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Called Alongside: The Church’s Position in the World

October 21, 2009 by dbargatze 

written by Michael Garner 

Torah, Prophets, and Jesus have very little to say without the Poor

Jesus reveals to all of us, the potential in each of us, to exhibit what it means to be human. Jesus is the full expression of humanity in his life and teachings. Jesus was a great man. The incarnation is both the coming of God into the world and the fulfillment of humanness. Jesus is our model for living and both Lord and Christ. He experiences being human without exception, yet his origin is ‘from God’ and his essence is God.

When God enters the world to walk among us he positions himself alongside the poor. Like the prophets before him, social justice is a matter of urgency and not merely a utopian dream. Jesus and the Torah direct our faith towards God as an object of love, and then our love for God is displayed via a faith that is centered on the liberation of all human beings and particularly the poor. The prophet Micah presents acceptable worship as relational acts between human beings where doing justice and loving kindness produces a walk before God that is bereft of all pride in self. In three verses Micah has abolished any form of sacramental worship as necessary for proper living before God (Micah 6: 6-8).

In Genesis, God stops short of ending the life of Adam and Eve by 900 plus years, because he desires to walk with them and teach them how to live. Their poverty of spirit leaves them with a murdered son and a murdering son. The mythic nature of the story divides humanity into two distinct groups, those whose lives are of no value and those that wish to dominate the earth via the city and violence. Before God speaks to Cain the murderer he hears the voice of innocent blood crying from the ground. Abel’s loss has reached the heart of God, but God also loves Cain and forgives the first murderer.

The poor of the world are the oppressed victims of global wars and global economics and political powers reigning from cities around the world. They are humanities Abels. In Exodus God hears the cry of slaves suffering under the empire building of an earthly king.

In the prophets, the nation which God knew like no other, has failed to be the people of God and they have developed a dominating system of social stratification that divides humanity into the powerful and the powerless (the violent and the victim). In Amos the poor are left destitute while the rich relish in silver and will not even provide shoes for the feet of the poor (Amos 2:6). In Jeremiah the rich are guilty of setting traps to ensnare human beings by taking away their right to the goods of the land (Jeremiah 5: 26-28).

When Jesus begins his ministry in Luke four, it is with the words of Isaiah (ch. 61). Jesus proclaims ‘good news’ which is based upon the Torah’s teaching concerning the complete alleviation of debt. The acceptable year of the Lord is a reference to the practice of Jubilee. If, we understand that the teaching of the law and of Jesus as pedagogy for something far greater, then the law or teaching is only a starting point from which to begin practicing justice. It is the prophetic hope pieces of the prophets that envision the utopian reality of the reign of God. The law or teaching, and Jesus teaching are not the end result; they are the path to the end, which is the reign of God in every human heart.

The Torah and the life and teachings of Jesus are both corrective efforts to establish the reign of God. When we understand this truth then we can see that the reign of God is accomplished when the present systems of this world are abandoned for a life of faith.

A Non Violent God

The utopian vision of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah 2:4) is only possible if God is non-violent. We are capable of non violence only if God is non-violent, this is so because we are created in his image and the best we can do is live according to his image. Once we understand our own responsibility for creation as creatures, then we can grasp the concept of God as non-violent and kind and benevolent.

The concept of a non-violent God is the principle component to the reign of God. The reign of God cannot exist with any type of violence. The essential component for the reign of God is ‘spirit’. To be spiritual is to image God in the world, so that others will see God in you. At this point it is important to remember that God came into the world and was not recognized because of his position alongside the poor and oppressed. He was not recognized because he proposed an ideology for living that the world would not accept. Jesus concept of the reign of God was so radical that the religious authorities condemned him for blasphemy and the political powers considered him a threat to the Pax Romana.

Although the prophets portray utopia, Jesus teaching was not so idealistic as to be unachievable. Utopia is on the other side of our willingness to follow Jesus in the now. Some fear such a challenge as a ‘Kingdom Now’ teaching. The problem is that fearing the presence of practicing the reign of God in the now is to reject the reign of God. I am not saying humanity is to establish the reign of God, I am saying that we should do as much as we can to live according to the teachings of the Tanak and Jesus. This is our calling, it is our vocation, it is being a Christian. Who can say how much good might come of the willingness of some or many to actually live out the teachings of the bible?

In Harms Way

When the ‘church’ takes its place alongside the poor, then it has put itself in harms way. The church that lives alongside the poor will find itself with two opponents. The first opponent is the church that justifies the use of violence and accepts violence as an unalterable reality for the present age. The second opponent is the political powers of government.

The church that takes its position alongside the poor is now placed between the poor and the powerful. The powerful include the church that accepts the use of violence. This is an interesting distinction within the church and is worthy of some analysis.

