A Spirituality of Otherness

Relationship with Christ is not a one-on-one experience, by Sherri Golisky

M

ore than a word, “others”, these six letters together form the signature tune of The Salvation Army. This spirited theme of Salvationism comes to the fore in that popular story of William Booth who, in his later years, decided to send a motivational telegram to his officers. Realizing that he could only afford to send a single word, the word that he chose was “others.” In this most symbolic act, Booth commissioned his officers and soldiers to serve and to love others at all costs – and especially the last, the lost, and the least. This charming tale unquestionably captures the core of who we are and what our movement is about. We are a community defined by others.

A Salvationist spirituality that is true to its roots will fulfill Christ’s command that “whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 Jn 4:21). Our faith must be an active faith, a faith committed to others, and our holiness should emerge not through our private spiritual endeavours but through our interpersonal encounters. The greatest of these encounters is our encounter with the holy otherness of God. Confronted with the reality of God’s goodness, beauty and truth, we cannot but confess that our God is like no other.

Paul tells us that “that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal 5:6). Faith is much more than a passive state of resting in God’s love. Faith must actively express itself through our love for others and our commitment to doing God’s will. Faith as active is about an entire way of life by which we strive to affirm the reality of Christ’s resurrection power. My own testimony speaks to this active nature of faith. As a child, growing up outside of the church, I was often convinced that religion would needlessly disrupt my happy little world. It was impossible to predict that first encounter with the radical otherness of God’s love: in a moment of deep suffering at the age of eighteen, God came to me in infinite love, strength and joy. God was wholly “other” from anything I had ever known. There was life in death, power in weakness.

The journey of my faith began. As much as I knew that Christ was truth, I knew that my new-found faith called me outwards to others. And as much as I knew that I was called outward to others, I knew that I must go to love and serve those who had suffered more than I: the poor, the broken, the oppressed. Having faith in this God meant that my life was to be about seeing the truth of the cross realized in the lives of others. In The Salvation Army, I met a form of spirituality that matched my understanding of faith.

The child of a passionate concern for others, this movement emerged out of love for the last, the lost, and the least. Growing ever more concerned with the plight of the poor in London’s East End, William Booth drafted a practical plan for social reform: in addition to its mission of saving souls, The Salvation Army would help to alleviate the suffering of the poor in the here and now. “Salvation” meant not only being saved from the miseries of a Godless eternity but from the miseries of this present age. Salvationists had the power to transform both today and tomorrow, by reaching out to others.

A Salvationist spirituality, therefore, is never a privatized pursuit. In fact, according to John Wesley, solitary experiences that fail to move outwards towards the establishment of loving relationships are a betrayal of the gospel. “Holy solitaries is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.”[1] Our spiritual life is not one thing, separate from our outward acts. Rather, we grow spiritually and become holy through our relationships with others.

Are we betraying our roots - and the gospel - with our privatized spiritualities? In the 21st century, a faith that is private and passive in nature is indefensible. Worldwide, 1.2 billion people live below the poverty line, and 16000 children die each day from hunger-related causes.[2] The tragedy is closer to home than we think: at the turn of the millennium, just less than 1 in 4 people in the U.K. were living in poverty.[3] In this age of global mass suffering, our consciences must be stirred to holy and transformative action.

When we consider the “otherness” of God, we realize even more the urgency of an active faith. God’s very nature is an encounter with otherness: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit encounter one another in a community of self-giving relationships where nothing is private but all is reciprocity. Faith in a God that is relational by nature implies that we must stand in relation with others: in fact, as Commissioner Phil Needham argues, “the key to our wholeness as a salvation people is the marriage of holiness and community.”[4] We will meet the holiness of God and ourselves become whole when we overcome divisions and injustices and strive to build inclusive communities resembling God’s own nature. When in love we overcome the uncomfortable otherness of the stranger we may come closer to comprehending the holy and beautiful otherness of God.

A Salvationist spirituality calls us not only to an active faith but to an adventurous faith, a faith which courageously and relentlessly pursues the hurting and broken ones of our world and seeks to incarnate the love of God in their lives. Catherine Bramwell-Booth commissions us: “Believe – and live – and in the strength of faith go bravely forth to meet others in their griefs, and your faith shall not only save you, but those to whom you go.”[5]

Currently completing a degree in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College, Sherri Golisky enjoys worshipping in the social housing community of Regent Park in downtown Toronto and jogging the green spaces of her city.

NOTES

[1] John Wesley, Preface, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739.
[2] www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
[3] www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/poverty/thefacts.htm#1
[4] Phil Needham, from CanadaRoots 2003: A Church that is Whole, Three Bible Studies, quoted in Geoff Ryan, “It’s our Business! Holiness and Politics,” 181
[5] Catherine Bramwell-Booth, “To One Sorrowing,” Letters (Suffolk: Richard Clay Ltd, 1921, 1986) 57.

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