Filed under: Christianity, Consumerism, Peace and Justice, Shane Claiborne, quotes | Tags: Christianity, Consumerism, Hermas, Jesus for President, justice, Shane Claiborne, spirituality, wealth
This one’s extremely challening and I’m going to have to sit with it for a while:
You who are God’s servants are living in a foreign country, for your own city-state is far away from this city-state. Knowing which is yours, why do you acquire fields, costly furnishings, buildings, and frail dwellings here? Anyone who acquired things for himself in this city cannot expect to find the way home to his own City. Do you not realize that all these things here do not belong to you, that they are under a power alien to your nature? The ruler will say you do not obey my laws, either observe my laws or get out of my country, Take care lest it prove fatal to you to repudiate your own laws. Acquire no more here than what is absolutely necessary. Instead of fields, buy for yourselves people in distress in accordance with your means.
-Hermas, 140 AD
Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus For President (Michigan: Zondervan 2008 ) 146.
Filed under: Capitalism, Christianity, Consumerism, Peace and Justice, Politic, Shane Claiborne | Tags: Capitalism, Christianity, Consumerism, Jesus, Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne
Jesus is ready to set us free from the heavy yoke of an oppressive way of life. Plenty of wealthy Christians are suffocating from the weight of the American Dream, heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we embrace. This is the yoke from which we are being set free. And as we are liberated from the yoke of global capitalism, our sisters and brothers in Guatamala, Liberia, and Sri Lanka will also be liberated. Our family overseas, who are making our clothes, growing our food, pumping our oil, and assembling our electronics–they too need to be liberated from the empire’s yoke of slavery. Their liberation is tangled up with our own. The new yoke isn’t easy. (It’s a cross, for heaven’s sake.) But we carry it together, and it is good and leads us to rest, especially for the weariest traveler.
Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus For President (Michigan: Zondervan 2008 ) 113.
Filed under: Peace and Justice, Saint Francis of Assisi, prayers | Tags: Christianity, contemplation, Instrument of Peace, Peace, prayer, Saint Francis, spirituality
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Filed under: Christianity, Peace and Justice, Politic, Shane Claiborne, love | Tags: Jesus for President, Justice Revival, Shane Claiborne
Last week I attended a luncheon hosted by Shane Claiborne at the Justice Revival in Columbus, OH. He asked us to share with the people at our table about the person or experience that made us start to really care about social justice. To me, this was a brilliant question. It was obvious that there were people in the room on all sides of the political spectrum. Shane’s radical message no doubt offended some while those of us who agreed sank further into our self-righteousness indignation.
But when I reflected on the experience that I would share about, I was totally disarmed. I thought back to a trip I took to Mauritania in West Africa. One night a young mother asked my friends and I to pray for her nine month old son. He was suffering from malnutrition and parasites which made his stomach abnormally large and round. Her home of four walls and a dirt floor was dark. We gathered around her son and each placed a hand on him. We said prayers hoping to change his circumstances.
I don’t know what happened to the boy after that. I don’t know if any of his circumstances changed. But as I reflected again on this old story of mine, I realized how much that experience changed me.
At the luncheon, when it came time to share my story, my voice started trembling, I teared up, and couldn’t talk. The old story had new meaning and it began to work on me in a powerful way. Not able to finish, I had to pass on to the next person. Feeling totally disarmed by God’s love, I looked at the people in the room around me in a different light.
Working for justice isn’t about being dynamic, one step ahead of the rest, or even being “right”. It’s about people with real lives and real stories. Anything more than that is an imitation of working for justice (and something that will most likely be watered down, put in a box, and sent to the market).
I’m still reading Jesus For President and I’ll be sharing some interesting quotes later in the week.
Filed under: Christianity, Poetry, Wendell Berry, prayers | Tags: Christianity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Mysticism, Religion, spirituality, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, Wendell Berry
O Thou far off and near, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,
By Thy wide grace show me Thy narrow gate
Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (New York: Counterpoint Publishing, 1998), 107.
Filed under: Christianity, Politic | Tags: Capitalism, Consumerism, economy, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved, love, president
In recent posts and poems, I’ve been voicing my increasing frustration with consumerism and capitalism. It seems there is a system in place which takes something beautiful, waters it down, puts it in a box, and sends it to the market. This is done with religion, art, and spiritual movements. Upon reflection I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness. I worry for people who find hope in the word ‘capitalism’ and follow a president who urges his people to consume for the good of the economy.
But upon further reflection, I was led to hope. Love in its truest form cannot be marketed or consumed. You cannot buy stocks in love. You cannot buy love at the store. You cannot make money off of love. Interestingly enough I think that some of the most successful and profiting products are false immitations of love (i.e. pornography).
True love brings true hope. And our task is to identify it and bring it to light. Henri J. M. Nouwen writes in the Life of the Beloved that we are to “constantly unmask the world around us” to see it for what it truly is. In this process, it is helpful to realize that love endures and will continue to endure capitalism, consumerism, and whatever other sort of “ism” the world develops.
St. Paul asserted to the Corinthians that these three things would remain: faith, hope, and love.
Thank God.
