We Are Him — (Part 4)

In the next few posts I’m going to try to tie the last three chapters together. These are the “so what?” posts. So what if I accept that sin is not petty and arbitrary but dehumanizing and deadly? So what if God wasn’t punishing Jesus, but instead changing a covenant? So what if Jesus had to die to show us that death was nothing to fear? What difference is any of that supposed to make? In the previous posts, I’ve incorporated restorative justice, the image of God, and the body of Christ. It’s time to wrap this section up. Here we go!

“Justice involves claiming a shared, mutual humanity. It is about interrelationships.”

“We must provide space — institutional space, political space, social space and conceptual space — for the emergence of new relationships and a new way of being that exists beyond isolation and separation.”

– john powell, Racing to Justice

No Earthly Good

One of the constant criticisms of the church is that people can be “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” In other words, Christians spend so much time and energy worried about the next life that they provide little contribution to this life. Or, people who follow Jesus spend too much time imagining what heaven will be and too little time considering what kind of humans they are. In my mind, this goes back to what it means for us to be “in Christ.”

When Christians think that being “in him” refers to “believing in Jesus” or “having faith in him” they get stuck in the world of individuals and ideas. This leaves the door open for isolation and separation because I don’t need other people in order to believe an idea, do I?. I can do it all by myself. In fact, that is what we continue to see in much of the church throughout our country. The church remains one of the most segregated organizations in the land. People celebrate the ideas about Jesus in the style that suits them with people that look like them. As you can imagine, I think that this makes God terribly angry and is the opposite of what God intended through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

A very smart woman, Christena Cleveland, has written a very good book, Disunity In Christ, that describes the reasons why the church has stayed so separated and isolated. The primary reason is that human beings naturally find safety, meaning, and belonging among people who are similar to them in appearance, thinking, and acting. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. Human beings are meeting their very human needs among people with whom they feel safest and best.

However, as Cleveland digs a little deeper, she begins to show us the darker side of this separation. First, we begin to categorize people who are different from us in simple terms. We are able to see people like us as unique, but we see people who are different from us as being pretty much the same. In other words, we see people like us as individuals and people who are different as one big group. This is where stereotypes come in. This is how bias is formed. This is where prejudice begins.

Cleveland goes on to say that once people start paying attention to differences, then they start separating. As they separate, the differences become more visible. As the differences become more visible, they become more valuable. People like “us” become good and people like “them” are bad. It becomes harder to see people who are different as having a mutual, shared humanity. In fact, we start building up our own self-esteem by being critical of others. “We” feel better by making “them” worse. This leaves the door open for dehumanizing thoughts about the “other” and the kind of inhumane treatment that you’ve already read about and that I defined as sin.

We see these tendencies at work in the story from the beginning of this chapter. The white woman could only see two black boys. She was not able to describe their age, their size, nor the clothes that they were wearing. Because they were different she had become accustomed to seeing all black boys as the same. They were not part of an “us” in her community (or her church). If this woman had also developed a bias against black boys or was prejudiced toward them, then she may have advocated that the justice system do something “to” them. If she felt guilty about the distance between them, then she may have found someone who would do something “for” them.

The black woman, on the other hand, was able to see these two boys as unique individuals. She could see their faces. She could describe their appearance. She could see their humanity. For her, the boys were more of an “us” rather than a “them.” Would this perspective allow this woman to make a more just decision if the boys were caught? I think so. She would have been more able to engage the boys in a genuine relationship and find a solution “with” them.

Bias and prejudice, racism and hostility remain difficult and tragic problems in the United States. Ethnic cleansing and genocide continue to plague countries around the world. In the body of Christ, God is calling human beings from every country on earth to be set apart (holy). In Christ, God is calling people to a new way of being beyond isolation and separation where the fullness of God’s image is revealed. Human beings will be fully human as they partner with God in new relationships where mercy is extended, grace is offered, patience is a virtue and love is loyal. Ultimately, this is what it means to live in God’s image. This is what it means to partner with God in the new covenant.

Remember, covenant is the Bible’s word for the relationships that God has with human beings. It’s through these covenants that we discover that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” In fact, in chapter 5, I said that the only way to know that God has these qualities is because God chooses to enter into relationships. One can’t be merciful unless one has to forgive, one can’t be patient unless one is in a relationship that is tested, etc. This is as true for human beings as it is for God.

When I am in relationships with people who look, think, and act like me, I always run the risk of loving myself in other people. I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me. If I spend all of my time with people who are very similar to me, then maybe the relationship is really just about me. I like other people, but only because they affirm what I already like about me. It’s not that these relationships are wrong, but that they are incomplete. They are not full.

If the body of Christ is going to be as good for the earth as God intended, then it “must provide space — institutional space, political space, social space and conceptual space — for the emergence of new relationships and a new way of being that exists beyond isolation and separation.” This will happen as people engage in interrelationships where forgiveness, generosity, patience, and loyal love are tested, refined, and perfected. This will happen as people of diverse ethnicities, gender expressions, and social positions intersect and recognize their shared, mutual humanity, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

If you’re still reading this book, then I’m assuming that you find racism, homophobia, violence toward women, poverty, and inequality to be problems that must be addressed. If that’s the case, I hope that you have seen in this chapter that God is not a problem for you. In fact, these are the very types of things that God is addressing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is calling people like you and me to be fully human in relationship with one another so that justice can be done.

The invitation to the new covenant in Christ is not an invitation into a new religion, but a new way of life. It’s not about getting into heaven, but becoming fully human. The new covenant in Christ is about being set apart for new relationships so that we can discover the kind of justice that restores. We can only engage in this work “with” one another. As we do, new ways of thinking and feeling about one another will develop. This is the hard work of creating culture.

In a sense, we have come full circle. We began this book by describing the ways that the culture of the church reflects a controlling and cruel image of God. One response has been to dismiss the church (and God) altogether. My goal in this book has been to help you see a different image of God (merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love) and now invite you to consider living in that image through a diversity of relationships. My hope is that by changing our image of God that we might change the way people think and feel about each other.

As you know, changing the way people think and feel, as well as developing new relationships, takes time, commitment, and practice. This is why humans have always created rituals. Rituals are practices that promote culture and pass on ways of thinking and feeling to the next generation. Rituals mark time. They teach. They create common experiences. They give us reasons to get together and they help us raise our children.

The next two chapters of this book will try to redeem rituals. I hope to show you ways that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper could contribute to a new covenant culture of shared, mutual humanity. That’s a mouthful. In short, I think rituals of the church are still valuable even if the church is not. Still, there will be moments when you think that I’m just trying to get you to “go to church.” I’m not. But, I am asking you to do what the church does: take the time to make the commitment to practice relationships. I’m asking you to do it in a new way. I’m inviting you to imagine with me what a more restorative space would like.

How do we create a new space for the emergence of new relationships and a new way of being that exists beyond isolation and separation?

How do we take the time and make the commitment to practice fully human lives with one another?

How do we become him?