Jordan, Clarence | The Inconvenient Gospel

The Inconvenient Gospel:
A Southern Prophet Tackles War, Wealth, Race, and Religion
Clarence Jordan
(Edited by Frederick L. Downing)

Paperback: Plough Publishing House, 114pp.

Introduction

Clarence Jordan (1912-1969) is one of the most striking, and yet least known, figures within twentieth century Christianity. Jordan, a farmer, pastor, and founder of the Koinonia Farm community in southern Georgia, sought to live faithfully to the way of Jesus, regardless of how countercultural it might seem to his neighbors. Koinonia Farm, was known for being an interracial Christian community in U.S. south that thrived prior to the Civil Rights era. Jordan often referred to Kononia Farm as “a demonstration plot for the kingdom of God.” 

Although The Inconvenient Gospel begins with a helpful biographical essay on Jordan, written by the book’s editor Frederick L. Downing, it is not primarily a biography. Rather, it is an introductory reader that uses brief selections from Jordan’s own writings to highlight his Christian ethics. In 1950, Jordan was expelled from his local church for bringing friends, who were people of color, into their worship services. For the remainder of his life, “Clarence would never join another denomination or local church” (xvii). As a result, the strength of his work lies in the witness it bears to the ethics of how we follow Jesus; Jordan is much more reticent about practices that are primarily internal to local church communities, such as participatory worship.  

Living the Word

The Inconvenient Gospel contains one particular essay that is essential reading for anyone interested in the conversation about living the Word: a 1952 talk given at a Baptist church in South Dakota entitled, “What is the the Word of God?” Like many biblical scholars who would come after him, Jordan emphasizes that the Word that God has revealed to us is, above all, the person of Jesus. Jordan writes: “[Jesus] was God’s word to humankind; he is above the written page, above the book. He is God’s communication, so that anyone who has seen the Son has seen the Father” (18). Furthermore, Jordan notes that the written word of scripture “is not the Word of God, it is but a witness to that Word” (18). The way of Jesus is still being revealed to us, Jordan argues, through the Spirit, as we read the scriptures. And, he continues, merely reading the scriptures is not sufficient, we must also strive to live them, seeking the embody the Word in our everyday lives. Jordan concludes this meditation poignantly: “[The] Word must always be becoming flesh. The process of translation must always be taking place. You must take it from the printed page and make it flesh – your flesh – that the Word might dwell in you and that they might see it, see it in you as it glows among you, and give glory to the Father who is in heaven” (23).

Radical Kinship

The most relevant facet of Jordan’s life and work is the multitude of ways in which he sought to bring Christians together in radical kinship across racial boundaries. Of course, his community in the Jim Crow South did not take so kindly to Koinonia’s efforts toward interracial fellowship, and Jordan suffered real and threatened violence against himself and their community. In the essay “Metamorphasis,” Jordan roots his work toward radical kinship in the witness of Jesus himself, who called both Matthew the publican and Simon the Zealot to follow him in fellowship with one another (In today’s society, that would be like calling a Donald Trump follower and the most ardent of Leftists to follow Jesus together.) The fact that Jesus not only called both of these political rivals, but that they followed him in fellowship with each other, writes Jordan, “was absolute proof that the reign of God had changed these people from the little old caterpillars of hate and prejudice and greed and had made them into the butterflies of his new order” (75-76).

Another superb meditation on radical kinship in The Inconvenient Gospel is the essay, “The Meaning of Christian Fellowship.” In this piece, Jordan explains the Greek word koinonia (which is often translated fellowship), and describes why he chose it as the name of the interracial Christian community that he founded. Jordan goes on to argue, “So when Jesus called his disciples, he was establishing, in effect, a family upon spiritual rather than blood ties” (9). Jordan paid a great price over his lifetime for the ways in which he sought to embody the radical kinship that he found in the scriptural accounts of Jesus and his disciples. 

Table Fellowship

Much of the Live the Word conversation about the practice of Table Fellowship has focused on the table. While the writings of Clarence Jordan offered in The Inconvenient Gospel say very little about the table, Jordan’s essay, “The Meaning of Christian Fellowship,” is a substantial contribution to our understanding of the sort of fellowship that is cultivated around the table. The table created a place in which the sharing of food, one of the most important resources needed for human life, can be shared. Indeed, in his biographical introduction, editor Frederick Downing, shares an anecdote of an instance when Jordan was harassed by the KKK, specifically because he ate with Black folks (xvii). Jordan seemed to understand that a vibrant life of fellowship flows outward from the practice of sharing food around a table.

Although brief, The Inconvenient Gospel, offers a hearty introduction to Clarence Jordan’s life and writing, and stirs our imaginations powerfully about what it might look like to live the Word.