Hispanic Heritage Month | Hermanas Pursuing Misión Integral

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 to enter into Hispanic Heritage Month is to read the powerful and prophetic book, Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence. Hermanas has become one of my favorite resources in relation to Jesus and His interactions with people in the Gospels. 

Our Hermanas Latina Family Table book is written by Mexican sister, Noemi Vega Quiñones, Mexican-American sister, Kristy Garza Robinson, and Argentinian-Armenian sister, Natalia Kohn Rivera. These strong women speak from the margins they have experienced in bold and beautiful ways in light of the suffering their families and communities have endured (listen to the need for "Justicia"), as well as the victories they have found with Jesus and His multiethnic family. 

I need to hear their voices again. Perhaps you do, too. Included below are some excerpts of what they have to say. Let's hear from our beloved Latina community who we continue to need to lead us and serve us. And if you like what you read, please purchase Hermanas and champion these faithful followers of Jesus who we desperately need to help light the way forward. 

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. 

For my own story in California, I would drive a car full of Fresno State students and myself to Fresno's inner city and spend two hours a week on Wednesdays with the children in our after-school tutoring program. Like Tabitha, this work of service to the marginalized was anchored in Jesus. After the children were walked home, the tutors would sit in a living room together and hear Scripture read about God's heart for the poor, the widow, the foreigner, and the oppressed. I vividly remember the good news from Isaiah 58 and Luke 4 spoken over that living room and prayed over our students and ourselves. This was misión integral like I had never seen. This was holistic mission because we were not just providing a service; we were also establishing friendships with the children's families and hearing their concerns over city policies, hearing their landlord's threats, and seeing their unjust living conditions. 

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.

Beautifully integrated: Tabitha chose to make not just robes, which are worn on the outside, but also other pieces of clothing. The words robes and outer clothing are translated as "tunic" and "garments" respectively in the NRSV Bible. These words are translated from the Greek words for a tunic cloth, which typically goes on the outside of clothing (like a jacket), and for clothing that typically goes next to the skin (shirts, for example). I take this to mean that Tabitha thought about taking care of the whole person (Isaiah 58, Luke 4). As much as she could, Tabitha's ministry was beautifully integrated.

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.

Next post: The Ultimate Exodus

Here are links to previous posts:A Meal with Jesus; The Art of Neighboring; A Praying Life; Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church; Family on Mission; Encounters with Jesus; The Rest of God; Letters to a Birmingham Jail; The Pursuing God; Yawning at Tigers; Moving Towards Emmaus; Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal; The Eternal Current; Tattoos on the Heart; Drop the Stones

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us 

Hispanic Heritage Month | Engaging the Margins for Justice

Hermanas by Kristy Garza Robinson, Noemi Vega Quiñones, and Natalia Kohn Rivera (pictured left to right above)

"Lord, help me to come to You first as the One who brings me true justice and healing. Help me to learn how to keep pressing in to You for more and how to keep going low; trusting You will lead me into greater revelation and the tremendous healing and breakthrough You have for me and my people. Amen."

One way to enter into Hispanic Heritage Month is to read the powerful and prophetic book, Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence. Hermanas has become one of my favorite resources in relation to Jesus and His interactions with people in the Gospels. 

Our Hermanas Latina Family Table book is written by Mexican sister, Noemi Vega Quiñones, Mexican-American sister, Kristy Garza Robinson, and Argentinian-Armenian sister, Natalia Kohn Rivera. These strong women speak from the margins they have experienced in bold and beautiful ways in light of the suffering their families and communities have endured (listen to the need for "Justicia"), as well as the victories they have found with Jesus and His multiethnic family. 

I need to hear their voices again. Perhaps you do, too. Included below are some excerpts of what they have to say. Let's hear from our beloved Latina community who we continue to need to lead us and serve us. And if you like what you read, please purchase Hermanas and champion these faithful followers of Jesus who we desperately need to help light the way forward. 

The last post, "Our Hermanas' Latina Family Table," predominantly featured the wise and strong voice of Mexican-American Noemi Vega Quiñones. This post will feature the wisdom and strength of Argentinian-Armenian Natalia Kohn Rivera.

