„Wat…!?“

Er zijn weinig dingen zoals frustrerend zoals instortend in uw bed in uw nieuwe flat, been dat van de hele dag het bewegen van zware dozen wordt vermoeid en klaar aan slaap moeilijk, slechts om wakker door uw nieuwe buren' worden geschokt muziek of videospelletjes. In het bijzonder wanneer het geen verschillend de volgende nacht, of volgende, of volgende… is

Zelfs kan de meest godsvruchtige Christen het en omhoog beëindigen gillend in righteous woede - hoewel nutteloos - bij de beledigende buren, of enkel uw gedeelde muur of vloer verliezen. Wij voelen machteloos en boos over het worden zulk een hateful persoon. In feite, wanneer wij niet krijgen om onze buren als medemensen te kennen, als wij hen nooit zien, kunnen zij morph in disembodied kwade geesten in onze hoofden, waarvan elke lawaai en de beweging met malice wordt geregen.

Eerlijk gezegd, zijn er niet veel u kunt doen lawaaierige buren berekenen en vermijden wanneer u een flat voorbij het proberen om bij nacht zoekt te bezoeken en zorgvuldig het luisteren om te zien of zijn de muren soundproofed. Het vragen van de eigenaar over problemen qua geluidshinder zal meer dan waarschijnlijk in a minder dan recht antwoord resulteren. Nochtans, kunt u een doen zodra u zich binnen beweegt om meer bij vrede in uw flat te voelen, al tijdje brengend uw geloof in praktijk:

1. Krijg om uw buren te kennen. U moet geen M. zijn. Rogers of het nieuwste lid van Wanhopige Huisvrouwen krijgen om uw buren te kennen. Enkel gaat het zijn op een „glimlach en teken“ basis met uw buren een lange manier. U zullen zowel waarschijnlijk uit voor elkaar op kleine als grote manieren (opnemend verdwaalde post, die binnen potentiële gaslekken, enz. roepen) kijken. If you are used to smiling at your neighbor and maybe even saying “hi,” it’s then much easier to progress to asking about a building issue (“Is it true they’re going to be renovating the basement next week?”) and much easier to have a calm, rational conversation about noise or other problems— even at 4 am, when he’s drunk or high. And you might find that your neighbor’s laugh no longer seems maniacal so much as vivacious, and that you’re happy for her because you know she needs the joy in her life.

You shouldn’t expect to become best friends with your neighbors. People in apartment buildings usually don’t want to live next to their best friends, but they do like to be on good terms with their neighbors. Sort of like an office environment, but hopefully less stressful and without the awful lighting!

Tips: Bolder people often knock on their neighbors’ doors on the day they move in. If you want to try this, make up an excuse for knocking beyond introducing yourself, like asking them to please let you know if you’re being too loud while you move in. If you’re a shy person or just conscientious about not invading other people’s space, then slip a card under your neighbors’ doors inviting them to your housewarming party. Even if they don’t attend, they’ll probably be flattered to have been invited, and be much more willing to deal with you in a respectful manner.

2. Start a building e-mail list. One of the best ways to create a good overall environment in your building is to start an e-mail list. An e-mail list can be a good way for neighbors, especially younger ones, to trouble-shoot common problems or plan building events, or just share tips (e.g., washing machine is eating quarters).

Tips: Set up a list on Google or Yahoo (or your preferred service) and put cards underneath your neighbors’ doors asking them to join. Be sure to explain what it is, why they might want to use it, and what won’t be allowed (for example, you may want to avoid using it to share grievances about the landlord, since it’s likely she’ll see a copy and try to shut it down if you distribute it around the building). Once it’s set up and you have some users, start using it right away so that the idea will stick.

Now that you have an e-mail list, it’ll be much easier to:

• Throw a building potluck.
• Organize a trick-or-treat set up in front of the building on Halloween.
• Plan, plant and maintain a common tree, flowers or garden.

