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ofound consciousness of his race and the way it affected those around him on one hand he was the despised outsider the dirty gentile whose very presence in palestine represented and enforced foreign oppression on the other hand he belonged to the race with superior power affording him authority legal rights and military rank that were denied most jews it meant that he had to constantly calculate how his actions would be interpreted and what impact his words would have on the situation around him in the midst of such a racially charged situation he did not have the luxury of throwing around a careless joke or of assuming that the cruel behavior of other roman soldiers bore no connection to how he was seen by the jews like it or not he was a part of the system that had hurt a lot of people and as kindhearted and well intentioned as he was he had to tread carefully in the way he approached jesus similarly white people in america represent systems and individuals that we may disagree with but which our racial heritage inextricably connects us to it is not enough to abstain from racist comments or discriminatory practices in the eyes of those who have been repeatedly hurt by people like us we represent a system of historic oppression that has continued to break trust in its treatment of its african american citizens we can point to the times that our system has gotten it right like integration of schools equal opportunities legislation and african americans in the highest levels of leadership but we cannot ignore the many ways in which racism continues to rear its ugly head even in the actions of crazy individuals or fringe groups each time an unarmed african american is unjustly killed by a white american the scab gets ripped off of a deep wound in the community of which he or she was part and that wound was inflicted by one of us as followers of christ the onus is on us to go the extra mile in affirming the culture ideas and leadership of those our people have hurt we need to learn how to handle our whiteness in the south asian context my whiteness represented a history of colonial oppression as a follower of christ the onus was on me to go the extra mile in affirming the culture ideas and leadership of my brown neighbors even in situations where my position or experience may have earned me the right to take charge i had to learn how to intentionally make room for people who my people had treated as inferiors we both had to work at this learning to speak openly about our differences and laugh together at the things we had once assumed when all we had known of each other was white or brown i am amazed at the level of grace my brown neighbors were willing to extend to me but it also took a lot of needed humbling on my part a humbling which i might add did not always feel nice especially when my friends took me at my word and treated me accordingly when jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those following him truly i tell you i have not found anyone in israel with such great faith i say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with abraham isaac and jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth matthew 8 10 12 the roman centurion humbled himself showing a deference towards jesus that even his fellow jews did not and was commended for his faith we who have now been included at the table along with him would do well to follow his example share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading communal identity faith humility identity leadership love power race reconciliation roman centurion white privilege whiteness reconciliation narrative wars and the way of the cross june 10 2020 tiffany clark 1 comment art credit catherine clark everyone loves an overcomer story we cheer for the underdog holding our breath as they persevere through obstacle after obstacle and booing the advantaged one simply for the fact that he expected to come out on top but what about those moments when life casts us in the overdog role i didn t sign up for this we may be tempted to whine i m just doing my best to live my life and do good by all i didn t ask to be written as the oppressor in someone else s story race killings and race riots in the united states have awakened many white christians to the prevalence of racism but with that awareness comes a deep discomfort as lifelong assumptions about how the world works and who we are within it are suddenly overturned i wonder if much of white angst in america today comes from fear of being cast as the bad guy if i listen to the cries of my african american brothers and sisters my version of the story the one in which i am the little person who worked hard came from behind and made it despite all the odds comes under threat instead i m suddenly that privileged arrogant champion we all despise enjoying the luxuries of monogramed equipment and expert coaches to give me every advantage in the game of life since when is pride compatible with the cross i don t like that second version of the story and even when i am pushed to admit that it is true i don t like the way that it makes me feel about myself i d rather rehash stories of the american revolution in which my people fought off the colonial oppressors with bare feet and raw grit i at least want the luxury of largesse to think of my people as the liberators who brought down the nazis or brought aid to suffering populations around the world but when i stop to consider the story from the perspective of a native american who was driven from her land or an african american who was imported to the land but denied equal status my people come out as the bad guys add to that generations of mistreatment and social positioning in which my people continue to come out on top and the pride i feel in my heritage the heritage which forms much of my identity starts to crumble if someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh i have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of hebrews but whatever were gains to me i now consider loss for the sake of christ philippians 3 4 7 perhaps that is exactly what needs to happen it may not feel nice but since when is pride compatible with the cross the reason we love the underdog is because god himself has a heart for the disadvantaged scripture is replete with statements about what he does for the humble and how he treats the proud the fact that i am holding on to my pride reveals which side of the narrative i actually am standing on as a follower of jesus i get to lay aside anything in which i formerly found gain including the advantage of my whiteness i don t see color spoken to a person of color is a sure sign that i do but how can i help that perhaps a second cause for white angst comes from the sudden sense of helplessness in the face of finding ourselves on the wrong side of history i want to jump the fence to the other side distancing myself from the racism around me with claims of notmetoo i don t see color spoken to a person of color is a sure sign that i do therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with christ if any comfort from his love if any common sharing in the