Chapter 7 | The Canaanite Woman: Breakthrough at the Margins by Natalia Kohn Rivera

Matthew says Jesus "withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon" (Matthew 15:21-28), which is modern-day southern Lebanon, only around twelve to fifteen miles from the border of current Israel. This Greek Canaanite woman hears he's in town and decides to engage him. She appears on the scene loudly, boldly, and full of conviction that Jesus can help.

Pushing Past Rejection, Racism, and Barriers

We as a Latino people, who currently make up around 18 percent of the United States at 57 million people, have experienced the hierarchy of systems and people in power trying to shut us up or shut us down. This is a lot like what the disciples tried to do to the Canaanite woman. Whether it be issues surrounding immigration, living in low-income neighborhoods, fear of not being able to provide for our families, systemic injustices that make us have to work even harder to be given the same opportunities as others – our Latino people often run into barrier after barrier. 

Where we fit in society, how we're seen and treated as Latinos, and the stigmas and stereotypes attached to us – much like this Canaanite woman – can create within us so much angst and anger. Yet this woman didn't seem to be dealing with animosity or bitterness that day with Jesus. Her response provokes curiosity: Why didn't she walk away, giving up on Jesus, assuming he's like all the other Jewish people? Why did she keep pushing past the rejection, the racism, the barriers?   

The Outsider Receives Much More

What the Canaanite answers to Jesus' puzzling response to her is as important as how she answers. This woman tells him that she understands that he came first for the Jews, the "children" in this parable, but she's also aware that he's coming for the Gentiles, all non-Jewish people, "dogs who eat the children's bread" in the at first glance seemingly confusing and offensive parabolic language.

What's also interesting is that the Canaanite woman immediately speaks back to Jesus in the same parabolic language, not stuttering or missing a word. Somehow in that moment she understands what Jesus is talking about. No one in all of the Gospels speaks back to him in this language. Most just walk away silent and confused, and a few come back to him and and ask him to clarify. Not one other person ever responded confidently with an answer to Jesus' parables.

The Canaanite woman both gets Jesus' puzzling words and solves the riddle. What she understands isn't a word game; she grasps the plan of salvation, first for the Jews and then every tribe, tongue, and nation. How in the world does an uneducated woman, a non-Jew, speak parables and understand the timing and strategy of salvation for this world? The disciples that Jesus was with day in and day out for three years don't understand the plan of salvation until the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. In Matthew, Jesus provides us his answer: "Woman, you have great faith!" (Matthew 15:28). This woman was given these revelations supernaturally from heaven. She didn't read them from a book or hear them from a sermon; she received them as revelations from God. The God who created her gave her his blueprints of salvation. This broken, suffering woman who came to Jesus with a sick daughter and who received what we perceive at first as silence, rejection, and humiliation, ultimately receives supernatural revelation and healing for her daughter.

Not Giving Up on Who Jesus Is with Persistence, Boldness, Tenacity

In this story the woman is brought closer and then again closer to Jesus, first out of desperation and then out of a revelation of who he is. Jesus gives her so much more, but it costs her having to go lower and lower. She's experiencing a paradox of sorts: the more unoffended she is, the more she receives. You see, Jesus isn't one who humiliates, he's one who humbles, and often we can get the two confused. This woman lays aside anger, injustice, racism, and sexism, and fights back with humility. She leads her daughter to health by being lowly and meek herself. She spiritually leads in front of these twelve Jewish disciples by being persistent, bold, and tenacious, and not giving up on who Jesus is and what he's capable of giving her. Jesus is drawing her barriers out to give her revelation and healing.

I don't believe her daughter was the only one who got healed that day; I believe she herself walked away healed. You see, she came in marginalized by her race, gender, and faith background only to walk away free. Jesus gave eternal insight to a desperate Gentile woman. He brought up race not to slap her with it but to surface it, to address it, and to redeem it. If he didn't bring up the racial tensions then we'd think he wasn't addressing all the suffering the woman was bringing into that encounter. Healing requires getting to the wounds, the memories, the roots of the pain. Jesus doesn't gloss over pain; he knows that for true healing and freedom to occur, it must be dealt with at the very personal, root level.

