Four Hundred Years and Still We Disobey

“The translation I have used is the King James Version, not
only because of my love and respect for the language of that version, but also
because it is the version that most English-speaking Christians have been
reading for the last four hundred years while disobeying or ignoring Christ’s
commandments and praying for His help in their wars.”

—Wendell Berry, on why he chose the King James as the
version for the excerpts from the gospels in his book Blessed Are the
Peacemakers: Christ’s Teachings About
Love, Compassion and Forgiveness

Implicit in this choice is the lesson that to create change we must speak the language of the past.  How many of us who are emerging, ancient-future, missional, etc. speak in a “new” language to distinguish ourselves from the ideas of the past yet try to use this “new” language to try to change those stuck in the past?

We must learn to express new ideas in old language, then we will be not speaking past each other but speaking poetry.