Celebrate Inter-dependence Day

Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of us all being bound up in an "inescapable web of mutuality." He talked of how we have encountered half the world by the time we have put on our clothes, brushed our teeth, drunk our coffee and eaten our breakfast, as there are invisible faces that make our lives possible every day. That's why I've always struggled with "Independence Day."

Patriotism can be a dangerous thing if it leads to amnesia about the dark patches of our nation's history. And it can leave us shortsighted if our nationalism prevents us from seeing pain or hope beyond our borders. As an American, and especially as a Christian, I am convinced that a love for our own people is not a bad thing, but love doesn't stop at borders. Love is infinitely boundless and all about holy trespassing and offensive friendships.

We are taught to celebrate independence. But independence and individualism have come at a great price. In the wealthy and industrialized countries we have become the richest people in the world, but we also have some of the highest rates of loneliness, depression, and suicide. We are rich, sad, and lonely. We are living into patterns that not only leave much of the world hungry for bread and starved for justice but also leave us longing for the good life and for meaning and purpose beyond ourselves.

The good news is that we are not alone in the world.

This year, let's celebrate Interdependence Day -- recognizing the fact that we are part of a global neighborhood. Let's appreciate all the invisible people in our lives, and let's lament the fact that the human family is terribly dysfunctional.

It's not about being anti-American but about being pro-world. It's a beautiful thing to realize that we need each other and that we are not alone in the world. So, I've worked with some friends to brainstorm great ways to celebrate "Interdependence Day" this Fourth of July. Here's what we came up with:

1) Track down old teachers and mentors. Let them know the influence they have had in your life.

2) Babysit for someone for free, especially someone that might really need a night off and not be able to afford a sitter.

3) Try to go a whole week without spending any money. If you have to, barter or beg a little to make it through.

4) Hold a baby goods exchange where parents can bring toys and clothing their kids have outgrown and trade them.

5) Attempt to repair something that is broken. Appreciate the people who repair things for you on a regular basis.

6) Look through your clothes. Learn about one of the countries where they are manufactured. Do some research to discover the working conditions and commit to doing one thing to improve the lives of people who live there.

7) Look for everything you have two of, and give one away.

8) Dig up a bucket of soil and look through it to see the elements and organisms that make our daily meals possible.

9) Spend the Fourth of July baking cookies or bread. Give them away to the person who delivers your mail or picks up your trash the next time you see him or her.

10) Host a rain-barrel party and teach neighbors how to make and use rain-barrels to recycle water.

11) Spend a day hiking in the woods. Consider how God cares for the lilies and sparrows -- and you.

12) Gather some neighbors, and plant a tree in your neighborhood together.

13) Hold a knowledge exchange where you gather friends or neighbors to share skills or something they are learning.

14) Track to its source one item of food you eat regularly. Then, each time you eat that food, remember the folks who made it possible for you to it it.

15) Become a pen-pal with someone in prison.

16) Try recycling water from the washer or sink to flush your toilet. Remember the 1.2 billion folks who don't have clean water.

17) Leave a random tip for someone cleaning the streets or the public restroom.

18) Write one CEO every month this year. Affirm or critique the ethics of their companies. (You may need to do a little research first.) Consider starting with BP.

19) Wash your clothes by hand and dry them on a line. Remember the 1.6 billion people who do not have electricity.

20) Learn to sew. Try making your own clothes for a year.

21) Eat only a bowl of rice a day for a week (take a multi-vitamin). And remember the 25,000 people who die of malnutrition and starvation each day.

22) Begin a scholarship fund so that for every one of your own children you send to college, you can create a scholarship for an at-risk youth. Get to know his or her family and learn from each other.

23) Visit a worship service where you will be a minority. Invite someone to dinner at your house, or have dinner with someone there if they invite you.

24) Confess something you have done wrong to someone and ask forgiveness.

25) Serve in a homeless shelter. For extra credit, go back to that shelter and eat or sleep there and allow yourself to be served.

26) Go through a local thrift store and drop $1 bills in random pockets of clothing being sold.

27) Experiment in creation-care by going fuel-free for a week -- bike, carpool or walk.

28) Go to an elderly home and get a list of folks who don't get any visitors. Visit them each week and tell stories, read together, or play board games.

29) Laugh at advertisements, especially ones that teach you that you can buy happiness.

30) Go down a line of parked cars and pay for the meters that are expired. Leave a little note of niceness.

