Ordinary Radicals

Last night, I had the opportunity to view an interesting independent documentary film at the Kentucky Theater called The Ordinary Radicals.

It is unfortunate that they are giving so few viewings of this film, but if you have the chance to see it, I would highly recommend it. I felt that most of the people watching the film who heard about it were not necessarily the ones who should and needed to see this film. The ones who should see this film would be the professing Christians who would get a little disturbed or uncomfortable about the challenges inherent in the documentary's content, or the non-believers who have been put off by the church/Christianity in general or more specifically the hypocrisy therein (or even hypocrisy in me), or thirdly those who perhaps have just become disillusioned/disconnected with their own faith. (If you suspect I have you in mind as you read this, you're right - I do.) Yet for people who want to aspire to be such ordinary radicals and are trying to put their "hands to work and hearts to God," this film was also an encouragement and inspiration in its own right. (I speak personally.) This film, as the director said, would perhaps be a good film to watch alongside of the movie Religulous. I have not yet seen that film, but it appears that two non-Christians find two different angles of showing people of faith. The director posited, however, that his documentary was much more removed in a "google earth" kind of way, not pushing a certain idea, premise, or conclusion.

Some of the most compelling aspects of this project were that, 1, the people behind the film consist of a professing Roman Catholic, a professing Evangelical, and a non-believer. To see how they all dove into a vision for their community (the simple way in Philly/Kensington), together, and for becoming ordinary radicals is encouraging to me. 2, it is fascinating that the director, Jamie, is not a believer, yet feels completely at home with evangelicals and wanted to bring his experiences with them to the screen. This brought up many interesting questions for us both in the Q&A session with him as well as afterwards, at one of our favorite establishments, Common Grounds -- namely, if you take Christ out of this movement, would there be any difference? In the end we had a sort of "yes and no" kind of answer...

If you have thoughts on the role of social justice and caring for people body and soul and the role of the body of Christ, I'd love to hear them. If you have thoughts about this documentary if you've been able to see it, I'd also love to hear them. If you want to see the documentary but are unable to, let me know because I know some people who might be getting a copy you could watch.

Check out the website, linked above, and the trailer, HERE.

You can also check out the site for the book that forms a center to the whole film, Jesus For President, HERE.

doctrine / relationship

"I think God gives us our doctrine [our ideas about God] to see if theology will take the place of relationships with people."

"'Anything you can believe, I can believe better' is the mentality we get into."
-Trevor Durbin

Trevor + I talked about community on one of our recent long drives together. I jotted down these comments he spoke because they resonated with me as profound truth. The reason divisions exist in the church is the belief that one church has doctrine and practice "right" and another "wrong." Or perhaps, one place has it "good" but another church has it "better." We may all admit that we have brothers and sisters in Christ outside of our denomination, but there's a reason we've chosen the church home we have. Do we subconsciously pass judgment on anyone else - another brother or sister - in a different church? I know it doesn't always happen, but I think it can definitely be there. Do we leave room for the preferences of others or do we claim that a difference of opinion (on such "non essential" matters) actually becomes essential, needing to be identical to our own? This can apply to doctrinal beliefs or practice of faith, worship services or music or...

Then the bigger question: what happens to our relationships with other people? Will we show them love and acceptance, and as Justin McRoberts has sung "meet [them] at the cross"? Or will we isolate them from ourselves and "our" community (whether physically or just mentally separating them from ourselves), forgetting that we are also flawed?

Thoughts?

movie update. reflections on life in the wild vs society

my quick movie update.

the newest have included:
It Happened One Night - this one I found to be hilarious. A different kind of humor being a movie made decades ago, but very enjoyable.
Sunset Boulevard - a second viewing, a bit Citizen-Kane-ish mixed with Dickens.

I also watched for the first time Into the Wild. Now that is one incredible movie. Depressing and beautiful at the same time. Cinematography... amazing. I highly recommend it... a good movie to think about the lure of a simple life, away from society and all its ugly trappings of competition, money, materialism, consumerism, corporate ladder climbing, bureaucracy, image, familial expectations, and gluttony of everything cheap and worthless...
This simple life is found in solitude, simplicity, and being in the wild of nature...

and yet it's incomplete. The need for community is still there... man is not meant to be alone.

My goal is to live a life in community with others, to enjoy the shared experiences, while boycotting everything ugly that is (occasionally or often, I suppose it depends on your perspective and experience) found in society - the love of money, little regard for the effect our choices have on our world, and little regard for the fragility of the human soul... there needs to be more simplicity, communality, gentleness and love...