God desires to rule by winning human beings over to him, by having them submit to his spirit willingly. Men rule over men with unjust systems that are supported by violence. The church that supports or actively argues for the justification of violence is on the side of the temporary powers of the political systems of the world. The difference between a non-violent person and a violent person is one will kill and the other will not. One is a child of the murderer Cain and the other is a victim like Abel the righteous.

The poor are not active participants in organized violence. Rather the poor are victims of violence. The wealthy and powerful justify the use of violence to maintain the order that keeps them wealthy and powerful. The poor do not practice organized violence. The only exception is when poor young men are indoctrinated with an ideology and given a gun. The ideology can be democracy, or communism, or socialism, or a dictator or an aristocracy or a monarchy. The poor youth only desire a better life and if some wealthy politician or aristocrat had not indoctrinated them with an ideology that promised justice, and armed them with weapons, they would not have participated in organized violence.

The violent church does not want to take up the vocation of God and live alongside the poor. God is first introduced in Exodus as a God of slaves, they are his people and he longs to be their God. The violent church establishes a kingdom of this world and enforces its rule with acts of violence. The violent church aligns itself with political powers (like Assyria). The violent church trusts in the strength of their nation’s military to ensure peace (horses or the modern equivalent of tanks). The violent church prides itself on the work of its hands (self sufficiency based upon economic wealth). The violent church is orphaned and without God in the world(except for mercy). Hosea records this trilogy of idolatry and violence in his final hope piece.

Hosea 14: 2, 3
2 Take words with you and return to the LORD; say to him,
“Take away all guilt; accept that which is good,
and we will offer the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride upon horses;
we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.”

The violent church is formatively immature in its expression of Christ in the world. The violent church is intellectually bound by mythical / literal interpretive methods and unwilling to lose their life in order that they might gain it.

The poor will let their children suffer and die when they cannot obtain medicine worth two dollars, whereas the powerful would commit crimes and acts of violence in order to obtain the two dollars. The mindset of the poor is aware of the cyclic power of violence practiced by the powerful. They know that only when the retaliation of the powerful against the poor becomes horrific will the violence cease. They also know that the halting of violence by the powerful is only temporary. So, they do not practice violence to obtain their needs because they know that the violence they will ignite in the powerful will pale in comparison to their present suffering. Often the poor accept their poverty as their lot in life and do not attempt to overcome it. The reason for this is found in the oppressive nature of poverty. Poverty kills the spirit of hope and lack of education renders intellectual challenges by the poor to silent suffering. The task of the church in positioning itself alongside the poor is to give them the voice that they have lost amidst their suffering. We are to articulate that which is lost to their silence.

The church that does not see the poor as the lost treasure which a man sold all that he had to purchase the field which contained it, does not understand the value God places on human beings. We human beings are the apex of creation, God’s crowning achievement. The irreplaceable uniqueness of every individual human being is a reflection of God and his creative power. The inestimable value of every human being is weighed against the sacrifice of God himself upon a barbaric instrument of torturous death. We must not be caught selling them for a closet full of clothes or a jewelry box full of gold or a Lexus or a summer home. The person that images God loves people, all kinds of people. The person that loves God loves those that are caught in sin that is a product of society’s injustices.

The second opponent of the church is the political powers of the state. The political powers of the state will rise up against the church that positions itself alongside the poor, when that church begins to bring the liberation to the poor that the state in all of its brazen power could not. When the church demonstrates a manner of life for the governing of people that surpasses the state’s power the church will find itself suffering the wrath of the state. The church is recognized as a revolutionary power because it liberates the voice of the poor to be heard in the public arena. When the poor learn to articulate their suffering the violent powers of the world cannot bare the guilt and seek to silence their voice.

Crucified to History

Oscar Romero and Ignacio Ellacuria spoke of the poor as the people crucified in history. Jesus was an innocent sufferer, as are the poor. The poor are simply born poor or made poor through war and natural disaster. In this sense they have not committed a crime for which poverty is their punishment. The only difference between the powerful and the poor is the situation into which the poor are born or plummeted into. Poverty is in effect a sign of the inhuman powers of government that fail to allow the poor to live. They are treated like excess humanity for which the world has no room. The poor are crucified to the greed of the wealthy. They are crucified to the expansionist powers of empire’s insatiable need for controlling the land until there is no room for anyone else.

Isaiah 5:8
8 Ah, you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!

God’s affinity for the poor is found in the practice of non-violence, in innocent suffering, and in his openly shaming the powers and displaying their true nature as they crucified the Lord of glory. The glory of the Lord that is to fill the earth is human beings that live according to his image. The poor are the glory of the Lord cast aside and crucified to human history’s pursuit of progress. We cannot progress for we are on the wrong path. It is the path of the crucified that leads to life; it is the path of God’s love that gives itself for the world.

