 |
Hermanas by Kristy Garza Robinson, Noemi Vega Quiñones, and Natalia Kohn Rivera (pictured left to right above)
"Walking together, en conjunto, is the leadership style that best confronts the power and principality of isolation and pride. We were created to belong to one another, to walk with one another, and to be en familia with one another."
One way I have personally chosen to enter into the grief and suffering with the Latinx community after the horrific news broke of the mass shooting by a white supremacy terrorist in El Paso on Saturday, August 3, 2019, leaving 22 murdered is to read the powerful and prophetic book, Hermanas: Deeping Our Identity and Growing Our Influence. Here are the links to the previous posts featuring excerpts from Hermanas:
Hermanas: Coming to Our Latina Family's Table w/ Lament & Listening, Led by Hope w/ Noemi Vega Quiñones Hermanas: Engaging the Margins for Personal and Public Justice, Healing, and Breakthrough w/ Natalia Kohn Rivera
I needed to hear Noemi's and Natalia's voices these past few weeks. Perhaps you do, too, as you grieve, question, listen, lament, struggle, and dare to hope in the face of darkness. This last post features again the powerful words of Mexican-American Noemi Vega Quiñones.
Chapter 9 | Tabitha: Misión Integral Y En Conjunto
Philip's faithfulness in sharing the gospel led to a community of believers in Joppa. Tabitha was a part of this community and took seriously Jesus' message to love the poor and care for their needs (Matthew 5, Luke 4, Isaiah 58). For Tabitha, following Jesus went hand in hand with caring for the poor and doing justice (Micah 6:8). She exemplified misión integral, holistic mission that was deeply Jesus and deeply justice. The idea of misión integral emerged from South American theologians like Ecuadorian René Padilla and Peruvian Samuel Escobar and Latin American liberation theologies from priests such as Peruvian Gustavo Gutiérrez and Brazilian Leondardo Boff. Tabitha was so integrated that when crisis hit, her whole community – both those she served and those that she served alongside – cried out for help.
One day while Peter was around nine miles south of Joppa in Lydda sharing the good news, Tabitha became tremendously sick and died. After "her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room," the local widows and community that had been impacted by Tabitha's leadership wept over her body. They sent two local followers of Jesus, fellow disciples who were impacted by her leadership, to run to Peter and plead for him to "please come at once!" (Acts 9:36-39). The entire community, from the recipients of her ministry to those who had heard of her ministry, cried over her death.
I wonder if Peter, moved with compassion, recalled Jesus' power over death both for Mija and for Jairus's little girl (see Mark 5:21-43). I wonder if recalling these moments with Jesus reminded Peter of God's power for Tabitha. With all of that faith, Peter, the Rock, followed Jesus' lead and sent everyone out of the room. "Then he got down on his knees and prayed" (Acts 9:40). Peter looked at Tabitha and said, "Tabitha, get up," and at that moment she opened her eyes and saw Peter with Luke, the author of this story recorded in Acts, striking the echo of Mark 5:21-43 and his own writing in Luke 8:40-56, particularly in Mark 5:41 where Jesus speaks Aramaic and said, "Talitha koum," translated as "Little girl, arise."!
This is beautiful and good. How does one know when ministry is beautiful (Tabitha's name means a beautiful female gazelle; see Song of Solomon 2:9 for the combination of a gazelle and beauty in Scripture) and good? When there is misión integral and the whole community experiences the reviving fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The early church and Peter witnessed the beautiful power of the gospel as they saw personal and systemic revival happen in this moment. Tabitha was literally revived; she was brought back to life by the power of God. She was able to continue her ministry to marginalized. Revival happened when Peter took newly revived Tabitha to the community of believers, and "especially the widows, and presented them to her alive" (Acts 9:41). Revival happened when they saw this miracle with their eyes and shared this good news with all of Joppa. Revival happened when many believed in the Lord as a result of this testimony. Revival happened as Jesus' resurrection power embodied itself in Tabitha and as Tabitha continued in her ministry.
Tabitha's story is deeply rooted in Jesus and deeply rooted in justice, goodness, rightness, and shalom. This kind of good news is impossible to stop.
An Example of Misión Integral with Villaluz, a Spanish-Speaking Missional Community with the Underground Church, and The Wise Old Owl Tutoring Program
Lauren Fernández is a second-generation Ecuadorian and Irish Latina who helped lead Villaluz for a season, a Spanish-speaking missional community of the Underground Church Network in Tampa, Florida. I love Lauren's explanation of the tension between caring for our families and caring for our communities. Lauren sees her time with Villaluz as a way of extending her family and helping to be family for people in her city who were forced to leave their home countries. To this day, Lauren's Honduran friend's daughters know her as tia, auntie. Not only was this experience empowering Lauren's Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Tampa, it was also healing for understanding her own family's marginalization and story. Mutual blessing and healing come when we accept the call to extend who we receive and welcome as family and care for our families. Some years later in a different tutoring neighborhood, the children's moms would eventually become my own sisters and teachers, showing me more of their stories. Furthermore, I now saw my students through the eyes of faith. Their parents knew Jehovah Jireh ("The God who provides") in a way I had longed for and forgotten. The Wise Old Owl Tutoring Program grew my heart for Jesus as it introduced me to his heart of compassion and justice, goodness and shalom. In this neighborhood I saw the beautiful community of God coming together from different ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. I even saw Fresno State students fall in love with Jesus as they came to know and understand his heart for the poor and widowed. Tabitha's Leadership Style is Contextual, Beautifully Integrated, En Conjunto, and Influential Contextual: Tabitha's is known in both an Aramaic Chaldean context (called her Tabitha) and Greek context (called her Dorcas). This is the first characteristic the text points out (Acts 9:36). Her value for contextualization was such that some people knew her name in Aramaic and others knew her name in Greek. She was Tabitha to some and Dorcas to others. Given that names are personal and significant sources of identity, Tabitha chose to enter into crosscultural spaces.
