What makes us who we are? That is the age old question seemingly demanding an answer that comes down on one side of the “nature or nurture” argument. Are we biology or are we psychology? Are we genetic or are we environmental?
Personally I find this a silly question. Who among us isn’t all of these….and more? Yes, we have Grandma’s eyes, Dad’s temperament, Grandpa’s athleticism, and, somehow, even Aunt Martha’s sardonic wit. From where did we get such? Despite all this, is there not a part of us that no one in the family present or future seems to have had or have? There is a definite uniqueness to us even as we share biological and psychological material.
Part of our environment that shapes us is culture. Americans are different than Europeans. The difference travels the range from certain values to how we utilize our knives and forks when eating.
Okay, so much for the safe stuff. When I said European, you immediately thought of white Europeans, did you not? As I wrote it I did as well, even knowing where I intend to go with this writing. Yet, we know, Europe, like the US is changing racially. The popular street food in Berlin, Germany is a Turkish Doner. New threads are being added into the material that is Europe. Additional color is woven into the fabric that is the US.
This is threatening to many. It is threatening to many who are white. It is threatening to some of color who have long assimilated into the cultural milieu. New people of any race or land bring change. They always have. Growing up in a town of primarily German ancestry, the ethnic foods I ate in the 50’s and 60’s were pizza, spaghetti, and chilli con carne; hardly food from the Rhineland.
So far, so good? Allow me to go a bit deeper than carbohydrates and spice and march right into culture and the Christian faith. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican is a painting of God by Michelangelo. What amazing frescos decorate that ceiling! God in this painting is white. Does this offend you? It may offend some. Yet, for God to be the God of traditional European and Americans there needs to be some understanding, or at least some hope, that God knows something of what it likes to be us. And “us” are shaped by many things; including our cultures.
So, then, can we not also say, if God is not black, if God is not Asian, if God is not Native American, Arabic, or Latino, etc, God is not fully incarnational? God is not fully one of us and one with us? If part of who we are is determined by our culture, does God need to be somehow one who knows what it is like to inhabit one’s culture?
The first time I ever saw a Jesus who was not white was in an Episcopal church in Lahina, Maui, Hawaii. A colorful mural above the altar had a scene of the nativity. There as dark skinned Polynesians were Mary, and the baby Jesus. Mary was not wearing white or blue but a Ti leaf Hawaiian skirt and a floral lei.
I had one year of seminary down at this point, and had to think about this painting. I looked around. It was a very diverse congregation gathering that Sunday as one might expect in Hawaii. Manifold races and ages lined up for communion in front of this artwork. The late actor Brian Keith was in the line so the diversity included the famous and the anonymous.
Regardless of color, this Jesus was for all. Yet each of us have a need for this Jesus to be fully one with us. And, of course, we need to remember the first century Jewish Jesus was not white in our understanding of race. Is your understanding of Jesus broad enough to embrace a Jesus who may look like you and also may look quite different from you? Is mine?
With Black History month in the rearview mirror, can we carry on some of its learnings into the rest of the 11 months? In Lent can we repent of the belief that somehow we and those like us have sole possession of Jesus…or at least “more” of Jesus? Can we envision a Jesus so expansive that our understanding of grace is both more powerful and more greatly shared? In our ever-changing culture, can we then turn this understanding into a love for those different from us who are more contributing to than they are taking away from the current culture? Might we be able to lift our sights and wonder what God might be up to in creating this new blend? Or will we hide behind our white Jesus in fear and isolation?
Wonder about this for Lent. Think about this for Lent. Pray about it. Pray for your response to be a loving response. It seems to me Jesus in any color would will this. This Jesus came to earth to be fully one of us and one with us. While like us, Jesus is yet above us leading us all to a different and better way. Jesus also makes us who we are, but more importantly, who we are becoming.