"Real persecution has been directed against the poor, the body of Christ in history today. They, like Jesus, are the crucified, the persecuted servant of Yahweh. They are the ones who make up in their own bodies that which is lacking in the passion of Christ. And for that reason when the church has organized itself around the hopes and the anxieties of the poor, it has incurred the same fate as that of Jesus and of the poor: persecution."- from The Political Dimension of the Faith from the Perspective of the Poor
This theology is an interesting blend of the Pauline doctrine of the body of Christ with the Matthean identification of the Poor with Christ (Matt 25.31-46), so that the poor actually become the suffering body of Christ in the world. This raises nicely the question, which I think we have yet to think about seriously, of the theological and practical relationship between the church and the poor.
Thoughts?
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Romero on the Poor and the Body of Christ
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Sure. Great stuff. And I'll simply add to the pot with Jesus' invitation into the kingdom community.
I'm currently preached Matthew 4-5. Just finished a series on the beatitudes - Jesus' invitation statements to those who join and identify with the kingdom movement. Jesus selects as His army and kingdom community the poor in spirit, the beat up, the abused, the hurting, the poor, the downtrodden, the wandering, the lost, the marginalized and says, "congratulations! Be extremely full of joy! Wonderfully happy are you who are... (fill in blank with list above and many more)"
This group of people - formerly undesirable and unwanted - is the very stuff of the earth that Jesus is molding into a kingdom community. The community of the kingdom is of course the church. And so yes of course, Colin, its completely logical the relationship between the church and the poor (and the abused, the hurting, the really sinful, the lost, the agnostic, the alcoholic, etc.)
"So why don't our churches look like that?" Well, first, I answer my own question with "who is 'our'?" Certainly in India the beatitude gospel/Matthew 25 gospel is alive and well and thriving. In the U.S. we suffer STILL from the effects of Constantine.
As those who are heirs of the European church, which has almost completely died (thank God!), we live in the Constantine Christianity that values success, excellence, power, money, big budgets, big buildings, priests that wear nice looking robes, pastors that preach in nice suits and have 2.3 children and a wife that "does it all" from organizing potlucks to teaching Sunday School. Oh whew! Praise Jesus our Constantinian church is thriving.
Constantine's legacy and the reaches of Rome are still with us to this day. Of course the modern U.S. seldom identifies with the poor - they don't fit the prosperity model of "church."
I'm being extreme and ridiculous of course. Of course there are thousands of churches that genuinely identify with and help the poor (of whatever kind of poorness). So hope remains. But so does much preaching and teaching. And that teaching will result in "uncomfortable" churchians. Many of those churchians will leave a church that begins to go in that direction because its not Constantinian spirituality, which is what they really like (or some other off shoot, be it Pharisee style or Sadducee style or rich young man style, whatever)...
I've rambled. Have I at all addressed the question?
REV
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