Darryl's Blog
Relating to marginalized communities
A great post from Mark Petersen:
So often when we relate to marginalized communities, our Messiah-complex attitude is that we are helping these poor people out. We are the givers, they are the receivers. They need us to save them, to set things right. This is a particularly common attitude amongst philanthropists.
But could it be that they are saving us?
We are saved: from our egos, from our shallowness, from our comfortable bubbles, from our isolation, from our airtight theologies. Yes, we are saved from all of this, and more, when we move to the margins and enter into relationship with those who live on the edge of death each day.
Categories
Faith , Social Justice & Compassion0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Relating to marginalized communities.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.dashhouse.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2352
The key to this quote is "when we move to the margins". If he means living in the "marginalized" communities then he is right. People who live in hard areas have their radar set to those who pop in periodically, or worse, send money and/or goods into their poor deprived area. They will be grateful for the assistance but they know, like so many who send help do not, that real care is demonstrated in real involvement and real involvement does not happen once a month or from a distance. Jesus didn't yell "I love you" from heaven. He came and dwelt among us. It really is a measure of our care to surrender up our comfort for the sake of others. To those of you in the GTA - move into the marginalized communities of Toronto and help us.
If we ourselves have been redeemed by the Good News of Jesus Christ, we will want to help those on the margins. Not only will we want to help them practically though, we will desire more than anything to see them set free as we have been set free. Only a relationship with God through Jesus Christ can set them free.
If we are in Christ, we really are the givers aren't we? God wants to use us as the messengers of the Good News and especially to those on the margins. We want to help them practically, but is that our message to them? Where is the hope in that? We are the bearers of Good News, the message of hope, the message of reconciliation for all people. The love of Christ compels us.
2Cor 5: 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people?s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ?s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ?Come back to God!? 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ."
That's the Gospel. I want to love people and help them and especially those on the margins but it makes no sense not to tell them about the Good News that can set them free. If I withhold that from them, if I just reach out to them practically, as good and as important as that is, I am not loving them as God loves them.
The more I look around at so many so-called Christian organizations that reach out to those on the margins, the more it becomes clear that the Gospel is missing. The message of the Cross.
Thanks Darryl for adding this link. I agree with your commenters. We need to live amongst - to be incarnational amongst - communities. But for George I would caution that we aren't only givers, we also need to position ourselves as receivers.