Revisiting the Edge of the Inside
Some conversations remind you what motivated you to write in the first place.
After he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.
Jesus had a bird’s eye view of Galilee, Tiberias, every time he climbed Har Arbel, Mt. Arbel. Some suggest that the gospel writers reference Mt. Arbel 14 times with the reference, the mountain. The photo was taken from the edge of the sheer face of the mountain.
Caves may be found just below the designated lookout area. Imagine enemy invaders moving south toward Tiberias from Mt. Hermon. (See the white-capped mountain in the upper left of the photo.) Fleeing to the mountains for refuge would mean climbing the sheer face, the edge of Mt. Arbel. Though risky, the edge face of the mountain may have meant safety.
Recently I ruminated about Capernaum and The Edge of the Inside. Many of you were kind to read the piece. After thinking about how difficult it is to find time to write here, personally, and in other places, for our church, I thought it better not to add a second Substack newsletter. Instead, after conversations shared with friends on my recent trip to Israel, I think it best to couch the intent of Can We Talk? in the larger frame of the theme that caught my attention quite a number of years ago.
Traveling through New Mexico the group I was with stopped at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Father Richard Rohr lives at the center and hosts retreats that feature, well, action and contemplation. The Franciscan priest is also well-versed in the Enneagram. I once heard him teach on the subject over a few days. Given that this was almost twenty years ago color me surprised that more and more evangelicals and mainline Christians have found the Enneagram.
Looking over a publication produced by the Center I found an article titled, The Edge of the Inside. Fr. Rohr, in the article described the edge of the inside this as a prophetic position. He did not say that those who found themselves there were prophets. Too many of we pastors use the word prophet to cover our internal frustrations that sometimes spill out of our mouths and target our congregations. When confronted we describe what we did as being “prophetic.” My friend Jason reminds that the prophets in the Scriprtures are drafted for the role, sometimes running or whining. Maybe that is what some wise congregant could lovingly retort with the next time his or her pastor uses prophetic for the cover of behaving badly.
I digressed.
The difference between a position and a role is that the position, the edge of the inside, provides a location to be both prophetic and pastoral. It is not either/or. It is both/and.
Discernment is required.
From the edge of the inside a minister or congregant may challenge the center, the seat of power. My own denomination has had a number of people shouting at the center of power that clergy sexual abuse cannot be covered up or tolerated. Since at least 2005 voices have been insistent. That is, voices within the Southern Baptist Convention have been calling attention to indicents and patterns that need to be addressed. We will find out what an investigation has discovered in May of this year, 2022. Early indications are that the voices, those on the edge of the inside, should have been heeded long ago.
The edge of the inside is a position from which the seat of power may be held accountable. I think of David Fitch’s, The End of Evangelicalism. From the edge of the inside, Fitch called out the powers in the center of Evangelicalism for claiming to hold certain beliefs but failing to provide evidence in action. Borrowing from Slavoy Zizek, Fitch drew attention to the empty center, a place where emotionalism replaced conviction.
You may be aware of instances in your own denomination, branch of the Christian Tree. Events where you have heard voices. maybe even your own, calling to the center of power that the Jesus Way appears to have been abandoned for, well, power.
The edge of the inside also provides a place of consolation and encouragement.
Sometimes decisions are made that leave someone wounded by the centers of power. Hard as it may be the wounded head for the door. Fr. Rohr suggests that the position on the edge of the inside also allows voices of consolation and encouragement to be heard. We mourn those in our tribe who chose to leave over insensitive racialized positions. Along the way a voice like my friend Dwight McKissic has been heard inviting his fellow Black Southern Baptist ministers to reconsider, to join him in calling to the center to say that Jesus has broken down the dividing wall between people, even if it seems an always present struggle.
Dwight has also expressed his abiding friendship to those who could not stay. He still maintained his pastoral position, even if on the edge of the inside.
For me, and many like me, who for at least twenty years have sought to find a place within our beloved tribe, while at the same time calling attention to empty rhetoric of love and faithfulness, find the description of the edge of the inside the best position. Sometimes we feel like we are in caves in the face of the sheer edge of Mt. Arbel while invaders snatch the bodies of those we love and care for but who also have exchanged the Good News for the porridge of partisan political influence and power.
All this came back to mind when thinking about my Israel Pilgrimage Family, isn’t that the new way to describe your affinity group? We have lake families, baseball families, basketball families, etc. My Isreal Pilgrimage Family included a number of people trying to figure out where they fit within groups they love. Maybe they will also pick up the position on the edge of the inside.
Recently our Monday reading group re-read James Baldwin’s, The Fire Next Time. One feature of the piece is the clear indication that while Baldwin could critique the church as well as anyone, it exposed a deep love for the church, even if eventually he felt himself outside it.
We who take up the position on the edge of the inside are often misunderstood. Some of it is our own fault. We choose our words in haste rather than carefully. Our aim is to express such a deep love that we are not willing to NOT critique what clearly defies faithfulness. Forgive us our haste. We really do not want those on the center to leave. We don’t want those repelled by the center to leave. Instead we want the church, even our tribes to be the response God gives to the question asked by the world, “Do you have a witness?”
We also want to be the voices of welcome to those who chance by wondering what we in the church are bearing witness to as they peer inside. Willing to receive them without expectation as Israel was to take in the foreigner as one of their own. We want to be those who take to the streets to offer an invitation to Jesus’ own faithfulness when those on the inside refuse to attend the banquet.
Can we talk about the edge of the inside?