(TABLE OF CONTENTS) The Suffering Servant X X X X X The Story of Jesus for Bengali Muslims 1 The Suffering Servant The Story of Jesus for Bengali Muslims “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:26-28a 2 The Suffering Servant © September 2000 J. O. Terry International Mission Board, SBC Singapore The lessons may be reproduced, adapted for worldview issues, translated into other languages, and used freely in whole or part for God’s glory and salvation of those who do not know the Servant of God who took their sins and suffering upon himself so they might have life and have it more abundantly. All Scriptures quoted or adapted are from the New International Version Bible. 3 THE SUFFERING SERVANT An Introduction Worldview Considerations: This storying set is based on issues of interest and concern to a primarily Bengali Muslim target group. The Islamic issues are subjugated to the cultural and historical issues of the Bengali people who have suffered from war, weather, political instability and economic necessity. They live in a primarily “Bengali” culture but with largely folk Islamic beliefs and practice with a considerable amount of Hindu syncretism. The Bengali culture opens them up to the use of stories as an oral culture people. While Dhaka is the primate city for the Bangladesh Bengalis, most still live in rural surroundings and lifestyle. As a people they are proud, yet many are broken spiritually. They are a spiritually sensitive people who, either in their Islamic beliefs or in their culture, realize that they need Allah’s blessing. They long to be accepted and loved by a God who is “far away” because of their religious beliefs. They respond to suffering because they, too, have suffered and continue to do so. Primary Focus: The primary focus of the story model is on “The Suffering Servant”. The Suffering Servant is introduced by a series of stories which explore man’s suffering for his sin and resulting alienation from God who created man and who wants to bless man. The issue of a substitute’s suffering is considered with the introduction of the shedding of innocent blood to cover sin and the sacrifice for sin of an innocent life as a substitute for the guilty. Other issues explored are the love of God the Father and his conditions for acceptance, the need for repentance (a strong cultural need), and the necessity of belief through faith in Christ Jesus in order to receive God’s forgiveness of sins and blessing. The Issues are: 1. God (Allah) created mankind for fellowship and expresses his love by blessing all people, providing their life and breath and provisions for existence. 2. Mankind’s disobedience has broken that fellowship resulting in suffering for people, both as an immediate consequence of sin for the sinner and those about them, and in the covenant relationship with God. 3. God the Father is merciful in that He continues to love all people and wants to forgive the sin that has caused their suffering. a. That mercy is expressed in the warnings that God gives through his prophets and angels. b. That mercy is expressed in God’s provision for escaping his judgment by those who believe what He says and who do what He commands to do. c. God’s love is unconditional, even in his punishment for sin. 4. God has provided a substitute to suffer in mankind’s place by placing the iniquity of all people upon him as a Suffering Servant (one who is obedient even unto death). 5. There is the necessity of belief in the Anointed One (Isa al Masih) God has provided as the Suffering Servant. 6. Blessing comes with repentance from the sin that has caused the suffering. 7. Bearing fruit in a repentant life honors God who has provided the Substitute to suffer in mankind’s place. Presentation of the Story Lessons Muslim audiences vary widely in their acceptance and openness of what is considered “Christian” teaching. While there is often a curiosity about what the Taurat (Pentateuch), Mazmur (Psalms), and Injil (Gospel) teach, there is the underlying suspicion that somehow these have been altered by Christians and so are no longer truthful. a One of the great internal strengths of the Bible is its integrity as story merges into story with a continuation of the themes throughout. The storyer must take advantage of this integrity by carefully bridging between stories, especially when skipping stories for the sake of brevity. Another consideration is that of favoring the narrative rather than the expositional presentation, especially if there is latent hostility to “Christian preaching”. The lessons then would take on more of an informal dialog time in which some Sensitizing questions prepare listeners for the story to follow. The sensitizing questions must relate to their primary as well as their secondary worldview issues. Primary issues usually relate to perceived needs such as food, shelter, other economic factors, freedom from oppression, acceptance by God, and freedom from suffering by whatever cause. Secondary issues are more idealistic and often more conservative in their nature relating to an ideal practice of their religion, an ideal society, and other dreams of fulfillment. When the primary issues are weak, then the ideal issues are raised in importance. The storyer needs to be aware of these and their relative importance to the audience. The story speaks to the issues raised in the pre-story dialog time. The story may be strongly connected to the worldview issues by saying “Here is a story about...” and then relating it to the issues. Or, the story may be opened blindly by simply moving from the dialog to the story and then letting the audience find how the story relates to the issues being raised. There is both a skill and an art involved in knowing how to do this. The skill comes from study and practice and the art from a sensitivity to the culture and the people and how they respond to new concepts. The Bible storyer needs both. So while there is a lesson of organized content, it is presented more as a session or time of sharing which the storyer utilizes according to his relationship with the people. The stories in the beginning may take on more of an entertainment (in the sense of being interesting and provoking curiosity), while holding their attention, then moving on to deeper and more internalized spiritual concepts which speak to their worldview issues. The initial relationship then becomes the basis for further storying. In a lesson there is implied some structure as needed to present a certain body of content — “the Bible lesson” which may be either wholly narrative or wholly expositional (and propositional) and all degrees in between. These lessons, however, favor the narrative presentation of biblical truth. In a storying session there is only a loosely organized structure which flows with the relationship between storyer and listeners. The structure is thus subtle and flexible and, according to the openness of the group and its perceptions about Christianity and the Bible; it moves to expose the group to a new Bible story which is somehow related to the previous stories and their themes. In the Bengali culture there is a rich heritage of “drama” which, while often overly exaggerated by the actors, is greatly enjoyed by the people. The drama is free to explore all the emotions of people—anger, fear, hatred, love, humor, sadness and joy, as well as the relationships and circumstances which different personalities and emotions invoke—domination, submission, irony, failure, success, poverty and wealth. Their drama often employs an irony in that the generally perceived “bad” person is actually the better person, much like that in the story of the Good Samaritan. While Bible stories are generally classified as “spiritual” they, too, contain the spectrum of emotion as well as circumstances common to man. The spiritual element should not be lost while exploring these but should help to tie them together and give them a greater meaning and purpose as the stories move toward the life, ministry and death of Jesus. It has been this storyer’s experience that the listeners find the irony and humor in stories related to their own culture. And they enjoy the other elements in Bible stories which closely parallel their own lives and culture. The foreigner as storyer must learn to be perceptive to these. The Bengali storyer will intuitively find them if allowed to do so unless trained not to do so. Audience Participation: The Bengali audience like to participate and will do so vocally and physically as they respond to the stories. Practices like the use of teaching aids (Characteristics of God charts—either visual or oral, etc.) can be beneficial as providing opportunity for a meaningful response and participation in the story while giving some direction or boundaries to the responses. Other forms of participation include retelling earlier stories as well the current story, and participating in dialog times, if that is not threatening or precipitating hostility by more conservative listeners (or religious leaders). Listening Tasks are also a good way of “playing the game” to involve the listeners. It may take a few lessons for the listeners to learn how to play the participation game.