Amazing Grace

In my previous post about pro-active passive radical living I missed the fine example of William Wilberforce. Today I had the pleasure of going to see the recently released film ‘amazing grace’ which is the powerful true story of Wilberforce and his fight for the abolition of slavery.

The film draws links between Wilberforce’s faith and how this impacted his political career. The film comments on how Christianity isn’t just to be meditated on but acted upon, how we are to be in the world but not of the world, how we are called to ‘make the world a better place’. It tells of how Wilberforce saw that something in his world didn’t match with the justice of his God and so he put his life, mind, body and soul into fighting, passively, to change this.

I didn’t think the film would be any good but it was, it really was and I urge you to go and see it.

I urge you to consider that despite the abolition of slavery 200 years ago our world is still full of slavery and other major problems, such as unfair trade (in 20 years time could we conceive of legislation to ban the import of unfair trade into our country?) and human trafficking – see www.stopthetraffik.org

I urge you to consider the role of Wilberforce and think how to translate such a passion into your own life. What would the world look like if more people were passionate about fighting injustice? What would the world look like if I was more passionate about fighting injustice?

I watched the film with today’s ‘problems’ in mind, it was upsetting but inspiring.

I wish I could make a difference but I don’t know how.

I wish I could change, but will society let me?

I want the film to change me, but will I let it?

Fight The System

I had a conversation with someone yesterday who said that he thought Christians were a little naïve to treat everyone as they would like to be treated, after all some people don’t deserve to be treated in this way.  

The command to then love your enemies, and not just your neighbour, as yourself didn’t settle so well. If we let our enemies walk all over us then will we really solve the problem or will we just get abused? Is Jesus’ message really let your enemies do whatever they want to you, always forgive them and love them despite this?             

I think Jesus’ message is about standing up to your enemies, but in a loving way. It’s about combating evil, but not with violence. Its about resistance in new, bold and peaceful ways.            

Jesus says “if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). Instantly this sounds as if we should let people beat us up, trample on us and take advantage of us. What we forget is the context of the situation.            

In Jesus’ time people had a clean and unclean hand, each for the different tasks of the day. Woman, slaves and ‘outsiders’ in society could be hit with the unclean hand; this was to take authority over the person, to state your position above them. However, if you fought with your clean hand then you were considered equals, on the same level. To hit a slave as an equal would damage your authority, would reduce your own status. It would shake the political system. Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek  is one which says ‘don’t let people treat you unfairly, but let you be considered equals, you are just as important as they are, you are the light of the world’.  

Its pro-active, non-violent, confrontation, fighting the system.            

Jesus then says “And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic let him have your coat as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” Matthew 5:40-41). Again, just another call to be nice?            

In the first century if you sued someone and took everything they had, left him or her with no clothes to wear, not only would it be humiliating for them but also it would be humiliating for you. Shame on you for taking advantage of someone like that, causing their nakedness. People would look down on you as well as them.  

In Jesus’ day a Roman soldier had the right to ask a citizen to carry his pack for one mile, but any more was against the empire. To take a pack an extra mile would of humiliated the solider, it would of got him in trouble, he’d be pleading for you to stop.              

Do you see how Jesus’ message is about passively resisting evil, about keeping one step ahead of the game, about not fighting fire with fire, but fighting the systems and powers in place through love.            

The question for us is how does this translate into 21^st century society, what ways can we pro-actively and loving combat evil?

I think Martin Luther King got it right when he fought racial tensions. 

I think Mahatma Gandhi got it right when he fought for Indian Independence. 

Do we all have to be huge political figures?  

What can be done on our level?  

Where can we turn the other cheek?  

Where does this leave us with problems like capitalism, consumerism and terrorism?  

Where does this leave us with social order, a littered world and our individualistic society?  

How does this translate to me, here, now?  

What can be done? 

These are the questions Jesus leaves us with, to unpack and unravel and I’d know I’d appreciate any suggestions…

It’s all just common sense…

I must confess that recently I have been a little bit annoyed when people, both Christian and non-Christian, have said that Jesus’ teachings are merely common sense. As if what he said was nothing new.

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that people only really know the 10 commandments and we all appreciate that it is a violation of human rights to murder and to steal. (But then again in modern society we seem to think that adultery and lying is acceptable…hmmm…) 

As I see it, what Jesus said was a great deal more radical than we give him credit, not just for 1^st century Jews but also for our modern day society.  