Personal Reflections from Visits to a Dumpsite in the Philippines

They are like wounded animals abandoned to man-eaters. They are human prey and unless we help them we are either animals quickly running by trying to preserve our own lives or we are predators that exploit their poverty. They are often without record; no birth certificate to confirm their existence. So poor that even a wedding is an impossible expense. Their little hovels display the cruelty of their existence while revealing their humanity at the same time. With aesthetic creativity they decorate with some bamboo carefully laid out to in an elaborate design to beautify a shelf on which a few flowers can be placed in broken pots. They are called scavengers by the locals. The title itself is degrading and implies inferiority. They are not lazy for they work everyday. With a piece of re-bar bent into a hook and sharpened on one end they pull apart trash bags and search for some refuse that they can sell for a few cents to buy some rice. They are the people of the Lapu Lapu City dumpsite in Cebu Philippines.

I and my students have learned their names, went to their homes, bandaged their wounds, given them school supplies and worked alongside them digging in the trash. My students have endured the heat, the filth, the flies and the stench to be able to work alongside the people at the dumpsite. They have sang songs and taught from the Bible while working alongside the people at the dumpsite.

My students and I are learning that Christianity cannot be a regionalized expression limited to the cultural practices and realities of a single area. Christianity by its nature is a global cause. We are to be our brother’s keeper. We as a ministry are sending some of the children from the dumpsite to school. It is not enough! The cycle of oppression and poverty must be broken. Justice must find a way to exist and overcome the fear and greed that drive the faithless to self protection. We must not store up goods and neglect the dying.

When people are treated like garbage they often feel as though they are garbage. Each day their only hope is that they might find some valuable trash as they scavenge through the heaping pile of decomposing human waste.

I am happy to have watched my students break into tears uncontrollably after they dug through the garbage to help a scavenger. These poor souls are human beings created in the image of God. Each one of them is of inestimable worth. But we sell their help for a gold chain, or a chrome rim, or a plaque to honor ourselves for doing what was our duty in the first place! How can anyone preach or teach or write books about your best life now! This world is a violent lost place where God is rejected and people behave without faith and only look out for themselves because they are afraid. Jesus said if we will find our lives we must lose them! All great human beings were people that cared about others more than themselves. Such persons like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Ignacio Ellacuria, Oscar Romero, Ghandi, and a multitude of nameless persons that love others more than their own lives.

In the darkness of poverty when human beings are reduced to being nothing more than excess humanity cast aside like waste, evil proliferates like a greedy man in pursuit of money. Children are raped, women are sold, boys are sold and often the buyers are Caucasian males from the U.S. or Germany or Australia.

Everybody wants to be a hero but nobody wants to pay the price. Heroes are not over paid celebrity singers, actors, or athletes. Heroes, real heroes do not even care if you know their name, they do what they do because they are constrained by love and can do nothing else.

The Power of the Christian Martyr

In America martyrdom is a mysterious plight assigned to those exceptional human beings that are not like the rest of us. It is an unfortunate occurrence that ends a promising life. It is to be avoided at all costs. In part this is so because the church no longer understands the power of martyrdom, nor the love that constrains a person to identify with a suffering people to the point of an incarnational experience that will not abandon the poor in times of conflict or disaster.

The power of martyrdom is limited to the ‘spirit’ exhibited in the world by the martyr. As I said previously ‘spirit’ is imaging God. When the church comes alongside the poor and is positioned between them and the powerful, the person that represents the church through presence and word is viewed as powerful. The church will always be powerful because it (he/she) is liberated by God’s word. A Christian martyr is always one of the powerful known by the poor, the church and the political power. The Christian martyr embodies hope for a better humanity and a better world. The Christian martyr that has exemplified ‘spirit’ by imaging God in word and deed dies as one for many. The horrific death of a non-violent person that fully embodies the humanity of Christ has the power to halt the cyclic power of violence for a period of time. The remembrance of the work of the Christian martyr keeps fresh the challenges put forth by their life.

The power of the Christian martyr as an individual lies in two arenas; firstly the love that constrains their service to the poor or the oppressed, secondly in their own certainty and faith that believes God even when their lives are to be sacrificed like the poor or like their Lord. The martyr believes that redemptive power lies in innocent suffering that is received as a choice by the powerful. The martyr believes that the life they lose is not really lost but gained. The martyr exhibits the power of faith that challenges the power of death with faith in a life that cannot be lost. This is the cost of coming alongside the poor and living Christ.

 

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