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Be the Bridge Board Member, Dr. Will Gravely hosts this conversation with second-generation Latina pastor, activist, author, leading voice on the intersection of faith and justice, and executive director of Chasing Justice Sandra Van Opstal. They explore the concept of peace, particularly in the context of Advent. They discuss the biblical understanding of peace as shalom, which encompasses wholeness, well-being, and communal flourishing.
Sandra emphasizes the importance of justice as a response to the absence of peace and the role of individuals in making peace within their communities. Sandra shares her experiences in the West Bank, empowering us to truly walk in shalom. They explore the theological barriers that prevent Christians in the west from fully loving their neighbors and talk about importance of understanding suffering in a global context. They connect these themes to the season of Advent, highlighting justice as a central aspect of the gospel message. Don’t miss this powerful episode of the Be the Bridge Podcast!
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Host & Executive Producer – Latasha Morrison
Producer – Sarah Connatser
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Not all views expressed in this interview reflect the values and beliefs of Latasha Morrison or the Be the Bridge organization.
*this was transcribed by Spotify and has not been checked for errors
0:02
Welcome.
To the Be the Bridge podcast, Be the Bridge exists to empower people and culture toward racial healing, equity, and reconciliation.
Latasha Morrison founded Be the Bridge in 2016 to foster needed dialogue and brave spaces and to give people the tools to pursue racial justice.
0:24
We provide resources and community to do just that, and this podcast is one of those resources.
You’ll hear interviews hosted by Latasha and our team, conversations about current events, and encouragement for your racial literacy journey.
Thank you for listening, subscribing and engaging in this important work.
0:46
Hello, Be the Bridge community.
I’m Doctor Will Gravely and I have the honor and privilege of serving on the board of Be the Bridge under our incredible leader, Latasha Morrison.
And today we want to welcome you to our Advent series and this particular podcast episode on peace.
1:03
And so our special guest today is actually returning to the Be the Bridge podcast.
And so I want to introduce you all or reintroduce you to Sandra von Opstel.
And so Sandra, we are so grateful that you’re joining us here again.
And so we would love for you to reintroduce yourself to our community and let us know what your work is looking like these days or in this season.
1:27
Yeah, it’s great to be back with you all.
Now, since it is Advent, most of my work is running from, you know, child’s Christmas concert to other child Christmas concert.
But I am still here on the West side of Chicago, pastoring in a community that’s partially immigrant community, partially African American community.
1:46
So that’s my local context of neighboring and pastoring and being.
And then I am still the executive director and founder of Chasing Justice, which is a movement that’s looking to help emerging leaders intersect their love for Jesus and their love for justice.
2:03
Love it and thank you so much for your work and your roots even in the Chicago area.
And so you are incredible.
Author, pastor, activist, I mean the list goes on in your writing endeavors.
You made a post last year describing peace as this notion of collective flourishing.
2:22
And there’s this also definition of connotation in your writing about liberation and healing, right?
And So what do you think in our American context that we are missing in our idea of peace?
Yeah, it’s, it’s funny when people are like, oh, you posted this.
2:38
I’m like, I did know, what did I say?
So I’m glad that I’m glad that you refreshed me on what it is that I wrote.
For sure.
Yes.
The idea of peace, when I think we think about biblical peace or peace as people of faith, it’s rooted actually in the Old Testament word Shalom.
2:56
Obviously the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, so the word Shalom is the word for peace in English.
But the breath of the word Shalom in Hebrew encompasses so much more.
And so it’s this idea of well-being, of wholeness, of completeness, of harmony and prosperity and just that all is well.
3:14
You know, like the song says, it’s well with my soul that all is well.
Not just with my soul, but all is well in the world.
Everything is as it should be.
So whenever we’re in Advent and we talk about peace as a family, I tell my my two young sons, I tell them peace is the idea that everything is as it should be, as creator created it to be.
3:36
And where things are not that way, that’s where we have to seek peace and make peace.
And so that is this idea that’s coming from the Old Testament.
And then in the New Testament, similarly in Luke acts, the word that’s used for our English word salvation, that’s translated salvation actually has a broader meaning.