Some examples: 

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…” Luke 6:27 – This is quite a famous one I guess, and at first it might seem like common sense but think about it. In our culture if someone hits you it’s acceptable to hit him or her back, we live in an offence-revenge cycle. Jesus counters this, not with more violence, but will love. If some one does bad to you, forgive them, love them, repay them with good, break the offence-revenge cycle which sends you round in circles. What would the world be like if we did this, not just in the local community and in schools (bullies), but also globally and politically (terrorists)?  That’s tough… 

“You are the light of the world…” Matthew 4:14 – Constantly in his life Jesus empowered the ‘no-bodies’ of his day and showed them that for the first time in their lives they were players not spectators, that they had value, that they were loved, that they were the “light of the world”. In society today you carry value if you’re rich, or famous, or smart, or beautiful or ‘successful’, and most other people aren’t worth a second glance, let alone a stab at a job. I hold my hand up and say I often (very, very often) carry these stereotypes and prejudices around with me.   

“The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” Luke 22:26 – Jesus calls us to serve, to be made like the ‘least’ among us, and to humble ourselves. We are to be a servant generation. Again this doesn’t strike me as common sense in our consumerist society, which makes me the primary beneficiary. Can we see how we are the light of the world called to serve it, look after it and love it and the people on it? We are players not pawns?  

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…” Luke 14:13 – yeah, common sense? “I’m having a birthday party; I know, I’ll invite the homeless”. Jesus’ teachings were constantly about putting other first, especially those who were excluded by others.  Thats costly…

“Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself” Matthew 6:34 – in a world full of stressed, anxious, concerned, insecure, uneasy and uncomfortable people, can we see how powerful Jesus’ words about not worrying can be? 

There is plenty more out there, I’m yet to talk about pro-active, revolutionary, political and non-violent teachings which Jesus gave to ‘fight’ the system through love. I urge you to go and have a read, and you might just find out how radical and relevant Jesus can be… 

Writing this, I am ashamed to say to often I have presumed familiarity with Jesus teachings, cast them off as common sense and then gone about living my life as normal. I hope you can do better.

My Meal with a Message

So with my first official post I’d like to dive straight in at the deep end…sorry about that. 

This week Loughborough University has seen the Christian Union (CU) present its annual ‘Missions Week’ (called Rescue) as well as this the Islamic Community have hosted a ‘Islam Awareness Week’. I helped lead a CU missions week at my sixth form college and I learnt a lot from my mistakes.  

Do we as Christians appreciate the message we give out when we name an evangelist event ‘rescue’ and label people ‘sinners’? I over heard some people talking about this name, and to them it seemed a bit offensive, as if to say, they are stranded and need saving, they are wrong we are right, they are out and we are in. As if it excluded them, judged them and put them in their place. I’m not saying that these people don’t need ‘rescuing’ but Jesus is in the business of inclusion and acceptance, not judging and excluding. Do we not understand the difference between Christian Awareness Week and Rescue week? (Again, I’m not saying this should be a literal name change) 

In fact what is the deal with Missions week anyway? Whose idea was that? When we have mission’s week, we have rigid, structured, pushed and awkward topics and conversations arising. When we have missions week we go out with an agenda to grab ‘non-believers’ and force-feed them our message so they can get their ticket to heaven.  

Do we see a difference when we decided to actually love God and our neighbour? Is this what mission is about? If we don’t have a week but we have our lives, then daily we can exercise love to our friends, families and passers-by. When we decided to love people, then our agenda is nothing but love. Love with an agenda (whether it be to ‘save souls’ or for our own benefit) isn’t love at all. And surely by acting in accordance with Gods will, that is to love him and our neighbour, people will see God through us and we can then talk about it will them, as friends, after invitation. 

People usually want to know two things about a religion or truth, firstly is it true and secondly is it good. We often try to prove to people our God is true with modern thinking, pigeon holing, scientific reasoning and arguments. What would happen if we began to focus on showing people that our God was a good God, that he loves the world and the people in it and that he makes a difference to lives. Maybe if we did this people would then see the truth behind it.  

Instead of M.W.A.M.’s (an acronym for ‘meal with a message’), which surely is a demonstration of love with an agenda (‘we will give you free food as long as you listen to our lovely message’) should we as Christians just be inviting people round for meals, or putting on gigs and events and parties. Not so we can say ‘2000 years ago a man died for your sins’ but to say ‘we love you, we value you, we wish to get to know you’.

 

What would occur if this happened?