

Last spring we discussed this issue in one of our classes, looking at the differences between tourists and ambassadors. I have added the third idea of the businessman to those thoughts. So here are a few points of difference we discussed that I have organized into a table format to make comparison easier.

Tourists	Businessmen	Ambassadors for Christ
Tourists are often intrusive...they tend to feel their hosts lives revolve around them	Businessmen are often pushy and take-charge. Focus is on the customer as long as there is profit.	Ambassadors are invited guests who have a posture of humility and graciousness. They are not in it for their own interests but represent the one who sent them.
Tourists are often loud and illiterate in the tongue of another land.	Businessmen are more sensitive to cultural taboos than in the past, but still are famous to marketing schemes that go awry.	Ambassadors don’t expect people of “other lands”—different sub-cultures and faith traditions both here and abroad—to learn our “Christian-ese” insider lingo. Instead, they learn how to contextualize Christian concepts to the other person’s ways of speaking.
Tourists have no staying power. They are short-term visitors, and usually not fully literate in the cultures they visit. As a result, they often say and do things that are insensitive or offensive to their hosts.	Businessmen have more staying power than tourists but in most cases are less engaged than ambassadors. They will stay as long as it pays.	Good ambassadors come to stay until removed by the one who sent them. They listen, are soft-spoken, and literate both linguistically and culturally. What does it mean to be literate in their culture? We must be willing to learn
Tourists are consumers	Businessmen are the middle man between producers and consumers…with more emphasis on the consuming side.	Good ambassadors are compassionate, conciliatory, communicators of God’s grace…without compromise. They bring added value to all they engage.

It would seem clear that for the Christian the engagement model of the ambassador is to be preferred. Though I honestly doubt our ability to fully purge the tourist/businessmen’s self-interest from our network servers before Christ’s return (Luke 17:26-33) we can be open about our struggle, and together learn to pursue a greater profit as the Day draws near (Hebrews 10:22-25).

If we catch a vision of the greatness and glory that is ours in the love of Christ the lesser loves/profits of the world will look like tarnished brass bobbles. I am reminded of Jesus’ short parable of the hidden treasure, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) But if we focus on what worldly goods and life we can save up for ourselves then we stand to lose the greater (i.e., eternal) profit Christ shares with us through his willing loss, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25). 

So when people look at our lives, what do they think is most important to us? Would they say we are sightseers full of ourselves, sold-out compromisers seeking a profit, or solid and steadfast in what we stand for? Would we be seen as approachable and invitational or would we be seen as judgmental and standoffish? What would your hairstylist, garbage man, or barista say?

Are we filled with awe as we represent the Kingdom of God? I know that I can get too caught up in the task at hand, or an apparent lack of progress towards a deadline, that I can lose my awe. So today while my wife was in New Seasons, I paused outside to look up and watch the clouds (all shades of white, grey, and black) running rapidly down from the north, putting the honking geese to shame. I marveled at the crispy-crunchiness of the blowing leaves on the sidewalk. I caught what remained of the late October sun on my face and felt the creative pleasure of the Divine Artist behind it all. When I speak to people this week I hope they see the spiritual awe of my homeland shining through me.

 

[Next week I hope to talk more about who it is that we are to be ambassadors of.]

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash