Community Engagement
Last week I reflected on the question “What is our theology of community engagement?” I focused on the importance of the word “with.” I wondered if instead of asking ourselves “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD) we might ask “Who would Jesus be with?” (WWJW). I promised I would continue to “think out loud” on the theology of community engagement, so let’s take another step.
The question “Who would Jesus be with?” leads us to the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, our belief in the union of God with humanity in Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word,” we read in the prologue of John’s gospel, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:1, 14)
The central importance of the Incarnation is clear each time we recite the Nicene Creed. In the Creed we claim that Jesus is divine: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” Yet this does not mean God the Son is distant from us. Quite the opposite, Jesus is intimate with us. “For us and for our salvation,” we say, “he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.” This truth is so profound and mysterious it is common for people to bow as these words are recited, marking them with particular reverence.
In his brief overview of The Episcopal Church, A People Called Episcopalians, John Westerhoff writes: “Ours is an incarnational faith. We believe that the extraordinary is to be found in the ordinary. We affirm life in this world and believe that the body, pleasure, and material reality are fundamentally good. This means that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God. … Part of God’s creation, we are made in the image of God. What matters is what we do with and how we care for these gifts. We are to honor them, care for them, and share them will all people.”
Community engagement is our response to the gift of the Incarnation. We do not simply proclaim this doctrine; we live it. Whenever and wherever we see God’s creation exploited and abused. Whenever and wherever we see people dehumanized and stripped of their dignity. Whenever and wherever we see, in the words of one of the baptismal promises, “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” Whenever and wherever we see any of this and so much more, we bear witness to the presence of God. We may not be able to fix a problem or right an injustice. There may not be much we can do or accomplish (though we must keep trying!). Yet by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can always show up, incarnating Christ’s love, grace and compassion in the world.
As the great 16th century mystic St. Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body but yours. … Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are [Christ’s] body. Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. You are the eyes with which [Christ] looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”