31) Connect with a group of migrant workers or farmers who grow your food. Visit their farm. Maybe even pick some veggies with them. Ask what they get paid.

32) Mow your neighbor's grass.

33) Ask the next person who asks you for change to join you for dinner.

34) Invest money in a micro-lending bank.

35) Start setting aside 10 percent of your income to give away to folks in need.

36) Write paper letters (by hand) for a month. Try writing someone who needs encouragement or whom you should say "I'm sorry" to.

37) Contact your local crisis pregnancy center and invite a pregnant woman to live with your family.

38) Go without food for one day to remember the two billion people who live on less than a dollar a day.

Add yours to the list.

May we celebrate Interdependence Day today and everyday. It is a gift to be part of this inescapable web of mutuality.

-Shane Claiborne

Breaking My Heart, Reflections on Athens

There was one resounding theme that I came away with from Urbana this past year. It was in the conference’s repeated refrain, “break my heart for what breaks Yours (God’s)”. I still have that song (thought) in my head on most days, and it is has been a consistent prayer for my life since January.
I just got back from being in Greece for about 16 days (not sure the exact count). The first part of my trip was spent at the World Harvest Mission-Wide Conference in Eretria. I had the privilege of participating in the Leadership meetings during this time. I was blessed to sit and hear thoughts, ideas, and experiences from, in particular, three WHM families and I know I learned a lot during this time. At 32, I do not know much about leadership, however, I got a taste and glimpse of good, Christ-like leadership from those around me. I am thankful to God for what he taught me.

The second half of the conference was a time for the entire Mission to join together under the theme of, “Broader, Wider, Deeper.” We spent time hearing from a seasoned church-planter during devotionals, had an amazing time worshipping as a body, conducted breakout session on relevant missions topics, and spent many hours in prayer for our teams, fields, and the Nations.

After this conference, Christianne and I decided to take some time to see Athens since we were already in Greece. I thought my time with God was over, insomuch as we had just finished a huge missions conference….I was (thankfully) wrong.

We arrived in Athens and immediately the city captivated me. The noise level was the first thing I noticed. It was sooo loud, and I thought Philly was loud (but perhaps that’s just obnoxious Eagles fans..haha). There were people everywhere, walking the streets, hanging out, selling stuff, tourists, etc. My family went to the Acropolis area (the Plaka) the first day and had a wonderful Greek experience. The food is awesome…the people love babies (Judah)…and the culture is rich beyond description. We made our way back to the hotel that first day around 5pm and this is when God hit me over the head like a ton of bricks. Not being familiar with the city, we walked through the heart of an immigrant neighborhood, just blocks from our hotel. Undoubtedly, it was a neighborhood that we would have been told to avoid if we had asked…but we didn’t…and we were the only white people weaving our way through the massive crowd on the streets. God protected us though and there was no real danger. Right before we got out of the neighborhood, I witnessed several people on a corner shooting up what I supposed to be heroin. Literally, about a dozen people. Dazed and falling over…needles hanging out of every conceivable vein…moaning…passing out…Now, I have witnessed a lot in my life, living in Afghanistan and all…but I had experienced nothing like this. And to my amazement, only ONE block away was 2-3 cops just sitting there. My guess is that they were simply there to make sure this neighborhood didn’t get way out of control. In my experience, the whole city changed when the sun began to go down. At this time immigrants laid out there blankets on the streets trying to sell goods from their home countries. When a cop would drive by, they quickly picked up the blankets in fear of being arrested. It was an eye-opening experience.

I could go on and on about what I saw and experienced but I don’t want to lose you. That night when we got back to the hotel room I was consumed with the images in my head, and for the rest of my trip I could not shake them. At some point halfway through our “vacation”, I got the message from God. He was answering my prayers from the past 5 months or so. He was “breaking my heart for what breaks His”. This was no longer a vacation, or maybe it was, but I can honestly say this was the first vacation that I noticed the hurt around me, and not only notice it, but be consumed by it. Of course, I normally have taken the posture of enjoying myself on vacations and focusing on my pleasure. This was to my knowledge the first time God moved my heart to look beyond that to what He sees. And my wager is that I will never be the same. Judah, Christianne, and I prayed every night for the immigrant community in Athens. We prayed for God to touch their lives, and for them to know it was Him. We prayed for a church to start in this neighborhood. We prayed for freedom and life from addiction and death.