Responding for All, Declaring for All 

The Canaanite Woman continues the parable Jesus began by responding for her people, the Gentiles. She could have responded just for herself, but God was revealing his salvation plan for the world. She is declaring that the Gentiles will not longer be on the margins of eternal salvation but will be sought after and covered by the heart of the Father. They won't be "dogs" much longer as Jesus will send his disciples generation after generation to reach the Gentiles. They will join the children at the table of salvation. Our Canaanite hermana understood all of that in her very holistic encounter with Jesus. Jesus honored and praised her faith publicly for all the disciples to hear. His goal was to meet and provide healing for this one very humble woman.

The barriers the Canaanite woman carried into that room with Jesus and his disciples all melted away as she sought the face and power of Jesus. Her faith in him and not in the racial, religious, or gender barriers led her into holistic freedom. She trusted Jesus because he is trustworthy and committed to redemption and justice and is about the Jews and the Gentiles, including those who don't yet know him and haven't experienced his saving grace.

Following the Canaanite Women's Mentorship with Practice and Prayer

Let's follow the Canaanite woman's mentorship and allow Jesus to take us into the ministry of going low and depending on him, even when he brings up the very pain we've worked hard to avoid. Let's allow his Spirit to consume the barriers and give us the opportunity for healing for ourselves and for our community. Let's be leaders free from being consumed by our barriers. Let's took to Jesus to raise us up as confident and wise women (children and men), stable in his healing power. Whether we're on the margins or not, let's never despise the margins, for Jesus encountered and honored many living and leading there. Let's be women (children and men) who can engage the margins, not just interacting horizontally with the pain and injustices, but being those who can focus vertically, set our face to Jesus, and be leaders who can receive heavenly wisdom, insight, and revelation.

Lord, help us to come to you first as the one who brings us true justice and healing. Help us to learn how to keep pressing in to you for more and how to keep going low; trusting you will lead us into greater revelation and the tremendous healing and breakthrough you have for us and anyone who is marginalized. Amen.

Next post: Hermanas: Pursuing Misión Integral  

Here are links to previous posts:A Meal with Jesus; The Art of Neighboring; A Praying Life; Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church; Family on Mission; Encounters with Jesus; The Rest of God; Letters to a Birmingham Jail; The Pursuing God; Yawning at Tigers; Moving Towards Emmaus; Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal; The Eternal Current; Tattoos on the Heart; Drop the Stones

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us 

Hispanic Heritage Month | Our Hermanas' Latina Family Table

Hermanas by Kristy Garza Robinson, Noemi Vega Quiñones, and Natalia Kohn Rivera (pictured left to right above)

"Bienvenidos a la mesa, hermanas! You are welcome to come and take a seat at our table, set for you by Jesus and the many Latina women (and Latin children and men) who've gone before us." 

One way to enter into Hispanic Heritage Month is to read the powerful and prophetic book, Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence. Hermanas, which has become one of my favorite resources in relation to Jesus and His interactions with people in the Gospels. 

Hermanas is written by Mexican sister, Noemi Vega Quiñones, Mexican-American sister, Kristy Garza Robinson, and Argentinian-Armenian sister, Natalia Kohn Rivera. These strong women speak from the margins they have experienced in bold and beautiful ways in light of the suffering their families and communities have endured, as well as the victories they have found with Jesus and His multiethnic family. 

I need to hear their voices again. Perhaps you do, too. Included below are some excerpts of what they have to say. Let's hear from our beloved Latina community who we continue to need to lead us and serve us. And if you like what you read, please purchase Hermanas and champion these faithful followers of Jesus who we will desperately need to help light the way forward.

Prologue | Bienvenidos A La Mesa

Bienvenidos a la mesa, hermanas! You are welcome to come and take a seat at our table, set for you by Jesus and the many Latina women (as well as Latinx children and men) who've gone before us. Make yourself at home, take a deep breath, and experience the feeling of an incredible meal prepared just for you. May your hearts be filled with expectancy that our Lord wants to give you his shade, his peace. He wants to refresh and strengthen you like only he can do.