Filed under: Christianity, Peace and Justice, Politic | Tags: Chris Haw, Jesus for President, Shane Claiborne
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I just started reading Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s Jesus For President. Last month I saw Shane speak at Bethel University. Expecting a dynamic and trendy speaker (he does, after all have dreadlocks), I instead found Shane to be goofy, homely and….genuine. To me, Shane’s real attraction was in his message and stories. It seems that he really does want to live like Jesus, love others, and work to change the world around him. Here’s a quote from his latest book which I think sums it up well:
This book is a project in renewing the imagination of the church in the United States and of those who would seek to know Jesus. We are seeing more and more that the church has fallen in love with the state and that this love affair is killing the church’s imagination. The powerful benefits and temptations of running the world’s larges superpower have bent the church’s identity. Having power at its fingertips, the church often finds “guiding the course of history” a more luring goal than following the crucified Christ. Too often the patriotic values of pride and strength triumph over the spiritual virtues of humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love.
Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus For President (Michigan: Zondervan, 2008), 17.
Filed under: Christianity, Steve Wiens | Tags: Church of the Open Door, Steve Wiens
“I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.” -Psalms 119:32
Last weekend, Steve Wiens preached a great sermon at Church of the Open Door on the freedom we should live in as Christians. He defines legalism as ”an attempt to place life in my control.” Steve identifies three types of legalistic Christians: Truth Defenders, Grace Addicts, and Jesus Followers. Truth Defenders do everything they can to defend thier view of God, faith, and the Bible. They are quite hostile in thier defence of thier dogma, thinking that the world rests on thier shoulders. In reaction to Truth Defenders, Grace Addicts have adopted the posture of a victim. Any church that asks anything of you is too much, any church they attend must use thier specific language about grace. Jesus Followers (the group of my most recent membership) wouldn’t stoop to call themselves ‘Christians’ for fear of being associated with either of the latter and think that thier practice of following Jesus is most similiar to the early church. Each group has simply created its own “form of legalism in exchange for another.” Steve then ties it all in to the unifying and transforming power of the Eucharist.
I was challenged and encouraged by this sermon and I highly recommend watching it!
View Steve’s sermon here.
I’ve recently read Dallas Willard’s essay entitled “Living in the Vision of God.” In it he addresses the almost unavoidable problem that great leaders and movements often face: the true “fire” which began the movement is snuffed out. Instead of carrying on the fire, successors simply “warm themselves by the fire”. Dallas sites Assissi as an example. Upon arrival he says you will find many souveniers and monuments commemorating St. Francis, “But you will not find anyone who carries in himself the fire that Francis carried.”
To me, this problem is especially true in our present day American culture. Additionally, not only must a movement sustain the fire, but also successfully fight off consumerism and capitalism which threaten to turn any sort of movement into a product to be marketed and engage in competition with others. In some ways, the Emergent Church movement is a good example of this problem. What possibly started as a genuine movement of God has in part been co-opted. Millions of dollars are being made on t-shirts, book deals, and special events. Does this movement really have what it takes to stand the test of time, or will it fizzle out in a few years because it’s not cool anymore and can’t make money?
Dallas argues that when the mission (work) becomes more important than the vision, the movement fails. Only humility, grace, and a heart which only seeks to love God sustains a true movement of God.
“We don’t need to be the vision, and the goals we set are God’s business, not ours. We do the very best we know, we work hard, and even self-sacrificially. But we do not carry the load, and our ego is not involved in any way with the mission and the ministry. In our love of Jesus and his Father, we truly have abondoned our life to God. Our life is not an object of deep concern.”
Dallas Willard, LIving in the Vision of God (Tell the Word Publishing: Washington DC), 10.
After a couple years of blogging on Journey Something, it’s time for a new direction. Content found on this blog used to be quite random (politics, current events, ethics, poetry, photography, journaling, humor, etc.).
In the future, Journey Something will mainly (but not exclusively) focus on Christian Spirituality. I hope to share poetry, quotes from my favorite authors, photography, and maybe some personal thoughts here and there.
Let the journey begin…again.
When I was a kid visiting the north shore with my family, I have a vivid memory of a tiny restaurant called Betty’s Pies. Since that time, the tiny place has been rebuilt into a big place and it inspired a lament.
“Lament for Old Betty’s Pies”
Sagging roof, drafty windows
Cracked plaster walls with old stories to tell
Northern art and local flavor
Quaint and small
With the captivating
Intoxicating aroma
Of fresh baked pie.
Strawberry Ruhbarb
Triple Berry
Pumpkin
Apple whatever
It would kiss your lips
Rub your tummy
And put you at peace.
Then the “fire” came
All was lost to ashes and progress
Capitalism capitalized and commercialized Betty’s Pies
New metal roof
Industrial oven
Betty passed on her recipes to machines
Who forgot to add love along with flour
Along with the oil from her hands
Along with the scent of her presence
The crust no longer melts in your mouth
It no longer warms your soul.
The smell of pie has left for north of here
And the world will never be the same.
Last week I had the chance to stay on the north shore for a few days. It inspired some thoughts and poetry that I would like to share over the next few days.
The first poem was written after I left my cabin for a hike along Lake Superior’s rocky shore. After traveling just a few yards, I came upon a No Trespassing sign that pissed me off. So I wrote:
“Concerning the Man Who Posted the No Trespassing Sign on the Lake Superior Shore”
NO TRESPASSING said the sign.
Maybe Mr. Man, maybe.
If your sign guards the land where your fathers are buried,
I will find another way.
If your sign protects the land for your children and mine,
I’ll gladly turn right back around.
But if your sign
Is a sign
Of the Gold that you paid the Man
Who paid the Man
Who paid the Man
To take this Land
From the man
Who cared for and loved it so
Then my friend, this is not your land.
Then my friend, your sign says nothing.
Forgive me friend, for walking past your
Meaningless sign
On the Lake Superior Shore.
