Welcome to our newest post about Sharing Your Faith! In his regular posts, Ryan Bentley will be stirring us to share our faith with others, by looking at passages of scripture and giving practical tips. We hope you enjoy the blog below!
This week I flubbed up pretty bad. Just a flub and not a full blown mishap, possibly could be a hiccup. When it was revealed to me by someone close to me it was done with typical banter, just giving me a hard time about my flub. What they weren’t aware of, was that I was in a more sensitive emotional state. As a result, I felt ashamed.
The Banter Formula
Banter is a normal part of our human interactions, I’d say, one of the major connecting forces in British culture. It carries quite a few benefits; it breeds familiarity where both people can choose the pace, it allows us to laugh at ourselves while showing that we don’t take ourselves too seriously (a cornerstone of British Humour) and helps us discover boundaries. From my observation the formula for interactions goes a little like this:
Nice
Banter
Empathy and Understanding
Banter
Banter
Banter
Depth of Conversation & Relationship
Hidden Consequences
Unfortunately, Banter often has the unintended (or subconsciously intended) result of bringing shame and embarrassment.
I don’t think shame has a place in the Kingdom of God. In the past I have memorised 2 Corinthians 7:10 - Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. But I made a mistake in my memorisation, replacing the word sorrow with shame. But then I started writing this blog, and I couldn’t find that translation anywhere. Godly Sorrow brings about repentance, while worldly sorrow brings death. I don’t think Sorrow and Shame are interchangeable here.
As followers of Jesus, we’re called to be salt and light. Salt substantially changes the make up of things due to it’s interactions with the substance it’s added to. Salt the earth, it won’t grow. Salt some meat, it begins to break down. Salt your coffee…go get some more sleep, because you meant to use sugar. My point being that grace brings brings transformation, not shame, and I’m questioning whether my banter leads to grace.
Where’s the grace in banter?
After all that’s what we’re trying to bring people into isn’t it? Grace? We bringing people from death to life!
Grace is a transformational power in the kingdom of God, not shame or guilt. Grace is the key to the door of the kingdom. It’s the waterfall we all must walk through to get into the kingdom. We are bathed in it. It’s soaked into every fiber of our being when we put Jesus on the throne of our lives.
When we share our faith with others and we’re developing a relationship with them, it begins and must have its roots in grace, not banter. We are made to be different. We are made to substantially change the make up of the things that we come into contact with. This is a challenge to myself as much as it is to you. (Actually, probably more-so!)
Having a disposition of grace will open doors, start conversations and ultimately bring the transformational change Jesus is calling us to work in. Imagine being so full, that your love, grace and joy is affecting others to the point they want to join in?!
That! Is the kingdom. Isaiah 2:1-5 will help us see that.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,[a]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord.
Isaiah 2:1-5
Ryan Bentley
Ryan moved from Birmingham in 2020 to be part of Redeemer along with his wife Sarah (our families worker) and his two kids, Rhys and Torah! He serves the church full time and his aim is to equip each of us to share the gospel with those around us on a daily basis. Look out for his Faith Sharing Meetup next term, or find more of his wisdom on Instagram.