You don’t need a building e-mail list to do any of these things, but it certainly helps. If you don’t have an e-mail list, use cards and flyers around the building or try the old knock-on-the-door technique to get your neighbors involved. Building events or tools that promote civil interaction and helps create a universal expectation that people will treat each other well, even when we’re behind our apartment walls. The change in the ethos of the apartment building will impact even those who choose to not participate directly.

Please note that you don’t have to be new to your building in order to do any of the suggestions above. It’s never too late to start getting to know your neighbors!

Finally, check out our guide to Neighborly Home Design at neighborsproject.org, which includes more ideas and tips ranging from simple to advanced projects towards making your building more neighborly.

Author Bio:: Kit Hodge is the CEO of Neighbors Project, a 501c3 non-profit that inspires and trains members of the new urban generation to connect with their neighbors through projects that improve the neighborhood for everyone. She has also successfully coaxed her downstairs neighbor to turn down his music at 4 am when he was dead drunk.

Onward, Christian Soldiers

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Jonah on Climate Change

I’d really like to know something, please educate me if you can. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites moaned and complained and worshiped false idols, and then spent 40 years wandering around in the desert being miserable.

Another time, God sent the world’s-worst-prophet to Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria one of the enemies of the God-people. Jonah eventually proceeded to preach destruction on these people, who he really hated.

The first group were the God-people and had seen some pretty amazing things. Locusts, frogs, rivers of blood, water from rocks. The second group weren’t the God-people, presumably knew nothing of the stuff this crazy man was saying (and it is a bit of a surprise they didn’t just kill him on the spot, given he was covered in fish sick) and yet “turned from their evil ways.” What was the difference?

The reason I’m asking is that it seems to me that Global Warming is clearly the most critical issue any of us are likely to face in our lifetimes. To be frank, it scares me. Did you know, for example, that one of the leading climate scientists is now saying that the CO2 target in last year’s IPCC report was a serious overestimate? According to his calculations, the international negotiations are pointless - because they are all assuming that we can reduce the /rate/ of increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, whereas the truth is that we actually have to reduce the /absolute/ amount in the atmosphere. If true, it has massive ramifications. It isn’t good enough to stabilize the current CO2, causing economic growth. We actually have to cut back.

And given that we are within the 10% of the world’s population rich enough to actually read and understand these words, that has implications to the way we live our lives.

Or try this one: did you know that 50% of all food produced by farms in America is wasted before anyone eats it? That, if we somehow had the technology and willpower, all that wasted food in a year could meet half the annual import needs for the entire continent of Africa. That amount is just the wasted food from the UK. Imagine the amount of wasted food from all the developed countries. Think of all the cost of producing that food, only for it to end up in the dustbin.

The problem is not the thousands of people in Egypt fighting over bread or the billions living in absolute poverty, who face an even more uncertain future due to climate change. The problem is the small percentage of rich people who are taking more than their fair share: us.

I know many of us have been banging on about this for a long time. And I know there are some churches which have really grasped the message. But is anyone actually prepared to repent of their wealthy lifestyles and face up to their responsibility for our greed which is causing the climate to change? OK, we might be prepared to change a few light bulbs, but is that honestly going to stop the tsunami that is coming?

This morning in church, I heard something a bit like this from the pulpit - “Climate change is a fact. But thinking about it can paralyze us because of the magnitude of the problem. So I just want you to remember this: don’t panic, God is in control.”

Don’t panic? Millions are dying because of the human greed of a few rich fat people, and the church is telling us “not to panic?” Whilst panicking might not be the best move in the face of a global catastrophe, surely repentance is. Costly repentance. The kind that says actually my lifestyle is totally wrong and I need to change my ways, fast. God being in control in some ways is irrelevant. From my bible knowledge, it seems quite likely to me that we are going to have to live with the consequences of our actions. God being in control does not necessarily offer a Get Out of Jail Free Card for the future. So what does this knowledge mean in our own lives, and how do we get the message out? How do we do better than Moses - with all his multi-media presentations and flashy graphics - and take lessons from the miserable, soaked, sick-smelling Jonah? Is there any point in even trying?

