New creations, taking the leap!
James Cathcart
May 02, 2026
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2 Corinthians 5: 16-22 (NIV-UK)
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In our prayer yesterday, I suggested that rather than thinking of ourselves as custodians of a heritage, we Christians would do better to see ourselves as speakers of a unique language.
There are a little over 7,000 languages spoken and signed in the world today. Each with its own unique perspective on the world. Many of these languages only have a handful of speakers left. By some measures every couple of weeks a language is going extinct. Linguists expect over half of these languages to disappear by the end of the century. As each one goes another few threads are pulled from the tapestry of humanity, of what we are.
Multilingualism used to be the norm for humanity, back when most of the world couldn’t read most of us could switch between multiple languages as we socialised, worked and worshipped — out of necessity, and out of curiosity. It’s thought that globally multi-linguists still outnumber speakers of only one language, but for how long?
The best way to save a language?
Use it.
Write in it, chat in it, sign in it, work in it, sing it, make art in it, worship in it, tell stories in it — old ones and new ones.
A language is a two way street. It’s how we express ourselves and how we receive the world — our very thoughts are mediated through language. Often a speaker of a second language marks the moment when they start to dream in their new language… Language goes deep.
It suits a lot of people, Christian and not, to see Christianity as a heritage enterprise. Something with an undoubted and worthwhile legacy — but hardly a pressing issue, or a going concern. But let’s take a leap and see Christianity instead as a language — a living language, not a dead inert language that never changes and is of interest only to academics and obsessives.
Christianity is a living language that gives its speakers and signers a unique way of interacting with the world and of understanding it. Like our global languages it continues to evolve and adopt loan words (just because God is unchanging doesn't mean we are).
And also like those languages, the best way to save it, is to use it.
Prayer:
Lord,
The Cross,
it can make us flinch,
it can make us shrug,
it can make us kneel,
and it can make us leap.
Give us the courage,
the spirit,
the heart,
to speak words that leap
to the hearts and spirits of others
as we strive to speak your language
as your ambassadors.
Amen.
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