Randy S. Woodley
Director of Intercultural and Indigenous Studies
Jesus, the 1st century Palestinian Jew, is often too quickly seen through our own cultural lenses as a 21st century American who “blesses” our values and worldview. As we examine the culture when Jesus walked the earth, we need to learn to take off our Western cultural lenses and adopt a more Indigenous lens. By doing so, a whole new set of values are available to us like: cooperation instead of competition; corporate good as opposed to individual improvement; sharing and generosity out of need instead of greed and the American dream. To be Indigenous is to be from and of the land. To be Indigenous is to be in symbiotic relationship with the land. Jesus, a brown skinned tribal man, was Indigenous. One of the primary values of Jesus we most often miss is how to live on the earth. When we speak of Indigenous spirituality and culture it always begins with an understanding of the land.
More and more followers of Christ are realizing God expects Jesus to inhabit all of our lives and our entire world. Young people are not satisfied with just waiting until “we all get to Heaven” to live like Jesus. People are interested in community and those values that once set Jesus and early Christianity apart from the world. Indigenous people who still maintain Indigenous values can show us the clearest examples of how to live like Jesus in our current context. Indigenous people see through a different lens–one that the dominant Western culture really needs in order to express Jesus to the world and to equip a new generation.
In Luke 15 Jesus shares three parables about how to view the shalom community he was re-introducing; the lost sheep, the lost coin; and the lost sons. Each parable had social and cultural implications concerning living on the land at that time. Each parable had a missional imperative, especially for the poor and disenfranchised. Each parable ended with a party in which everyone, regardless of their “lost” disposition, along with the found, shared in the joy of love and blessed community.
Living WITH the land, and our covenant on the land and with Creator, others and all creation, is the lived experience and accumulated knowledge, wisdom and understanding of Indigenous people that separates us from others. If we ignore Indigenous people’s understandings of stories such as in Luke 15, we miss some of the most important parts of the story. Followers of Christ need this understanding. This simple ability to replicate this ethic of community is what can envision others to live for Christ. In such a model of community we can tangibly witness and bring much needed hope to others. The world is different now, but wisdom from God is always available to us, especially in places we would not expect to find it.