Author Bio:: Joe Turner is an angry 30-something with a bad memory for dates. He is founder of the Freedom Clothing Project - an effort to bring trade to some pretty dark places - a regular contributor to the Celsias climate change blog, a husband, father and ham-fisted user of theology. Blunt and annoying.

Emerging Middle-Aged Women

If you’re old enough to understand the idiom, “You could have knocked me over with a feather,” you’re probably too old to be hip to its current equivalent. Since I’m both, I’ll simply tell you what happened yesterday and let you supply the metaphor.

A woman I know who’s pushing 60 works as an administrative assistant in a local, evangelical church. For the past 15 years, she’s been devoted to tireless service, nurturing the women’s ministry and a healing prayer ministry along with managing the church office. Her faithful labor, under the paradigm that men lead and women follow, has been split between implementing the details of the surrounding elders’ vision and helping the younger women in the church “obey God and love their husbands.”

Yesterday she told me she was considering stepping down from her position.

“We’re just a ‘G’ rated version of the world,” she said. “And I can’t be a party to it anymore. Our idea of being evangelistically bold and counter-cultural is bringing people into this building. But once we get them here, we don’t offer them anything different from what the world offers. We certainly don’t love and forgive each other and we don’t build into each others’ lives. I don’t think this is the way we’re supposed to do church. The secular world is doing a better job at loving people that we are.”

My friend went on to say, “Here’s a quote from a Korean leader: ‘When I encounter a Buddhist priest, I meet a holy man. When I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager.’”

I was stunned to hear such words coming from this particular woman. By all appearances, she’d been submitting unwaveringly and unquestioningly to her elders’ authority and wisdom. To hear her say she thought something was wrong in the church was about 180 degrees from what I expected.

But here’s what’s more remarkable about this incident: it was the third time in the space of a week I’d had a similar conversation with a staunchly conservative Christian woman over the age of 45.

One woman I know actually left her church and hasn’t sought out another. I meet with her and pray on a weekly basis. Two other acquaintances in the PhD-level academic world told me they “don’t fit” in their churches, but they stay because of a sense of duty. But they’ve intentionally distanced themselves from the traditional programming aimed at or directed by women in order to be free to use their gifts and follow their calling to serve grossly unmet needs in the wider community–needs their churches don’t seem to have much interest in addressing.

But it’s not just marginalization of women and neglecting the “least of these” in the community that concerns these women. They say they’re grieved by a narrow, impoverished version of gospel that keeps believers in an infantile state of spiritual formation.

My friend put it like this, “It’s like inviting a horde of babies to church and dumping them in the foyer. Who’s going to help them grow up? Who’s going to change their dirty diapers in the meantime?”

I asked my friend what she believes the Spirit is calling her to do.

“It’s relational. It’s small. It’s one-on-one or two-on-two. It’s in living rooms and coffee shops and kitchens, not big sanctuaries where you get a rock concert and a seminar. I don’t know what God is doing. And I’m not worried about how big it is. All I can do is be faithful with what he puts right in front of me.”

What’s going on here? We tend to view the younger generation as the force of change and the fresh wind of the Spirit. But this generation of middle-aged women is unlike any previous one. These women are educated and informed, most of them have worked outside the home at some point in their lives, and even if they’ve followed the complementarian marriage model, they’ve had more freedom and decision-making power than women before them.

And they are rising up with a prophetic voice. They are emerging from their child-bearing and child-rearing years with spiritual wisdom and energy and integrity. And they are a tremendous resource for the upcoming generation seeking to be faithful in following Jesus in the midst of Empire. Younger people would be wise to listen to them and enlist them in implementing their missional and communal vision for the church.

