BLOG 11/15/15. REAL CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE COMES FROM THE MARGINS
What with all of the posturing and influence-seeking by so many in the news these days, let me put on my hat as a teaching-pastor and remind my readers that from the beginning to the end, God has a unique way of invading his broken creation from the margins. The first major figure in God’s design to recreate this creation was the selection of a remote nomadic middle-eastern sheik by the name of Abraham, whose heirs (Israel) became slaves in Egypt when Egypt was a dominant empire in the world. After Israel was delivered from Egypt, they became a nation, but always overshadowed by the vast empires which surrounded it, … and yet that small nation was a light to the other nations. But when they became wealthy and of some influence, they caved in and sought greatness in way that violated their unique calling to live by a code that was 180o different from that of the other nations. They were to serve one God in a unique way and so be a light, and a model—a nation of priests. Ostensibly, they were always to remember that they were delivered out of slavery and were always, before the world to be a nation of aliens and exiles serving one God
In Israel’s apostasy from its calling, God called forth a unique breed of prophets from the margins, from all different and unlikely backgrounds to remind Israel of its forgotten calling. But then … in the fullness of time and from the margins was born a peasant child, who in his adulthood would declare that whoever had seen him had seen God, and that he had been sent from God and would return to God after inaugurating a New Creation (Kingdom) … which would always be a people operating from the margins. Their huge eschatological and cosmic influence would come as they were servants of all, out of weakness and maybe obscurity.
“For consider you calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many of you were powerful, not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to put to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being may boast in the presence of God” (I Cor. 126ff). Further, Jesus was unequivocal when he taught his followers that any who would be great among them must be servant of all.
Jesus redefined the pathway to true influence. His New Creation comes through those who deliberately seek to be authentic as God’s New Humanity in the backstreets, in obscure and unlikely settings. In a much overlooked passage in Peter’s letter to a persecuted church community with no prestige and no quests for power and influence, he said: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature …” (II Peter 1:2-4).
Where does such a calling take place? It takes place most often where no one is looking. It takes place on the margins. It does not often take place in the posturing, influence-seeking public figures who call themselves after Christ’s name. It takes place in that vast multitude of ordinary folk on the margins who are the ‘doers’ of Christ’s teachings and so display his divine nature in the corners and crevices of this dark world where they shine as lights. These are usually ‘little people.” These are the aliens and exiles living at the margins who demonstrate New Humanity.
These are people who have found hope and meaning and acceptance with God and in Christ, and who are the practitioners of his reconciling, caring love—people who demonstrate his glory and excellence. What an incredible calling, and what eternal consequences … from the margins.
