{"id":1882,"date":"2013-06-16T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2022-04-20T09:00:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T01:00:21","slug":"78-from-bethlehem-to-calvary-god-lives-on-the-margins-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1882","title":{"rendered":"82. From Bethlehem to Calvary: God Lives on the Margins [I]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.<\/span><\/strong> [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Luke 2:7<\/span>, <em>NRSV]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/William_Hole_Joseph_And_Mary_Travel_To_The_Census_525.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1883\" title=\"William_Hole_Joseph_And_Mary_Travel_To_The_Census_525\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/William_Hole_Joseph_And_Mary_Travel_To_The_Census_525-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"207\" height=\"277\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/mother_teresa_from-Time-Photos.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1887\" title=\"mother_teresa_from Time Photos\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/mother_teresa_from-Time-Photos-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Good-Samaritan.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1888\" title=\"Good Samaritan\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Good-Samaritan-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"330\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[L] \u201cThere is no room for him at the inn.\u201d [M]\u00a0Mother Teresa, <em>from Time Photos. [R]\u00a0 The Good Samaritan.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cGod lives on the margins.\u201d Do you feel that in your guts? If you do, how will you give flesh to that intuition? And if we follow it right through, how will that intuition impact our Christian living?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We might begin by taking a step back and project on the screen of our mind, as it were, the big picture covering the <em>front <\/em>end, the <em>middle <\/em>section, and the tail <em>end<\/em> of Jesus\u2019 earthly life. In his narrative on the nativity of Jesus, Luke declares that there was no room for Jesus at the inn.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At birth, not only would there be \u201cno room\u201d for his family at the inn, Jesus the Emmanuel would be born in a manger. St Luke, from the outset, took pain to proclaim the fact that right from the inception of his earthly life, Jesus would join humanity at the margins of society, away from socially accepted regular comfort and decent neighbourhood.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This sets the tone for what Jesus experienced <em>during<\/em><em> his<\/em> <em>ministry<\/em> in reaching out to the nation of Israel. Rejected by people of his own hometown and seriously in loggerheads with the official religious leaders, Jesus \u201cthe Son of Man has no place to lay his head\u201d [Luke 9:58]. In the Synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus, in the name of God, took a stand and defined his mission: to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberation to prisoners, to give back their sight to the blind, to restore liberty to the oppressed [Luke 4:24-30; quoting Isaiah 61:1-2]. In the face of his prophetic mission of inclusion, he was at once excluded, the people saying: \u201cIs he not the son of Joseph?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And concerning Jesus\u2019 death, the Letter to the Hebrews delivered to precision the message of the ultimate marginalization of Jesus: \u201cFor the bodies that are brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice are burned <em>outside the camp<\/em>. So Jesus also suffered <em>outside<\/em> <em>the<\/em> <em>gate<\/em> in order to sanctify the people through his own blood\u201d [Hebrews 13:11-12].<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And so, at his birth, during his public ministry and right through to his suffering and death, the whole story of Jesus witnesses to a severe marginalization by the official religious leaders and by what was considered to be \u201cdecent\u201d society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Such a revelation from Scriptures must bear serious consequences worthy of our attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Evidently, contrary to popular belief, God does not have a residential address at the centre of <em>power<\/em>, or at the seats of the <em>mighty<\/em> and the <em>powerful<\/em>, or at the offices of those who claim to be <em>holy<\/em>. This is particularly true when those who use the privileges that come with might, power, and purported holiness to exclude and to push others to the margins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Where, then, do we find God?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We propose a five-step reflection in attempting to answer that question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>1. From social observation, a disturbing reality<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Wherever there is progress in human activities, as in scientific discoveries, technological advancement, industrial growth, economic independence, career ascent, financial success, or as in the popular Malaysian slogan \u201cMalaysia boleh!\u201d, God gets pushed further away from the centre of human existence to its periphery. In modern society, God is anywhere but at the centre of human existence 24\/7.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dietrich Bonhoeffer is absolutely right when he puts his fingers on the fact that only in areas of <em>powerlessness<\/em>, and in times of <em>weakness<\/em>, do we turn to God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We have turned the Almighty Creator God into a God of the last resort, of minor miracles, a God who is like a neglected servant, a stop-gap God, a slot-machine [<em>deus ex machina<\/em>]. This God is still a deity, of course, but only a marginal one. We push God to the margins of human existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>2. From ecclesial observation, a deep and painful reality about \u201c<em>Christians<\/em>\u201d and \u201c<em>Christian<\/em> <em>leaders<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We let two great figures in the Church tell us what they know as a fact about the reality in the Church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First, in this Year of Faith, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle of Manila calls the massive Filipino Catholic population \u201c<em>practical<\/em> <em>atheists<\/em>\u201d. The Philippines may proudly announce to the world that it is a Catholic nation. It is even true that Catholic churches are full to overflowing every Sunday. But, look at the lives that these Catholics live outside of the Mass, and you will be horrified by the absence of God, the Cardinal said. God is only for the one-hour of church service. The Philippino lay faithful are very practical in their daily living, and in their practicality, they live like there is no God, no divine commandments, no Gospel values to adhere to. In the way they live, therefore, Christians have consigned God to the margins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, Richard Rohr, OFM, similarly applies the term \u201c<em>practical atheists<\/em>\u201d to a group of Catholics. But, in the case of this renowned Franciscan friar, who speaks from his vast experience in spiritual counseling, he is referring to a vast number of bishops, priests and religious. After having been in ministry for twenty or so years, these priests and religious have lost touch with the ground of all our being \u2013 God. They no longer believe in what they do. They have all but lost their faith, but they know not how to leave any more, for they know not where to go. So they stay on and do things which are quite meaningless to them. This is giving a whole new twist to the expression \u201cgoing through the motion\u201d. It is really sad, but the situation is much more pervasive than the official church cares to admit. From the privileged ecclesial observation of Richard Rohr, then, in the way they live, many church leaders have banished God to the margins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>3. In Scriptures, from Bethlehem to Calvary, the marginalization of the Son of God<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,\u201d the Evangelist John announces in 3:16<sup>a<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But this Son of God, who \u201cbecame flesh and dwelt among us\u201d [John 1:14<sup>a<\/sup>] was negatively judged by the world, <em>disowned<\/em> and <em>banished<\/em> <em>to<\/em> <em>the<\/em> <em>margins<\/em> of \u201cdecent\u201d society, dragged to Calvary, and there crucified.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So Jesus suffered and died <em>outside<\/em> the gate [Hebrews 13:12<sup>a<\/sup>].<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Towards the end, as the Gospel of Matthew narrates it, Jesus becomes <em>explicit<\/em> as he talks about his Second Coming. He <em>identifies<\/em> with those living on the margins:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cas you did this to one of <em>the least <\/em>of these\u2026, you did it to me\u201d [Matthew 25:40].<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Blessed Mother Teresa, who understood the depth of Jesus\u2019 <em>identification<\/em> with the excluded and the marginalised, would respond to questions as to why she kept doing what she did day after day for the wretched poor, by raising a hand showing five fingers, saying:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>you<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>did<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>it<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>to<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>me .<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThat\u2019s why,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So Scriptures clearly point us to a God who resides on the margins. This God knows all about living on the margins. This God who has been marginalized, operates from the vantage point of the marginalized, to help and comfort those who suffer, and those who are made outsiders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Now that we know where this God resides, the next question is what is the defining <em>character <\/em>of this God of the margins?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In <em>lectio divina <\/em>and in all our pastoral engagements, we must affirm and display the three central elements in the <em>defining<\/em> <em>character<\/em> of the God of the margins:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First<em>,<\/em> <em>a God of emotions <\/em>[<em>Bible stories are emotionally charged<\/em>];<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, a <em>God of passion<\/em> [<em>a suffering God, passionate in helping those who suffer<\/em>]; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Third, a <em>God of <\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">com<\/span><em>passion<\/em> [<em>in solidarity, suffering <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">with<\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">in<\/span> the people<\/em>].<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As Lent craws towards Holy Week, we remember with painful clarity how Jesus was first grievous<\/span>ly tortured and then driven to the margins of the city to be crucified at the place of a skull [Golgotha]. <em>Utterly marginalised<\/em>, and feeling abandoned by friends and even by God, Jesus gives voice to his emotions. He laments on the cross:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAt three o\u2019clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, \u2018<em>Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?<\/em>\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">which is translated, \u2018My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u2019\u201d [Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He who was everything <em>had<\/em> everything taken away from Him. He who\u00a0was perfect <em>was<\/em> totally misjudged as\u00a0&#8220;sin&#8221; itself. All human solidarity and sympathy was taken away from him and he finally had to walk the journey alone, in darkness, in not-knowing. Hence he used Psalm 22:1 for his lamentation on the cross. How are we to understand Jesus\u2019 troubling cry on the cross?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We must of course keep together two of the seven last words Jesus uttered on the cross:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cFather, into your hands I commend my spirit\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the first word, what we see is Jesus embracing and befriending his brokenness and claiming it as his pain and his cross. In the second word, however, he also put his brokenness under the blessing of the Father. The key, then, to understanding Jesus\u2019 Psalm 22:1 cry is twofold: <em>Embrace your brokenness<\/em>, and <em>give it over to God<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We live in a world broken by injustices. Jesus is teaching us how <em>not to<\/em> cry in \u201cGodless\u201d despair. Having taken flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus\u2019 lamentations are best understood as being in solidarity with those suffering from injustices. And then, even at his death, Jesus showed us how to trust the Father beyond the circumstances. In all this, Jesus is teaching us two valuable spiritual lessons from the cross:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First, he is teaching everyone who is hurting that it is quite appropriate to lament when we suffer, so long as we seriously learn to finally give it over to God.