An English minister who went on a preaching tour to the USA had not done enough cross cultural orientation.On his first Sunday he was preaching in California on the biblical text from 2 Kings ch 5 v1:
"Now Naaman was a commander of the king, a mighty man of valour but he had leprosy."
He was wanting to make what is a very good point, that no matter how important or powerful we may be, there is always a but. There is usually some area where we are vulnerable, where we are reminded of our humanity. This is an area in our life where we are in special need of God's touch.
This Englishman did not know that in America when people talk about a ‘but’, they are usually thinking about their ‘butt’, their backside.
The preacher said: “My sermon is about the three buts.”
“My first point is: Everybody has a but.”
“My second point: Have you seen your own but?”
“My final point is: Have you seen your neighbour's but?”
Geoff Pound
Source: I heard this story from Lloyd Crawford who had an amazing fund of stories and was a wonderful story teller. I had the privilege of working with Lloyd in the 1980s.
Image: A striped butt.
