Taken from and article I wrote on the Word Made Flesh Lifestyle Celebration of Submission. "We celebrate Submission to Jesus, each other, and the poor."
Easter is approaching again. The anticipation feels slightly more intensified for me this year. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I am in Buenos Aires and have the opportunity to experience it in a different culture this year.
In my first visit to Buenos Aires a year and a half ago as a servant team member I took the opportunity to focus special attention on WMF’s Lifestyle Celebrations by interviewing various persons on these topics. I have had the opportunity to revisit the LCs and those interviews again in my return to Buenos Aires as an intern. As I have been mentally preparing myself for the events of Holy Week I have also been focusing my attention on the idea of submission.
I interviewed the Regional Coordinator for WMF South America Walter Forcatto to discuss his view of submission. Walter has been living in Buenos Aires with his family for 8 years now taking part in ministry that seeks out relationships with vulnerable youth and young adults who are in situations of homelessness and find work they can in and around the train station hub “Retiro”.
As one of the kick-starters of this ministry Walter talked about the stance of submission as a learner in the beginnings of building these relationships. “When we go into a new situation we have to take on the posture of learner and get over this idea that we are the owners of truth,” he states, “We have to be conscious of being in a place that has different norms and values and need to come to an understanding of why our friends do things a certain way without first judging them.” In an article Walter composed on the idea of submission titled “The Dialectic of Submission” he also states, “Submission lived out in our relationships should be tempered and instructed by the freedom and inherent worth of the other.”
As the other comes to understand the posture you have as a learner, as one who is seeking to understand him/ her, a foundation for mutuality can be fostered. Walter adds to this idea saying, “When a relationship becomes mutual there are opportunities for counsel or advice or admonishment; there is a foundation for that to be received and for potential change to occur.” Then and only then can we begin to minister to each other as friends.
In my experience in going to the train station to pass time with friends of WMF Argentina I had to learn to tread these unknown waters by submitting as a learner and by putting aside the temptation to think that I was coming as the only one with something to give. I sat on the train station floor with our friends forcing myself to take a swig from the mate gourd passed to me until eventually I learned to enjoy not only the taste but also the act of sharing mate. There were customs and actions of “street culture” that I had to grow accustomed to. In this time with our friends as I myself was learning submission in this context, I saw plenty of examples of submission, and some examples were rooted in a distorted view of submission. This distortion comes from the evil influence of power plays and domination.
Certainly there is a balance that must be learned in this practice of submission. In talking about the relationships with our friends at Retiro, where we come to their turf and learn to respect their culture, Walter clarifies the role of submission by stating “It doesn’t mean that anything goes.” There is a difference in lifestyles of our friends who are often in survival mode “It’s hard to pinpoint submission and talk about submission in a difficult context when the circumstance is a life that is lived in survival mode, when you have to look out for yourself or else your life will be very difficult,” says Walter, “If everybody is trying to live their life and survive the idea of submission can be distorted. There are examples of others being submitted in unhealthy relationships. But we also see examples of intentional submission.”
There is the point of difference in Christian submission- intentionality.
I asked Walter the same question I asked most other interviewees- Why does WMF celebrate this Lifestyle Celebration?... in this case submission. I believe his answer cuts to the point for all of us Christians needing to take the stance of intentional submission, “It is a theological starting point as we see the Triune God in constant submission to each other. We see that Jesus submitted to the will of God. We see that in scripture we are called to submit to one another in love. WMF tries to minister out of community, out of a sense of shared and intentional community. It is hard to have a healthy community if there’s no mutual submission.”
As Christians we must live according to the subversive stance of the Kingdom of God. In a society where submission can often be related to domination and exercising power, the Kingdom of God’s perspective is certainly subversive. Jayakumar Christian in an article written for WMF writes, “Intentional submission is also a radical criticism of the world’s power. It subverts the exploitative and abusive tendencies of the world’s power, transforming the world’s flawed perceptions of power. (“Submission, Subversion, and Social Transformation”)
We see examples of intentional submission all throughout scripture and specifically in the life of Jesus. “Jesus’ perception of power seemed more like submission in the eyes of the world,” states Jayakumar. Jesus stripped the authorities of His day of their power when He, with His God-granted authority, broke their rules- healing the sick and disabled on the Sabbath, entering the homes of the sinners and socially despised, pardoning the prostitute and receiving her scandalous offering, and all the while challenging the faith of the religious authorities. And then the time came when He willingly surrendered His power.
The passion of Christ reveals the greatest example of intentional submission.
The Savior of the world who had access to all the power of the legions of angels to rescue Him from His circumstance on the cross chose powerlessness in submission to the pain of the nails that pierced His skin and the sins that weighed on His sacrifice. And yet three days later we see the fruition of this submission in the most powerful and crucial event in human history, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