spirit if any tenderness and compassion then make my joy complete by being like minded having the same love being one in spirit and of one mind do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather in humility value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others philippians 2 1 4 examining myself for areas of implicit bias while assuming that they are probably there is a good start where do my impulses betray an internal sense of being better than or perhaps deserving better than people of a different race these may surface in the respect i demand for myself or the treatment and opportunities i expect for my children am i equally incensed when these are not afforded to my neighbor from a different community or her children am i equally invested in looking out for her interests as i am my own what have i done or not done to change the systems that make it hard for them to flourish the samaritan woman said to him you are a jew and i am a samaritan woman how can you ask me for a drink for jews do not associate with samaritans woman jesus replied believe me a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in jerusalem you samaritans worship what you do not know we worship what we do know for salvation is from the jews yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks john 4 9 21 23 confronting the areas of bias within myself not only benefits black lives it also helps me become more like the jesus i adore i adore him for his meekness with the samaritan woman absorbing her defensive reactivity over the way her people had been treated and extending to her a listening ear a willingness to consider her side and a friendship that broke all the social rules i adore him for going out of his way to seek out her company and sit with her on her turf neither lecturing her for making a mess of the opportunities that had been afforded her nor insisting that she adapt to his cultural ways in order to be accepted it can t have been easy to listen to his people being framed as the bad guys yet he acknowledged their privileged position in history while also considering her too valuable an asset to leave out of the new integrated community he was forming and perhaps it is in jesus example as a privileged jewish male that i find a way forward as a privileged white woman try as i might i can t stop being white and i can t undo the parts of my heritage that i am ashamed of but i can humble myself reach across the racial divide and use whatever advantage is mine though i may need help in being able to see it to my neighbor s advantage after all is this not what jesus did for me share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading assumptions christ likeness heritage humility implicit bias love race racial conflict reconciliation samaritan woman story white privilege kingdom coming lent suffering trauma beloved on friday persecuted but not forsaken april 19 2019 tiffany clark 1 comment something has shifted in how i experienced this good friday and i am still struggling to put it into words for many years now i have used this day to enter more fully into the sufferings our lord endured not because they were insufficient in and of themselves but because i want to know christ both in the fellowship of his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection keeping vigil with him through the hours of the night on thursday and then through the horrific series of events that culminated in his death on friday afternoon has been a labor of love motivated by my desire to feel the things he felt and therefore adore him more fully my experience of trauma and abuse several years ago radically heightened my sensitivity to our lord s experience of the same as i mentally replayed a blow by blow account of all jesus went through during his arrest trials breaking by the roman guards and finally crucifixion i would focus on the isaiah 53 and psalm 22 descriptions of his suffering focusing in especially on his sense of abandonment by the father the overwhelming horror of it all left me in anguish at the foot of the cross longing for it all to be over and for sunday to come set things right i love the lord for he heard my voice he heard my cry for mercy because he turned his ear to me i will call on him as long as i live return to your rest my soul for the lord has been good to you psalm 116 1 2 but last night s maundy thursday vigil framed my experience of today in an entirely different light bouncing back and forth between john 13 17 jesus final words to and prayers for his disciples and psalms 113 118 the psalms he and his disciples would have been singing as they finished up their passover meal and headed out to gethsemane the theme of god s victorious love kept ringing in my ears of course on passover night they would have been reflecting back on the progression of god s love in redeeming israel from slavery from the sea from the surrounding nations and their gods and from their own fears as they progressed from egypt to zion and this is the narrative as n t wright argues in the day the revolution began in which jesus chose to frame his own unfolding story how would jesus have been experiencing the victorious love of god in the midst of his own suffering but how would jesus have been experiencing the victorious love of god in the midst of his own suffering as he sang these lines about love and faithfulness trust and deliverance while grappling with his impending betrayal and death what was he thinking it is easy to see the love of god for us in the sufferings of jesus but where was the love of the father evident for him in these events now the son of man is glorified and god is glorified in him if god is glorified in him god will glorify the son in himself and will glorify him at once john 13 31 32 if you loved me you would be glad that i am going to the father for the father is greater than i the prince of this world is coming he has no hold over me but he comes so that the world may learn that i love the father and do exactly what my father has commanded me john 14 29 31 this is where jesus lengthy discourse with his disciples in john 13 17 opens my eyes apart from preparing his disciples for the trauma they would soon face jesus was processing his own thoughts on what was about to happen he did so in external dialogue both with his band of confused friends and with his very present heavenly father again and again he affirmed the goodness of what was about to happen not just for his disciples sake but also for his own as the father has loved me so have i loved you john 15 9a you will leave me all alone yet i am not alone for my father is with me john 16 32b far from the heresy commonly sung in some christian communities that the father turned his face away from jesus hanging on the cross jesus grounded himself in the sustaining faith that his father would never leave him nor forsake him those last few hours as he prepared for his fast approaching hour he couldn t say enough about the father s love for him while this was partially for the benefit of his disciples i m increasingly convinced that it was also for his own benefit just as the fathe...
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