Body of Christ

I just rambled on another post (on my "other" blog) about how we are all connected to one another. I guess I take the Body of Christ imagery pretty seriously. Somehow our culture has moved further and further away from this.

At first, the move away from group think and social norms was a good thing. It let people express who they are, instead of who society expects them to be. However, it has now taken an ugly turn. It now places the individual in the place of God. It totally discounts the neighbor. It severs the connection between people based on how un-alike they are. It doesn't leave room for the Good Samaritan.

I think the heart of a justice-based theology is the understanding that God has created humankind to live in community. I cannot simply fight for my own rights or my own blessing. I need to fight for rights and blessings on behalf of someone else. I need to fight to get someone else blessings I already have.

It's quite in vogue to be an oppressed minority these days. You can flaunt your oppressed status and get advantages, as long as your status is recognized by the group. It's even gotten to the point where white, middle-class, heterosexual men are searching for something that will make them distinctive, or special. Something that will give them the advantage they "lost" in the civil-rights era.

The problem is that when we cultivate our oppressed status, we often can't look beyond our own struggle. Perhaps we need a step-by-step approach.

1. Recognize your own struggle

2. Recognize that someone (anyone) else also has a personal struggle

3. Maybe you will need to make a comparison between your struggle and the other's. This is not in order that you may rank or evaluate someone else's struggle. It is only so that you can understand that others experience pain in the same manner you do.

4. Make yourself understand that by helping someone else with his or her struggle, you will be making yourself a fuller member of the human race.

5. Understand that your needs can be met by meeting the needs of other.

OK - step-by-step lists don't usually work like that, but do you get my idea? How does our preaching and teaching help people to understand that we all have struggle.? We can help with struggles that will not benefit us directly. We can reach out to others, the same way the Samaritan did, at great risk to ourselves. We can lift others up, and then maybe our problems won't seem quite so bad.

If you figure out the solution, email me quickly.