Starting Again
it's clear that I have a ways to go to be in the world of blogging as it is intended. This month has been pretty hectic, and I just have not taken the time to keep up here as I meant to. I'll start again and see if I can do a better job of staying current.
I was given a stimulating book as a Christmas prestent, The Irresistible Revolution, by a writer named Shane Claiborne. Claiborne is a member of a Christian comunity in Philadelphia, and the book is a critique of regular, nominal christianity and Christian churches with a call to become what Clairborne calls "ordinary radicals", persons who try in their living - in all areas - to take seriously the words of Jesus. I don't buy al of the book, but there is much in it that is on target and challenging.
At one point Claiborne writes that he thinks most believers could use a good dose of holy anger at the way things are in the world. He quotes a Danish pastor named Kaj Munk. Munk was killed by the Gestapo in 1944. His remarks go like this:
What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer "Faith, hope and love"? That sounds beautiful. But I would say - courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature...we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth...a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challange and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish....but never the chameleon.
Powerful words. Munk's comments remind me of the prohets of the Old Testament and of William Sloan Coffin. And they feel awfully contemporary as I look at the landscape of our country and our world. The expression of anger does not come easily for me, but a dose of holy rage may be just what I and the church need.
Jimmy
I was given a stimulating book as a Christmas prestent, The Irresistible Revolution, by a writer named Shane Claiborne. Claiborne is a member of a Christian comunity in Philadelphia, and the book is a critique of regular, nominal christianity and Christian churches with a call to become what Clairborne calls "ordinary radicals", persons who try in their living - in all areas - to take seriously the words of Jesus. I don't buy al of the book, but there is much in it that is on target and challenging.
At one point Claiborne writes that he thinks most believers could use a good dose of holy anger at the way things are in the world. He quotes a Danish pastor named Kaj Munk. Munk was killed by the Gestapo in 1944. His remarks go like this:
What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer "Faith, hope and love"? That sounds beautiful. But I would say - courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature...we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth...a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challange and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish....but never the chameleon.
Powerful words. Munk's comments remind me of the prohets of the Old Testament and of William Sloan Coffin. And they feel awfully contemporary as I look at the landscape of our country and our world. The expression of anger does not come easily for me, but a dose of holy rage may be just what I and the church need.
Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 11:18 AM
1 Comments:
So, how do we translate that rage? Do we march, and shout and go to jail? How does that translate to life in 2007?
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