What if Jesus isn't an American?

POST BY MATT MCCOY

3 minute read

And now, a few months after the race riots began, what do we do next?  What do our churches do next?  How do we pursue the common good of our neighborhood and pay attention to what God is doing there? 

I believe it is vital for the American Church listen to voices from the Global Church as we discern how to pursue racial reconciliation in the next several months.  I also believe we need to practice small, simple steps, with people from the neighborhood, in order to help cultivate Shalom.  I hope and pray that you and your church would give serious consideration to joining us on this seven month journey. 

As I read the book of Ruth, I’m often struck by the absence of God’s voice, angels, or miraculous signs pointing the main characters in the direction they should go.  Ruth pledges her life to Naomi (1:16-17) without God telling her to do it, Ruth finds the field belonging to Boaz (2:3) without an angel pointing the way, and Ruth and Boaz get engaged (3:9-11) without a miraculous sign.  

And, hey, right now, in this season of social upheaval, I am also often struck by the absence of God’s voice, angels, or miraculous signs pointing us in the direction we should go.  Even though the upheaval is less, have the underlying issues gotten better?  What do we do next?  What can be done during a pandemic AND a polarizing election?  I would love for God’s voice to be louder right now, I would love to see angels a bit more often, and I feel like I could use a miracle pointing me where to go. 

Yet Ruth, the Immigrant Moabite, was the way God was discipling the citizens of Bethlehem, showing them how to walk in the direction God is walking.  This outsider who was invisible to the women of Bethlehem when she arrived (1:19-21) would quickly become an example of the Abrahamic covenant to the community (2:11-12).  This international embodied example of the Abrahamic covenant sure seems like a big deal here. 

Artwork by Pauline Moncada. Her beautiful illustrations are available on Etsy.

Which leads me to this question:  

What if God wants to use international embodied examples to disciple the American Church on how to walk in the direction God is walking right now?  

Or, to phrase it more simply…

How would we live differently if we really believed that Jesus isn’t an American? 

Spring Church is opening up an online community of individuals, churches, community groups, quarantine pods, and families to join a seven month ‘community of practice’ to follow the example of the Global Church as we learn how to “Heal our Broken Humanity.”  

Healing our Broken Humanity is a seven-part video series, exploring the themes and practices necessary in order to cultivate Uncommon Friendship as we pursue the common good in our neighborhoods.  By listening to non-Americans, we can get beyond the divisive “red/blue” language and cultivate a new language which honors the vocation of the Global Church in our neighborhood.  

One goal for this group, if I were going to reuse a popular slogan from a few decades ago, would be:

Another way to phrase that goal would be this:   “Uncommon Friendship and Common Discipleship” requires us to cultivate a language that is hospitable and true.  I want the Global Church to teach us how to talk honestly about ourselves and our neighborhoods and cultivate specific practices around being peace-making people.

If you want to check this out and see if hearing from the Global Church can help you connect to your neighborhood, please consider logging into the webinar on Thursday 10 September at 6:30pm.  Dr. Graham Hill, an Australian theologian has spent decades discovering what Jesus is up to in parts of the world often overlooked by the white, western church.  He also created the video series this group will be following, and wrote the book that forms much of our small group curriculum.

He’ll be joined by two friends from Spring Church, Ali Raetz and Tracy Imbach, to give people a taste of a “Jesus isn’t American” conversation, and to discover why this video series and this curriculum with these people is a great way for us to discern how we can enter into the American racial turmoil with grace, hope, and love.  

Future generations will study what happened in 2020, and they'll ask what we did as individuals and as communities in response to the world around us.  What will we tell them?