wfn.org | Bible Study Leaders Appeal for "Logic of Grace"

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

12-March-1997 
97109 
 
         Bible Study Leaders Appeal for "Logic of Grace" 
                 at Central American "Encuentro" 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras--A call for Christians to live unfettered by a global 
market that claims to be free but actually enslaves both the rich and the 
poor was the focus of the Galatians-based Bible study at the Presbyterian 
Church's Encuentro here Feb. 13-16. 
 
     Mexican New Testament scholar Elsa Tamez, president of the Latin 
American Biblical Seminary in San Jose, Costa Rica, and New Testament 
scholar Ched Myers of Los Angeles, a Quaker activist, appealed for a "logic 
of grace" in the three-day theological conversation.  The scholars 
critiqued the global economy, which Tamez described as depending on a 
"mortal logic" of  "uncontrolled competition, irrational consumerism" and 
the deliberate exclusion or exploitation of people for profit. 
 
     The way out, the scholars argued, is freeing people to address the 
powers that undergird an economic system that dehumanizes and destroys some 
people, straps others with false needs and puts fear at the center of life 
-- forcing large businesses to compete to survive, pushing middle-class 
workers into several jobs to support themselves and trapping the poorest 
into surviving any way they can. 
 
     "We are all victims and sinners in this logic," said Tamez, describing 
those who fear losing their status and accumulated goods and those who are 
struggling to enter what she describes as a dehumanizing scramble for 
success that runs counter to the "logic of grace" embodied in both the life 
and the death of Christ.  "Jesus Christ, the human face of God, calls us to 
a new logic ... a logic of grace, a logic of infinite love, a logic that 
does not ask for any more sacrifices. 
 
     "Jesus Christ assumed that [sacrifice] for everyone.  Now and 
forevermore. ... The salvation theology of the world says:  Save yourselves 
if you can.'  But this theology," Tamez insisted, "doesn't sacrifice 
anybody." 
 
     Tamez played on the ironies in Paul's letter warning the Galatians 
that those who thought themselves free, like the Jews descended from Sarah, 
are really more enslaved by the law than the cast- out children of the 
real-life slave Hagar.  In Paul's day, she said, even a freed slave lived 
with the stigma of once being a slave.   
 
     "But the freedom alluded to," she said, using the Greek word 
"apolutro" (to redeem), "is very radical," smacking of allusions to the 
exodus from Egypt.  "It is the realization of the right to be human, free 
from any kind of slavery or structure that diminishes human dignity or 
worth," Tamez said.  "It does not exclude politics and the economy, but it 
includes a fundamental awakening of the consciousness to being a free 
person in a free community. 
 
     "This encompasses everything, including racism, sexism, despotism, 
even one's own self.  The only thing that is excluded from this freedom is 
the freedom to enslave, to kill or diminish the dignity of others." 
 
     Paul's letter refuted the notion held in Galatia that Gentiles must 
follow Mosaic law and practice, including ritual acts such as circumcision, 
in order to become Christian. 
 
     Myers called the impact of the unbridled global market "demonic," 
creating oppression for the poor in Central America and addiction for more 
affluent North Americans.  "We are children of the same God.  But we are 
not children of the same history. ... And if we want to be in partnership, 
we'd better understand we have flip sides of the same pathology," Myers 
told North American Presbyterians and their Central American partners.  "We 
have to have courage to name the addiction, courage to name the oppression 
 ... and become a church of recovery and liberation -- become one strong 
body in recovery. 
 
     "The addictiveness of the market is everywhere," he said, noting that 
even those lacking its benefits become addicted to the idea of  being 
affluent.  "We cannot escape.  But we can resist it -- only if we join 
hands." 
 
     Myers repeatedly referred to archetypal moments in the biblical 
narrative to examine contemporary choices: whether Christians, north and 
south, choose to follow the road out of Egypt (freedom) or back into Egypt 
(slavery) or whether Christians choose to follow the transformative path of 
the convert Paul -- "transformed by the only power able to change a Saul 
into a Paul [Jesus Christ]" or stay locked in the lethal legalisms that 
once enslaved Saul. 
 
     "In the first world, we read Galatians ... and the notion of freedom 
is simply abstract," said Myers, pointing out that North Americans do not 
realize how they are enslaved because they choose to believe otherwise. 
"What do we do when Jerusalem has become Egypt?  It is Jerusalem in name 
but Egypt in practice.  Free in name.  Enslaved in reality," said Myers, 
adding that biblical faith simply calls for an exodus, for a repentance 
that is a radical turning around. 
 
      "In the Jerusalem of name and Egypt of practice, there is, of course, 
religion ... and the vocation of that religion is to offer solace and 
consolation to those who are enslaved.  That can make for an awfully 
compelling religion, tending to the sadness and anxieties of life. ... 
There's always business for a religion like that in a slave state," said 
Myers.  "The problem is that it's not biblical religion. ...  Biblical 
religion refuses to become comfortable religion.  If you're slaves in 
Egypt, you've got to get outta Egypt.  If you're slaves in Jerusalem, 
you've got to get outta Jerusalem." 
 
     And the way out, according to Tamez, is understanding freedom the way 
Paul does -- for Christians to truly be owners of their own lives in a 
fallen world, to be free from sin and slaves only to Christ.  "Being taken 
out of the evil age," said Tamez, referring to Paul's notion of freedom 
from both the literal bonds of slavery and from the law that he calls 
faith, grace or Spirit, "does not mean you don't live there anymore.   
 
     "The evil age is still there ... but grace appears within the evil 
age," she said, pointing out that Christ's act of giving himself interjects 
a "different logic, a logic of grace" into the world where sinners are 
justified and transformed into people who are capable of practicing 
justice.  "The crucified body of Jesus on the cross shows us what society 
is capable of doing.  But the resurrection of that body shows the design of 
God for the crucified. ...  
 
     "They can," Tamez insisted, "practice justice guided by their own 
consciences that have been renewed in Christ and not by the dictates of the 
law.  This happens because of the gift of the Spirit." 
 
     Tamez said it is difficult to follow the logic of grace, but, she 
concluded, "we must stand firm in the logic that Christ made us free ... 
and we are not to submit ourselves to the logic of slavery. 
 
     "May God help us." 
 
     Fifteen of the denomination's presbyteries who have partnerships with 
churches and other Christian service organizations in Latin America 
attended the Encuentro, or Celebration, held Feb. 13-16 in Tegucigalpa to 
discuss how to do ministry together in the next decade, both nationally and 
through presbyteries.  Participants came from Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa 
Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala and from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
congregations, presbyteries and national staff. 

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