Peace and grace,
Tom
P.S. For some reason I can't get some of the spacing to work properly below. Please excuse the odd layout at times.
METS 07
Tom Arthur
The wakeup call came at 1:30 AM to begin what would be an early morning trek up
The actual experience of riding a camel is one I hope never to relive again in my life. Imagine doing the splits for an hour while bouncing up and down. My guide would not let me cross my legs around the front peg of the saddle, and so I was required to ride up
In my real life I spend significant amounts of time and energy backpacking and climbing up mountain summits all in an effort to get away from the crowds. And here we were on a summit in
And the people were the
On the flight into
The next evening after a full day of sight-seeing, we had a further chance to experience the complexities of Syrians. A brother and sister came to speak with our group. They were Syrian Christians. The beginning of the discussion was more like a monologue, but eventually the sister invited us to ask frank questions about American impressions of
This was not the first time I had heard an Arab speak like this. Bishop Elias Chacour came to Duke Divinity School a couple of months before I left for METS and made the same assertion: he was an Arab Palestinian first (who was also an Israeli citizen) and then a Christian. He spoke in temporal terms. His physical birth came before his spiritual birth. But the temporal nature of his Arab-ness coming first had ramifications for his spiritual birth. These manifested themselves in an intense complexity of loyalties to
The family we spoke with did not have the nuanced theological language that Bishop Chacour spoke with, but they did have a similar understanding of the temporal nature of Christianity in relation to Arab culture. They reminded us that the Arab civilization and culture in all its diverse expressions existed long before Jesus ever walked the earth. In contrast,
This question of being an American Christian or a Christian American dogged me for the rest of the trip. I have come to a number of reflections upon this question. First, there is no such thing as a Christian or a Christianity that exists outside of culture. A relationship with Christ always must be one within a specific culture. In this way, the culture precedes Christianity. And yet the culture is not entirely equivalent with Christianity. Jesus is a real person and a relationship with Jesus is a real relationship. One engages Jesus from a particular culture, but it is Jesus who critiques the culture, not the other way around. But while the culture does not critique the relationship with Jesus, there is no way to engage the relationship with Jesus except through culture.
This reminds me of the tension expressed in the United Methodist Book of Disciple (BOD) between the relationship of Scripture to tradition, reason, and experience. The BOD says, “While we acknowledge the primacy of Scripture in theological reflection, our attempts to grasp its meaning always involve tradition, experience, and reason” (¶104, pg. 79). It could be said, “While I acknowledge the primacy of a relationship with Jesus in reflection about the cultures of the world, my attempt to grasp its significance always involves the cultures within which I find myself.” This brings me to my next reflection.
Second, the unfortunate reality in
Third, there exists for the Western Christian in general and the American Christian in particular a danger in being an American first and a Christian second that does not exist for Christians of some other cultures. It is the danger of confusing power with Christianity. As we sailed upon the
During this conversation I asked Peter whether he was a Palestinian Christian or a Christian Palestinian. After pondering the distinction for a while he responded, “I am a Christian citizen.” He went on to explain that what he meant by this was that he saw himself as a citizen of the world before any one particular nationality. I wonder whether he was not falling into the same trap that I had been falling into thinking that my Christianity could exist outside of the cultures within which I find myself.
Fourth, it is essential for Christians to build relationships with Christians of other cultures. Living in one particular culture means wearing blinders. These blinders can never fully be taken off (there is no supra-objective perspective that does not include some sort of perspective or bias), but one can become more aware that they exist and humble about one’s own perspective. By getting to know people who are not like me, I begin to become aware of the blind spots in my vision, particularly the ways that I have confused my own culture with following Jesus. Relationships with Christians of other cultures helps keep me from idolatry. In this respect then, Christians of other cultures are a locus of my own salvation (and possibly I am of theirs). This is not to suggest that it is because of them that I am saved, but rather that through them God’s grace works to disentangle my own notions of salvation from God’s notions of salvation. I am not using the word “salvation” here in its usual American evangelical sense of meaning only “justification” but rather in its fullest Wesleyan sense to include the entire work of God’s grace from the beginning dawn of it in the soul to its final consummation in sanctification and glorification. In this sense our salvation is dependent upon getting to know people and especially Christians who see things different that we do. (This statement is certain to be misunderstood by any who are not familiar with a Wesleyan conception of salvation as including both justification and sanctification. I do not mean that we “work” our own justification, but rather that there are works consistent with repentance [Acts 26:20] and those works are as much a part of our salvation/sanctification as justification is part of our salvation.) Christians from other cultures certainly provide such a means of grace, which leads me to my last reflection.
Fifth, Jesus was God incarnate, incarnated in this culture of the
Am I an American Christian or a Christian American? Or should I aspire as Peter does to be a Christian citizen of the world? I do not have clear answers to these questions, but the Middle East Travel Seminar has helped me to come in contact with Christians who see this world in different ways than my own. I pray that through them God might remove the blinders from my own eyes so that I might see more fully the idols which I serve in my own culture so as to repent of them and be saved to worship the one true God who is the Father of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.