Westview Christian Fellowship

What if Mary was Raped? Part 2 with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded January 15, 2023

There are four servant songs in and around Isaiah 49. According to the scholar Damon Garcia, serving God, for Isaiah looks like working for the liberation of the oppressed. The gospel of Mark reflects this idea in its portrayal of Christ as a suffering servant. In this message, Caleb takes the suffering servant motif a step further, comparing what servanthood looks like for Christ as opposed to Mary. Both, it’s argued, serve God by working for the liberation of the oppressed. 

Whereas Mary is taking back the power taken from her by a system of oppression, Jesus is giving back the power he received from that same system. 

Mary and Christ are engaged in the same project; one is a man, a prophet called the king of the Jews, while the other is a woman and a victim of patriarchy. Suffering takes on salvific power only so far as it can be transformed into an act that liberates the oppressed.

What if Mary was Raped? Part 1 with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded Dec. 11, 2022. 

Content warning: this episode discusses sexual abuse and rape. 

Whether you want to believe Caleb's reading, that Mary is a victim of sexual abuse or not, the fact is, she's living in this context where sex is weaponized. 

Mary, like Christ's grandmothers, uses her body to rebel against the patriarchy. Rather than seeing the abuse as ending her story and genealogy, she calls the child and his birth a beginning -- "the salvation of Isreal." Like Tamar and Ruth, Mary takes for herself what is reserved exclusively for men; she becomes what she and all women have always already been — the source of her people. 

Changing Hearts and Minds with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022. 
 
Over the last few Sundays, we've been working through a series titled "What, Where, When, Who, is the Church - personal reflections on what church means to us." 
 
In this episode, Caleb reflects on a lesson learned through this series. Specifically, Caleb talks about how Evangelicalism has inspired his foray into politics and to hold on to the belief that change is possible. 

Grace Produces Abundance, Fear Perpetuates Poverty

Recorded on August 2022: Luke 12

 

The rich fool in Christ’s parable takes the surplus produced by the earth and puts it in a barn. If having faith in God means believing that God is good and provides more than enough for even the wildflowers, then it’s hard to deny that the surplus produced by the ground is a gift meant to be shared with all.

 

When the rich man hoards this gift, he deprives others of it. Another way of saying this is that by hoarding the abundance of the earth, the rich man steals from all those for whom that gift was meant.

 

Grace moves in the other direction; it calls us, evident in the Lord's prayer and the splendour of the wildflowers, to believe that there is more than enough for all. There is no reason to worry, there is no reason to hoard wealth. 

Jesus Learns from Mary and Martha with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded on July 17, 2022: Luke 10:38-42

Mary and Martha teach Jesus how to apply his teachings in the real world. Both teach Jesus what it looks like for the last to be first and the first last.

Mary does this by taking on the role of disciples, Martha, and all women through the centuries up to today who do double duty -- in the house and outside the home -- teach Christ what it means for men to follow Christ’s teachings.

 

May We Listen to the Maladjusted with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded on July 10th at Westview: Amos 7 and Acts 1

May we, like Amos and Christ, listen to the maladjusted of our time; may we listen to all those who refuse or are denied the ability to adjust to our economic system, a system defined by exploitation. 

The Holy Spirit and Intimacy, Moving Beyond Rage with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded June 12, 2022: Acts 2: Let's not stop at rage but find places of safety, where we’re willing to be vulnerable for the sake of the marginalized, so that, with the power of the spirit, we might find the courage to imagine and build worlds where we all share in the abundance of our Creator.

The Holy Spirit and Rage with Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded June 5, 2022: Acts 2: Where is the holy spirit? The holy spirit is with those who are being persecuted and it’s there, it seems, to give them the power to say, "enough! We are done being abused. We deserve dignity, we desire salvation.” 

Rereading Violence in the Old Testament With Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded on May 22th: Joshua 7: The story of Achan and Christ are similar in the end result: both are publicly crucified for the sins of others. The difference is primarily found in who is telling the story, who is the interpretive key - Christ/the victim, or the one doing the victimizing? 

Rereading Scripture with the Pregnant Self - Caleb Ratzlaff

Recorded on May 8th: The Road to Emmaus: Mothers sacrifice their own bodies for the sake of the child they carry within them. There is a parallel here with Christ’s suffering on the cross. I wouldn’t say that the mother is a victim, indeed, this is probably the wrong way to characterize the experience, but she does sacrifice herself, her own body, for the sake of another.

What I think we’re asked to do when we participate in communion is to remember how we are all pregnant with each other. The more we live into this reality -- the reality that we are codependent on others -- the more we will find ourselves inevitably drawn to interpret the world, and the stories we tell to make sense of the world, through the eyes of the oppressed.