"No matter what else you were doing before you came here," Abel told us, "this week you were following in the footsteps of Jesus."
Our group sat around a dinner table with Abel, the Director of Hand in Hand Ministries. After our week together over February break building a house for Dorla and her daughter Darsha, Abel told us about all the good we had done and all the hope we had brought. On this last night of our service trip, Abel told us how the hope and goodness we brought would have a ripple effect far beyond what we could imagine. His words echoed in our hearts.
Last weekend on Palm Sunday, our students hosted a Belizean lunch. They shared the images of the trip that most stuck out to them- of Dorla asking once the four walls were up, "Can I sleep here tonight?", and of the "Welcome" sign that Dorla and Darsha made with leftover concrete at the bottom their new steps. But the most consistent sharing from the students? How hard it was to come back to Brandeis. How deep of a community we had built, and how each of us resonated with Abel's words that- for this week- we had truly followed in the footsteps of Jesus.
How had we followed in the footsteps of Jesus? On the one hand, we had experienced a deep sense of community. In our modern technological world, we are often far too attached to our gadgets and social media. But as Jesus embodied, community is incarnational.
Besides community, two other things run through all of Jesus' ministry: prayer, and service.
"Now during those days he [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them... He came down with them and stood on a level place...They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases." (Luke 6: 12-13, 17-18)
In his ministry, the first things Jesus does are call disciples, and spend time in solitude and prayer. From a place of God-centeredness, Jesus creates intentional community, and goes out to serve the "least of these."
Community for Jesus wasn't limited to his disciples and followers. In the gospels, Jesus spends most of his time with the outcasts, the "sinners", the tax collectors, and those on the margins. Jesus consistently is found with the poor, the sick, and the hungry. Jesus simply goes to the "least of these," eats with them, sleeps with them, and lives with them- even when he is criticized for doing so by those in power.
The pattern of Jesus' ministry is clear- prayer, community, service.
On our service trip, we started each day together with a morning devotional. Most of our day was spent at the worksite with each other and with Dorla's family. We worked on building a home, but more importantly spent time connecting with Dorla and her family. In the evening, we reflected on our day together.
In other words, the rhythm of our days was spent in this Jesus pattern- prayer, community, service.
In any academic setting, it can be easy for ideas about social justice and solidarity with the poor to stay "heady" at the intellectual level. The radical thing about Jesus is that he not only talks a good game, but lives it. This is why Christianity is incarnational.
This Holy Week, death has been too ever-present in our minds and in our world with the bombing in Brussels. Together, we grieve that God's name was used to incite violence, hatred, and fear. In a world where God's name is used as a weapon, disembodied faith has little power.
That is why following in the footsteps of Jesus is so radical and counter-cultural. Jesus embodies a three-fold way of life: prayer, community, service.
Incarnational community is not always easy. During Holy Week, the community that Jesus is with abandons him, betrays him, and denies him. On the third day, when the grieving disciples discover that Jesus has risen, Jesus meets them with peace and forgiveness. Jesus embodies the unconditional, agape love that he taught. He doesn't just preach it. Jesus embodies forgiveness even when he is beaten, flogged, mocked, condemned, and executed on a cross. This is why, for me, no greater example of love is found than in the person of Jesus. Jesus gave up his life for his friends. Through the power of love and forgiveness, Jesus restores a broken, fractured community.
Amidst an often isolating and autonomous culture, seeking to follow in the footsteps of Jesus is challenging. Taking time to connect with God, be intentional about community, and minister in the difficult places of life- of pain, hurt, and even of death- is not easy. Yet "only near the poor" says Richard Rohr, "in solidarity with suffering, can we understand ourselves, love one another well, imitate Jesus, and live his full Gospel. Jesus did not call us to the poor and to the pain only to be helpful; he called us to be in solidarity with the real and for own transformation." (1) On the last night of our trip, our group began to realize that though we had come to be of service and transform lives, we were the ones that had paradoxically been transformed.
Looking back on our week together, I picture Dorla's grin as we join hands for her house blessing. I hear Darsha's irrepressible joy and laughter. I know one house won't change the world. I know one house won't solve all injustice. But for one family, and for one group of college students, this one house brought us together and changed us in ways we never would have imagined. For me, nothing is more powerful.
At Easter time, this is the embodied, incarnational, resurrection faith of Jesus- faith that manifests as prayer, community, and service, always adding more love and forgiveness.
1- Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer (Paulist Press: 2014), 48, 52-53.