I watched this movie with a few friends, two of whom up my hippie cred by their presence around me... and a week ago, we built a compost bin for their yard together. Community + Earth Consciousness + Holy Spirit = Doing Good Things Together with the Love of Christ. YEA!

lessons from the Old impart vision for life after the New.

“The lessons of the manna were clear: trust God implicitly, no hoarding permitted, and – most pointed of all – no greed allowed. There were to be equal portions for all. The reason for equal portions is so practical: it eliminates the occasion for covetousness, jealousy, and division. And it is this principle of equality that Paul stresses so vigorously. What should the principle mean for us today? Inequity in the Christian fellowship is so blatant as to need no demonstration. Millions of our Christian brothers and sisters in Asia, Africa, and Latin America barely escape starvation – many do not escape – not to mention their lack of health care and education. Dare we sit back in our comfort and ease, debating the color of our padded pews, while this scandal exists? No, of course we must do something. But the real difficulty is exactly how to respond to the problem… For those who do not feel total divestiture is right for them, I offer three suggestions. First, we could establish as a budget policy a goal of giving as much to others as we spend on ourselves… Second, we could develop an ongoing relationship with an economically poor church… Third, we could set aside one special year as a Jubilee, in which we try to give all we possibly can to a particular work.”

Equality. Commonality. Again, we return to our theme of shared life. Foster suggests, dreams, sends out a clarion call for shared life beyond our home, beyond our closest friends and families, beyond our small groups and churches, beyond our countries… He speaks of bringing equality and shared life with those around this globe.
I remember being in a seminar on the New Testament in college. One student, an atheist, stated that he didn’t see anyone he knew following Jesus’ call to give up everything he owned to follow Him, the call Jesus made to one rich young ruler. He suggested that if he ever DID see a professed Christian doing this, giving up all their possessions, all their money, everything… to follow Jesus…. he might start to believe. Of course I can’t address this person’s heart or evaluate the truthfulness or likelihood of his claim. And of course we can talk about the danger of extremes, but I tend to want to push the envelope… Foster suggests it may indeed be God’s call on a few to live a life of poverty. That perhaps some churches might decide on total divestiture. But perhaps that is not the call of everyone. I am not sure that the followers of Jesus we see throughout the New Testament all lived lives of poverty, or truly did as that young ruler was asked to do, to give up everything they owned… all their riches, all their possessions, their entire livelihood. But isn’t it interesting that we want to justify our decisions rather than consider the possibilities that maybe we need to be a little more “extreme” in our following of Christ? When this classmate of mine made this statement, he was sitting nearby to myself. It was unmistakable to me that he looked in my direction, curious perhaps if I would say something as a response. (Everyone knew I was a believer.)
But I couldn’t. I had nothing to say. Because I thought, maybe he’s right. Maybe he has a point. Maybe believers are not giving up what we should give up. Maybe we are not living the lives we should live. It may not be poverty we are called to, a Franciscan-like life. But perhaps I have been too content with the status quo. Perhaps the entire Christian world has been too content with our wealth, our buildings, our stuff, our things. Perhaps “things” have dulled our hearts and minds.
So let’s consider, how to awaken to the extreme call for shared life, sacrifice, community spanning across borders and oceans… How can we live in a way, corporately, to share with our brothers and sisters in this world? Foster gives a few suggestions, which I find interesting. Because the problem is not in the fact of an inequality in earnings/money/income. The problem is the stewardship of those earnings.

sharing life.

"While individual effort is good, it is always limited. There are things that we can do together that we cannot possibly do alone. God has so arranged human life that we are dependent upon one another to come into all that he desires of us. We need each other’s help in order to know how to love God. We need each other’s help in order to know how to love our neighbor. Lone Ranger Christianity is a contradiction in terms."

Here Foster affirms what I expounded on in my previous post: people are made to increase our capacity to love God. We are in need of people. God gave community for a reason. The community is a good thing, a purposeful thing…. And part of this purpose for each of us individually involves doing life together with others. We are meant to meet each other’s needs – financial, material, emotional, spiritual, physical. We are meant to have things in common, for the sake of others and oneself. Commonality, or sharing, is a way of living in generosity and love, while also keeping our own grasp of “things” from being too tight lest we forget the “things” are never ours; we are stewards. These things don’t go with us beyond the grave, so why give them greater significance, like that we’d give of a living being? We share life because it is a gift, as are the people we share it with, and in sharing we affirm in them, “yes, you are valued, valued enough to impact and shape my life.” We share life because Jesus shared his. He shared meals, he shared his talents, he shared his wisdom and understanding, he shared time, he shared experiences, he shared in others’ agonies, he shared the life that is given through his blood. He’s sharing eternity with us. (Why is it so hard for us to share the mere temporal with one another?)

