Compassion, Justice, and the Overflow

The 3rd and final day of the convention moved me in a way I simply haven’t been in a while. If I were to try to repeat everything I experienced, I would not do it justice, so I’m not going to try. Let’s just say social workers, especially the Christian ones, know how to set fire to your insides in the best way possible. I learned that compassion must hold hands with justice to ring true, and…

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Being the Spice of Life

I just can’t complain about anything, but I sure could if I let myself go there. But I can’t complain at all, especially when I see others with tremendous physical issues, heartbreak issues, homeless issues, and so many other issues. I was touched by Shane Claiborne’s book, “The Irresistible Revolution”, subtitled “Living as an Ordinary Radical”. The book describes what a truly Christian…

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Peacemaking doesn't mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free. - Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

What's Going On at the Asbury Revival?

Two weeks of nonstop worship at #asburyrevival. What does this extraordinary "awakening" tell us? How does it touch us? #asburyawakening

Asbury University Revival (February 2023). True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections. — Jonathan Edwards “After Thursday, I was like, okay, I’m going to go sleep. But [God] was like, ‘No, I have more for you.’” — Lauren, Asbury University student On February 8 the morning chapel service at Kentucky’s Asbury University concluded, as usual, with a spiritual song. Then most of…

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Wisdom from Shane Claiborne.

E'en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.

It is the beginning of Advent.

Advent, meaning “the coming,” is a time when we wait expectantly. Christians began to celebrate it as a season during the fourth and fifth centuries.

Like Mary, we celebrate the coming of the Christ child, what God has already done.

And we wait in expectation of the full coming of God’s reign on earth and for the return of Christ, what God will yet do. But this waiting is not a passive waiting. It is an active waiting. As any expectant mother knows, this waiting also involves preparation, exercise, nutrition, care, prayer, work; and birth involves pain, blood, tears, joy, release, community. It is called labor for a reason.

Likewise, we are in a world pregnant with hope, and we live in the expectation of the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. As we wait, we also work, cry, pray, ache; we are the midwives of another world.

[For some great Advent resources, check out brilliant project our friends started Advent Conspiracy. It's all about taking Christmas back as a season of compassion rather than consumption: www.adventconspiracy.org]

(and thanks for the image Aaron Niequist!]

hi I was just wondering if u can mention a few of ur other favorite prayers? I need a few more in my arsenal !

my favourite repository for prayers is the anglican book of common prayer! you should be able to find it online, or there’s an app with the daily offices. i like to pray the evening prayer collect before bed:

lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, o lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only son, our saviour jesus christ. amen.

compline and the prayers for families also have some very sweet ones:

keep us as the apple of an eye; hide us under the shadow of thy wings.

preserve us, o lord, waking, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may walk with christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

general prayer for those in anxiety (i usually change “their” to “our” etc):

almighty god, who art afflicted in the afflictions of thy people: regard with thy tender compassion those in anxiety and distress; bear their sorrows and their cares; supply all their manifold needs; and help both them and us to put our whole trust and confidence in thee; through jesus christ our lord.

prayer for the departed (the first part is from the old latin, second part is local to my home church):

rest eternal grant unto them, o lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them. may the divine assistance remain with us always, and with our absent brethren.

sarah bessey’s a rhythm of prayer has breath prayers and a good one for righteous anger. i also use the jesus prayer as a breath prayer:

(inhale) lord jesus christ, son of god, (exhale) have mercy upon me, a sinner

i LOVE the angelus but can never find the translation i like on prayer cards >_<

common prayer: a liturgy for ordinary radicals by shane claiborne and jonathan wilson hartgrove has a lovely office as well.

"Christ in the Rubble," Kelly Latimore, 2023

This new icon was made in partnership with Red Letter Christians, Rev. Munther Issac, Shane Claiborne.