We invite you into our lives, our stories, and the stories of other Latina women who've gone ahead of us and who are currently walking beside us. We see how communal our ethnic journeys are and how, as in our walks with Jesus, we cannot journey in isolation – we need one another. So let's continue to journey with Jesus in both faith and ethnicity – both being journeys that must intersect and be tied together and continuously be refined and transformed by our heavenly Father.

We admit that we are limited to our representation: we have two Mexican American authors, one first-generation immigrant, one second-generation immigrant, and one third-generation. We have one mom in her thirties and two single women in their thirties. We have two lighter-shaded Latinas and one medium-shaded Latina. We have two women with their master's and one woman with her bachelor's. We are mostly from lower-to-middle socioeconomic backgrounds and mostly bilingual. Our stories would have been enriched by categories outside of our own.

This is where you may come in, dear reader. We invite you to continue the conversations ... 

Chapter 3 | The Bleeding Woman: Mija Leadership by Noemi Vega Quiñones

In Matthew's (9:20-22), Mark's (5:25-34), and Luke's Gospels (8:43-48), the bleeding woman is championed for her faith and called Mija (mi hija, my daughter) by Jesus. She is a woman who tells her whole truth and is a daughter belonging to the family of God. The bleeding woman shows a leadership rooted deeply in courageous faith, influencing social action, and telling the truths she experienced. As a mentor, the bleeding woman shows us Mija leadership that is centered on our core identity as daughters in the family of God.

The Imago Dei Is in Everyone in the Barrio

Barrio is Spanish for an underfunded and impoverished neighborhood. Nothing is known of the bleeding woman's origin story other than the fact that she had spent all the money she had on doctors trying to find the cure, but to no avail. If she had a family, at best they depleted their resources to try to help her find a cure and at worst they abandoned her and left her to suffer her condition on her own. Regardless of where she started, the bleeding woman ended in a barrio life.

The barrio conjures mixed emotions for those of us who grew up in similar places. Systemically, barrios are the neglected neighborhoods separated by race, in our cities known for high crime rates, high pregnancy rates, high dropout rates, low educational attainment, and underfunded schools. When people think of el barrio they seldom think of the people who dwell there that are created in the imago Dei (the image of God). Consequently, those of us from barrios are cast in the shadow of these statistics rather than treated as sons and daughters of King Jesus. While the surrounding realities of our neighborhoods remain, our fond memories of growing up with family and friends also remain. Thus, these places that on the outside appear to be dilapidated and destructive are, for some, places of learned bonding through social networks and friendship.

Si Se Puede to Believe Jesus' Healing is Within Reach

The gift of the barrio is a resilient, perseverant attitude about life. This attitude could be captured in the phrase si se puede. Dolores Huerta is an advocate and leader for farmworker rights in California's Central Valley. She has used this phrase to encourage all of us on the margins. The bleeding woman demonstrates this gusto and attitude in her approach toward Jesus. Mark writes, "When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak" (Mark 5:27). Her suffering and forbearing did not keep her from one last hope, one last pursuit of healing! One can imagine her social location as an outside trying to inch her way through the crowd. I imagine her pushing through thoughts of, What am I doing here? I don't belong here. I'm touching everybody. I'm making everyone unclean around me. But Jesus! Jesus is here. If I only touch his cloak, just a touch! 

One can imagine her physical position as a woman suffering with her condition: long, tangled hair, clothes stained from too much bleeding, sores seen and unseen, external and internal pain on her body and in her being, a desire to be whole and clean, good and beautiful. And this hope was only one touch away. Latinas in the United States may relate to the desperation of the bleeding woman for healing that is just one touch away. According to the National Latin@ Network, one in three Latinas has suffered from intimate partner violence, more than half know a survivor of domestic violence, and one in four knows a survivor of sexual assault. Maybe we are all just one friendship away from supporting one another in this journey. 

