Unable to Identify

God’s ultimate act of evangelism was the incarnation of Jesus: “the Word became flesh and blood moved into the neighbourhood” (John 1:14). What is so powerful about this is that God became like us, he profoundly and ultimately identified with us both in his life and death. Jesus made himself low that He might raise us up. One of my most profound experiences of evangelism was on the Downtown Eastside during Urban Mission Adventure with CBC. It was pouring rain, no one wanted to go out to do random acts of kindness or prayer walk or anything. I had hated feeling like a tourist for the past two days and was a bit grumpy. Our team leader told us we were going to go give out cookies. “Great,” I thought cynically, “these people are broken, bleeding, and dying down here and we are going to save them with cookies.” I deliberately put on a sweatshirt and a thick plaid over-shirt, neither the least bit waterproof, and we set out to give out cookies. Pretty soon, with rain streaming down my face, my hair soaked, and the wet starting to penetrate through my layers of clothing, I suddenly started tasting, ever so slightly, one of trials of being down, there the challenge of staying warm and dry. The wetter and colder I got, the happier I was to give away cookies, the happier I was to eat a cookie, the more meaning I found in the whole experience. Because I was, with increasing integrity, able to say more than just “here’s a cookie” I was able to say through my actions “I am here with you, in this cold, wet, miserable place and I have I left the comfort of my home to be here with you, to experience this and to bring goodness, in the form of a cookie.” This experience has profoundly shaped my understanding evangelism as requiring incarnation. I cannot evangelize from a position of power and otherness, I have to identify with people, I have to move into the neighbourhood, I have to feel their pain and then I am able to with integrity share good news with friends. I have to prove that the good news can be for them with my life before my words have meaning. My first challenge is always to identify with those I serve, when I am unable or unwilling to identify with them, to be with them, to live like them, how will they ever believe that my words apply to their lives?

First Corinthians 9:22-23:

²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 

Will I become weak?

(Photo by roland)