From Red Letter Christians: " We partnered with artist Kelly Latimore of Kelly Latimore Icons to create this new icon, "Christ in the Rubble," which illustrates the prophetic message that if Jesus was born today, he would be born "under the rubble." Kelly wants his art to be a ‘holy pondering’ - a process that potentially brings about a new way of seeing. Our hope is that this icon, "Christ in the Rubble" will create more dialogue among Christians in the United States during this holy season about the ways our beliefs and actions - or lack thereof - contribute to the violence we're currently witnessing in Gaza. How can we shape a culture of Christianity where love truly has no boundaries? How do we create a world where our poor, homeless, refugee, Palestinian Savior - born to a teenage mother and later condemned to death - would be cherished had he been born today. 🚨🚨 Right now, when you give $100 or more on the Red Letter Christians website, you’ll receive a professional print of “Christ in the Rubble” SIGNED by Kelly Latimore. These special prints will be limited to the first 750 gifts made. ‼️All the donations Red Letter Christians collects from the sale of these prints will be donated to trusted Red Letter Christians partners working for peace on the ground in Gaza‼️ all people, churches, organizations, etc are warmly welcomed and encouraged to share the digital version of this icon on social media and on their websites, particularly during the Christmas season. Let’s get some money to Gaza!!

Donate Here:

https://www.redletterchristians.org/gaza/

On Thanksgiving we give thanks for all the things we have. And the next day, we trample each other trying to get more.

Shane Claiborne

August 6

The Transfiguration

In 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, marking the first use of a nuclear weapon against people. As we remember the transfiguration of Christ in the mysterious light of glory, we also remember all those who were tragically and senselessly transfigured by the first nuclear blast. May their memory help us to see a way toward peace in our time. From Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoko

If you want to know why I’m Christian? What makes my heart sing? Go watch this

(And then listen to the Canticle of the Turning, or any of the other excellent settings of the Magnificat)

Live-threading my thoughts while listening to another Thereafter podast discussion with Transvangelical.

The following is a transcript of the live-thread I posted while listening to Thereafter podcast episode 101.

Hey look! There's a new @thereafterpodcast episode! And the snarky episode title already drew me in. Let's do this!

Here's hoping @thepursuinglife and @cortlandcoffey don't take umbrage at me characterizing the episode title as snarky. I like snarky. @thereafterpodcast

I think @thepursuinglife said she and @cortlandcoffey just recorded this episode with @transvangelical yesterday evening, so it's going to be fresh. @thereafterpodcast

.@thepursuinglife is talking about a book called "The Widening of God's Mercy." I've never heard of it. I also don't think I saw the social media discourse about it that Meghan is referring to. @thereafterpodcast

.@transvangelical says that Hays didn't really talk about trans issues and focused on homosexuality. How much of that is because a lot of evangelicals didn't (and still don't) really see the difference? @thereafterpodcast

.@transvangelical: "Why are we still caring what cishet white gays have to say?" Preach, sister! @thereafterpodcast

.@cortlandcoffey: "We talk about Shane Claiborne." Only if people make me! @thereafterpodcast

.@thepursuinglife is calling people who "see the light" to not forget or ignore the harm they've caused prior to their epiphany/change of heart and it's a powerful point. @thereafterpodcast

.@transvangelical is describing how we celebrate progress without celebrating the oppressor who did the bare minimum. Good stuff. @thereafterpodcast

Oh! So THAT'S why we ended up talking about what "ally" means to us in Deconstruction Coffee Hour this morning! @thereafterpodcast

.@transvangelical mentioned Matthew Vines in a tone of voice that suggests she and I have very similar opinions about him. @thereafterpodcast

.@cortlandcoffey: "Meghan isn't saying 'Shut up, white guys.'" No, but I may be at times. @thereafterpodcast

.@cortlandcoffey is suggesting that when maybe privileged people should take a moment to interrogate why they feel the way about certain things when it comes to topics around marginalized people. @thereafterpodcast

.@thepursuinglife is talking about how privileged people talking about some of these topics aren't really "on the ground" seeing the harm being caused. She's right and that is frustrating. @thereafterpodcast

.@transvengelical is pointing out how some of these privileged people are risking a job by being LGBT-affirming while her physical safety is at risk. An important point. @thereafterpodcast

Since @transvangelical mentioned her tendency to make blasphemous jokes, I feel obligated to share her pinned tweet because I love it. @thereafterpodcast

Is Alan Chambers gay-affirming now? I pretty much lost track of him after Exodus shut down. @thereafterpodcast

Oh, @charlotteirene8 got a mention! Awesome! @thereafterpodcast

.@transvangelical is pointing out that policing people's feelings is still oppression. @thereafterpodcast

Another great episode! @thereafterpodcast

I encourage you to read the whole article on Substack.