3:58
It means not only deliverance like you know how as we think of salvation, as you know, one day we’ll be with heaven, in heaven, with God, but it’s, it’s not just deliverance, it’s actually liberation as described in Luke 4 when Jesus gives his inaugural speech and it’s healing and it’s flourishing again.
4:16
This idea that the world is as it should be and that when the Prince of Peace is reigning and ruling, that we will have full completeness, well-being, and wholeness with God, with one another, with our creation.
4:33
And that the systems that we create in the world that we live in is as it should be and was intended to be.
So that’s, I think what that post was getting at.
We constantly talk about that in our Advent devotional and the work that we do throughout the year, that really this longing we have in our heart is actually for peace.
4:54
It’s for Shalom.
The longing isn’t for justice.
Justice is because peace is not.
So we pursue justice because there is no peace.
And one day there’ll be no need to pursue justice because everything will be as it should be.
That’s good.
Excellent.
5:10
So you talked about this Old Testament rooting of Shalom, even this New Testament understanding of liberation and not just deliverance.
And so this next piece was kind of leaning in toward what does it mean to be a person of peace?
And so you gave this beautiful framework that justice is only necessary because peace is lacking, right?
5:29
And so the ultimate goal is not even justice as we know it.
It’s actually peace that everything is as God creator intended it to be.
And you highlighted some great scripture, right, This Old Testament broad connotation, but also lifted Luke 4 and even some context and acts.
5:47
What do you think the difference is in our typical understanding of peace as far as what the typical churchgoer understands versus what it means to actually be a person that leans into making the world in the form of the way that it should be, right?
And some of the language around that is either peacekeeping or peace making, right?
6:07
Some folks have a goal to keep the peace, which can kind of feel like going along to get along.
But like, what are your thoughts about making peace?
Making peace?
Yeah, well, I I believe that is the invitation for us as image bearers of God that when we live in the world, while there is no peace, we are called to actually be peace and make peace where we are.
6:30
I think of it like the first image that came to mind for me was that of Ephesians 2, which I know be the bridge, you know, is really rooted in that idea coming from Ephesians 2.
But when it says that Christ has come, that Christ came to be our peace, the description is to break down the dividing wall of hostility and to make from 2:00 men or two being 2 communities 1.
6:58
And so when we are people of peace, I think our fragrance and our essence should be that wherever we are, we are like Christ was in that sense breaking down the dividing wall of hostility.
And if our peace that we’re living and if our peace that we’re being, and if our peace that we’re making is not addressing hatred and hostility and division, then it actually isn’t peace at all.
7:29
And so I think what we’re missing is the communal part of it.
So I think a lot of times when people use the word peace, I mean, I’m a pastor, so I hear, you know, I just want to do this thing, but I just want to have a peace about it.
I’m like, I have no idea what that means.
Like I’m a heavy feeler.
So I know it that I’m a very intuitive.
7:45
So I, I get it, like in my God, I feel good about this decision, but that’s not actually what scripture is talking about.
What scripture is talking about is that the decisions that we make in life and the way that we live in life is in a way that recognizes that when we make decisions, we affect not only the people around us, but the community around us and the whole world.
8:07
And that when we make choices, we do that with, with that in mind.
So if I’m going to have peace about a choice that I’m making, I need to go, wow.
This choice that I’m making is affecting not only me and my family, but families all over the world.
How I spend my money, where I spend my money, where I invest my money, is actually choosing the flourishing of all people, not just mine.
8:32
Oh, very good.
Right.
Yeah, it’s different.
So that’s a challenge.
It’s a challenge in the West, right, because it’s a very individualistic mindset.
And so you expanded our perspective about peace as far as it’s not just about community, it’s a lifestyle of consideration, right?
8:49
So I wanted to go like one step deeper.
When we talk about living peace, being peace, making peace, right, and tearing down this wall of hostility in the pattern of Christ, what does it look like when that wall begins to fall down?
But we find hostility not just in the place of the wall, but in the people on the proverbial other side.
