The United Church of Christ, West Parish’s organizational parent, sent me to the mission field. Your – or your predecessors’ – contributions to Our Church’s Wider Mission paid my salary. I was your representative on the field. In those days, our denomination, the UCC, had two schools for girls, two for boys, one hospital, one clinic, and a publishing house scattered throughout Turkey. The UCC’s predecessors had been there, with many more institutions, since 1820. How was it that we could not speak of religion?

In 1923 Atatürk founded a new republic named Türkiye in the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. In an effort to modernize the country, he instituted many reforms, chief among them the separation of religion and state. He abolished the office of the caliphate, which combined the religious and secular head of state. He eliminated the teaching of any religion in schools. That particular reform presented a challenge for our mission board, which not only had seminaries but also taught Christianity in its numerous schools. How did we meet the challenge? How could we communicate the good news? Instead of packing up and going home, we decided to stay, to respect the new laws of the land by closing the seminaries, consolidating schools, eliminating courses in Christianity, and to witness – to witness – to the gospel of love. Schools would continue, but become secular in their curricula. The good news of the New Testament would be conveyed by actions rather than by words.

How did that play out in real life? Respecting the laws of the country in which we were guests was paramount. The schools had a very positive reputation throughout Turkey. When I asked Turkish parents why they wanted their girls to come to our school, the answer was always, “I like the atmosphere here. …You are very kind. … They get an excellent education.” Our teaching was student-centered, which was John Dewey’s influence more than theology, but lent itself to establishing caring relationships. In our classrooms, bad behavior became the basis of a lesson in how we treat others; troublemakers were given another chance; misdemeanors were treated firmly but fairly. Boarding teachers had the opportunity for many extracurricular activities with the students: taking walks outside the campus helped establish ties of influence, helping create a student lounge, for example, showed that we were not above manual labor, going to villages with the bookmobile highlighted literacy and introduced students to the realities of their own country, helping out at an orphanage conveyed the importance of taking care of those less fortunate. Our actions in and out of the classroom conveyed God’s love for all people and emphasized service to others.

Jesus was a teacher; he used words to tell stories, to pray, to relate parables, to share the Sermon on the Mount. His purpose was to “Bring good news to the poor… proclaim release to the captives…” All speech-related verbs. Verse after verse says: “When he had finished speaking… He spoke with such authority…” Of course, words are important and necessary. We would not comprehend the enormity of God’s love were it not for all the words written in the Bible. But, the Sermon on Mount, while conveyed with words, speaks not of doctrinaire requirements of the faith, but of behaviors and values of the Christian community. And if we look carefully at the gospels, we see that much of Jesus’ most powerful communication resulted from deeds. Think of what he conveyed by touching the shunned leper, laying his hands on a crippled woman, defying legalistic regulations regarding the Sabbath, feeding the hungry multitudes, overturning tables, riding a donkey, washing feet, carrying a cross. Think of the power of these deeds and the example he set by them. Think of the good Samaritan, who, though a foreigner, showered attention on the victim whereas two compatriots ignored him. Words are powerful but caring for the wounded along the road is what we remember.

Today, in our own lives, it is the hug, the look, or the lemon-meringue pie that often speak more powerfully than words. Eliza Doolittle, in My Fair Lady, lashes out at Freddy: “Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words… Don’t talk of love, … don’t talk of stars, … don’t talk of June, … Show me!” And that became the strategy in Turkey. It was not an easy job, this particular strategy. As any parent knows, it is far easier to teach with words than by example. In our work in Turkey, students did not study Christian doctrine; hopefully, they experienced grace. It is not in words or intentional deeds that we express our faith most powerfully; it is in our everyday living. Our success in Turkey was not measured in converts, but in the witness shown through our lives that influenced these young Muslim girls. At lunch on my first day of teaching, Leylâ didn’t need my clarification about the trinity; she needed a refuge from the dissonance in her life. So what does this mean for us at West Parish? Like the Samaritan, we go not with lectures but with oil and wine and towel to share God’s love in our everyday worlds.