Christmas 2006

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
John 1: 14

Friends,

Recently a group of Mayan students who are taking university courses through CEDEPCA here in Quetzaltenango gathered to share their stories with a visitor from Canada. The relationship between Mayan cultures and Christian faith is the subject of intense debate here in Guatemala, a debate these students experience daily within their communities and churches.

Daniel Caño and Teresa Leon are from the community Santa Eulalia, several hours from Quetzaltenango. Daniel has shared with the class that the term used for baptism in K’anha’bal, his mother tongue, literally means to eliminate one’s name. When the Spanish invaded 500 years ago, the people experienced the imposition of Christianity as a negation of their cultural identity. To this day, the K’anha’bal refer to the contagious diseases the invaders brought with them from Europe, such as smallpox and measles, as “the diseases of God.” The priests told the people they were being punished because of their pagan ways. Yet there were very few priests to provide religious instruction, so the people incorporated what they understand of Roman Catholicism into their lives and their worship of the Creator.

A few decades ago, the catechists of Catholic Action come to Santa Eulalia. They told the people that their Mayan ways had nothing to do with Christianity. Daniel eventually found himself studying at a Roman Catholic seminary, a profoundly alienating experience. Today, he and Teresa live in Quetzaltenango. They and their three children are part of an Anglican congregation, a space where they are able to affirm both their Mayan spirituality and their Christian identity. Many questions remain for them, and the courses offered by CEDEPCA are helping them probe at a deeper level.

Rebeca Salanic is from the K’iche’ village of Pachaj, Cantel, where I used to teach Bible institute classes for CEDEPCA. The students in those classes talked about how they had to leave their cultural identity at the door of the Presbyterian church when they came to worship. Yet the community has developed a strong sense of preserving their culture, especially through bilingual education. Rebeca is part of this movement. In addition to working as a teacher, she is completing a licenciatura degree in social linguistics. She dreams of becoming a pastor. She talks of how CEDEPCA comes to them as Maya, not seeking to impose a theological line, but rather asking them what they can contribute to theological reflection out of their experience.

Heber Ruiz, an Episcopal priest, affirmed what Rebeca shared. The teaching from the Latin American Biblical University enriches their experience, he said, allowing them to touch what they carry deep inside them. The courses are equipping Heber to share a more holistic message of salvation and to nurture in a more coherent way the spiritual life of the K’iche’ community he pastors in Totonicopan.

Ruben Ruiz holds a degree in social linguistics, and he currently works as a consultant for the Ministry of Education. He wondered for years if he was Maya first and then Christian, or Christian first and then Maya. Now he asks how the Bible can be appropriated in his particular cultural context. The university courses CEDEPCA offers are providing him with tools for doing this.

Many neo-Pentecostal churches here see Mayan culture as an impediment to Christian faith. In the most extreme cases, Mayan culture is seen a pact with the devil that is antithetical to Christian belief. In their televised sermons, these churches call upon people to leave behind their indigenous culture in order to become Christian. Some messianic groups whom I’ve been researching this year claim that there is only one revealed culture, the culture of Israel at the time of Jesus. They try to replicate this culture in their religious practice.

Through the centuries, however, Christian theologians have stressed that the incarnation shows that culture itself, not the particular culture into which Jesus was born, is capable of bearing God’s revelation. Missionaries who have carried the message of the gospel from one cultural setting to another have often confused their own cultural background with Christian faith.

The Mayan students who are studying with CEDEPCA, along with many others in their communities, are waiting for Christ to be born within their cultures. They long to see the living Word of God take on the flesh of their daily lives as Maya. They invite Jesus to come to them as a brother, not as a stranger intent on imposing a foreign culture. They have invited me to accompany them as they seek the incarnation of Christian faith in their cultures. As a missiologist, I have some tools to offer and some insights to share, but I am learning far more than I teach.

This Christmas, as we remember God’s coming among us in Jesus’ birth, may we celebrate the presence of Christ in many cultures around the world.

Blessings,

Karla, for all of us

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 64