When We Belong by Rohadi Nagassar

Author:Rohadi Nagassar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MennoMedia
Published: 2022-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Part III

Reclamation

7

Jesus for the Margins

Here we are—in the wilderness. Dear reader, I invite you into the possibilities of reclamation. In the wilderness one thing is certain: you don’t need permission to discover your liberation. But where does one even begin? Discarding what does not give life might be easy, especially when you can name the source. But how does one determine what to reclaim without repeating the failures of the past?

Early in my first church plant I was helping a friend discern a big life change that would impact the whole family. The choices were stay in the city or chase a new job opportunity with the caveat that it would require relocating to another province. I wanted to help her make the “right” choice as we weighed the pros and cons. Putting on my pastor hat, I added the classic obligatory consideration to the mix.

“Between the two, which one do you think God is in?” I asked.

“I don’t see it that way,” she replied. “It’s not a matter of which one will be better or worse, or which one God is leading us toward. I see it as, here are the two options, God is in both.”

Her response struck me, and I’ve kept it with me ever since. God doesn’t dwell in boxes, buildings, or cathedrals. God chases us, beckoning us to find our way into the fullness of who God made us out to be. Just as we named monuments to deconstruct, like white supremacy in past and present, so we can also identify signposts guiding us along a meandering pathway of reclamation. We won’t find the pathway unto liberation, but we will find tools and vocabulary that can help illuminate a way out of obscurity.

This faithful pursuit, wherever it may take us, is one we do not take alone. Jesus is always with us. I know that sounds trite. There’s plenty of past church trauma where (for me) evangelicals would chide other traditions, stating, “We’re all about Jesus!” I mean I get it, and I do believe it to be true. But we’re always looking through a filter that demands we ask, Whose Jesus? The domesticated caricature of white Jesus folding to the demands of his cultural masters? Or the brown multiethnic Jesus from the lands of ancient Palestine who was marginalized and centered the marginalized while announcing the inbreaking subversive kingdom of God? It’s the latter, the incarnate Jesus who took on flesh—a body—to identify with our frailties and mark a path for renewal. We are now invited to participate in this new way of being, and the demands are that the last shall be first, and the first last.

Not only is there a renewed ethic to embody, but there is a mystical invitation too. As Jesus was crucified, the earth shook and the moon turned red. Down the road the temple veil tore in two, symbolizing the new relationship between God and humanity. Now our bodies become vessels—the new temple. A personal spiritual re-creation that transpires when the Spirit of God dwells within us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.