Economics Of Rebirth

Chapter 6 of Irresistible Revolution starts with Shane's story about a wealthy business man he met. The man had been "thinking about following Christ and what that means" - the result was a custom-made What-Would-Jesus-Do engraved bracelet of 24-karat gold. It's kinda funny, but also sad. It's the materialistic culture that engulfs us, even as we try to follow Jesus.

The chapter challenges us to be more generous with the excess we have (as Jesus suggested). After all, we pray for our daily bread - not for a lifetime supply. One example of generosity came (ironically enough) from someone with very little.

One of the beggars in Calcutta approached me one day, and I had no money on me, but i felt a piece of gum in my pocket, so I handed it too her. I have no idea how long it had been since she had chewed gum, or if she had ever even had the chance. She looked at it and smiled with delight. Then she tore it into three pieces and handed one to me and one to a friend so we could share the excitement.

Groups of families are discovering the blessings that come with sharing possessions. The funt that comes with doing things together and spending time with each other. Of course, poor people have known this for some time. Shane suggests this is why Jesus states the difficulty for rich people to enter God's kingdom. Personal wealth acts as a blindfold, blocking the vision of an "interdependent community, dependent on God, and on each other".
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"There is enough for everyone's need, but there is never enough for everyone's greed" - Ghandi

Proving It

One of the stock-standard mission statements (or slogans) for a church is "Loving God, Loving [X]", where X can be "others", "the community" or the geographical area of the church in question.


But this one from Courageous Church goes a bit further, and (i think) a bit more biblical. It starts out like all the others, but the difference here is the last line - "Prove It".

While the activity of many churches seems limited to sitting, listening or singing; Courageous Church challenges itself to put love into action by doing things that actually help people, and make God's love visible.

Room Cleaning Christianity

OK, this is my latest fave phrase from Jon Acuff, as he uses it to explain why Christians are jerks.

Just like a student decides to clean up their room rather than work on the big assignment that is due soon, so we can sometimes focus on things make us feel better, but really aren't that important.

Whether it's finding faults in celebrities who are Christians, branding large segments of the community as 'sinners' (as if we're not), or lamenting the low number of people who attend church - all of them make us feel a bit more self-righteous, but don't actually involve loving our neighbour ... the assignment Jesus gave us.

Another Way Of Doing Life

ask people what Christians believe, they can tell you ... ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent.

Shane Claiborne reckons this is because we haven't shown anything different, that "Christians live pretty much like everyone else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way". As a result he reckons "spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise.

Sometimes people call those of us in our community radical. Most of the time though, I think that if what we are doing seems radical, then that says more about the apathy of Western Christianity that about the true nature of our discipleship.

I experienced this kind of thing recently when i did something mildly generous and a friend complimented me for "radical discipleship". He meant it well, and i took it that way - but part of me shed a tear that my actions were considered the exception rather than the norm.

Shane quotes Dorothy Day as saying "Don't call us saints; we don't want to be dismissed that easily" and implores us to allow Jesus to change our actions as well as our beliefs. Just as he did for Zaccheus, and for Levi, and for countless others. Such discipleship is not only more rewarding, but is also a greater help to those around us.

We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.

Lying To God

I'm not a huge fan of lying. Same goes for lying to God (which i figure is extra dumb because God would know a lie when hears one ;) Anyway, i think this makes me struggle with 'worship' music. Singing a lie doesn't make it true. And they can put a whole bunch of E-minor chords around a lie - it's still a lie. One of my 'faves' is from I Want To Know You More...

pushing every hindrance aside (out of my way) 'cause I want to know you more

because i think most of us could name at least 5 things we've done today that we could have ditched in order to "know God more" (but we didn't). Meanwhile my list of things that i actually have pushed aside is looking quite short.

I don't know why we do this. Is it just to make the words fit the melody? ("Occasionally pushing selected hindrances aside" would be a real mouthful.) Or is it to give ourselves a chance to brag about our (inflated) holiness in front of other churchgoers? Or is it to make newcomers feel insecure and inferior as they compare themselves to our over-exaggerated claims about ourselves?

Whatever the reason, i can't really stomach it. So i was comforted (and amused) when Jon Acuff did his piece on Overcommitting to God. He even includes a template for making your own dodgy lyrics ... and the comments are full of hilarious creations :)

When Comfort Becomes Uncomfortable

The title of this chapter of Irresistible Revolution comes from the saying "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable."

Shane talks about feeling increasing disturbed by God - while living in the comfortable suburbs. And the more he read the bible the less comfortable he felt - especially with the fake Jesus that he feels American Christianity produces.

He tells the story of being on a short-term mission trip, and a group of children (preparing a skit from a gospel story) came up to him and said "Shane we need you to play Jesus, because you are white and from America."

Or as George Bernard Shaw puts it..

God created us in his image, and we decided to return the favour.

Outsider Interviews

You may have read my thoughts on unChristian - the book that analyses what 'outsiders' think of christians. Well now Jim Henderson (author of "Jim and Casper go to Church") presents the Outsider Interviews. It's a DVD and book of face-to-face discussions with 'outsiders' and 'insiders' - and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which :)



One young woman says that now she even hesitates to call herself 'Christian' (because of what that has become associated with). Scarier still was that the question these people were asked...

If you thought Christians would listen, what would you say to them?

Doesn't it say something that we even have to preface questions that way?