Editor’s Note: The original location of the image above would be a good place to start exploring the voice of women in the emerging church movement– www.emergingwomen.blogspot.com

Liturgical persistence and Ecclesial resistance

If Stanley Hauerwas calls himself a ‘high-church Mennonite’, then I would like to become the official Jesus Manifesto ‘high-church’ advocate. My thesis is simple: there cannot be any sustained ecclesial resistance without a corresponding liturgical persistence. Over the weeks I plan to unpack this under various themes as a way to get my own thoughts clear on the topic, and to learn from you all.

By liturgical persistence I mean both a real commitment to practicing a liturgical form of communal worship and a relatively deep understand of what is going on and why (passing the peace, exchanging greetings, the Eucharistic Prayer, benediction, etc.). I’m not really going to define ecclesial resistance because Jesus Manifesto is all about this.

Now I could marshal all the missional, emerging, neo-monastic reasons against emphasizing so strongly the gathered moment of corporate worship, but I thought I would let you all raise those objections in your own words, or the words of those you interact with.

So what say you: Does ecclesial resistance require a deep liturgical persistence?

The More Perfect State

One thing about this post that might throw off long time readers of JM: This will not be about “the Man,” that overbearing nation-state. (At least not directly).

One thing about this post that will not catch anyone off-guard who has ever read my stuff: There will be at least one quote from a church history document that hardly anyone else finds interesting.

Seeing as how it is election season (anyone who says it is an “election year” apparently missed out on life since 2004), it is little surprise that posts on Jesus Manifesto about voting are gaining in link power. Two of the most popular are Mark Van Steenwyk’s 1o Reasons Why I’m Not Voting and Casey Ochs’ 10 Reasons To Vote (a gentle rebuttal to Mark).

For Mark, voting only gives us the chance to choose between the “lesser of two evils,” something he’s not satisfied with. The system is just set up this way, there is no way around it. Furthermore, any choice for President is to effectively place someone in a position where non-Christian decisions have to be made (going to war being the main one). How in good conscience can a Christian make such a choice? Much of Casey’s rebuttal falls along the lines of “the system isn’t perfect but it is the best we’ve got.” We should be faithful to Christ before we are faithful to the Constitution, but where the two do not directly butt heads, we owe it to our ancestors and immigrants to vote (This is a simplification. His article is much more nuanced and well presented than this). You can vote and still be prophetic in many areas.

This dialogue gets to the heart of what I have been wrestling with in many of my latest posts. It is Voltaire that is held responsible for the saying “Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.” Pushing towards some perfect state, whether in studies, religion, or even exercise, can indeed become the enemy of the good. We feel beat down when we don’t reach the pinnacle of perfection–when we choose the “lesser of two evils.” When someone volunteers at a soup kitchen we remind them that they don’t “really live among the poor.” Or when a middle-aged mom of three buys a hybrid SUV in an effort to go “green,” she is bombarded by her even more progressive friends that she still lives in the suburbs and relies on oil every day.

But the opposite of Voltaire’s often summoned quip is true as well–the good can become the enemy of the perfect. After all, we are fallible human beings; why not just try our best and see where we land? We are at the same time saint and sinner (Luther’s famous “simul justus et peccator“), so sin boldly. The “good enough for now” can become “good enough”…which gets translated through time into “the way it has to be.” Our familiar rocking chairs become comfortable as “adequate” gets passed off as “reality.”

And now for the historical quote that you’ve all been waiting for:

For many readers of church history, the Counter-Reformation in the Roman Catholic Church overshot the mark, as many reactionary movements do. Ignatius of Loyola, for instance, wrote that if the Church had “defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black.” But Ignatius’ “Spiritual Exercises” had me pondering another passage in light of my struggle to balance the good with the perfect:

“Let us remark in passing, that we must never engage by vow to take a state that would be an impediment to one more perfect…” (Spiritual Exercises, part ii)

There is no doubt that Ignatius was referring to the vow of celibacy in contrast to the state of matrimony. Marriage was “good,” but it was not as “perfect” as the vow of chastity. For Ignatius, the good could certainly become the enemy of a more perfect state. The question is where to employ this attitude in our daily lives.

