JustLove Collective Summit – Day 1
by Rebecca Barceló | 5 May 2024 |
It’s not every Adventist gathering that begins with an indigenous land acknowledgement and a moment to recognize those many people who have died in the current wars waged around the world. However, JustLove Collective’s team felt it merited moments of their precious programming to acknowledge the loss of human life – regardless of form, tribe, or country. Only after that did the evening’s events begin.
The order of events was not just a programming choice, but a witness to the overarching message of the evening, namely that we need to experience a conversion to the “gospel of our neighbor” – a people-oriented approach to the gospel that marries justice and love.
Loma Linda chaplain Dilys Brooks welcomed the group and set the tone for the Summit, outlining housekeeping and expectations for the evening. Before stepping down she motioned to the room, “We’re going to be challenged tonight, so look to your neighbor and say ‘Are you ready to be challenged?’” Folks smiled and turned to each other, repeating the words. “Then look to your other neighbor and say ‘I’m here for it.’”
There was good energy in the room. We were clearly “here for it.”
Next, Jovannah Poor Bear-Adams, English teacher for Thunderbird Adventist Academy, spoke about her heritage as part of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe. She came to know about Christianity from her education at Holbrook SDA Indian School, despite her mother’s warnings that it was “a Christian school, and they will lie to you to get you to believe the way that they do.” After promising to attend only for the education and not fall for the religious part, she headed off to ninth grade at Holbrook.
She shared her initial struggle with the Bible, only to find it more and more interesting, even joining several Bible study groups. After her eventual baptism, she called home to tell her mother that she was a Christian now and would no longer be participating in the ritual Sun Dance festivals and praying to the spirits. “You have turned your back on your people and your culture,” responded her mother. “Everything you were to me, your sister will now be to me instead.” Then, her mother hung up.
As Jovannah wrestled with these two worlds – her Native American heritage and her newfound Christianity – a pastor in her area came to speak with her. “Don’t forget that God made you Native American…. your mother can’t even take that away. And you don’t have to choose between being Native American and being Christian. In God’s eyes, you are both.”
Jovannah concluded her story by holding up some beadwork that her mother had eventually created for her at her graduation, uniting Native American patterns and the cross of Christ – an olive branch in their relationship.
Before the plenary session, there was an opportunity to practice creating relationships with other participants through an “interactive learning segment” facilitated by Priscilla Flores, Program Director for the College and Adult Program with the CUNY Creative Arts Team. The mixer provided an opportunity to embody community-building and shake off any nerves or hesitations about meeting other participants.
Priscilla had folks partner up and then introduce themselves over handshakes. We were then to walk around the room and find a second partner, introducing ourselves by giving daps (a fist bump). Next, we found a third partner and introduced ourselves over a high-five. Finally, we found our fourth partner and shared peace/love signs. At the end, she called out greetings and we had to quickly walk around the room to find and re-connect with the partner with whom we’d originally shared the greeting! We also practiced grouping by food interests, music interests, or family positions (oldest child, twin, only child, youngest, middle, etc.). We then explained which group we were and, for the family grouping, what that experience was like for us.
After the chance to embody community for a bit, we took our seats again and La Sierra’s practical theology assistant professor, Dr. Marlene Ferreras, began the main plenary session. She spoke of some of the main theologians in our lives – mothers, aunts, grandmothers – with no formal theological training or degree, but who often play such an instrumental role in experiencing the “realidad” (reality) of the gospel in their lives and modeling it for others.
She spoke of the inevitable link between justice and love, saying that love cannot be separated from justice, or else it can often become abusive. “This is because love, as an inevitable framework, requires us to consider the impact of our actions on others. We need to experience a conversion to the gospel of our neighbor… we can only stand straight when our center of gravity is outside of ourselves.”
She quoted Mark 12:38-44 where Jesus juxtaposes the status-seeking scribes who “devour widows’ houses,” to the picture of the widow who “came and put in two small copper coins.” As verse 43 says, Jesus then “called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury’” (Mark 12:43 NSRV).
Said Marlene, “Here Jesus is training his disciples to notice these small moments, as if to say ‘did you see that?’” Jesus goes so far as to say that this is an identifying characteristic of his followers, saying in John 13:35: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In speaking to the temptation to feel it isn’t worth the effort, or that there is no progress being made, Marlene closed with a poem called “Stubborn Ounces” by Bonaro W. Overstreet:
You say the Little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.
I don’t think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.
Rebecca Barceló is AT’s editor for news and special events.
