It was a nice sunny day in Rapid City when the Indians took the platform in the riverside park near the convention center. Fully dressed in their regalia, or modified forms of it, were Lakota, Cherokee, Dine, Kiowa, Paiute, Mohawk, Apache and many other Indian people proclaiming that Jesus Christ is good news sent from Great Spirit for Indian people - and believing in Him is not a "white man's thing."
The old traditional looking Lakota elder with sunglasses and a cowboy hat approached my buckaroo elder brother and ask what was going on? My brother explained that these are Indians who believe they can serve Jesus Christ and be fully culturally Native American. The old man didn't say a word at first - but there was much about his silence that caused my brother to pay attention. Just when my brother noticed the tears collecting around the bottom edge of the elder's sunglasses, the man spoke a very simple phrase with heartfelt emotion and full conviction…he simply said this: "I've waited all my life for this day."
Can you serve Jesus and be fully culturally Asian? Black? European? Aboriginal?
Do we recognize how our culture influences our perception of Jesus? And how for those of us who are white, white privilege means that we usually do not recognize how our culture influences us?
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