When are we to search after “the more perfect state” rather than settling with an apparently good option?

Where are the areas where the “good” is never “good enough” and all lesser options should be shot down?

General Editor’s Note: Mike didn’t choose the image for this post. I (Mark) chose it for the 3% of those readers nerdy enough to get the joke. End note.

If Pakistan Matters

Perhaps it would seem strange that on a site like Jesus Manifesto, I would argue for state education as one of the keys for undermining the state. But so often I hear the talk of revolution, talk of changing the world, talk of globalization, and talk of a new kind of Jesus centered kingdom permeating the world, but my first question is, “How?” How can such a movement begin? How can we be catalysts for change in the midst of world-wide chaos in places like Iraq? I just finished reading an article on pandemonium in Pakistan, and I had a thought:

I really wish I spoke Urdu.

Living in California, I wish that I could speak the language that almost half of my fellow citizens speak. When my roommates and I talk about subverting the culture that immigrants are forced to endure in California, I have another thought:

I really wish I spoke Spanish.

It is thoughts like these that make me wish I would have tried harder in my Spanish classes. It is thoughts like these that make me wish I would have taken Arabic in my time here at Azusa Pacific University. It is thoughts like these that make me think that those four years of high school are the most pivotal if we want to really bring about radical change for Jesus Christ. I read a lot of Christian blogs, but few of them deal with a Christian approach to economics. Granted, the word “economics” brings up a negative feeling among most evangelical Christians because we are told to be against the culture of consumerism and hedonism that the American Empire represents, but don’t we all have some system of economics? We might admit that as Christians we have a subversive type of economic system, but it is still an economic system. And then I hear another thought:

I wish I had studied harder in my economics and government classes.

If we are really about change—if we really think Pakistan matters—we will learn the language of the Pakistani people, we will study their culture, and we will actually put our feet on the ground in grass roots organizations of social change for the betterment of Jesus Christ and his radically different kingdom. We can build an alternative society there that gives people other options besides running to the state for change. It is often assumed that revolutionaries do not have to work as hard as the “hard working American capitalist,” but this is simply not the case. The revolutionary might have to learn new languages, might have to deconstruct whole economic systems and start out anew with new small-scale economies that justly and fairly treat the least of these. The revolutionary might have to take far less pay than what they are entitled to for the amount of hours that they put in.

I am reminded in part of one of the lesser known parables of Jesus:

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”(Luke 14:25-34)

In other words, Jesus said there are a lot of people who are willing to build houses, but few are willing to do the hard work to finish it. Are we going to be revolutionaries one minute and in the next minute give up because it is too hard? If that is the case, Jesus says it is better not even to start.

Author Bio:: Danny is a senior at Azusa Pacific University. He likes to think of revolutionary ways to serve Jesus that are beyond the usual Christian cliches. He hopes to become a professional boxer or perhaps even a world entertainment wrestler. If those two do not work out, he will probably become a high school history teacher when he graduates this year. He keeps a blog at www.coldfire.wordpress.com

Repentance and Subversion

Yesterday I had a conversation with some friends. In the middle of our time together one member courageously brought forward a question about our time together. She reminded us of how she had opened a topic for all of us and had been met with silence. We all remembered being moved by her openness with us and we all remembered our own failure to enter with her into a place of pain and transformation. Without telling her story here, I can say, that she struggled with a pattern of being responded to with deafening silence in her life. It took a lot of courage, passion, and humility for her to stop being silenced and come back to us and ask us to face how we had shared in that pattern of suppressing her voice.

