Wednesday  |  July 28, 2010  |  00:00 AM

This recent blog comes as a reflection based on a month in Bangladesh working with Friends missionaries Albert and Metali Adhikari and some reflection on Jesus’ teachings on blessings (or the Beatitudes) and woes. Most of the time when someone from the West spends time serving and partnering alongside the non-Western church, the idea of the savior complex must be addressed. I’m using a term here that has been created and popularized by many development workers but one example that immediately jumps to mind is Pablo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a Brazilian thinker and aid worker, Freire’s work from the 1970s speaks of the problem those from the West can have with eliminating the notion that the world needs them. It becomes difficult to see ourselves in situations where we are providing tools and resources to those with less access and not believe we are the solution to their problems. For the Christian the problem with this idea is that it eliminates Christ’s role as Savior and just as significantly it allows us to forget that we ourselves need saving as well.

When Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount about who was blessed, it reversed the traditional roles of who was viewed as favorable in the world’s eyes. It would be easy for us to look at those same dynamics at work today. The world says, blessed are those with all their needs and wants met. Christ still says today, blessed are those in need because they seek after me as a necessity in their lives. Blessed are those who cannot save themselves with their own resources because they are quick to recognize their need for a Savior. Likewise, Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and religious leaders saying “Woe to you…You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matt. 23:13). I was greatly reminded of the convicting power of reading those words again recently. We can easily dismiss Jesus’ writings on the woes as ideas directed at the religious leaders of his day rather than ask the tough question about where those words could be applied to us today. We often see ourselves as the ones who “get it,” Christians who have it all figured out and God highlighted in my life the need to be open to where Christians in the non-Western world are inviting me into the Kingdom of God.

The prayer life of my brothers and sisters in Bangladesh modeled for me prayers of a people who believe that God can change their unjust and oppressive circumstances. These Christians prayed as though the entirely believed there was no way they could save themselves from their circumstances except for God’s intercession. Overall, Christ taught me the lesson again that my dependence on him is necessary for my survival and I forget that most when I think I’ve provided for my needs. I allow resources and tools here at home to create a sense that I’m secure and safe and justify spending and prioritizing around those values. Christ invites me to spend time every day in prayer asking him to forgive me for this idea that I’m the solution to the world’s problems, that I think people need me, and that I create ways to keep myself from needing Christ. Jesus’s words tell me I’m blessed when the world tells me I’m at my worst and these are truths I keep coming back to for life-giving hope. I don’t know about you, but I’m realizing more and more that I’m not the savior of the world but I often think I am and that’s an area where I could use your prayers.