Reclaiming a Christian Identity in 2018

Introduction

Jesus and the early church used scripture for the revelation of the purpose and mission of God for the emancipation and reconciliation of the humanity and the entire creation. Their understanding about the scripture and application of it in their context by positioning themselves with definite identity is the topic that we are discussing here. And here we are trying to understand it in the light of our context and its application here and renew ourselves and resolve our hostile and unfriendly atmosphere.

Use of scripture by Jesus

The integral mission of Jesus can be seen as saving and serving. He was engaged in an itinerant ministry. He met people of different walks of life at different places and at different time: at synagogue or a private house or in an open country side or in a non-Jewish territory in a Sabbatical or non-sabbatical day or night, as a healer or a provider or as a teacher or a prophet or the Messiah or the Son of Man. Sometimes he met with his followers in secret, sometimes he appeared in public. At least once, but possibly quite frequently, he travelled to Jerusalem and carried on his activities there.

We can see the God’s mission and purpose from Jesus’ birth or from before the foundation of the world onwards. The two following verses show his identity: one saying about him in the scripture and the other, his claim.

Promise about the Messiah: The prophecy by Isaiah and the record by Mathew was that he shall save his people from their sins.” (Mt.1:21)

Nazareth Manifesto: Luke gives a clear picture in his account about Jesus declaration of himself as the Messiah and his mission, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.” (Lk.4:18, 19)

After that claim was made we can see him act accordingly: met with all kinds of people despite their reputation in the society. And, especially he was found frequently with the hated group in the society, ‘the Sinners’, the oppressed, the sick, the crushed and those who were in bondage. He ate and drank, and spent time with them, thereby, posing a face of counter-culture in the community causing offense to the hypocritical norms in it.

The early Church’s Identity

For the early church the authoritative witnesses to the Gospel were the apostles. Their understanding and interpretation were based on their experience in a specific context – cultural social and political. We can see the obvious apologetics, and lives and teachings of the apostles in line with their opposing and hostile context. In short, the apostolic witness about the Christ shows us the ingredients of the ancient Greco-Roman and Hebrew culture.

In Gal2:20 we can see Paul saying that, “All they (James, Peter and John) asked was that we should remember the needy (poor in ASV) in their group, which is the very thing I have been eager to do.”

So what we need to understand is the reason for caring for the poor considered as very important and integral. All of the pillars of the church held the same opinion on this matter without a second thought. That means they were tied together by a common thread, that is, the Old Testament scripture.

The Christians of that time prayed for their enemies, generally as prayers in obedience to Jesus' command to pray for enemies and persecutors. It was during the time of discrimination and persecution. The Christians grew in numbers when it was hard to be a Christian, because it was attractive.

One of these attractions was their spiritual power which was manifested in the healing and other miracles.[1] The second attraction was the distinctive behavior of the Christians, who had question-posing ways of addressing common problems in society. As an example, the Christians were committed to the sanctity of life and opposed killing in all forms—abortion, war, gladiatorial games and capital punishment.[2] This is also true in the culturally acceptable custom of discarding unwanted babies. Not only did the Christians refuse to discard their own babies, even when their families were large, they also went to the dumps and rescued unwanted babies of pagan parents, whom they proceeded to raise as their own children. These rescued babies, often girls, are one reason that the proportion of females was extraordinarily high in Christian communities.[3] Consider also the matter of burial: the Christian churches, in contrast, from an early date provided burial—free burial—for all members.[4] In 250 to 251, Christians for the first time were subjected to an empire-wide persecution.[5] At that time there broke out plague. It affected both the Christians and the non-Christians. The service of the Christians led by their bishop, Cyprian of Carthage was notable. They stayed in the city and nursed their enemies, as well as other Christians.[6] This question-posing behavior led not only to the missional integrity of the church but also to its numerical growth.

[7]A third attraction was the Christians' common life as resident aliens. This identity as resident aliens gave the early Christians an outlook of living a countercultural life with their sense of trans-local belonging. With the mobility of the Christian community the Church began to grow globally. Wherever they went, they found non-genetic sisters and brothers who provided hospitality for them, and they maintained relationships across long distances, which they nourished with an astonishing number of letters. Their identity was far greater than race or empire.