In this encounter, each of us was called to account for our failure to love well and to repent for our complicity with cycles of sin at work in our community and the life of a friend. In a real way each of us were invited into a holy moment where our own sin was met with bold grace that led to reconciliation. We found that our friend’s risky act of repentance called the rest of us to repentance as well.

Repentance is self multiplying. hmmm…. sounds like something Jesus said about his kingdom…”a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough….” hmmm…

So that leads me to the examples of subversively facing injustice that Jesus presents in the Sermon on the Mount as told by the author of Matthew. Yes, there are the regulars, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give your cloak as well… these get preached on a lot, and I think are huge, but there are so many others in the sermon as well.

Consider Chapter 5 verse 42 “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Essentially, it presents a proactive generosity in the face of need around you.

Or how about 6:3 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” Perhaps we can see the subversion of giving in secrecy in a society that lists the highest charitable donations in magazines, and allows contributions to be deducted from our taxes–so that it’s almost like it doesn’t cost us at all to help others.

As I continue to read the rest of the sermon, I am struck that many of the practices Jesus lays out as normative for His kingdom, if implemented in our culture, would be a radical subversion; a dynamic turning from the systems of sin and injustice that govern our daily lives. So then, to turn from the systems of sin in the world and start walking in the ways of Jesus would constitute repentance on a scale dramatically more vibrant and meaningful than a tearful moment at the end of a church service.

If I understand repentance like this: actually participating in the ethics of Jesus’ kingdom, then it means my spirituality is tied up in my daily patterns of economics, relationships, consumption, and time allocation.

So… tying these two streams of thought together…

Real repentance seems to be:

a) born out of other acts of repentance that hold up the mirror of Christ to our lives.

b) following the subversive patterns of Christ that cause us to boldly face our own participation in the patterns of our world that let sin reign over our lives and the lives of others.

In suggesting these two points, I want to be careful to emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit in leading us in these paths. Coming from a Pentecostal tradition I want to be mindful to those Christians who voice a concern for unbalance on the side of works ahead of faith. I firmly believe that it is out of the work of Christ in our life that we are able to follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit that leads us into the life of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed here among us. Born out of our relationship with God we are guided by the Holy Spirit into rhythms of life that produce the kind of subversive/repentant actions.

Peace.

Revolution is in the Details

As a member of the University Chorale at Indiana Wesleyan University, I had the opportunity to be led by one of the most passionate men I have ever met, Dr. Todd Guy. Not only was Dr. Guy at the top of his game and could turn any run of the mill portion of music into a chorale masterpiece, but he saw such a gift as his unique act of worship—God had blessed him with an amazing ability to shape notes and conduct groups beyond the skill set of most average human beings, and the least he could do was offer it up back to his Creator. Anyone willing to be under his direction would have to play their part in offering such a sweet aroma back to God. Perhaps it was this type of vision that led him to push us so hard. Dr. Guy had two quotes that I can still hear in my sleep: “Good is not good enough where excellence is expected” and “Excellence is in the details.” (Google tells me that Perry Paxton and George Allen lay claim to the second quote—which is an unnecessary detail—but in light of the topic, it must be included to allow this piece to reach “excellent” status). Needless to say, we drilled over pieces of music like we were gearing up to storm Normandy.

Dr. Guy understood that the small things, the details, can determine the outcome. It wasn’t enough just to get a feel for A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, one had to pour over it, search it to its depths, and find the latest trouble spot to iron out. It was necessary to go over the entire composition with a fine toothed comb before a song could be rightly considered “ready for performance.” But when this level was reached, and our performance rang through the streets of England as it did that Spring, revolution took place. People would stop what they were doing and gather around the choir to hear more. Perhaps they had heard the song before, but not in this style, not with this level of intensity behind it. They had read Psalm 23 since childhood, but never had it impacted them with such force until they heard it sung that day. We would sweat every detail, so when that time arrived, revolution would take place in the ears of the hearers.

