You can listen to this week’s Devotional here
Author: Lianna Campos
I was at the gas station last week when the attendant looked at my wrist and said “Oh, that’s not a cave!”
Important context here is that I have an ichthys tattoo on my wrist. Still taken completely by surprise, we both laughed and he reminded me of one of the tales of the ichthys, a symbol known to many as “the Jesus fish.” One of the origin stories for the ichthys becoming a Christian symbol is that it was used to mark secret and safe gathering spots for early Christians. Outside of a cave, someone would draw the ichthys, and it would denote that Christians could gather there without threat of persecution. This, coupled with its name being an abbreviation of “Jesus Christ, son of God, our Savior” in Greek, has led to modern-day Christians adopting the ichthys as a symbol of Christianity.
I remember when first hearing of the story of the ichthys being used to denote safety, becoming enamored with its symbolism. Many of my younger Christian experiences were focused on salvation, where I understood the purpose of Christianity to be to save lives and souls so they can go to Heaven after bodily death. Hearing of this other Christian symbol had me thinking, “Well, what if salvation didn’t have to wait till after death?” This symbol marked a place that was safe in the there and then — a place where people could go to be and profess their truest selves without fear of persecution. And isn’t that what the church should be today?
When I was officially approved for starting the ordination process in the UCC, I decided to get the ichthys tattooed on me as a reminder of what I perceive my call to be as a Christian: to make and be a place of safety where people know they are loved by God just as they are. This means accepting people as they are, in all the ways they show up. It also means working to remove barriers that keep them from living out their truth.
We often think of these barriers as ideological, showing up as racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, antisemitism, and other forms of discrimination. This makes sense, given the Church’s history of practicing discrimination. In response to these barriers, we practice an open and affirming ideology, seek to be anti-racist, and question our words and practices to determine if they are exclusionary.
The ichthys outside the cave did not just symbolize emotional and spiritual safety, but physical safety, too. How do we work to dismantle systems not just of ideological oppression, but physical oppression too? It is refreshing to see a congregation such as ours that is so committed to its social justice ministries and is addressing the oppressive systems that keep people from being their truest selves. While we may not be a cave, we can seek to embody the symbol of the ichthys and to be a place and a people of safety.
May it be so.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
