“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So begins the classic Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Perhaps this would be an appropriate refrain for our present global economic and financial crisis if we take it as a critical moment for change and reflection. Recently, a lot has been written about the Mandarin etymology for the word “crisis.” Motivational speakers, pastors, pundits and, to be perfectly honest, I, too, have interpreted the word as: crisis = danger + opportunity. Wēijī, the Mandarin word for crisis, has often been interpreted as the compound of wēi, meaning “danger,” and a misinterpretation of the word jī, which many understood as “opportunity.” A sinologist from the University of Pennsylvania, Victor Mair, helped me to come to what is perhaps a more appropriate interpretation of “crisis” for the global church to embrace. Mair says that wēi does indeed imply “danger,” but jī implies a “crucial point or incipient moment when something begins or changes.”* Crisis, in Mair’s interpretation, is a dangerous moment when things can go awry.

What, then, is the call of God for the global church in our particular wēijī? History has shown the church that in times of economic downturn, the least, the marginalized, and the ostracized are most adversely affected. With the unprecedented home foreclosures and bankruptcies of many industries, the families and children of those who can least afford to be homeless and unemployed suffer disproportionately. Where I serve as pastor in New York, there has been an increase in the numbers of people in food banks, soup kitchens, and shelters. Moreover, many food banks in the Northeast are forced to close because of a shortage. The United Nations recently declared a global food shortage that must be addressed immediately. It is abundantly clear that there is a danger for many to go without food and shelter. Things have gone terribly awry on a global scale.

There are many throughout the global church for whom crisis and lack is not a new phenomenon. For many of our sisters and brothers in Appalachia, urban slums, Native American reservations, and recondite places in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, crisis is a way of life. The Genesis motif of famine speaks in elucidating ways of our contemporary crisis, “There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe” (Genesis 37:14). The severity of the economic crisis extends well beyond the shores of the United States and threatens to further impoverish the least of these.

In our jī, at our crucial and incipient moment, the message of the gospel comes to us anew. The Genesis narrative tells us literally “there was no lechem (bread) in the land.” The Christmas message tells us that Christ comes to us in Bethlehem, the house of bread. Many of us will be tempted to give less, to close our hearts, and to rescind our generosity. Still, in our crisis, God challenges us to share what we have. Our churches must become the houses of bread for the nations. This will not be an easy task and will require great stewardship, self-emptying, and commitment. Perhaps in this moment when many things threaten to go awry, we can strengthen our commitments to Christian resourcefulness and generosity.

Crisis needs to be redeemed with the Christian message of hope. Hope is not some utopic illusion that everything will be fixed overnight. Hope is the confession and commitment to co-labor with God in the work of the Kingdom. Mair posits one last translation for the word jī, “resourcefulness.” In this moment of crisis, the global church can be resourceful. In our wēijī, we can reprioritize and live out the kingdom of God in very tangible ways, feeding the hungry, covering the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the convict, and loving our enemies (Matthew 25: 34-36). In the worst of times, we can be the best that Christ has called us to be. Perhaps this crisis will revive our call and rekindle our passion to the very essence of our creed, “To make Christlike disciples in the nations.”

by Gabriel Salguero
Lead Pastor, The Lamb's Church of the Nazarene

*See Victor Mair’s helpful article online at www. pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html.