Justice & Humility

Becoming Learners Like Jesus

I’ve been noticing a pattern recently - US male pastors announcing that they’re leaving Twitter (while holding onto other social media accounts) because “Twitter is becoming too toxic”.

Quite coincidentally, these announcements and pronouncements usually come after these pastors find their theological / ecclesial frameworks and heroes critiqued by people of colour and survivors of sexual / clergy abuse - especially with Twitter uniquely being a level playing field where people without power can directly ask questions to those in power.

Another pattern I’ve been noticing lately is advocates for racial justice (both white & non-white) being shut out as soon as conversations on racial justice start to make our white brothers & sisters with power uncomfortable.

One recent example of this - a Professor of two decades at Florida’s Palm Beach Atlantic University who has taught about racial justice there for over a decade being in danger of losing his job after parents of some students complained about him “indoctrinating students” (something strongly denied by many of his students). This is incredibly disappointing to me as someone who spoke at this University’s ‘Faith & Justice Week’ Chapel services in 2019.

I’ve experienced this firsthand too by being disinvited to spaces and shut out of speaking opportunities (both in the US & Canada) after my own racial awakening in 2020 - when event organizers and church leaders didn’t like the questions on racial justice I was asking on social media (even though they appreciated things I said on systemic justice issues in other countries).

I understand why these church leaders would want to disengage from voices that call us to repentance and reparative justice. No one likes discomfort.

But I can’t help but wonder if this is also because of where we North American evangelicals get much of our theological frameworks from - colonial settlers who took the posture of ‘teachers’ instead of the humble posture of ‘learners’ with their indigenous neighbours. I’ve particularly appreciated learning from Dr. Willie James Jennings’ book ‘The Christian Imagination’ and my friend, Rev. Dr. David Harvey’s recent sermon on this.

I say this as a western evangelical but much of western evangelicalism today arguably encourages a posture of “teaching” and “having all the answers” instead of taking a posture of humility and learning from those without power and privilege. In fact, I’ve heard Catholic, Orthodox and non-Christian friends often tragically describe us evangelicals as “people who display a lack of curiosity and seem to have all the answers”.

Perhaps, this is also why generally speaking, we western evangelicals are very comfortable with exporting much-needed resources to the majority world but slow to import majority world theology (where the Church is actually growing because the Spirit is moving) to the west. In fact, being in western Christian academic spaces - I often pick up a sense of ‘theological supremacy’ that many of our American brothers & sisters feel over majority world theology.

I once heard a seminary professor (a retired missionary himself) say, “The majority world desperately needs our theology”. To which my first gut reaction was - “Wait a second, their churches are rapidly growing while ours are dying. Don’t we need their theology?”

Perhaps this is also why a lot of rich majority world theology is often condescendingly dismissed as ‘liberation theology’ because of its overt focus on justice for marginalized peoples.

The irony of all this however is the life and person of the incarnated Son of God on earth.

Here’s my argument: Jesus (while being a divine teacher who has all the answers) did not come to dwell among us as a ‘teacher’. In fact, he came as a ‘learner’.

He came not as King (even though he is the King of kings), but as a servant to all.

He came not as a ruler (even though he rules the earth at the right hand of the Father), but as a baby - utterly dependent on the nourishing of his mother.

He came not as someone who bragged about having all the answers (even though he does), but as someone who constantly asked questions.

So if Jesus came as a humble learner, what’s stopping those of us with power, influence and affluence from taking a similar learning posture with our brothers & sisters who may have something to teach us with their unique life experiences?

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I know that there’s some discomfort that comes with reading and engaging with my work but thank you for leaning in with a ‘learning posture’ of humility and curiosity. Justice Jesus’ way is deeply uncomfortable because it upsets the old order of things to usher in God’s new creation - while costing us something. So know that you’re in good company.

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