Monthly Archives: February 2008

Devotional thoughts

Introducing the ‘Jesus Box’

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No, this is not a satirical post about a Box for sale that you can put Jesus in (though that might be funny to write sometime), this is about a new feature on the site I’m going to be adding to posts called the ‘Jesus Box’ (and yes it is supposed to be a little funny). I plan on posting the ‘Jesus Box’ at the end of articles I write about that are about social issues amongst other things.

The intent of the ‘Jesus Box’ will be to provide a short paragraph trying to articulate Biblical support for the issue I happen to bring up. The audience for this is not just ‘Christians.’ What I’d like to do is provide primarily Bible verses and references so that those who follow Christ will see where and what it is in the faith that is motivating me toward certain issues.

I also hope that those who read my posts about social issues but don’t personally follow Christ’s teachings will read and use the information given in the ‘Jesus Box’ to challenge and hold Christians to the authority they claim to follow.

This is what a typical Jesus Box will look like:

Jesus Box (Biblical Reasons for why I’m doing what I do)
Let’s say we are talking about the environment, I might reference this verse:
Psalm 19:1-4: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Look for Jesus Boxes in future posts.

What I Read

Book Review: Jesus And The Disinherited

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I just finished Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman. I really enjoyed this book, and I’ve been waiting about 7 years to read it. Truth.

The summer after I graduated high school, I attended DC/LA, a big youth event in Washington DC (And in Los Angeles). Besides getting my jaw stuck open for the first time, I went to hear an incredible speaker named Bart Campolo who talked about Mission Year and said ‘groovy’ a lot. I really enjoyed his talk and one of the books he mentioned was Jesus and the Disinherited. Since that time I’ve tried putting the book on hold through numerous Inter Library Loans and never managed to get it and sit down and read it until now. Turns out a new neighbor did Mission Year and this was required reading, so I borrowed his book.

The book is only about 100 pages so I’d definitely recommend you pick it up yourself. Thurman wrote it in 1949, well before the Civil Rights Movement, in a country boiling with racial tension. His book seeks to address what Christianity and Jesus in particular have to say to the ‘man with his back against the wall.’ It’s a brilliant little book. The reality is Jesus’ primary audience were a group of people with their backs against the wall, they were the disinherited. Unfortunately, the assumption in the church then and today seems to be that Christianity is more of a guide for what to do to the disinherited, rather then acknowledging them as the main audience of the gospel.

My suggestion would be that you read the book, I’m sure I’ll extrapolate more, but for now I’ll just leave you with some of my favorite quotes:

Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin? Is this impotency due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself? (preface)

It is the sin of pride and arrogance that has tended to vitiate the missionary impulse and to make of it an instrument of self-righteousness on the one hand and racial superiority on the other. p. 12-13

A man’s conviction that he is God’s child automatically tends to shift the basis of his relationship with all his fellows. He recognizes at once that to fear a man, whatever may be that man’s power over him, is a basic denial of the integrity of his very life. It lifts that mere man to a place of pre-eminence that belongs to God and to God alone. He who fears is literally delivered to destruction. To the child of God, a scale of values becomes available by which men are measured and their true significance determined. Even the threat of violence, with the possibility of death that it carries, is recognized for what it is–merely the threat of violence with a death potential. Such a man recognizes that death cannot possibly be the worst thing in the world. There are some things that are worse than death. To deny one’s own integrity of personality in the presence of the human challenge is one of those things. ‘Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do,’ says Jesus.” p. 52-53

One last part that struck me was how he made clear how radical the story of the Roman captain coming to Jesus to ask for help was. Roman’s regarded themselves as superior, that was the system that was set up, so when he comes to Jesus to ask for help he’s broken some major cultural and societal walls that were in place:

The fact that he had come to Jesus was in itself evidence to warrant the conclusion that he had put aside the pride of race and status which would have caused him to regard himself as superior to Jesus… The Roman was confronted with an insistence that made it impossible for him to remain a Roman, or even a captain. He had to take his place alongside all the rest of humanity and mingle his desires with the longing of all the desperate people of all the ages. When this happened, it was possible at once for him to scale with Jesus any height of understanding, fellowship, and love. The final barrier between the strong and the weak, between ruler and ruled, disappeared.

(thanks for already typing the quotes, just a google search away)

Money & Stewardship

Quit Ripping on The Plastic Bags

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www.flickr.com/photos/8586443@N03/830934583Seems like everywhere I turn people are lamenting the impact of the plastic bags available at the grocery store. The trend seems to have caught on and everyone and their mother are purchasing nice pretty and new canvas totes to pick up their groceries with. What has amazed me is that I haven’t heard anyone acknowledge the irony in this. We critique the rampant consumerism and environmental degradation of plastic grocery bags that fill landfills, waste energy, and acknowledge our disposable society, and our answer to that problem: Buy something. Buy a bag, a nice pretty canvas tote with trendy design and take it to the grocery store and show it off.

While we think we’ve done some great act for the environment, we’ve in some ways simply traded one consumable product for another. We need to think more critically about this. We need to raise some questions about our consumerism and think hard about our choices:

  1. Is plastic Bad? If you think it is and should be used in moderation, then we need to make a serious effort to reduce our use of plastic across the board, not just shopping bags. And may I suggest we do this buy purchasing non-plastic products when it’s necessary to buy something new, but even better, simply buy used.
  2. Can you reuse Plastic? Since moving out of my parents home I have never spent a dime on trash bags. Instead, we’ve used those dreaded plastic grocery bags as our kitchen, bathroom and other trash can liners. We also used reused them to get our groceries time and again until we accumulated enough cloth bags for our shopping. I use the plastic bags to carry dirty cloth diapers when we are out. And if we had a dog, I’d be using the bags for clean up there too.

