Middle East Cool Story #3

he was raised in the US by hippie parents of jewish lineage. they came to faith during the jesus movement of the 70's. his dad was trained to be a missionary jungle pilot, but the family decided to immigrate to israel instead when the boy was 17. as jews they were given israeli citizenship automatically upon arrival in the country. while still a young single man, the son studied orthodox judaism to learn more about his people's traditions. Years later, together with his own wife and children, he felt called to take on the traditions of the orthodox jews within his nation without compromising, in the least, his belief in jesus as the messiah. he doesn't obey the traditions in order to gain religious "brownie points" with God, but to fully share his life with the people he is seeking to reach with the messiah's love. today he is a member in good standing of his synagogue--well respected and called upon for service. all of his friends know about his faith in jesus, but he has not been cast out of his community--they are his "tribe".
beyond this, and even more astounding, he has for a number years been leading an international mission that reaches out to "tribal people" around the world with the good news of jesus. he doesn't teach them to follow the traditions of orthodox judaism as he does, but to worship and serve jesus in the context of their own unique tribal customs and cultures. next year will be the seventh biannual gathering of followers of jesus from these various tribes. this unusual mix of saints will be held in jerusalem. the government has given its approval for them to erect a temporary structure--a tribal "longhouse" right within the city limits. some will paddle their canoes onto the shores of israel. they will assemble a fleet of tribal canoes on the sea of galilee and erect a sweat lodge along of the jordan river. during these days they will dance, cook and share their food, worship God with their indigenous instruments and pray together. people from distant tribes who have come to faith in jesus will "return" to jerusalem where their lord gave his life, was risen back to life and where the holy spirit was poured out in fresh power upon the first disciples. maybe he'll fall on the city again.
it was challenging and instructive to sit with this brilliant young scholar and apprentice of jesus and to then think and speak of how we can properly "contextualize" the gospel of christ for our secularized multi-cultural cities in the west.