Much of what is said on Jesus Manifesto or other “radical” sites can come off nit-picky. Just when we’ve inspired a group of people to start taking the Sermon on the Mount more seriously, we push them off a cliff into the details of how economic sustainability, American consumerism, and climate change can all contribute to the plight of the poor. It can all seem a bit daunting. But I’m convinced that the details are what determine our success. The holistic good news as identified by Jesus will never come to fruition if we don’t take a similar fine toothed comb to our lives and communities. If it will help, we can use the language of “spiritual formation” or “discipleship” when combing through such areas. It may help it go down a little smoother (at least, this has been my experience working in the mainstream church).

Consumer culture knows how important details are—they pay millions a year just to map out all the details just to know what to sell you next. And little by little, the details get subverted by the consuming impulse rather than by the Church. It’s a whole lot easier to sell something when you can convince everyone they wanted it to begin with. A conversation with my wife revealed a perfect test case. The four year old she cares for had a party at his Catholic school. Every child was to bring a treat to share with the rest of the class; think of it as a potluck for little ones. The school only had one rule: The food had to be store bought, not made. Now it may seem like a small detail to pick out, and I’m sure the Catholic preschool had its reasons, but let’s analyze this:

• Rather than cultivate a spirit of imagination, the children selected prepackaged products.
• Rather than experience quality family time in the kitchen, most children were dragged to the grocery store in a last second mad-dash before school.
• Rather than celebrate the uniqueness of humanity and our gifts, the pot luck turned into a “who can buy the most original thing from the same mass producer” competition.

Any essence of the gathering that could be properly labeled “Christian” (and there are many other angles to analyze than the ones I listed above) was negated by not taking the time to really think through the message we send in the little things…in the details. Chances are, the decision by the school was more pragmatic, perhaps even more safe (you never know what four year old is baking up toxins in their cake), but at what cost? As nit-picky as some of the details can appear to be, we must constantly look at them anyway. It may issue charges of being “legalistic,” but to ignore such things would be to rob the gospel of its all-encompassing significance, and to allow the prevalent consuming culture to astutely subvert the Church rather than the other way around. Revolution, like excellence, is in the details.

• So what are some of the details that we often overlook in our daily lives that could be tweaked for more Kingdom impact?
• What seemingly small areas need to be combed through in your personal daily journey?
• Are there particular details that we knowingly ignore or neglect in the Church and mass society?

Choosing Barabbas

Read Luke 23

I imagine myself at the back of the the throng of priests, rulers and people when Pilate said of Jesus, “What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him.”

As a woman, I would have kept my head down and my mouth closed as the men shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”

This Holy Week, 2000 years later, I find myself standing at the back of another throng of vehement men and complicit women, choosing Barabbas all over again.

Choosing Barabbas by listening a gospel of “grace” that straitjackets people from doing acts of justice and mercy for fear of being judged for “works.”

Choosing Barabbas by confusing my allegiance to the Prince of Peace with my trust in my nation’s military strength.

Choosing Barabbas by sitting silently while people rant against the welfare state while their churches budget almost as much for new video cameras as they do to help the poor for an entire year.

Choosing Barabbas by submitting to a false dichotomy requiring men to always lead and women to always follow, denying them their full inheritance and fruitfulness in the kingdom of God.

Choosing Barabbas by ignoring the goodness of creation, and failing to join with secular groups where God is doing good in the areas of environmental and economic sustainability–failing to see that my short term gain and convenience harms rather than shows love to my neighbors.

Choosing Barabbas by endorsing the offer of a God who’s interested in meeting my every need, when I know that his purposes are larger than that–that they are systemic and cosmic in scope.

Choosing Barabbas by reducing the power of the Resurrection to an escape from the messiness of an embodied faith.

Choosing Barabbas by failing to participate in Jesus’ death by picking up my cross as an act of judgment against systemic and individual sins and the top-down powers of the status quo–and by failing to announce his Resurrection as the vindication of the way of mutual submission and love.

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