So you may ask, did you have a good time? I would say that we did, but in many ways the devastation around us made us sensitive to the suffering in Athens. So maybe that is the wrong question. I can say that the thing I enjoyed the most coming out of my Athens vacation is that I am no longer blind to the suffering and need around me, even on vacations. And I am happy that God is continuing to form my heart to His…

Lord, (continue) to break my heart for what breaks Yours.

Idolatry of Self

At the Mission I work at, we often talk about “idols” in relation to them hampering our spiritual walk and growth. The Old Testament talks a lot about idolatry, but the New Testament doesn’t speak much specifically about idolatry. There is a reason for this however. As I learned yesterday, the New Testament version of “idols” or “idolatry” is the idea or concept of “lust”. While the OT speaks of idols, the NT speaks of lusts…they are, in fact, to be taken the same way.

I have been thinking a lot lately about idols/lusts. As I contemplate this, I am reminded that idolatry is anything that turns my focus or heart away from God and His Glory. Of course, this can be any number of things, but what I have found out about myself is that I have ONE really BIG idol/lust in my life. The rest is periphery to this big one. The rest of my sin, actually, flows right from this ONE idol. You might be saying: yeah right!?!? How can you have only one idol or lust??

We are quick to pin the devil, the world, demons, etc. on our failures and sinning. While there is certainly some merit and reason to think this, it likely only makes up a fraction of our sin. For instance, if Satan is bound to be one place at one time, I highly doubt he is waiting for me to wake up each morning and then follows me to work and sits in my office to tempt me. Ha! I am not that important! I am thinking he would rather spend his time with, perhaps….politicians…hehe..What I really think is that most of my sin can be contributed to good ole me…my flesh…myself…So that got me to thinking about where my idols/lusts lay. And I boiled it down to one simple, yet big, conclusion. My big idol simply put is: SELF. Every other idol or lust simply flows out of my insatiable desire to please, protect, and advance myself. I am so selfish. I am selfish with my time. my money. my gifts. my energy. my lifestyle. I could go on and on. I want total, unilateral control of my life. I may say I believe and want God’s control and will for my life..that is wonderful lip service. But one need not look to deep into my life and lifestyle to find that I am the one who really wants to drive my life and lifestyle. Then, this idol of self gives birth to many different idols. But inevitably I can always trace back a sinful action, thought, desire, etc. to the fact that I care more about myself than any other thing, including God.

Certainly getting married has helped this. Having a baby has helped. Being involved in missions has helped. But none of these things in and of themselves have been able to break me of the care and self-love I have.

In times which the Spirit has truly led me, as opposed to my flesh, I have found freedom, mercy, love, grace, and redemption from my idol of self. I try to tap into my Spirit to guide and lead my days and actions, but also understand that the battle will be lifelong and often times labor in vain.

Oh how I long to slay you, self. I long to love you, Lord, above all else. I long to love others as myself. I long to seek first your Kingdom. I long to walk humbly, to love mercy, to fear the Lord. God, save me from this perishable tent, save me, I ask of you, from mySELF.

(Ordinary) Radical Evangelicals

(Ordinary) Radical Evangelicals emerged in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as a broad-based movement of Christians who sought to integrate evangelism and the work of justice, live incarnationally among the poor, form Christian communities and critique aspects of Western culture and the Church.

The term came into prominence at the 1974 Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization when some two hundred delegates calling themselves “The Radical Discipleship Group” drew up a Response to Lausanne which called for a greater focus of the work of justice and service to the poor (Langmead, 94).

This diverse and global Evangelical movement emerged due to a complex set of contributing factors. These included: exposure to the counter-cultural movements of the 1960’s; involvement in new forms of urban mission among people alienated from church and society; interaction between Third World Radical Evangelical theologians and practitioners and their First World counterparts; impact of Charismatic Renewal opening people to the creative work of the Spirit; and exposure to more radical theologies such as Anabaptist theology and that of the liberation theologians.

To get some sense of what this global movement is about, it is important to note some of the theological emphases of these Evangelicals. These centre around the following themes: salvation is both the gift of Christ’s grace and the call to serve God’s Kingdom purposes in the world; salvation thus issues into a discipleship that is expressed in an imitatio Christi that calls Christians to live the way of Christ in the world; salvation is never only personal in that it also calls us into community and solidarity; this community is the missional people of God sent by Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be a sign, servant and sacrament of the Reign of God; this community in Christ is a community of worship, formation and identificational service to the world.