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, if you suffer much from an unfinished symphony in life due to an \u201cunjust\u201d situation, know that Jesus understands and is suffering <em>with<\/em> you. Go talk to him.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The point is, From Jesus\u2019 cry on the cross, and many other gospel stories where those who suffer cry out to God for help, we see a piercing theme, that is, <em>brokenness<\/em> is at the heart of the Gospel story. From brokenness, people need help to move towards hope, to find hope, to live in hope, again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In life, we too, have legitimate lamentations<strong>. <\/strong>Do we not long for someone to share our cross, sometimes? Do we not hope for a better tomorrow? Do we not want to move from lamentation to hope? God, who lives on the margins, knows. To the marginalised, God shows compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jesus, the incarnation of the Word, is the human face of God. The modality by which Jesus reveals God is through <em>compassion<\/em> &#8211; that which sparks hope. It was Jesus\u2019 <em>compassion<\/em> for the brokenhearted and the rejected that drew women and men to Him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Study the word \u201ccompassion\u201d and we get to the heart of God. Why?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Because<\/em> every time you see the word compassion in the Gospel, a miracle took place.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Because<\/em> <em>the<\/em> singular and the defining character of God is compassion.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We turn now to some examples in Scriptures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>i. The Parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10:29-37]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A man is left beaten by robbers. A priest and a Levite pass by in fear that helping the wounded man will leave them ritually impure under the law. The Samaritan becomes the only person free to obey the higher law, to be a neighbour to the wounded, discarded and stranded &#8211; the severely marginalised.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Observe the Samaritan\u2019s spirit of charity at work to create hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Samaritan man does not check the victim&#8217;s ID to see if he qualifies as neighbour; he <em>becomes <\/em>neighbour to him.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Samaritan man does not look into the beaten up man&#8217;s financial background, or does his calculations; he just settles the bills.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Concerning what the Samaritan does, the simple essence is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>he sees;<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>he has <em>com<\/em>passion;<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>he helps.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He uses his own money, his own time, his own energy. That is charity at its best!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He just gets on with what needs to be done to help restore hope in a situation of pain and hopelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He reminds us that talk is cheap. For hope, like love, needs to be more than a concept. It has to be concrete. Which teaches us that talk of \u201cthe love of God\u201d is useless, unless it is something concrete that we can <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">feel<\/span><\/em>, that we can <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">touch<\/span><\/em>, that we can <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">experience<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cLet us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth\u201d [1 John 3:18]. For that is the truth and essence of the Incarnation.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u201cI love you\u201d<\/em> is not so much something you say as something you demonstrate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">People bent low under the system, people who had their God-given dignity trampled on, need to be empowered in a concrete way to find the courage to live life with joy, to be enthused about life again.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the tradition of the Eastern Church, Christ himself is portrayed as the good Samaritan. The badly wounded man lying beside the highway represents all of us \u2013 the wounded humanity. Christ did not pass us by in our hour of need. Instead, he was filled with compassion. He bound up our wounds and brought us home to the Father&#8217;s inn. This marvelous parable is talking about Christ himself. Anyone who takes the Good Samaritan for his example is imitating Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We pause here for just a moment to look deeper into the word compassion and to appreciate its driving force.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[\/to be continued in Part II in the next post.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh, June 2013. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at <span style=\"font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/span><strong>.<\/strong> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. [Luke 2:7, NRSV] [L] \u201cThere is no room for him at the inn.\u201d [M]\u00a0Mother Teresa, from Time Photos. [R]\u00a0 The Good Samaritan. \u201cGod lives <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1882\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. [Luke 2:7, NRSV] [L] \u201cThere is no room for him at the inn.\u201d [M]\u00a0Mother Teresa, from Time Photos. [R]\u00a0 The Good Samaritan. \u201cGod lives&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7090,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions\/7090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}