Today’s Indian Context

The Indian context covers a number of sub-cultures, cultural strains, economic and political issues and diverse religious beliefs. We summarize below some of the dominant features of the main aspects of the contemporary situation in India.

Religion is one of the most dominant aspects of Indian life. India has a living religious heritage which in parts is very dynamic. Another important feature of the Indian religious scene is the presence of plurality of religions. This has made India proudly tolerant of all religious systems and very suspicious of those that claim uniqueness or finality.

The most urgent issues facing our country are economic and political. All economic issues are political issues. Organizing the poor to co-operate and help themselves becomes a political act as it immediately brings the organizers in conflict with the vested interests who have exploited the lack of unity of the poor.

Other major social issues of contemporary India are caste and dowry system. Caste may have some advantages but its overall effects are negative for society as a whole. Caste leads to oppression, injustices, perpetuation of inequalities, corruption and nepotism in public life etc. The dowry system continues to impose unbearable economic and social burdens on the nuclear unit of society—the family.

Our Identity in the Context

The problem with today’s evangelists is that they are considered only about the souls. It is in a situation where many of who are lost and need to receive Christ and be saved. Awareness of the issues of contextualization should enable the evangelist and other communicators of the Gospel to stop and listen to the questions these people are asking. Amy Carmichael’s efforts (1867-1951) to build an orphanage and school in South India were considered “worldly activity” that distracted her from the “saving of souls.” Her reply to that accusation is very impressive and thought provoking. “Souls are more or less firmly attached to bodies.”[8]

And we have these clouds of witnesses around us to firm our identity based on a strong theology which is holistic in nature. The masses will respond to the Gospel irrespective of the centuries old religious and social barriers if the Gospel really answers the questions and fears that rule their lives. We can listen to the community through its accepted leaders. Hence more efforts must be made to enter into dialogue with leaders of village communities, sects, political parties, reform groups etc. We must listen patiently and many times, before we can discern and isolate the most urgent issues of contemporary life.

Conclusion

The mission statement for our life dedicated to serve the Lord should be founded on strong theology based on the scriptures. As we see in John 20:21 “As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.” As we understand rightly, the holding together of the proclamation and demonstration aspects together is the need of the hour in following Christ and to become obedient to him.

Today, as in the early centuries, when Christians do what Jesus says in areas that touch their security, the world takes notice. The Christian church is a social reality that is called to embody the gospel. Wherever we find ourselves as Christians, we face the challenge of being both resident and alien. One characteristic way that we Christians can be resident aliens is through affirming our calling by sharing a primary identity with Christians worldwide and in other periods of history and by sharing a common life locally with Christians of every stratum of society with whom we will share time and wealth. These are the areas where we need to contextualize the gospel and ourselves. As Jesus and the early church had understood and positioned themselves to serve their communities and responded to the needs and cry of the people of God, we need to understand and live accordingly. No other time was perfect in doing that other than today.

NB: This article is mainly written based on Indian context though it can be applicable for other places too.

Bibliography

Samuel, Vinay K. Contextualization of the Gospel.

Merill, Selah, The Galilee at the time of Jesus

Kreider, Alan They Alone Know the Right Way to Live. Ancient Faith for Church’s Future Illinois: IVP Academic, 2008.

Dhanabalan, Kennedy, “Historical Overview of Christian Social Involvement”, New Delhi: Lecture delivered in Oct 2016 at EFICOR Office, 2016.

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[1] Alan Kreider, They Alone Know the Right Way to Live. Ancient Faith for Church’s Future (Illinois: IVP Academic, 2008), 174.

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid.

[7] Alan Kreider, They Alone Know the Right Way to Live. Ancient Faith for Church’s Future Illinois: IVP Academic, 2008.

[8] Kennedy Dhanabalan (2016), “Historical Overview of Christian Social Involvement”, Lecture delivered in Oct 2016 at EFICOR Office, New Delhi.