9:08
Can you talk about peace as a transformative power, or just what we can do not to just take down the divide, but to start to build community where there once was a divide?
Yeah, so I grew up in a Catholic tradition and and that’s I was sharing with someone this morning that that was just so I was actually thinking about it all morning long.
9:29
Like why has that been so important to me?
Why is the lineage of Jesus so important to me?
Why is why do I have this like kind of fluttering in my heart around Advent?
And it was because I grew up in a tradition that really centered the lineage of Jesus and the story of Jesus.
9:45
And so I was thinking about that I’m, I mean, I consider myself a reform acostal today.
You know, I’m kind of a mixture of Pentecostal reform, but the lineage that I have the, the experience that I had as a Latina within the Latina Catholic Church, we had a practice that we had with one another.
10:03
And so we would do something called pass the peace and we would shake hands.
I mean, I think in a lot of American, white American churches, you shake hands with in Latina churches, you hug.
So you would hug your neighbor, like embrace them and say, you know, La Paz de Cristo, you know, like the peace of Christ be with you.
10:21
And then when we would say that to each other and you would embrace each other kind of you’re saying like the wholeness of God, be with you, the completeness of God be with you, the tranquility of God be with you, the healing of God be with you, the flourishing of God be with you.
10:37
So if you have a practice of of putting your arms around another human being and saying, may the tranquility and flourishing of God be with you and in our culture, with you and your family, with you and your little ones that are holding on to your legs right now in church, right then you’re then the idea or the thought is I’m going to live in a way that chooses not only my flourishing, but your flourishing.
11:03
So I believe part of it is that our worship practices, our liturgies shape how we view other people’s peace.
I didn’t, I don’t see that a lot in many of our churches that our worship and our liturgy shapes the way that we see our neighbors peace.
11:22
So I think that’s missing from our understanding.
If on Sunday mornings we were to hug one another and say, may the completeness of the Lord Jesus be with you, and there were things happening in our world that were affecting their humanity, we might actually advocate for their humanity.
11:43
So I think that liturgical practice is actually very important and I think it has shaped in many, I mean, many Lithia churches still have that tradition.
We just don’t pass the peace, but we say something else.
But I think once we cross that wall, quote, UN quote, you know, that that it maybe we’re thinking about intellectual difference, but we actually put ourselves in in the same location and in proximity with our neighbor to say, wow, this mom raising her 210 year old boys like me raising my 210 year old boys, just going through something totally different than I am and she’s experiencing life differently than I am.
12:25
What would it look like for peace to flow in her family this Christmas as I watch the news and I’m watching what’s happening in Syria along what’s happening in Congo and Palestine.
And I’m asking and we’re praying as a family the the flourishing of our Creator God be in that place.
12:44
Then our actions must line up with our prayers for our prayers to have integrity.
Yes, yes, wow.
So there was a lot of rich wisdom here, right?
So that peace is not just a lack of grievances or an absence of grievances with one another relationally, it’s the fullness and the presence of God.
13:06
He talked about this rich tradition of passing the peace and just not only what that means culturally, but how it fosters a sense of community.
I have to have a collective sense of consideration even as I’m praying and be a participant in the answer, so to speak to those prayers to really understand what peace and passing the peace is about.
13:25
I think I was incredible and we’re grateful for that.
You, you mentioned briefly a notion of what we’re seeing in other countries.
And so I wanted to raise up the, the tensions in the West Bank right now.
And, and so you have been there and, and you, you carry the stories of these incredible folks.
13:44
Are you able to share any stories in particular or maybe just some ideas or things that you witnessed from the Palestinian people that would foster a greater pursuit?
Like you talked about us being a part of our answered prayers and walking out our prayers, right?
Like being a person that pursues peace and how to show up in the world right where we are.
14:03
Learning lessons from over there.
Yeah, Christmas is a very interesting time to be processing what is happening in the land where Jesus was born, was persecuted, was chased down since his childhood, right.
So every night we practice, we we do it the Jesse tree with our kids or, you know, some people have Advent blocks, that kind of thing.
14:29
And every night we talk about these people that were born and these people that lived.
And last night we talked about rehab and Jericho.