My goal is not to discourage anyone from using cloth bags, but to think more critically about our purchasing and lifestyle, rather then simply following the trends, even if they are ‘green’ trends. Personally, I use cloth bags quite often for groceries. It’s been fun to see the change in attitude in the checkout line at the grocery store. We used to walk to the store with a couple backpacks and a cloth bag and when checking out we’d tell them we were going to bag it ourselves in our own bags and we’d get very strange looks. Now it’s not that big of a deal (And Aldi’s and Cub you bag yourself anyways). We’ve reduced our trash output so much that I don’t need many plastic bags for that anymore.
If your going to purchase cloth bags make sure they are environmentally friendly and fair trade. I’d recommend Simply Neutral, they’ve got both grocery and produce bags, which I received as an awesome present from my sister-in-law. Now I can go all cloth for even the largest shopping trips.

Web Links

Links: Chickens, Afghanistan, Pastors, Racism, and Grace

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“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”

considering church

The Sickness of The ‘American’ Way of Life

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“Now I get sick only when I go back to America… My American friends were shoveling platefuls of leftover food into the garbage disposal. I threw up all over the counter. I had forgotten what perfectly good food looked like going down the drain to the sewer. It was like watching a disgustingly drunk billionaire burn hundred-dollar bills in front of beggars.
…My mother’s next-door neighbor, a well-groomed, weight-gifted, vertically challenged accountant named Dave, brought out a leaf blower, a lawn mower, a leaf grinder, a mulcher, an edger, and a weed trimmer. He worked all day, making a terrific racket, chopping, trimming, and spraying toxins on a small patch of ground, which produced absolutely no food, only grass. The rest of the world spent the day standing in swamp water trying to grow a few mouthfuls of rice, while Dave sat on his porch with a cold beer admiring his chemical lawn. Sickening? You bet.” -Sisay from White Man’s Grave, by Richard Dooling

Regardless of who you voted for yesterday, or who gets elected this fall, there are some things about the ‘American’ way of life that probably won’t change all that much. There might be some divisions along party lines related to a whole lot of different issues, and it’s sad we can’t find more unity on those things, but that’s not what’s disturbing to a lot of the world. I don’t think a new president is going to be the answer to all of our problems. And, though a unified country will be good for the country, it also won’t bring true healing to anyone’s soul.

What can be addressed, and should be, by a unified church, is the sickening disease of NOT loving our neighbor. The above quote is from a fictional character who returns to his hometown in the USA after spending a few years as a PeaceCorps volunteer in Sierra Leone. I think there are many people who have spent time overseas who at one point, early in their return, relate to his feelings. It is unfortunate that much of the church in the USA looks like the neighbor spending all day grooming their lawn and tossing good food down the disposal, rather then living a life of sacrifice and love for our neighbors across the globe.

YouTubesday

YouTubesday: Scrabulous and Politics

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It’s Super Tuesday, so I’m going to put a few political pieces up. This is not to say I’m supporting one particular candidate or anything, but found these videos interesting.

But, before politics, the first video you need to check out is the Scrabulous Music Video. It’s on YouTube, here’s the link. Go, watch, Favorite It, Rate It, and share it with your friends. My great friend Zach made it and I’d love to see it on the front page of Youtube.

Yes, We Can.

Hillary Clinton addresses progressive religious activists

Last Year’s State of The Union

Millenium Development Goals

Time to Go Home

Lupe Fiasco – American Terrorist

Blog

I Caucus Tomorrow…Maybe

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This isn’t a post, it’s room for discussion. Please keep it civilized. Here’s the deal, tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and the Caucuses in my area. I was, and am currently planning on, going to the Democratic Caucus and caucusing for Obama or Clinton. However, I think I could be pursued to not caucus at all, to stick to independents, or to favor one or the other.

I think I’m trying to avoid much political discussion on here for several reasons, the main one is that I often shift back and forth as to my views on what my involvement as a citizen of the kingdom of God first, and a citizen of this country second (or much farther down the list) looks like.

Pursued me…

Devotional thoughts

Teaching Children About Jesus’ Parables

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Jesus told us that “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” That being said, I’m anxious to really learn what that might look like. Here’s my plan: I want to tell my children the teachings and parables of Jesus, unfettered by my explanations, and see how little children seek to live out those teachings. The problem is, I’ve looked around, and I can’t find any children’s books that teach the challenging parables of Jesus.

I’ve looked and haven’t seen any “Love Your Enemies” passages in a single children’s book around. So, there are a couple of things I’m interested in doing:

  1. I’m interested if anyone with children (3-6 or so) have ever read some of the parables of Jesus to their kids. And if so, what was their children’s reactions?
  2. I’m wondering if anyone knows of children’s books with those types of stories that exist anywhere?
  3. And this is the big one: I’d like to find a publisher, or self publish, a series of children’s books or just one book with those teachings in it.

Here’s some of the parables that I think we should be teaching our children and allowing them to respond:

  • The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus
  • The Rich Fool
  • Parable of the Pearl
  • Parable of the Friend at Night

What other Parables can you think of that we tend not to read to our children, but should?

asides

Ghettos of Affluence

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“Our children need to join us in this ministry of identification (with
the poor). We do them no favor by hiding them from suffering and need.
If we imprison them in ghettos of affluence, how can they learn
compassion for the broken of the world? So, let us walk hand in hand
with our children into pockets of misery and suffering.” -Richard Foster in Freedom of Simplicity