(Ordinary) Radical Evangelicals place themselves in the whole story of Scripture since it reveals a God who is both wholly Other and who is wholly involved in the world sustaining it and redeeming it. At the same time, they are particularly impacted by the social justice vision of the Pentateuch; the OT prophetic vision of shalom, justice and the new community; the theology and praxis of the Jesus Movement as portrayed in the gospels; the in-breaking of the Kingdom in the power of the Spirit as told in the book of Acts; the Pauline Vision of new life in Christ in the new community beyond culture, class, gender and economic differences and the nature of the fallen powers that need to be exposed, resisted and redeemed; and finally the vision of hope in new heavens and a new earth.

In the light of these biblical and theological emphases, (Ordinary) Radical Evangelicals see themselves as a prophetic counter-community in the world while being wholly engaged in the suffering and brokenness of the human community. Thus they practice radical hospitality. They seek to be a healing presence. They are committed to peace-making and the work of justice.



credit: Charles Ringma

The Book of the Shepherd

My book review as a contributor of such for: http://www.theooze.com/

"The Book of the Shepherd" is a well written fable by Joann Davis. From the get go, I was motivated and intrigued by the subtitle, "The Story of One Simple Prayer, and How it Changed the World." I was asking myself, "What kind of prayer changed the whole world?" Of course, I already had a little list in my head going. But I was definitely curious to find out the secret of this particular book....

I was not disappointed, to say the least. The fable unfolds by weaving poignant messages/themes with powerful character development in a seamless storyline. Each character had his/her own unique story within the bigger story, and learns more about him/herself and the ways of the world during their integrated journey together of a quest to find timeless truth (i.e. the prayer that changed the world). I found myself engaged in the journey with them and pondering what self-discovery I was making, or how I could relate to each character's story. Slipping in and out of the story, I kept trying to figure out what the major theme was of the book. I wish I hadn't approached the book like this, it was not a good method. Reflecting back, I can now see that. as always, its more about the story and the process of the getting the answers than the actual end point itself.

I recommend this book if you need a break from didactic books, etc. It is entertaining. You will find yourself engaged in the characters and their stories and the bigger story that encompasses the entire fable. And in the end you will finally find out which prayer changed the whole world....

Another World is Possible: Combating Gun Violence

This past Saturday I attended a prayer vigil coordinated and led by the Simply Way of Philadelphia. The event was so meaningful and emotional, that I wanted to share my thoughts and observations about it.

Gun violence is plaguing urban cities. In very recent years, on average, a homicide a day was happening in the city of Philadelphia. About two weeks ago, a young man, 19, was gunned down on the street that the Simple Way is located. “At about midnight we heard the shots ring out. My friend ran to the door and I heard him yell, “Shane (Claiborne), a kid has been shot, come down.” As we looked down the street we could see a young man staggering as he walked down our block. Then his knees gave out and he fell to the ground. We called for an ambulance, and ran outside to be with the boy. My friend talked to him tenderly, looking into his eyes as they struggled to stay alert. We could see the wounds in his chest, torn by bullets. I grabbed his hand and held it as we prayed… and as we hoped. The ambulance came and drove him off. The next morning we heard that 19-year old Papito died that night from the gunshot wounds, on February 5, 2010. Papito was the fourth shooting in the last few months within walking distance from our house (Simple Way).”

You have to start asking yourself, what types of solutions can Followers of Christ play a role in to combat violence, and promote nonviolence. Certainly Simple Way’s presence in Kensington is one. Incarnational ministry is arguably the most effective method of ministry to combat urban evil and injustice. Another way is making public and acknowledging suffering and death within these contexts. And that was what this prayer vigil was about. The gun shop the vigil was done in front of is called “The Shooter Shop”. “It appears the Shooter Shop has long been known to both law enforcers and criminals as a prime source of illegal guns to the street market in Pennsylvania and other states. According to an analysis of ATF data from 1969 to 2000, the Shooter Shop was among the 120 top gun stores in the country in terms of guns it sold that were eventually recovered from crime (Note: The Tiahrt Amendment to ATF appropriations blocks public access to more recent data). ATF calls such info a likely indicator of a gun store being a source of gun trafficking. Traffickers know which gun dealers will look the other way when a straw buyer seeks to make a bulk buy of handguns, so they frequent those stores. The Shooter Shop is in the portion of Philly gun dealers whose guns are consistently recovered from crime.”

