Approaching Boldly
I have been taking a cultural anthropology class this semester that has really begun to put my walk with Christ into a more global and culturally appropriate perspective. I have found myself being pressed with a question recently: How can I better reflect the love of Christ? The following is taken from my homework for this class, and is something that I would like to share with you as I have begun to answer this question for myself.
Have you ever noticed that most of the people around you tend to have a fairly self-centered view on the Gospel? In our context, the United States, there seems to be very little social cohesion between people of different race, ethnicity, gender, and religion, to name s few factors. Most of this comes through the media portrayal of those peoples who are "different" from our ideal, white, American selves as being dangerous to this ideal in some way. This is heartbreaking. So what would it look like for people from different cultures, from different racial backgrounds, and from different religious understandings to work and live together and not be polarized by their personal backgrounds?
An example of this can be found in the New Testament with the spreading of Christianity to the Gentiles. In the Book of Acts, specifically, the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and enters humanity as the indwelling of Christ in our hearts. As the Church begins to grown, the early believers begin to realize that the laws and practices of Judaic Christianity no longer need to be fulfilled. Paul, one of the main figures in this early Church, was culturally Jewish, and yet he proclaimed these ideas that those who heard the Word of the Lord who were not culturally Jewish by birth would not need to go through the “steps” to become so. He, and most of the early Church, recognized that some actions were simply culturally or contextually irrelevant for some new believers, and that Jesus had come as a means that these Gentile believers could accept the teachings of Christianity within their own contextual understanding. This same acceptance should hold true of the Christian Church today. We are not called to force people into forms that are not culturally relevant to them, but to meet them within their own cultural framework. C. Norman Kraus writes in an article entitled Relating to People of Other Faiths that we are "calling them to a new identity ‘in Christ’ – an identity to be lived out in their own culture." This certainly does not mean that these people can be saved of a means outside of Jesus Christ, because as Acts 4:12 says about Jesus, "Salvation is found in no one else, so there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which you must be saved."
However, Paul’s approach to welcoming cultural outsiders into the Christian faith was never one of condemnation either. As I have begun to learn, especially within this class, people are not inherently wrong in their thinking simply because their cultural, ethnic, gender, or faith background is different from my own. Often times, any mission oriented approach to spreading the gospel requires that one be competent within the contextual understandings of the people they are evangelizing to. For example, Paul understood the practices of the people of Athens during his time on Mars Hill (see Acts 17:22-34). He met them in their understanding by explaining his faith in a God that is often unknown, appealing to their virtues that had led them to put up the altar to “the unknown god.” Instead of condemning them, he pointed them to the truth, and this ought to be the model that Christianity follows today.
"But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through that same faith."
Romans 3:21-30
If, in accordance with Romans chapter 3, all humanity will be justified by faith, not works, then the cultural teachings of any people group should not influence their ability to simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith by works would require a certain religious code to be decided as ultimate truth. These works would undoubtedly fall into some type of cultural understanding, in essence, alienating an entire group of people whose cultures would not make sense functioning within the ultimate religious code for works. Praise God then, that He only asks we walk with Him by faith, a faith that is Biblically based in the law of God! It is not our job to contend with the realities that cultures outside of our own hold to. We are all invited to become children of God, despite our backgrounds.
Because Jesus presents Himself as a “new identity” for humanity to live in to, faith ought to be about the relationship between someone and God, not their actions and God. If this is the case between man and God, should it not also be the case between man and man? I believe we have been called to walk with one another in relationship, no matter our backgrounds, and no matter if we have accepted Christ or not. If faith is about being relational, alienating someone from a relationship because of their personal context may only serve to also alienate them from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. A person is more than their ideological beliefs or physical identity.
God is the source of all life, human and beyond, so what is to keep Him from manifesting Himself and His truths within different aspects and people within creation? God and His truths are not exclusive to white Western Christianity. Kraus again writes, “The cosmic Light and Word of God is not reduced to the historical Jesus, but rather Jesus is the historical embodiment of the cosmic self-disclosure." I believe it would be increasingly helpful for the cohesion of religious society (and beyond) for people to recognize that religions are simply the different ways in which different people seek to respond to this cosmic light in their lives. "We go not as representatives of Western Christianity, but of the Christ who judges and redeems both Christianity and every other religion by the same standard."
Talking (or writing) about this topic is an absolute necessity. Personally, I do not think people engage in this conversation enough for fear that their ideas are going to be taken as an "all paths lead to Heaven" approach. In case it is not clear, this is absolutely not what I am saying. Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation, but I am arguing that it is important to recognize that salvation does not always have to mean my version of Christianity. I am living in a cultural and personal understanding the is wildly different from the cultural and personal understanding of someone from the Berawan tribe in Borneo, Indonesia. Because of this, I would need to form a relationship with someone from the Berawan tribe in a radically different way than I would form a relationship with a girl from my school. If I cannot meet the Indonesian native in a way that makes sense and meaningful to their own personal perspective, my message of salvation through Jesus will be lost on them.
However, if I also take all this information and never do anything about it either, engaging all people in the truths of Christ is not even going to happen. I need to pursue these conversations, as Jesus commands in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). So how do we actively go into all the world to form these relationships founded on truth?
