I'm in the air en route to perform at the Covenant Awards, Canada's version of the GMA (Dove) Awards, and I'm really questioning the validity of what I'm spending my life doing right now thanks to Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution and one of the founding members of The Simple Way.
You may remember - I just blogged about this book and this guy a couple of days ago... and I can't get it out of my mind. We only had 3 hours sleep last night, so I'm struggin' a little on this flight and have been reading for a while. It's a fascinating read - this guy Shane would definitely be considered a radical by the world. He sleeps/eats/lives his life with homeless people, he goes to jail for standing up for the rights of the poor, he makes his own clothes, he traveled to Iraq to protest the war... I mean, this guy is a piece of work! And yet he calls himself an ordinary radical - ordinary because he's simply trying to live out the life Jesus called us to live.
Wait a minute... Jesus called me to live a life like that?! Well, I don't think we're ALL called to sleep in a park with the homeless - but I could be VERY wrong on that, too. I'm still processing (and reading)... I DO know that I got pretty disgusted when I put down the book for a minute or two and opened my inflight magazine only to find these ads in the first few pages:
WealthTV - Your Luxury Lifestyle & Entertainment Network. "WealthTV delivers informative shows that provide invaluable insights on what every American dreams of - from travel secrets to fast cars, from better etiquette to better investing, and much more."
"Under a giant cathedral of blue skies we invite you to come and worship the game." - an ad for a beachfront country club/golf community in Mexico
I have no desire to go any further... I think instead I'm going to try and get some sleep (if I can turn my mind off for a little bit). In the meantime, why don't you read some of the excerpts from the book below - I dare you to pick up a copy and read it. Believe me - there will be more to come...
"Layers of insulation separate the rich and the poor from truly encountering one another. There are the obvious layers like picket fences and SUVs, and there are the more subtle ones like charity. Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, can also function as outlets that allow us to appease our consciences and still remain a safe distance from the poor."
"It is much more comfortable to depersonalize the poor so we don't feel responsible for the catastrophic human failure that results in someone sleeping on the street while people have spare bedrooms in their homes. We can volunteer in a social program or distribute excess food and clothing through organizations and never have to open up our homes, our beds, our dinner tables. When we get to heaven, we will be separated into those sheep and goats Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 based on how we cared for the least among us. I'm just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, 'When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,', or, 'When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.' Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He seeks concrete acts of love: 'you fed me... you visited me in prison... you welcomed me into hour home... you clothed me."
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