And I said to the boys, I was just in Jericho a couple weeks ago, and I shared with them what I saw.
And I was thinking to myself, what has been very powerful for me in listening to the stories of Palestinian Christians and their neighbors is that they’re physically in the land where we’re reading our scriptures from.
15:00
And sometimes as Western Christians, we take Jesus out of his space and place to make him American.
And so I think that’s one thing I’ve really been thinking about is I’ve been processing like, wow, these are Christians over there going like, where’s the American church for us?
15:20
Where’s the American church?
We’re the, we’re the people of the land of Jesus.
And for some of them, their churches date back to 400.
So they date back to like the early church, you know, and entire family lines and entire churches are being bombed and erased and they’re asking us where we’re at.
15:41
So when I went in May and I was a, a, part of a gathering, a solidarity gathering, meeting with different organizations and peacemaking communities across Israeli Jews, Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims that were working in, in peacemaking and, and a very difficult time in May, right in the middle of many, many months of, of conflict and, and loss.
16:07
And what we heard them say was we’re going to be at war as long as American Christians want us to be at war.
Wow, wow.
And I just person after person, background after background, didn’t matter ethnicity or or class or anything.
16:23
They also the same thing.
We have influence in what’s happening there.
But there seem to be there seem to be some hope that maybe something could be done.
When I was just there now in November, I heard one pastor advocate and 1 Bishop both say now is not a time for hoping.
16:45
Now is the time for suffering.
It’s not Saturday.
I mean, it’s Saturday.
Sorry.
It’s not Resurrection Sunday.
It’s Saturday.
Got.
It got.
It and so we’re just trying to survive.
And it really impacted me because from May to November, I saw the erasure of a lot of hope.
17:07
And so there’s much more I could share about that time.
But I think what I’m holding in my heart this Advent and this season as a as a person who loves Jesus and who wants to see the flourishing for all people is in particular for the people that live in the spaces and places and breathe the air in the place where Jesus would have been breathing air at the at the church.
17:28
You know, the supposed, the church, the church, the nativity where Jesus was born, the location where Jesus was born.
Isn’t it interesting that they feel so invisible to us?
Yeah, Now you gave us some incredible perspectives from that side of the world, and I use that loosely and generously.
17:48
We’re a human family.
I’m just talking about location there, right?
Why?
Why do you think American Christians in particular are so capable of easily compartmentalizing our understanding of peace, The scope of peace, the scope of hope?
It seems like if we’re engaged in peacemaking or pursuing justice, it has to be tangential to our own well-being.
18:12
What is that right?
Like, why don’t we consider our sisters and brothers, even of the faith in the same place where Jesus lived and dwelled?
Why don’t we see ourselves connected to that more deeply?
What?
What do you think that is?
I used to think it was proximity.
18:29
OK.
And I do think that there is something to be said for singing the Lord’s Prayer with a Palestinian woman friend who I’ve got to know over days as I heard the story of her family all dying or family that lives in Gaza all dying.
18:50
There’s something to be said for sitting in a room when when a young adult, you know, someone in their early 20s stands up and says, I don’t know how to forgive.
I cannot forgive while the bombs are still dropping.
You know, I there’s something to be said for being in the room and feeling.
19:09
Yeah, I’m going to tell you what I felt in the room I felt in November.
I told.
I came back and I told my husband I felt what I feel on the West side of Chicago.
When I hear black mothers cry out, enough is enough.
Wow, wow.
Yes, we are.
19:25
Not so far away.
Yes, we are one.
We are one, and yet we are not.
You know, it’s the same sorrow and longing and lament and grief I hear on the border, on the southern border of our country when people are rightfully and legally seeking asylum and they’re being treated and abused like, I can’t even say like animals, because our pets are treated better.
19:54
That part.
And they’re just hoping for someone to see their humanity.
And they’re saying, yes, we yes, the Bible, we are one.
We Bible says that we’re for in Christ.
We are 1 yet, yet we’re not yet we’re not because my children don’t matter to you like your children matter to you.
20:11
And so I think whether it’s native families.
