Letters from Kenya - labels

The last thing I’d like to share with you is how God blew away my expectations in being fully present to others.  He reminded me of an important lesson regarding what it means to be human and to live the community of Christ.  And the lesson had entirely to do with labels… not the kind on our clothes or automobiles, but the distinctions we make between ourselves and others.

Check out these labels: Black, white, short, tall.  Chubby cheeks, husky, slim, daddy's girl, momma's boy.

As we get older people start assigning us labels: Jock, nerd, computer geek, life of the party, druggies, good little church kid.

As we get older, the labels change and take on a much grander scale: liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, pro-life, pro-choice, even Nazarene, Baptist, Catholic, or Assemblies of God.

One of the things that I'm learning about labels is that they dehumanize us.  Instead of taking the time to genuinely know someone, labels cut off the flow of relationship before they even get started.  Labels assign value to a person based solely upon perception, stereotype and prejudice.

Let me just state the obvious: this is not what God intended.  Let me take you to a couple of passages to explain what I mean.  The first is in Genesis, the second is in Galatians.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27 NIV)

This passage is crucial for us to understand if we're going to understand what it means to be human.  Before there was original sin, mankind (male and female) was created with original righteousness.  Theologians talk a lot about what it means for us to have been created in God's image, but I wonder if part of it refers to the ability to truly know a person and be known by them.  

One of the most tragic of consequences of the Fall of humankind was the damage done to this relational aspect of the image of God we were created with.  We began to take up fig leaves and make coverings for ourselves.  I don't know if you've seen a fig leaf or not, but they'd be just about as comfortable to wear as the 3 inch thorns growing on some of the bushes we saw in Kenya.  

Those thorns remind me a lot of the labels we have given and received.  They hurt and penetrate deeply.   They keep others at a manageable distance.  Don't get too close.  I don't know if I can trust you.  After all, you're a (insert label).  And so we continue to hide from the healing grace of God that comes through the practice of authentic community.

The good news is that the story doesn't stop here.  In Galatians 3 we find this amazing revelation:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28 NIV)

There's a lot of labels mentioned in this passage, a lot of things that had the potential to shipwreck those early believer's and the early church.  But Paul casts all the labels aside and says, "None of that matters.  You are one in Christ Jesus."

One of the things I've learned in my church history readings is that the early church was a counter-cultural force in society not just because they claimed to follow a resurrected Messiah, but because of the radical, counter-cultural way they viewed each other and lived out their faith:

- Women were not looked at as property, but as equal in the eyes of God and given full access to every role in the church...including pastor/preacher.

- Slaves were looked at as brothers and sisters in Christ, and many (including Philemon) were given their freedom.

- Orphans and widows and strangers were looked at as an opportunity to practice pure and faultless religion, not an excessive burden.

During our trip to Kenya I had the amazing opportunity to know and be known by brothers and sisters in Christ.  And in this process of knowing and being known I came to realize that one of my expectations of the trip was wrong.  I had expected to come to Kenya to serve “the least of these.” And while in a strictly financial sense that may be true, during my trip I came to grips with the fact that I had put a label on these brothers and sisters.

The reality that I’ve come to embrace is that I was the “least of these” in terms of the true realities of God’s Kingdom.  Our Kenyan brothers and sisters were the hands and feet of Jesus to me, revealing my need and ministering God’s grace in abundance.  

I was the one who needed someone to reach in and minister to my heart and my need.

I was the one whose eyes needed to be opened to who God really is and what it truly means to  be the community of Christ we call the church. 

And in their ministry to me, the Holy Spirit allowed me to discover just how rich the faith, love and grace of the Kenyan people really is.  There is no other label that I can give them than brothers and sisters in Christ.  

I needed my eyes to be opened and the Holy Spirit graciously did so through a group who cannot be defined by any other label than brothers and sisters in Christ.

So here’s some take home:  

-                             How are you going to choose to see and interact with people?  

                  Your answer might help you begin to see the image of God.

Letters from Kenya - the love of God

One of my expectations going into our work and witness trip to Kenya was to be fully present to God and to others during the trip.  I can honestly say that during our times of worship and devotions the presence of the Holy Spirit was near.  Selena Freeman and John Prichard did a fabulous job taking the word of God and applying it to what we were experiencing in Kenya and what we would experience as we returned home.  It was truly a spiritually “forming” experience.

What I wasn’t expecting was the spiritually forming experience I had with one of the workers at the jobsite.  God taught me as much, if not more, about His character and what it means to be human than I’ve learned in any book or seminary class.  All this through my interactions with an electrician named Naphtali.   

Naphtali is a quiet and serious man.  He’s the 7^th of 8 children born to a poor couple from the Lora Tribe.  Naphtali lost his father when he was quite young and he was raised by his mother and grandmother.  Naphtali speaks of them with great reverence, understanding that the love and discipline he received from them has allowed him to become the man he is today.

Naphtali makes 500 Kenyan shillings a day for his labor.  That’s roughly equivalent to $5.75 a day in American currency.  Naphtali considers himself blessed with his labor and his pay because he’s the only one in his family that has gone past what we would call junior high in education.  He graduated from high school and went on to Tech School where he learned the electrician’s trade.

Naphtali is considered the leader in his family because he’s bettered himself through education and because a great deal of the money he makes he sends back to his village to take care of his mother and siblings.  Where most of us would consider this to be a burden, Naphtali considers it a blessing, an expression of what the human spirit is truly supposed to be and do.  Because of his actions and attitude, Naphtali has also put one of his brothers through schooling to become an auto mechanic.

In order to do this, Naphtali lives in the slums of Nairobi… a very destitute and dangerous place.  He pays 1000 Kenyan Shillings a month to live in a one-room structure with no electricity or running water.  He has very few changes of clothes and oftentimes the only meal he eats during the day is the lunch that Panina (the foreman’s wife) makes for the workers.  All this he does with a true sense of purpose and fulfillment, knowing that He is doing what God would have him do as a man and family member.

As I mentioned, Naphtali is an electrician.  What I didn’t expect was that Naphtali was a theologian, instructed deeply by the Holy Spirit concerning the character of God and what it means to truly be human in this life.  The second day I worked with Naphtali he told me a modern day parable.  Naphtali shared with me that he had been thinking a lot about oxygen lately.  At first I thought that was kind of strange, then as I listened, I was taken to school.  Here’s the parable. 

Naphtali told me that if mankind had to pay for oxygen like we do the other necessities of life we would be in desperate trouble.  For the rich man would be able to purchase all he needed plus a surplus that would go to waste because it would never be used.  The poor man however would not be able to afford what he would need and would die because of it.

Naphtali then said this, “What a generous and merciful God we have!” “For God owns all the oxygen and gives to all equally so that they might live… not only so, but more than enough oxygen for every person.”  “What a loving Father in heaven we have!”

In such a simple reflection, Naphtali squarely recognized and confronted the systemic and individual injustices that are present in the world through the hands of mankind not living as they were created to.  But even more profound, Naphtali spoke of the true nature of God – His generosity and benevolence, His mercy and grace, and most important, His love for the creatures He created in His image.

As I’ve had time to reflect on this interaction it has caused me to take a long look at the way I see the world, the way I understand my responsibilities as a white man in the most powerful and resourced country in the world.  Will I support business and industry and governmental policies that only serve to “purchase and hoard a surplus of oxygen” for myself?  Or will I choose to love my neighbor as myself?  Will I choose to think of the needs of both my neighbors here in Springfield and my neighbors across the world? 

These are questions that I’m asking myself.  Questions that we as Christians need to reflect upon as members of a country and culture that controls 3/4ths of the world’s natural resources.  In the global village we live in today, our answer is very much one that will prove to be the difference between justice or injustice, human flourishing or human suffering.

Letters from Kenya - Luggage

Our first devotion on our trip to Kenya was given by Kevin Plain, the volunteer Youth Pastor at Scenic Nazarene.  During the devotion, he asked us to think about what our expectations were for the trip.  To be honest, coming into the trip I had been so busy with ministry stuff here at One Life that I was just glad to make it on the plane. 

The question began to resonate with my spirit however, and I came to the conclusion that my only expectations were to be fully present to God and others and to minister to the least of these.  What I didn’t expect was to lose my luggage.  

Our connection at London Heathrow was pretty hairy because of going through security checkpoints and when we finally got to our gate, boarding our flight to Kenya was almost finished.  It was there that we discovered that due to some sort of computer glitch, nearly half of our luggage was unaccounted for in the system.  And sure enough, when we got to Nairobi, half of it didn’t arrive with us.

Zandee and I had packed a couple days worth of clothes on our carry on, anticipating that this sort of thing might happen.  Well, come Tuesday word reached us at the work site that all of our luggage had arrived, save one.  I jokingly told our hosts that it had to be mine…well, it actually did turn out to be mine and over the course of the next few days I discovered a completely different form of recycling than I’d ever participated in. J

My luggage didn’t arrive until end of the day Thursday, just 2 days before we were to leave to come home.  Definitely not what I had expected out of my trip.  Neither was the lesson that I learned through it.  During that time of recycling my clothes and trying to keep the odor at a minimum I discovered a way of life that many people in Kenya (and in Springfield for that matter) have to live. 

There are many who only have one or two sets of clothes and don’t have access to new ones on a regular basis.   Zandee and I have never been “clothes horses” and we’ve always made a practice of “cleaning out our closets” and donating items to Goodwill and the Salvation Army. 

What I’ve learned from this experience is that I don’t need nearly as much as I think I do and there are many who would benefit if I would simply learn to live with “enough” and not a self-imposed “surplus.”  As Paul says, “⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” (1 Tim. 6:7-8)

The interesting part of the whole experience of being without my luggage is that I didn’t feel that I was missing anything.  Now my wife and my teammates may have had other thoughts…after all, it is difficult to smell yourself.  But I was content and to be honest, I was thankful that I had the clothes I packed in my carry on. 

Perhaps this is the secret to lasting contentment and peace that seems so illusive this side of the Atlantic.  We have so much and strive after bigger and better things, but rarely experience fulfillment.  I had so little compared to what I normally experience at home and found myself to be at peace with my situation, my circumstances and myself. 

It makes me appreciate the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 6:6 – “6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.”

Perhaps this is the reason why many Christians today seem to search for meaning apart from the holy life.  They haven’t discovered contentment in who God is and what He’s blessed them with and because they don’t experience the peace that goes beyond understanding, which comes from contentment, the holy life seems more like a burden than a blessing.  I think we would all do well to think about that and how it applies to our lives... it might just change our lives.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jeremy