Here are some parts of correspondence quoted here:

Once the news that Zondervan was in talks to print this Bible came out, several Christian authors who had published with them approached me about publicly opposing the deal.

All of my books, so far, have been published through Zondervan, including my forthcoming book The Spirit of Justice: Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance.

I was eager to join in the protest.

The effort to stop the deal included an online petition that said,

Zondervan/HarperCollins has a been a great blessing to Christian publishing for many years. But a forthcoming volume damages this fine record. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Zondervan has licensed releasing the "God Bless the USA" Bible that will include the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and pledge of allegiance, in addition to the lyrics for the song of the same name by country singer Lee Greenwood., “God Bless the USA.” This is a toxic mix that will exacerbate the challenges to American evangelicalism, adding fuel to the Christian nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiments found in many segments of the evangelical church.

The campaign to stop Zondervan from printing the “God Bless the USA” Bible also included a letter by Shane Claiborne of Red Letter Christians and several other Christian authors, including me, as co-signers of the statement.

The letter read,

This customized Bible is a reminder that the “Christian industry” must do better to stand against the heretical and deadly “Christian” nationalism that we saw on full display on Jan. 6.  It is like a spiritual virus, infecting our churches, homes and social institutions.  Just as we take intentional actions to stop the spread of COVID, like wearing masks and staying six feet apart, we must take concrete steps to stop the spread of this theological virus.  

The letter continued with a theological and pastoral word about the Bible.

We don’t need to add anything to the Bible. We just need to live out what it already says.   And if we are to be good Christians, we may not always be the best Americans.  The beatitudes of Jesus where he blesses the poor, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers – can feel very different from the “beatitudes” of America.  Our money may say in God we trust, but our economy often looks like the seven deadly sins.  For Christians, our loyalty is to Jesus.  That is who we pledge allegiance to.  As the old hymn goes – “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness/ On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”  Our hope is not in the donkey of the Democrats or the elephant of the GOP… or even in America.   Our hope is in the Lamb.  The light of the world is not America… it is Christ.

Our endeavors were successful, and Zondervan did not enter into an agreement to publish an NIV translation of the “God Bless the USA” Bible.

That’s when Kirkpatrick decided to pursue a King James Version (KJV) of the Bible because that translation does not require copyright permission in the US.

On March 25 we remember the special role that Mary plays in the redemption of the world and celebrate the example she is to each of us as disciples of Jesus. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, she was a teenager in occupied Palestine, as anonymous and apparently insignificant as the billions of people who live and die today in the slums of megacities. But the angel of the Lord called Mary by name and proclaimed that she would carry inside her womb God in flesh. It is a miracle we remember even as we put it into practice: however humble our circumstances, God proposes to live in and through our bodies. As a sign to remind us that anything is possible with our God, we remember that Mary conceived Jesus without the help of any man.

~ Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Common Prayer: a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

2024年2月25日读经

箴言6:1-11，马可福音8:14-9:1，出埃及记37-38章； 本计划取自YouVersion圣经软件的《圣经日日行2024》 实现生命的价值“人们常问我，特雷莎修女是什么样的？”谢恩·克莱本Shane Claiborne在《不可抗拒的革命》Irresistible Revolution一书中这样写道，“他们好像觉得嬷嬷可以在黑暗中发光，或者头上常常出现光环。但其实，嬷嬷身材矮小、满脸皱纹。就如一位美丽而智慧的老奶奶，她被人喜爱，但带着一点儿坏脾气。有件事令我无法忘记，那就是嬷嬷的脚——她的脚是变形的。” “每天早晨我都会盯着它们看。我曾怀疑她是否也感染过麻风病。一天，一位姊妹对我解释道：‘是这样的：因为捐赠给我们的鞋子只够每人一双，而特雷莎妈妈不愿让其他人穿不好的鞋，所以她总是找一双最破的鞋来穿。长年下来，她的脚就变形了。’”…

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