Reflecting on a Disability and Diversity Awareness
Conference organized by the Women’s Council of Northern California Nevada
Region I am impressed by a fantastic grace the consumes those differently
abled. The differently abled reflect the
image of God as they embody the profound grace filled teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth. Their presence radiated a love seldom experienced by many who are
able bodied. Their life’s do not deny
the challenges, even the frustrations of being differently abled but, and this
is the most important part, they overcome those differences, thus becoming an
example of the teachings of Jesus. They present
the Church with the word and wisdom of Jesus Christ of Nazareth as received in
Luke 12:12-14. The blessed reality for
us today, that their lives are a blessing to the Church, would seem to be a far
cry from theological and philosophical notions practiced by some in the Church
today.
12 He, [that
is Jesus Christ], said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give
a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your
relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you
would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be
blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 12:12-14)
In light of the Luke
14:12-14, the differently abled, living in a world that devalues and
marginalizes them, the Church is called to be the vanguard of activism,
advocacy and support in the life of the differently abled. The economics of our day, with its dictates
of values regarding the worth of the body as a means to enhance stock
portfolios, 401K’s and gentrification, within a so-called pretext that the
blessings of God are primarily and always about economics demand that the
Church be, without apology, the bulwark of divine intervention, ensuring the
care and concerns for the differently abled. The Church lives out the Communion,
the Last Supper or the Eucharist, as instituted by Jesus of Nazareth as it
fully embraces the differently abled and the many and tremendous gifts and
talents within them and their community. The position of the Church should be
one of empowerment regarding the community of the Beloved and Beatitudes.
The differently abled are a reminder that the Church, emerging
out of an experiential critical analysis is a divine sacred response of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth to the needs of the community of the beloved, i.e., the community
of the beatitudes, amidst categories of empire. It’s mission, through religious
and political means, is to embrace, advocate, comfort and empower those on the
margins of society, to make a better world.
The Church is the embodiment of Jesus Christ. It emerges out of the life and ministry Jesus
Christ, necessarily presenting the intent of Jesus himself as the only beloved
son of God in relation to the world. The mission of the Church, particularly
amidst this historical moment of global narratives shifting like tectonic
plates, is an important discourse to engage as a matter of adherence to the most
intimate of communions revealing a moral imagination at the root of the
teachings of Jesus.
There is an unconditional obligation, rooted in the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ, for the Church to give voice, even a significant
voice to those on the margins of society.
This calling, as a matter of obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, must
protect it from becoming bourgeois or appeasing or gratifying those privileged,
the societal norms or various and oppressive structures and hierarchies of identity
whether race, gender, sexual orientation or affection, economic status, e.g.
class, or privilege In accordance with Galatians 3:28-29.
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither
slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.
The Apostle Paul seeks to clarify the intent of the Church
regarding its mission as a response to the world. His words are meant to open
the eyes and prick the heart of the Church so that it might fulfill its calling.
The Church must be, in the 21st century, the vanguard of advocacy for
those unable to advocate for themselves, and those blinded by societal norms recognizing
that the blessings which come from God come as an answer to the grace present
in those on the margins of society. (Amos 5) What I am proposing is that those on the
margins, i.e., the poor, the homeless, the lame, the indigent, the sick, the
blind, those who suffer discrimination, those differently abled, those on the
margins of society, in accordance with Luke 14:12-14, in communion with the
community of beatitudes in accordance with Matthew 5:1-12, are at the center of
God’s divine will. They are the ones who receive God’s divine grace and mercy without
hesitation of ego or institution.
And it is for these communions that the Church exists. Apart from these communions there is no
Church as brought forth by Jesus Christ. If the Church is to be the entity that
fulfills the teachings of Jesus in Luke 14:12-14, then it must fully embrace,
without equivocation, the text and its literal meaning. Mindful of the debate regarding whether the
Bible is symbolic or literal, this particular text must be received literally if
the Church is to be a firm and steadfast reality of salvation in the world
today. The Church is the Church only when it exists for the care and concern of
others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s
words intimate that the Church is God’s grace in the
world. God’s grace, that is unmerited favor, is not
partisan, bias or tribal, more so, it is sovereign, as God is sovereign. Grace is
relational as it is rooted in God’s loving desire for all. Grace must live its courageous path, for in
this mercy is present for all. And with
this, healing manifests in all its glory, indeed its wisdom. The Church, as a matter of its existence for
others, must, as an obligation to the Gospel, address the concerns of the a
diverse and dynamic community. It must address concerns of constructs and
systems such as Jim Crow Sr. and Jr., the Prison Industrial Complex,
Healthcare, the Military Industrial Complex, an public educational system under
attack by corporate raiders, Economic injustice, and the unjust death and
murder of Black men and boys at the hands of a system of law enforcement born
as a means to control and maintain slavery. As such, as the Church fights and
struggles for justice, grounded in what Cornel West calls a “Black Prophetic
Fire”[1], and
reminiscent of Amos living in eighth century BCE Judah, as he addressed the
injustice of Israel, it maintains a peculiar integrity with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Cross and to the resurrection.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
realms.
Ephesians 6:12, the
Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Ephesus.
At this moment, the
forces of injustice, as described by the Apostle Paul, are implementing
strategies which seek to make life more challenging, difficult and painful for
many in the Church, i.e., the Body of Christ. Concerns of social justice such
as the poor, healthcare, education, jobs, wages, and housing, are more and more
under attack by a corporate/police state which now control many of the levers
of U.S. Federal government. The Apostle Paul’s
apt description begs the question, “Where does the Church, as the Body of
Christ, stand amidst profound injustice and mounting misery?” Will or can the
integrity of the Church to the Gospel of Jesus Christ overcome the seeming
allegiance, by some, to those authorities and powers of darkness which control
those more so called practical needs?
In closing the Church must once again find
its first love. The Church must fall at
the feet of Jesus Christ confessing its profound sins of injustice. Then and
only then will a nation more and more torn asunder begin to heal.