Spiritual growth with God is not only completed through personal relationship with Him, but also through fellowship with others and an engagement with the world of people outside of oneself. Faith requires that we step outside of our comfort zones. If we constantly live comfortably in our own realities, there will be no need for faith. Stepping into engagement with public life requires stepping into an unknown situation through which God can use all we encounter to speak into our faith. There is a reason that call of the Great Commission begins with the word "go!"
This can be scary, however, because it requires meeting people who may be strange or different to us. Strangers are often prominent figures within Scripture. The Old Testament story of Abraham meeting three strangers, who turn out to actually be angels of the Lord, ends with a blessing upon his wife Sarah that she may bear children (see Genesis 18). The New Testament story of the stranger on the road to Emmaus ends when Jesus Christ himself, revealing Himself as the stranger, confirms the truth of his resurrection to two of the disciples (see Luke 24:13-32). The beautiful outcomes of both of these stories may not have taken place had Abraham or the disciples not extended hospitality to the strangers they met as they engaged in public life. Within our own lives, the stranger can be used in these same “masked” ways to reveal to truth. Truth can be told from many different angles, and sometimes it takes an outsider for us to realize this.
If we refuse to venture outside of our personal comfort zones, not only do we fail to engage people in the love of Jesus Christ, we fail to recognize that God Himself is not personal to only us. In fact, He is entirely strange to us because we cannot possible fathom all of His many beautiful mysteries. Engaging with the unknown dynamics brought by people we do not know requires a bold faith. When we do not step outside of our personal realities to the realm of public life, we miss the greatness of God at work in the world, domesticating Him to our needs alone, and reducing Him to a narrowed familiarity.
God is able to show through strangers that He is a God of goodness. In each example from Scripture referenced above, God is revealing that He is a God that keeps His promises. The promises hold that God is faithful to those who believe in Him, and that He is continually working in all things to make them new. For Abraham, the strangers turned out to be angels of the Lord, and they promise that Abraham will be given many descendants through his wife Sarah. In the story on the road to Emmaus, the stranger turns out to be Jesus, and He proves to the disciples that the promise of God to bring His Son back from the dead has not been forgotten. In both instances, God is making newness out of what seems to be the end the story. Parker Palmer articulates this beautifully in his book The Company of Strangers by saying, "The new is always strange to us, so it is no accident that the stranger fulfills the promise of newness in our lives."
Why is it that we are often so hesitant to leave the comfortable realities that we know? Why do people different from ourselves make us uncomfortable? The Father calls us into deeper relationship with Himself through relationship through His children. No matter how hard one tries, God simply cannot be reduced to our own personal God. He is the Lord of all people, so even through the strange, why not walk out into the public life with the bold confidence that God is the author of all creation, and that He is carrying our every step? If we cannot step outside to the discomfort of the unknown, has not the comfort we so adamantly cling to become an ideology over God Himself? He calls us out, and yet we cling to the familiar, unwilling to become strangers ourselves in order that faith may be increased. Palmer writes, "What a curious inversion – taking feelings of estrangement which we normally try to get rid of and calling them positive signs of vocation instead!"
Allowing ourselves to engage outside of our personal realities and with those who are strange to us is not only an exercise of faith, but in becoming strangers ourselves, we are able to identify in a new form of relationship with those who find themselves labeled strange and left upon the margins of society. "The stranger is not simply one who needs us," Palmer explains, "We need the stranger." Sometimes, truths only become tangible when we take a new perspective on the situation, and what better perspective than to look from the outside in as we sit on the outside of what is comfortable in relationship with someone who can help provide that different perspective? Jesus Himself walked on the margins of society, dining with tax-collectors, the sick, and those looked upon as strange. We have been called to the same hospitality, not for self-righteous duty, but for mutually beneficial relationship building. The stranger can teach us so much more than we ever imagined if we simply engage with them. God fulfills His promises through acts of faith, and just as the hospitality of Abraham and the disciples on the road led to beautiful unveilings of truth and blessings of newness, so God does the same promise-keeping through strangers in our lives today.
"Neither truth nor love tends to flow freely when we are comfortable in the middle of society, successful in society's terms, profiting from the way things are arranged."
Parker Palmer
I am reminded of the song Boldly I Approach by Rend Collective which says, "Boldly I approach Your throne. Blameless now I'm running home. By Your blood I come, welcomed as Your own into the arms of majesty." If we are called to approach the throne of God with courage (Hebrews 4:16), then shouldn't we also be approaching others with confidence to invite them into this throne room? I believe that a relationship of bold engagement with the Lord requires we engage boldly with others as well. And then blameless we can all run home together. I think that is the answer to my question. After sitting and rereading my homework for this post, and editing in my current thoughts on this topic, I believe I have found an answer for how to better reflect the love of Christ. I must walk with boldness. Understanding people beyond myself takes bold humility, welcoming them in takes bold hospitality, stepping outside of my comfort zone to seek out these relationships takes bold faith. Know that you are capable of doing this, even when you do not believe you can, because the God of all Creation dwells in you and calls you to a life of engaging BOLDLY with His children. I know this post was long, but if all you take away from it is this last line, then go and be bold!