Resistance as the Basis of Discipleship – by Teresa Chavéz Sauceda

My children could probably recite my annual anti-material Christmas rant from memory!  It usually occurred in the car (captive audience) somewhere between the flurry of extra activities at church, music lessons, drama classes, school programs and the inevitable trip to the mall—triggered by “I want….[fill in the blank with some expensive, heavily  advertised, this year’s must have toy ”or, the “ why can’t we….. [again, fill in the blank, usually something heavily advertised or whatever  the ‘cool kids’ are perceived to be doing ”.]   The opening lines might vary, but it always ends with, “if Christmas gets any more commercial the only way we’ll be able to celebrate it with any integrity is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, except go to church and pray!” …  delivered to kids rolling their eyes and moaning to themselves.

There were times when my children felt more than a little impatience with their “weird mom”.  As the social pressures to conform escalated in middle and high school my refusal to support their desire to fully participate in the materialism of our culture was at times, a point of real conflict between us.    We have survived, and my daughters, both in their twenties, are young adults who are choosing to live their lives in ways that reflect, as Cynthia writes, “the call to proclaim a different narrative about a different life,”   lives shaped by generosity and compassion for others.

Raising children has helped me to recognize that faithfulness in discipleship is about what we choose to resist – to reject, really– from the world around us, and what we choose to live affirmatively.

As a North American Christian I choose to resist the materialism, the consumerism and the extreme individualism of the secular culture I live in.  I choose to resist the oppressive perceptions of difference that promote hate and support the persistence of systems that marginalize and disempower some of God’s children.  I choose to resist the ethnocentrism and ‘small world’ view that only sees the world through a North American lens, that doesn’t question the wealth and privilege of the U.S. at the expense of others around the globe.

I choose to live with simplicity, doing all that I can to reduce my carbon footprint, and not define myself or others by the stuff we possess.  I choose to live loving my neighbors without putting fences around who I see as my neighbor.  I choose to live as a global citizen.  I choose to live a life that’s not about winning, but about living with grace the life God gives us, life discovered in sharing with others.

I don’t do any of this perfectly—I’m not even sure I know what that might look like.  I hope that that my life gives witness to God’s love in a broken and hurting world.   But I do know that in the search to discover what it means to follow Jesus, the Messiah, who came to proclaim good news to the poor, sight to the blind and freedom to the captive, I discover blessings and peace, forgiveness and grace, and the unlimited abundance of God’s love—love made so gloriously manifest in the birth of a baby.