That are screaming out for missing and murdered indigenous women or Asian Americans who are looking for us to see their humanity or you know, people in the I think that idea of like, why do we not matter to you like you matter to you?
20:30
Why are we not one?
Why are we not seen as siblings saying there is something to be to be said for that proximity of like being in that completely uncomfortable, like I was supposed to leave worship after this moment.
20:45
I was like, I don’t even know what to do with that.
Like I, I don’t even know what to do with that.
That’s and, and, and yet I, it felt so familiar.
Completely different context, completely different circumstances, but the feeling felt so familiar, like something I had witnessed at the border on the West side of Chicago, on a college campus where where Christians are saying they want us to pretend that we’re one big happy family, and yet they don’t care when our histories are erased.
21:18
Wow.
What do I do with that?
Wow.
And so pastorally I felt like, oh God, the call is still unity, but what do I do with that?
The call is still peace making, but what do I do with that?
Because yes, I agree.
I agree the the abuse is consistent and yet what do we do?
21:35
How so?
I think proximity I would say is still an important thing.
OK.
But I do believe that it’s actually our theology that keeps us from loving our neighbor.
I believe that it’s our theology that is written in our books that is rehearsed in our worship songs.
21:57
The the the kinds of if you think about sermon applications, at the end of every sermon, there’s like, So what are you going to do to love Jesus more in your life and with your family?
But the but the actual context of the passage was completely different.
The context of the passage was about a community that was bringing healing to a community, but the application was you and yourself and your own healing.
22:20
I’m like, that’s not even that’s not even what’s in that passage.
It’s bad Bible study.
So I think our theology of individualizing and our theology of self actualizing has kept us from understanding that the biblical call of a Christian is to love our neighbor as we love God.
22:45
Yeah, let’s go.
All right, so let’s talk about that for a second, right?
There’s these theological undertones in the West that are keeping us from following Christ and fulfilling our call as disciples.
And you highlighted it, right?
This theology of individualism, the theology of isolation.
23:01
And the last thing you talked about was this pursuit of success.
What I want to lift up is the tension between, especially in the West, in particular, believers in America, in our pursuit of success versus our acceptance and even pursuit of suffering.
23:18
How how do you hold the tension between making peace, pursuing justice and even in that work, the requirement to endure suffering?
Do you feel like we’re pursuing comfort so deeply that we can’t do the hard work of forming community or we’re pursuing success so swiftly that we are avoiding suffering to, you know, project that picture of success?
23:44
Like what would you say about that?
And I want to ask a follow up question about not just theology, but even like sociology and even the politics and the political lens that has been very unfortunately strong in the church in recent years, right?
But like this notion of suffering and peacemaking, how, how well do they go together?
24:05
How much should we attempt to embrace suffering?
Or why do you think we rejected so much?
A W African brother of mine once said won’t ask about suffering.
He just said I don’t understand the question.
To live is to suffer and to suffer is to live.
And so I want to start with that by saying 99% of the world’s Christians suffer and they don’t suffer just because, for example in my case I had a life threatening surgery and illness last year.
24:32
They don’t just suffer because of illness and disease, they suffer because of structural and systemic injustices and colonization that has been enacted globally by the West, by Europe, by the US economically.
And so I want to say that 99% of the world’s Christians know how to suffer and they know how to suffer and seek peace in their suffering.
24:57
And maybe we ought to ask them, what does it look like to seek make peace and suffer and to seek peace and suffer?
And maybe like that young sister of mine that that screamed out during our conversation, maybe the question is also when, when do you seek peace while the bombs are still dropping, you know, like afterwards, Like, what does that look like for Rwanda?
25:23
Like, I have a young woman that’s in our international fellows for chasing justice, and she’s leading students through peace circles and reconciliation conversations around the Rwandan genocide.
That was in 1994.
And of course, they’re still processing that South Africa with their peace and reconciliation work.
25:41
So I think part of it is the question for us, I think has to be communal, not just individual.
I think Americans, particularly Americans with privilege, whether that’s economic or racial or, or, you know, their status, I think we must ask ourselves, what does it look like to enter into one another’s suffering even when it isn’t at this moment in time, our suffering?
