Who Comes in the Name of the Lord?: Jesus at the Margins

In Who Comes in the Name of the Lord? Harold J. Recinos advances the thesis that God has already prepared a future for mainline churches in Christ at the margins of society. That margin is the barrio -- a contemporary Nazareth -- judged by society as inferior worthless and productive of nothing good. Drawing on the biblical witness Recinos develops a perspective that shows that God identifies with those who are poor marginal weak and lowly in society. Gods option for the lowly he asserts takes the form of incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. God-in-Jesus is enfleshed in the history of an unimportant place known as Nazareth of Galilee. Nazareth an inferior and worthless place supports God on its barrio streets. Far from the Temple on the town roads and with fisher-folk Jesus first reveals in a fresh way the God of the poor and lowly. The cultural role of mainline Christians argues Recinos is not to be guardians of society; rather mainline Christians and their churches are to shape and amend their culture in response to the work of God in human history. That work is imaged by feasting with the uninvited people who are kept isolated from mainstream society yet presuppose the reality of God. Thus Recinos argues for a missional ecclesiology suggesting that local congregations are instruments of a sacred love that renews the world of uninvited guests and forgotten people. The true church he says does not meet the anguished cry of people at the margins of life with silence but with dikaioma (a just action) which assures shalom. The author then suggests several ways the local church can announce the reign of God and peace with justice beginning in the barrio. Once again Harold Recinos opens up the gospel for us from the perspective of the barrio and in particular of those recent immigrants who have arrived at the barrio as refugees from situations of unspeakable violence and dehumanization. This is a hard-hitting book about a hard-hitting Jesus. Not recommended for those who are looking for a soft other-worldly word of inspiration. But certainly required reading for any who wish to be faithful to Jesus in our contemporary society! --Justo L. González