The bleeding woman's healing was one touch away. With courageous faith, mija pushes through the people pressing against her and uses all of her remaining energy to get to Jesus' cloak! Maybe she thought, With one touch all of my suffering and torment, my anguish and alienation, will be eliminated! This was her faith. This was her hope. Jesus is what remained. There was nothing else. She had already spent everything on doctors and healing ointments. There was nothing more she could do. No one else she could turn to. It was Jesus or nothing. 

Jesus Makes Space for the Bleeding Woman to Tell Her Story

Luke writes, "Jesus said, ' Someone touched me' (Luke 8:46). Mark writes, 'But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it' (Mark 5:32). The bleeding woman had intended to approach Jesus from behind, unnoticed, unseen, without causing too much trouble (Luke 8:47). Can you relate? She wanted to remain in the margins, in anonymity of her condition. Maybe that was her full identity – one forever hidden in the margins. Maybe she was embarrassed or maybe she was too focused on being healed to think of anything else. 

Maybe she didn't think she was worthy of approaching Jesus cara a cara, face to face. Maybe years of being treated as a nobody made her think she was a nobody. But Jesus wants her to be seen. And heard. Jesus helped her to see the truth of who she really was. Jesus had a deeper plan of healing. Jesus, in all three Gospels, responds to her by naming her mija, my daughter. He wanted to ensure that her healing would be both physical and social, both systemic and personal. By calling her daughter, Jesus welcomed her into the family community he was forming. Constant separation from connection with God and others was finally over for Mija! Now she had the opportunity to connect. Now, she had the identity of daughter. The bleeding woman didn't stop at her own healing, though. The bleeding woman told her story and retold her story, and time and again, her story was retold. At last, her story was recorded in three Gospels, each with her daughter identity emphasized.

Like the Bleeding Woman, Jesus Names Us Daughter and Invites Us into Mija Leadership

Latinas in the United States may identity with the bleeding woman as overlooked, nameless, invisible, and in the margins. However, just like the bleeding woman, we find our name and our true identity in Jesus. We are mijas and hermanas in the Kingdom of God. If it helps to say it out loud, say it out loud, hermana! Yo soy su hija. I am his daughter! We are mijas and hermanas in the Kingdom of God!

1) Leadership is grounded in our Mija identity. As daughters of the true King, Mija leaders know that God abundantly loves us regardless of how much we produce or how much we fail in our leadership.

2) Mija shows us that leadership is rooted in courageous faith. Mija's courageous faith was within her all this time, and at a crucial moment she decided to pull it from within con great ganas to touch Jesus' garment. Connection to the Lord will keep us connected to courage. If our main focus is to follow Jesus and trust Jesus, then our focus will not be on what others will say, how others will respond, or if and how we will fail. Rather, our focus will be on being close to Jesus. Our foundation is not on what the crowd thinks of our leadership, or us, but on who Jesus says we are: Mijas with courage.

3) Mija leadership is resourceful and uses one's agency to impact those one is leading. Agency is the ability to act. Leadership is exercising your agency, and Mija leadership is exercising your agency especially in the face of challenges. Mija led in the midst of her physical sickness and economic hardship. This style of leadership utilizes the resources that you have at your disposal, without neglecting the reality of the hardships that are present. 

4) Mija leadership is grounded in truth and tells the whole truth. Mija exercises leadership by telling the whole truth. She may or may not have been ready for this moment of truth telling, but regardless of her preparation, she chose to reveal her whole truth. Recall that Mija told her truth with fear and trembling, meaning with a passion and vulnerability that was her own.

5) Mija leadership envisions future generations being blessed by our current advocacy. Mija's story was told and retold to the point that it made it in three of the four Gospel narratives. Her story is a beautifully empowering narrative that continues to influence many people to this day.

Next post: Hermanas: Engaging the Margins for Justice

Here are links to previous posts:A Meal with Jesus; The Art of Neighboring; A Praying Life; Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church; Family on Mission; Encounters with Jesus; The Rest of God; Letters to a Birmingham Jail; The Pursuing God; Yawning at Tigers; Moving Towards Emmaus; Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal; The Eternal Current; Tattoos on the Heart; Drop the Stones

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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