26:08
Where I see that practice more and more in particular is with my own colleagues, with women of color who are doing work in their specific racial and ethnic communities, saying what would it look like for us to come together and actually pursue peace for all of our children in Chicago, not just the Latina children or the black children or the, you know, ex-wife.
26:28
So what does it look like for us to pursue a just education system in which our stories are held and told and not erased and forgotten?
What would that look like in our school system?
And so the, and then, and then to bear one another’s burdens and to suffer alongside of one another as the, as the scriptures call us to.
26:46
So I think primarily we need to ask the question, if I’m not suffering, then and that makes me 1% of the world.
So if I’m the 1% that’s not suffering, what have I done to distance myself, to distance myself from this suffering because it was probably intentional?
27:07
And then I would say you yes, absolutely.
Can I just say yes, the Americans, especially Americans with privilege, have a very hard time suffering because the very presence of our American history is apparently so traumatic for us.
That if it.
27:22
Says that we committed genocide against Native Americans.
We want to take it out of our history books because it makes white children uncomfortable.
I’m like, it makes all of us uncomfortable.
But yet the way to liberation and freedom is through truth.
The way to healing is through repentance.
27:40
And so if we don’t want to feel uncomfortable, then what?
How can we follow Christ?
Oh, well, let’s just talk about our greed.
Let’s talk about American consumption, the amount that we consume and the amount that we waste and how things like our consumption and fast fashion impact the entire coast of West Africa.
28:02
You know, communities in Guatemala and wherever else we’re dumping like all the excess clothes from Walmart and Target and every and Shan and Everything Everywhere else.
So our consumption is a problem because we don’t care who had to be exploited to make ourselves a pair of cheap flip flops and we wanted them in all colors.
28:25
And then we dispose of them and we don’t want them because they broke easily.
So we just dispose of them and we don’t ask who was affected by our disposal of that item.
So I think, but I mean want to talk to, I mean, who wants to talk about that, William?
Who wants to talk about that?
What pastor wants to get up and say, should we consider that maybe our purchases are impacting our environment and people all over the world?
28:48
No, we don’t want to talk about that.
So we hate it.
We’re never going to bring to the pulpit something that’s going to cause someone to leave their chair or their Pew.
And so therefore, we have given an American gospel that prioritizes yourself and your family, that is about self actualization, that doesn’t concern itself with how your decisions impact others and is all about how the is all about the peace you feel in your heart.
29:18
It’s a it’s it’s a huge discipleship problem.
And that’s why for us, and I’m sure for be the bridge and for chasing justice, we’re like, we got to re disciple people.
We got to help them see scripture.
We have to unlearn something.
And and it’s not to make people feel bad.
29:35
It’s not to to to disrupt, intentionally disrupt things.
It’s not to to judge others.
It’s to invite people to the way of Jesus.
And that’s why you hear Amos over and over again in Amos 5.
Like seek God.
29:52
Yeah.
Hate evil, hate greed, seek good return to God.
It wasn’t judgment for the sake of condemnation.
It was it was an invitation to repentance.
And I think that invitation to repentance is not, it’s just not going to, it’s not going to be a best seller.
30:13
It’s really hard.
You know, it’s really hard to do that right?
It’s.
Not attractive, it’s not.
Attractive, not easy.
And I, I was telling a friend yesterday I was like, I feel like it’s worse in 2024 than it was in 2020.
OK, I feel like we’re less comfortable with discomfort today than we were four.
30:28
Years old, entitled to opt out of it.
Right?
Like, I think, yeah.
Wow.
All right, So let’s let’s kind of summarize the many, many gems that you dropped in this episode, right?
So there’s this theme running through even as we considered peace of consideration, right?
30:45
That there are others around the world, even from a sociological standpoint, the human family, but even from a theological standpoint, sisters and brothers of the faith that are encountering a lack of peace in tangible and violent and destructive ways.
31:00
And some of us are content as long as it’s not us.
So there’s a lack of consideration there.
There’s this notion of praying, detached prayers and individualism, but you pushed us into this understanding of community.
