Oratoria

Yesterday evening, we had a Noche de Oratoria at church, and I'd been encouraged, and agreed, to participate with a 3-5 minute speech. The theme was Matthew 4:19:

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

I'm pretty comfortable with public speaking, but I'd never given a speech in another language before. But hey, I thought, it's a great way to get involved in the community and practice my Spanish in a different context than the day-to-day.

As I was preparing my speech, I struggled a bit to accurately reflect my Christology in what ended up being a four-and-a-half minute presentation. What I ended up saying is somewhat more traditional than what I might have given a longer form (and let's be honest, English) opportunity to present on the same topic. But the conclusions are the same.

There were about 15 participants, and⁠ I went third or fourth from last

During the refrigerio (refreshment time) afterwards, me di cuenta que from the comments I recieved that it had gone over well. ☺️

So I wanted to share it with all of you. I'll paste the English text here, but if you'd like to read it in Spanish (which I like because the word redes means both networks and nets, and pescar peces isn't as redundant as "fish for fish"), it's here.

     Jesus called the disciples: come, and I will make you fishers of human beings. Peter and his brother Andrew left behind their boats; James and John left behind their nets and their father. If we follow the example of the apostles, we drop everything and choose to walk with Jesus. But it can be difficult to leave everything behind, including our families and our livelihoods.
     Recently, Jesus said something similar to me, calling me to Honduras to help work for peace and justice by amplifying the voices of MCC’s partners here. Like my father before me, I was working as a computer programmer, and here God was asking me to work with stories, language, and people. I could have questioned the call, and said, “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable translating code between Java and Python than I am translating articles between English and Spanish.”
     The disciples could have said “No, thanks. I’m more comfortable in the profession of my father. I know how to fish for fish and that’s what I’m good at. Why would I want to fish for people?” But they didn’t. They left everything and followed Jesus. This is what we must strive to do.
     Although walking with God gives beautiful fruits, it can be frightening and it can be dangerous. As followers of the Way, we go against what people expect, and that can cause them to get angry with us. Matthew 5:11-12 tells us we should rejoice when this happens; it means we’re doing something right. And we don’t have to be afraid. Through Jesus, God has shown ultimate solidarity with women and men by becoming human.
     The Pharisees made life difficult for him, and in the end, Jesus experienced one of the most awful forms of oppression: murder at the hands of the state. We still see this happening today, especially to activists working to protect people and the creation. But since God understands what this is like, having experienced this and all the other aspects of being human, we don’t have to be afraid.
     Matthew 1:23 tells us that God’s purpose in becoming human was to walk alongside humans. Jesus experienced the joys and sorrows of being human, even to the point of painful death. Since God has walked alongside us, isn’t it the least we can do to walk alongside Jesus in the same way?
     So when God asked me to leave my network programming job and follow Jesus because doing so would make me someone who strengthens networks of people? I said yes.