Our missionary friend Guillermo Sifuentes shares about the work he and his family are engaged in through Casas de Jesus in Pachacútec, Lima, Peru.
In an era of Herodian power-grabbing and Religious lethargy, we have an opportunity to reclaim the joy and awe of those who move towards Jesus in humble worship.
“God calls me not to the mountain of transfiguration or to the Jordan, but to the home of David to behold a mother soothe her naked, cold babe named, “Messiah”. I stand next to Mary with my head down and my heart warmed. I first assume the warmth is because I have been moved by the transcendence of my Lord’s humility, but I slowly am shown that it is the quietness of the moment that draws me deeper into the scene. Nakedness. Helplessness. Tears and blankets. A mother’s gaze. A sleeping child. An oblivious world. All these details humble my heart into conviction —no: into awe of the God of silence.”
“Bad shepherds” extort the flock, taking what they can - when God cherishes our gifts and blesses them. They intend to keep us subservient by keeping us weak, sick, and broken - when God desires to heal and empower us to wholeness. They lose interest in us when we are lost - when God relentlessly pursues us, leaving behind the ninety-nine, in order to bring us safely home. They abandon us to the “wild beasts” of the age - when God courageously protects us from the fangs of the Evil One. These “bad shepherds” preserve themselves and their privilege at all costs - but God sacrifice Himself for our sake.
When Moses seeks to know the Voice in the burning bush, God offers three references: History & Promises, Personal Experience of Love, and Transcendence above all categories - this understanding of God is what we need for liberation from bondage to freedom.
God has been a constant in history, proving His character through the promise to our spiritual ancestors. God binds Himself to us in every moment, never leaving nor forsaking us. God, as Pure Being, transcends all our convenient categories as the only one worthy of worship.
Through the Old Adam we fell subject to sin and death because we try to make ourselves into gods. We await the coming of the New Adam who brings new life.
Our radical conviction that we are all equal children of God is the lens through which we deal with issues of racism, classism, and sexism. "God shows no favoritism”; but God does give special attention to the overlooked so they might be raised up to equal standing in the Kingdom, fully-realized as children of God. It becomes the imperative of those who in traditional society are seen to have privilege and power to help up those who have been left behind in the name of Jesus, so that our claims to diversity can have meaning under the banner of unity in Christ.
To be “God’s people” is to practice self-control in a world of indulgence; to conduct ourselves publicly as witness to the Light, and to honor everyone amidst the churn of political insanity.
To live in the name of Jesus is to develop the courage and imagination to live peaceably in a violent world. We so often want to immediately find the loopholes to what Jesus is saying about loving our enemies and not resisting evil, before sitting in awe at his vision for his people. Nonviolence is not passivity, but a struggle to find alternatives to violence - our weapons become kindness, forgiveness, and peaceful resistance.
This is a short liturgy intended to help us become more tender-hearted before God and one another.
To be in Christ is to be in love. It is to receive grace that reminds us of who we truly are. From that unshakeable, eternal place our energies and contributions to the world flow as a product of love. In grace, we find what the deepest part of us desires from love: acceptance, security, empowerment. We must capture a vision of the destination Jesus beckons us to, and the specific obstacles in our way that are a result of our ego, if we want to steward well the gifts God has given us.
When we become tight-fisted with our passions and convictions we allow them to define us, and we spend a lot of energy defending them from challenge and new information or nuance. We also judge people more harshly who don’t share our convictions. But when we open our hands, recognize we’re all on a journey, we are far more likely to humbly explore what we believe and be more gracious towards others.
Ultimately, our hope and confidence comes from Jesus, not the government. We cannot live and die by our vote. We cannot celebrate our preferred candidates taking office as if it’s the coming of the Kingdom. We cannot be expected to align with candidates on every single plank in their platform; in fact, I would put forth that Christians should not agree with every platform our political parties take. Hence, the lesser of two evils justification. Conversely, if you do support every position one party takes over the other, you may need to do some introspection about where your allegiances lies.
The politics of Jesus cannot be easily coopted by human institutions.
Pursuing our calling doesn’t always equate to warm fuzzy feelings, and it comes with some degree of suffering and discomfort, but over time we begin to see the fruit in how it shapes us to look more like King Jesus. We can find contentment, knowing our lives have purpose and direction. This is more than mere happiness, because the pursuit of happiness often leaves us wanting. We are willing to suffer for meaning.
It is no accident that you were born in this moment in history. There is something here for you to offer a broken world. It can feel overwhelming, you have to pace yourself, and you may have to learn how to convert your privilege from an insulated life to a position of opportunity, but none of it is a mistake.
The Holy Spirit does much of the work of redeeming our inner and outer worlds. Inwardly, we learn to develop virtue through a co-laboring with the Spirit to help us become more like Christ. Outwardly, we co-labor with the Spirit to affect the lives of others through the spiritual gifts. One of the most interesting developments I see in the modern church landscape, in this country today at least, is the wedding of inner Spirit work through the contemplative traditions and the outer Spirit work through the charismatic/pentecostal traditions. The reality is we need both, and as these two rooms in the Christian household commune and share space with one another, the better we will all be for it.
Recognizing that we all have different personalities opens us up to two things. First, we realize that not everyone thinks, feels, and acts the way we do, and that’s okay. It’s actually a relief, because we need other ways of seeing the world to broaden our own. This means we can be more graceful to others in how they function. Secondly, our vision of the God-revealed-in-Jesus broadens as we realize Christ is transcendent enough to encompass and redeem all our personalities.
God is not in the business of scrapping bits of your personality and replacing them as one would with a broken machine; rather, God engages in the all-important Kingdom work of redemption - giving new value and purpose to the raw elements of who you are. When your personality traits are redeemed, they reflected the beautiful and full humanity of Jesus. This is what it means to be Christ-like.
The more we learn how to love in places that are not like our own, the more we are able to transcend our categories of who is or isn’t worthy of love, and the more we learn to inhabit our true identities as being “in Christ”. Steadily we find, as we go to the “ends of the earth”, that there is no real boundary to compassion that this cross-shaped love cannot overcome. It is Jesus’ care and consideration for this journey of love that he first sends us to our personal Judea, and when the time is right to our personal Samaria, so that we can expand the circumference of our love to meet all people, everywhere.