I'll be talking a little about Incarnation, the video above, I think, gives a good idea of what the Incarnation was about. That said, here are some things I’ve been thinking about regarding ministry:
The type of work that Servant Partners does falls into the category of Incarnational Ministry. It’s vision is to embody the message of Jesus and experience good news together with neighbors as they live and work together. In short, it is ministry modeled after the life of Jesus, who “became flesh and dwelt among us.” If I were to speak highly (and I do) of any strategy for service it would be this one, however, in light of the history of a(n) (overly-) powerful world religion such as Christianity (not to mention the horrid history of Christian missions) and the manner in which Jesus was a stumbling block to the religious order, it seems that one cannot be a follower of this Christ (especially in a cross-cultural context) without much difficulty and re-imagination. In other words, what does it mean, in an incarnational ministry setting, to be a professing Christian when our Lord works againstreligious systems that (because of their deep sense of identity) classify others as “out” of Jesus’ perpetually open body? How does one live “incarnationally” when the incarnate one is a new Word to replace an old order.
The Fourth Gospel undoubtedly speaks to communities that are deeply rooted in religious tradition: they consistently meet to grow in righteousness, they are well-versed in Scripture (no pun intended), tithes and alms are given, Eucharist is partaken, prayers are uttered together–in most respects these listeners to John’s Gospel have given themselves completely to the worship/devotion of this one God who rose Christ from the dead. Based on their practice, this God is intimately tied with their kept traditions. There is a definition, a framework, which the godly life fits. In short, relationship with this God means relationship with a certain mode of devotional living. Yet John opens his Gospel in a startling manner to such communities: “he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” The ones who daily attend to this God through religious practice could not recognize, or rather would not receive the God who came in this manner. That is, the manner which operates outside the proper order, a manner which blurs the line between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, godly and ungodly, a manner which threatens any political, social, and religious powers that hinder the freedom of the Spirit from blowing where it will.
In light of such an arrival, John challenges his audience to (instead of defining God by set practices and ideologies) open their lives to a Word which speaks something new for new situations. This Λογος (Logos=Greek for word, speech, message, etc.) who created the world is continually creating the world anew with each act of freedom not bound by a religious status quo. Ernst Kasemann urges one to not be a “grave-watcher” who fits Jesus into “the religious concept or traditional program,” but to “continually hear the Word as if for the first time and to surrender everything in order to remain with Jesus alone.” The Incarnation thus was not the long-awaited coming of the understood God who fits quite well with our religious ideas and practice. Rather the Incarnation was a wild movement of God shattering barriers (erected by even the “godly” people) in order to show those most forsaken by the world that Life is for them. A tightly-wrapped belief system does not allow for this kind of movement, thus Jesus was killed by the religious contemporaries; and a powerful political system that numbers people and ranks them according to class/status is threatened by such a movement, thus Jesus was crucified as an insurrectionist. The Gospels thus present the Incarnation as utter freedom–a healing on the Sabbath, a tearing of the temple curtain, a raising of the dead.
How will we, as today’s believing community, respond to this sort of free God?
As I reflect on the Incarnation, it seems that such unbounded freedom unsettles any attempt I (or one) would make at a systematic “ministry strategy.” First to consider is the new setting: living in a Thai urban poor community I must soak in as much as possible the obvious fact that the cultural norms here are different than the cultures I experienced in the West. Moreover, the Buddhist/Hindu/Animistic religious setting (and how deeply it is ingrained into everyday life) is worlds different than my Western Christian experiences. Taking this into account, I must first and always be a learner of the world around me, and within this be prepared to see the Spirit do something new and unexpected, something that doesn’t fit the Christian framework I adhere to, something I perhaps would even deem “unchristian.”
After all we aren’t in a situation too different than that of the communities John wrote to. According to his introduction, God came and the believing communities didn’t recognize him! Long and hard I’ve thought: what was it about these believing ones that kept them from recognizing God? Why did they reject Jesus? And I think perhaps they were too caught up in their traditions and understandings, unable to be challenged, unwilling to be unsettled–that is, they were too shy of the “profane” and the outside to be touched by them. All-seeing due to their study of the Scriptures, they were blind to the Word made flesh.
Therefore, if I am to be a lover of the people around me, a respecter of culture, and a follower of the wildly free incarnate One, then I cannot have a definitive approach to life with my neighbors. I can only pray that we may all be caught up in the movement of this free God and move together towards a new creation. This is not to discourage being shaped by traditions and learning from those who are in them, indeed there is much to be gained from being taken up into a larger narrative. I rather want to encourage and openness to the God who rose the rebel Jesus from the dead. Moreover, this is not to discourage incarnational ministry, but to affirm it. Even more it is to recognize such a lifestyle as aprayer modeled after the Jesus who prayed “not what I will, but what you will.” Daily life/work is to join in this prayer at Gethsemane. Such life does not seek one’s own (perhaps Western-religiously-informed) will by defining people’s lives according to their framework, but rather seeks God’s will by enjoying the good news that God is for them. This life of prayer is one that dares to lament, and thus conceives hope; dares to be sacrificial and thus nourishes love; dares to be touched by the “profane” and thus moves towards a new world. Sometimes the best prayer to be lived/uttered is simply a repeating (or re-petition) of those things which our neighbors (dare not) hope for. To be open to their lives rather than defining them; to be forsaken with those who are/feel forsaken (much like Jesus was when he lamented “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?”) and thus trust in the God who raises (the forsaken (One)) from the dead.
Cross-cultural service, in light of the Incarnation, is to be open to what might happen and shocked by the sudden coming of Immanuel,–praying that we as a community will recognize when it happens.