Listening to those with Experience

Kat Armas writes about how those who have been marginalized have a better chance of correctly interpreting the bible’s passages about oppressed people than those who come at the text from privilege (see her keen insights beneath this devotional). Because of their lived experiences, they understand the actual lives and issues of those in the Bible in parallel circumstances.

So when it comes to the experience of Israel coming out of slavery in Egypt, who does that bring to mind as the best interpreters of those biblical passages? Yes, there is a people group in America who has had that experience, and therefore if we want to understand the Exodus account, it would be wise to listen in to what Black Americans are saying.

So here are a few quotes from one of the towering figures of Liberation Theology, James Cone. As he reflects on what the gospel is and what liberation looks like, what feelings and ideas surface for you? Can you hear the learnings and longings of a people who have come out of slavery themselves?

“The scandal is that the gospel means liberation, that this liberation comes to the poor, and that it gives them the strength and the courage to break the conditions of servitude.”
― James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed

“And yet the Christian gospel is more than a transcendent reality, more than “going to heaven when I die, to shout salvation as I fly.” It is also an immanent reality—a powerful liberating presence among the poor right now in their midst, “building them up where they are torn down and propping them up on every leaning side.” The gospel is found wherever poor people struggle for justice, fighting for their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
― James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

“And certainly the history of the black-white relations in this country from the Civil War to the present unmistakably shows that as a people, America has never intended for blacks to be free.”
― James H. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power

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When many of us with varying levels of privilege interact with the Bible’s stories, particularly those of Jesus engaging with marginalized women, we often have to force ourselves into the narrative. I wonder if much of our abuelitas’ theological insight comes from the fact that they can see themselves clearly in the story.

They don’t need to stretch to imagine what it would be like to be the Samaritan woman or the persistent widow. Many of our abuelas know those stories intimately not only because they’ve committed to studying them and their lessons but because oftentimes those stories are about them. What they pass on to us is a knowledge about God that many of us spend our lives trying to obtain from books and conferences. Our abuelitas may be “uneducated” by the dominant culture’s standards, but they possess PhDs in prayer and Bible interpretation.

They may not be ordained as official priests or pastors, but they’ve been playing those roles behind the scenes forever, noticed and called by God.

- Kat Armas, Abuelita Faith