Modeling Tabitha, I seek to learn the context of my area for at least one year before I start anything new. It allows me to serve with humility, love, and listening ears to learn from the community first.
From Catholicism's liberation theology to the protestant misión integral, followers of Jesus who have a Latinx heritage incorporate a beautifully integrated mission. As a Guatemalan missionary once told me, "Caring for our pueblo's physical hunger is as important as we care for their spiritual hunger. If our friends come to church hungry, they cannot concentrate on the message." In some sense, if people attend our churches physically hungry and all they hear is a message, without being given compassion and some food, they are not being blessed with the full gospel. This is not a social gospel ideal, this is a lived fruit of the gospel, which has material and spiritual impact. René Padilla developed the idea of misión integral. In his Ensayos Sobre el Reino y la Iglesia, Padilla points out three challenges for Christians today: (1) To integrate sharing the good news of God (evangelism) with deep discipleship and not neglecting one for the other, (2) To collaborate together across ministries and work in a unified way, and (3) To ensure that our ministries are leading toward development and justice for that community, based on the desires of that community and not on United States ideals. En conjunto: Tabitha's cries for justice were met by the cries of the widow. I have been struck by the powerful role of the Holy Spirit to cry with us even as there is much pain to mourn in the world. We mourn the political reality that many of our brothers and sisters are at risk of being deported because of racism and biases against Latinos and Latinas and other people of color. We mourn the reality that our men have been called "bad hombres" and our children have been called dirty or lazy or dumb. We mourn the thousands of child immigrants that were and are separated from their parents. We mourn and cry out saying, "This is not right. This is not good. This is not just!" We mourn these things together, en conjunto, and not alone. Our Espíritu Santo cries out for justice and mourns with us and cries with us. The Holy Spirit does not leave our side, but fully understands the pain of our people, the pain of loss, and the pain of the present. Thank you, Jesus, for your Spirit that cries with us, en conjunto entre nosotros. En conjunto is a term I borrow from Latina theologians that embody a partnership of togetherness and solidarity. This is derived from the idea of comadreando, of having long-lasting, healthy friendships that partner together in life and ministry. Comadre is translated as midwife, but is colloquially used when referring to a strong friend. "Listen, comadre, have I got some news for you!" In a society that highly values competition and success, it is refreshing to meet hermanas and comadres that desire each other's best and not our failure. The term frenemy has to end among us if we are to help one another walk together toward Jesus and justice. Tabitha had many comadres and compadres that felt empowered by her. Can you imagine being the kind of leader that rises above the gossip, petty jealousy, and the need for personal success? Can you be the kind of leader like Tabitha that empowers others as she embraces her resources and agency, that gives to others as she blesses their voice and leadership? Walking together, en conjunto, is the leadership style that best confronts the power and principality of isolation and pride. We were created to belong to one another, to walk with one another, and to be en familia with one another. Leadership en conjunto is a powerful testimony against a self-absorbed, narcissistic leadership style that permeates a lot of this world. This is why I was excited to write this book alongside two other women whose voice and leadership I respect. En conjunto, our diverse perspectives point toward Jesus because our love and friendship are anchored in Jesus. Influential: Tabitha's leadership was high on impact even as it was high on justice because it emerged from her life with Christ. Interestingly, Tabitha was mourned by her whole community. She was loved so much that her community sent two disciples to Peter to urge him to come. Tabitha had already died, and her body had already been washed, but her community wanted to do everything possible to restore her life. The significance of this passage for the early church is important. Not only did this occasion solidify Peter's role as the rock of the early church, showing how he was anointed by God to do similar works as Jesus, but it also showed the early church that the gospel has spiritual and material consequences. When the good news is preached to a town, that town will live into the beauty of the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus. When the good news is embodied, the people in that place will care for the least of these, for the poor, the widow, and the marginalized. This is a natural consequence of the good news. This is high impact. Revival breaks out when stories from death to life are shared, much like Tabitha's story. There are many places in our communities that continue to see death and that must be brought back to life. This resurrection power is only found in Jesus. Our bodies will fail, and our time on this earth is limited, but our life with Christ and fellow believers is forever. Let us speak that resurrection hope and life over these places of death and oppression. Let us be women and followers of Jesus who are so in love with him that works of compassion overflow into what we do and empower us to embody lives of justice, goodness, righteousness, and shalom.
Here are links to previous City Notes books:
Christ is all, Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan |
The mission of Emmaus City Church is to be united with Jesus as He shares and shows His Gospel in, with, and for Worcester, MA. "As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus Himself suddenly came and began walking with them.” + Luke 24:15
Saturday, August 17, 2019
CN | Hermanas: Pursuing Misión Integral Y En Cojunto
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment