29/50: A Theology for Wholeness
Brandi Carlile always says it best. Here she celebrates the ultimate win of a truth-telling embrace in “The Joke.”
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ declares that God is love. This is not an easy doctrine. It is not “sentimental humanism.” It is far easier to believe in a god who is less than love and who does not require a discipleship of love. But if God is love, separation is the ultimately opposite force to God. The will to separate is the most complete refusal of the truth. The life of separation is the most plain denial of life.”
What I shared in yesterday’s post about how I see the work of Jesus through the lens of reconciliation is much more complex than saying, “Jesus died on the cross for your sins.” If I was to put it in one sentence, it might be something like, “Jesus shows us that God’s arms are open wide to the world.”
But, is this just semantics?
I agree with whoever said it: “Bad theology kills.” The assumptions behind our beliefs can have life and death consequences. We see that in the fusion of political and theological identities in our country right now. Ideas are powerful and ideas about God have extra weight to them because they are about ultimate things like what happens after we die and the nature of reality.
But, how do we know what bad theology is and isn’t? Shouldn’t we just read the Bible?
The Bible has all sorts of configurations about salvation and reconciliation. There is no one biblical answer to just about anything. As a Christian, I see the Bible as the revelation of God through Jesus. Everything gets filtered through what I see in the trajectory of the stories and impact of Jesus’ life.
These are simple responses to big questions, but sometimes simplicity can orient us. Here’s how seeing salvation through the lens of restorative justice has oriented my faith around two central commitments:
The first is a commitment to truth-telling. We enter God’s embrace by naming our patterns of brokenness and alienation. This truth-telling runs in many directions. For those trapped in cycles of oppression, it means claiming voice and power as one loved by God. For those entranced by consumerism, it means waking up to how they seek to secure status at the expense of those in the margins. For the privileged, it means decentering themselves and their self-fulfillment. Whoever we are, the Holy Spirit invites us to enter this space of truth-telling. Instead of condemnation, we find this assurance awaiting us: “In Jesus Christ we are forgiven and are being made whole.”
The second is a commitment to embody truthful embrace. Jesus lived a life of God-given and self-possessed freedom from which he chose to embrace the world. In his footsteps, we live in embracing connection toward others, re-enacting the process of reconciliation again and again. In doing so, we mirror God’s embrace of the world, especially those who are marginalized and oppressed. In this embrace, we participate with God in the healing and redemption of creation. We join in communities of love and action to surrender self-centered status, privilege and agendas to resist evil and promote life. In so doing, we participate with Christ in the healing embrace of the world.
Truth-telling embrace. This theological idea has given me freedom to hold my faith with freedom and wholeheartedness.