I don’t know what I was thinking as I arrived at the event. For some reason, I pictured a small group gathered on a street corner praying, crying, singing, etc. Certainly this part of the equation there…but it was only half of the equation. Let me explain. My rough estimates is that there were about 100 like-minded individuals there for the prayer vigil. However, there were about 20 or so protesting our presence that were there also. This certainly caused a little bit of a scene. There were 3 police vans filled with cops, police on the streets, reporters, people filming the event, etc. all present. It was this I was naïve about. I am not sure what I was thinking, I was living in ignorance in this moment. Of course people would not like what we were doing, what we stood for. Every time we began to pray or sing, the counter-protestors, all brandishing their American flags broke out into, “God Bless America.” We were met with a bunch of other slander, but no need to restate those words here. Words can’t describe the contrast, but it was very real. The thought kept coming to my mind that I also had when I heard Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Haiti: I just felt bad and hurt for them. I felt so much pain that they chose to be malicious and tried to be hurtful towards us. While they were yelling at us, I silently prayed for them. This was definitely my Spirit interceding, as my flesh battled (but thankfully lost) to feel anger towards them. One of our fellow participants said (paraphrasing), “I think if they actually dialogued with us, they would see we have a lot more in common than they think.” This is very true. We weren’t there to dispute the “right to bear arms”, like many alleged. The purpose was in fact to have the store owner sign a Code of Conduct (http://www.heedinggodscall.org/content/code-conduct ) , a ten- point covenant created by a national association of Mayors committed to decreasing violence on the streets, not to stop selling arms period.

Unfortunately, the gun shop owner did not sign this covenant on this day. But I feel we were doing what God had called us to do at that time, and to do it for Papito and the hundreds of others who are victims of violent crime.

One such law we all are pursuing in Pennsylvania would limit the number of guns to “One Handgun a Month”. Part of the problem is that there are no limitations to how many guns folks can buy which is why the end up being resold on the streets by “straw purchasers.” We are not even trying to stop the “right to bear arms”, we’re just saying maybe one handgun a month is enough. And for those of us who are Christians, Jesus sure didn’t have a much to say about the right to bear arms but had a heck of a lot to say about loving our enemies… so we hope Christians of conscience can help lead this important struggle for peace.

It’s another piece of the puzzle to create a better world. It’s not the only, or whole solution…but it’s certainly a piece. Come, Dream with me: Another world is possible.

Beat the Defense Budget into a Plowshare

A wonderful, thought-provoking article by Shane Claiborne that I had to re-post.

Almost exactly 4 years ago, more than 100 faith leaders from around the country went to jail together as we prayed for a moral budget and lamented the current one. I think it may be time to do it again.

On Oct. 28, 2009, President Obama signed into law the $680 billion 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, the largest military spending bill of its kind, increasing the military budget 24 billion from the last fiscal year.

With all the hope for an end to the recession, military spending does seem to be the open wound of America (and perhaps no coincidence that the military budget is almost the same as the bailout package). The military spending is the elephant in the room any time we speak of health care for all or reforming the broken education system; one wonders how much good we can do when nearly half of every tax dollar goes to the military. Dr. King’s words ring truer than ever: “A country that spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching a spiritual death.”

The U.S. is now paying over $16 billion a year just to maintain its nuclear arsenal, an arsenal so big it takes the next 50 countries combined to even get close. I did a little research recently and talked to some folks in DC just to wrap my hands around the numbers. Using the Hiroshima bomb as a measuring unit (and remembering that this bomb killed 140,000 people in one blast, and 90 of these bombs could blow up all of Russia), the U.S. now has the equivalent of more than 122,000 Hiroshimas. How many times do we need to be able to blow up the world? It must break God’s heart. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the things that lead to peace, Jesus must be weeping over America today.

It is my prayer that we would have the courage and imagination to beat these “swords into plows” — to turn the things that have brought death into things that bring life. As the rate of soldiers dying by suicide has now outnumbered those dying in combat, it is time for us to say “enough” to the sword which we have picked up and died by over and over. It is time to choose another future than wars and rumors of wars. And perhaps it is time once again to pray on the steps of Congress for a moral budget… and to go to jail as we pray.

Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President.