To be with people

In the 1970s-1980s social unrest wreaked havoc in El Salvador. Oscar Romero was elected as Archbishop of the Catholic church, the government hoping that he, as a weak and cowardly man would not interfere with their unjust affairs. He is at a dinner party with the elite of El Salvador while guards had killed 70 people meeting in a catholic church for congregating, labeling them as communists. A local priest comes to him at this dinner party, so far from the pain and begs his help.  Begs him to see what is happening. The Archbishop does nothing and he turns to leave. Archbishop Romero says, “Where are you going?” And the answer this man gives in the film struck me then and still strikes me today. “I’m going to be with my people. To serve with them, to work with them, to strengthen them.”

He needed to be with his people.

Archbishop Oscar Romero later becomes famous for his efforts in human rights and justice. He truly learns later what it means to live and serve amongst the people, and to die for them.

Elisabeth Elliot a lady living amongst the most violent tribe known in Ecuador refused to put walls on her house because that is not how the Auca people did it, and she needed to be with them. Truly, fully and completely. Not above them, showing them the “standard” of living. But humble living with them and teaching them truth.

Too many times I am seeing people who are trying to minister to the poor or the broken. But they are too far removed from them. There is a gap where there shouldn’t be.

I am going to love on people in Asia, I can’t do that living like an American with an American community. I need to fully live amongst these people. Really being with them, that is the most I can do. This local priest in El Salvador couldn’t save people, or fix everything. But he could be with them.

The biography of a German pastor during WWII Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells of a man who served our Father while Hitler was in power. A time of turmoil for all those who follow the King of Kings. He was offered a way out of Germany multiple times (he was a wanted man). But he could not leave the oppressed in Germany. “I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of all followers in Germany after the war if I do not share the trails of this time with my people.” He could’ve spoken about justice comfortable in the safety of England during this time, or America. But he too understood what being with people meant.

In a time and culture where we do what we want, when we want, and leave when it gets too hard. I beg people who follow the King of Kings to remember these people, and the call we are given to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with the Father.

We are not called to minister to people on our terms, and when is convenient for us. Not for ten days to take a selfie with a suffering child as we stay at our comfy hotels, and feel righteous. But to fully dwell amongst them and suffer with them.

 The wide gap between the oppressed and the people living life in the branches, needs to close shut. That is what the kingdom looks like. That is what the Highest of Highs did for us.

Sources for this post

Bonhoeffer, D. (1959). The cost of discipleship (Rev. [i.e. 2d] & unabridged ed.). New York: Macmillan.

Elliot, E. (1961). The savage my kinsman. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Right to truth, human rights, law, violation, justice, protection of witnesses, serious act of violence, Archbishop Romero. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2015.