Half baked reflections: In order to follow Jesus as a Gentiles we have to move toward Israel. We have to read Israel’s stories, central characters, songs, prayers, traditions, conflicts, hopes, and dreams.

This work requires attention and the willingness to endure through confusion, pain, and confliction. In fact, it even cost money to learn these things...hello somebody.

This work actually comes part and parcel with our identity. As I’ve learned from Willie Jennings, to become a Christian is to enter someone else’s story. We don’t lose our story but it takes a new orientation as it’s woven together with Israel’s story.

We don’t lose who we were but it changes and grows through joining with people who were once not our people.

This identity in improv is never ending as we continue to join our lives with people the Spirit is calling us to. In this country, BIPOC followers of Jesus who have ventured into white spaces have been asked to assimilate into whiteness.

We learn your stories, interpretations of the world, we learn your values and adopt your practices, we learn your songs and stories but it was rarely reciprocated. This was a colonial joining that meant death for us. This has to change.

What many of us have failed to see then is that the way we received Christ is the way we continue to live today. The energy & work it takes to follow Jesus of Nazareth and to read and learn scripture, has set a trajectory for how we are to always live in relationship with others

Of course, many of us have handled scripture poorly, standing in perverse judgments, commodifying the text for personal gain, condemning what felt strange to us. This too must change. We are guest not judges. We are learners before we could ever be teachers.