Christmas.

Arise, shine, for your Light has come! It shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I've enjoyed a Christmas celebration this week that has been completely different from any previous celebration of the holiday. The biggest highlight has been coming to Denmark and enjoying time with friends from home, whose conversation and company has been most enjoyable, encouraging, and refreshing. The second biggest highlight has been worshipping with their international ecumenical community here in Copenhagen.

First, this community though ecumenical is led by a Lutheran pastor. I had never been to a Lutheran service, though in many ways it has been similar to my reformed tradition back home, a tradition that I have missed since being in Belarus. One thing I found interesting was how they commune at the Lord's table. Everyone came to the front of the church, to the chancel, gathered in a semi-circle and kneeled before the altar with other believers to receive the elements, by intinction, and real wine was used. (as it should be, :) ) I loved this aspect of kneeling side by side with my family to commune. We also communed at the Lord's table Sunday, Monday on Christmas eve, and Tuesday on Christmas.

Christmas was a special service because it was held in the home of the pastor and his family. We enjoyed a relaxed brunch, then gathered in the family room. (see photo above) At the front was a manger holding the bread and the goblet with the wine for communion. It was a reminder... the babe in the manger became this broken bread and poured out wine. The manger that held a babe was also holding the broken body and blood of our Lord, God's presence with us... and now, at communion, we remember anew how God's presence is continually with us. The Word took on flesh, and dwelt among us. This presence was temporal and yet is at the same time eternal.

I have never had a Christmas like this one. I have never been to so many times of worship and communion before. I completely loved it. It made me also think about how sometimes I know of churches that don't hold services on Sunday if Christmas is on Sunday.... and it led to thoughts about being a widow or orphan, or perhaps even just spiritually an orphan or widow. There are tons of people who do not have a nuclear family or whose family they do have do not care to celebrate Christmas by worshipping the King. If our churches stop meeting on Christmas, for "family time," what happens to the orphans and widows? The students and singles? The elderly and sick? The lonely and isolated? Is it good or even right for them to celebrate Christmas alone? Isn't it antithetical to Christmas to celebrate alone? Not because the holiday is a family holiday in the cultural sense of the word, but a family holiday in the spiritual sense...! Shouldn't we spend the holiday with our family in Christ? It seems there is a whole contingent of folks out there who may not have a community to be with on the holiday... so it is my hope that the church would step up to the plate, or maybe individuals and families, to open their doors to the "stranger" who is alone, be they an actual orphan or widow or spiritually so... Everyone needs community, especially at Christmas.

I found myself a "stranger" in a strange country among people who are not my nuclear or blood family in a church I had never set foot into before... and yet I felt in my heart and soul that I was not alone, not at all a stranger. I was with friends who are also my spiritual family... I was with an international family in Christ who in a matter of three days knew my face, name, connection to Denmark, my story... who welcomed me to the Table with them, who laughed with me, talked with me, communed with me. It was beautiful. I hope every person who remotely finds themselves or feels themselves alone or isolated in this world will be sought after by the Church, by families and individuals, and treated not as guests, but as family at the same table, under the same roof, just as I have been ever-so graciously welcomed.

Thank you Tilley's, thank you to the church here in Copenhagen, those who made me feel like family and not an inconvenient guest or worse, just a visitor passing through or even a stranger...

highlight of today.

Today, after returning home after 3pm to thaw out, I had the most delightful surprise waiting for me in my mailbox: the Fall 2007 edition of The College, St. John’s alumni quarterly. Last year I never received a copy over here in Belarus… this year, for some reason, I was mailed a copy! Thank you whoever sent it; it was certainly a highlight to me. I sat over my 3pm lunch reading it cover to cover. It’s so nice to feel engaged and connected to a community even when very far away.

How rare, it seems, that we take the time to practice dialectic with one another, to not merely read for our own enjoyment and betterment, but to intentionally discuss and strive and search for truth and beauty with other pilgrim souls... this is what I miss most, and what I long most to foster in my life, a community of questions and discussions and striving for truth and beauty and understanding and getting at that deep marrow of life... but it must be a community, or something essential is lost to this whole endeavor. Adventures are meant to be shared. So is life. So are thoughts. So are questions and the quest in them.