You took us theologically to even consideration in our local worship gatherings and worship services where we recognize the need to pass the peace.
31:22
And it’s not just some token, but it’s literally the presence of God, the fullness of the Lord.
And then even as we step back yet again to creation and even society, that peace is not sort of this lack of tension or hostility, but it is the world created as the creator intended, right?
31:41
And until that is a reality for all, we are to pursue peace, make peace, and ultimately pursue justice until that Shalom is realized.
I’m going to ask you a final question as we wrap up, as we’re in this series of land, as you gave us this rich history and tradition that you have had in your own experience and culture with centering Lent and understanding the story, timeline, and lineage of Jesus, how do you see justice as a part of the story of Advent?
32:09
How do you see the justice that we just discussed as a part of the story and season of Advent itself?
Yes.
The question is how do we understand the gospel message?
Because the story of Advent is the story of a persecuted, marginalized, oppressed community of people waiting for a Messiah.
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Yes.
Who would deliver them?
Yeah.
Who would deliver them and who would speak after so much silence?
And then you get this genealogy in Matthew and you get these.
The opening of John in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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And so you had to ask yourself, what is the gospel message we’re telling ourselves?
And that is why Advent is so important.
The gospel message that we’re telling ourselves that we’re rehearsing on Advent is God is a God who hears the cry of his people.
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God is a God who hears the cry of the oppressed.
God is a guy who will bring.
God is a God who will bring deliverance and flourishing and completeness and healing and deliverance for all.
And that’s the message that we’re holding.
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And so if you look at, you know, like Advent, if you look at the, the stories that lead up to, to Jesus, if you look at the lineage, if you look at the role that women had in the life of Jesus, you see all of these people that were on the outside of society, on the inside of the story being being centered as key figures in the salvation of the world.
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And so I asked my son, that’s what he was maybe like 7.
No, he was 5 when we started chasing justice.
Advent stuff and I, he did one of our chasing justice lighting of the Advent calendar.
And and so he said, you know, we’re celebrating Jesus.
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We’re celebrating the birth of Jesus.
And the good news is that Jesus came to be the savior of the world and to make all things right.
He was 5 when he said that.
And I thought that is a gospel message that includes the pursuit of communal and mutual flourishing.
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If the message of Jesus is Jesus came so that I could have a personal relationship with him, and someday when I die, I can go to heaven, then I will shape my life.
That’s.
Sort of.
Scripture around that message and that is a part of the message, but it is not the whole message so as some would say, it’s kind of like telling the story of Cinderella and you’re running around and all you say is the shoe fits the shoe fits the shoe fits and that’s fantastic the shoe did fit and that was a very important part it was the climax of the story so the death and the.
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Resurrection.
What was it like in her house?
Yeah.
Yeah, the death and the resurrection of Jesus at Easter is the climax, but Advent is the beginning of the story, and it starts with creation and our Savior’s desire to bring wholeness back to creation by giving us a deliverer and a king who has come.
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Yes.
And is coming, and we’ll make all things right.
So that’s why I don’t know how to talk about Advent without talking about justice.
Yeah, thank you.
No.
So friends, be the Bridge listeners and those joining us, perhaps for the first time, we have been exposed to truth in a meaningful and transformative way.
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So, Sandra, thank you for all that you shared with us, sharing your time, sharing your wisdom, sharing your experience, and most importantly, your heart.
And so, friends, even as we are in this Advent season, and as we were even celebrating, looking forward to with almost attention in the air for this coming deliver, I want you to recognize as a follower of Christ, as a follower of the way, someone, somewhere, perhaps groups of people, neighborhoods, and even communities are waiting for you to show up in the true footsteps of the coming deliverer.
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So we love you.
We can’t wait to see you again in the next episode, and we hope that you have a meaningful Advent season.
Thanks for listening to the Be the Bridge Podcast.
To find out more about Be the Bridge and what we offer, visit bethebridge.com.
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Partner with us in this work at bethebridge.com/give.
Connect with us on social media and remember, you are not alone in your pursuit of righteousness and justice.
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