“Commit yourselves wholly to God, come what may.”

-       Saint Teresa of Avila

 

 

It’s hard to believe, but today marks my third week in Liberia…crazy…

 

I can remember sitting anxiously for the day to come when I would be departing the states, and now I’ve already been here for three weeks. Over the last couple weeks I’ve learned so much about faith, God’s people, and myself.  I have witnessed the beauty of a people, who make less than $400 a year- $1 a day – still putting money in the collection basket every Sunday.  I’ve seen God’s presence in the strength and joy in those who still smile through the death and destruction they have been through in because of war.  I’ve learned that a home doesn’t have to be a 6-figure building, but rather can be a mud hut-or whatever you make it. I’ve learned to not be frustrated or angry that we have to push start our car (just like little miss sunshine), or our tire blew out, but to be joyful in the fact that we are safe…and the fact that we have a car!  I have found myself more and more dissatisfied with the life I was living, the way I treated others, and my thoughts of “right and wrong”…  but as I dig more into scripture, listen to the whispers, and walk around in a country stricken by war and poverty I find comfort knowing that I am in good company…“Amazing grace that saved the wretch like me”…. There is something “scandalous” about grace…God loves and chooses the losers, the hypocrites, the fools, the prostitutes, evildoers….the last of all…God even chose a converted terrorist to write half of the new testament (Paul – formerly Saul)

 

“For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but we are wise in Christ; we are weak, but You are strong; You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are the poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, scum of all, to this very moment.”

-       1 Corinthians 4:9-13

 

 

You see - Our God has a funny little thing for the misfits, the losers, the freaks, the enemy - the terrorists, the murderers and adulterers…  When we look through the eyes of Jesus, those beautiful eyes of Mercy, Forgiveness, Compassion and Love we are able to look beyond the title of “murderers” and see our own hatred… we are able to look beyond the burnouts and drug feigns and see our own addictions… We can look into the lives of the saints and see little sparks of our own holiness. When we try to put on Christ’s eyes, those eyes of understanding - free of judgment or malice, but full of love – we can look into others and find our own brokenness, our own abilities to destroy life, our own forms of violence…and with that…our own capacity for forgiveness and Love. 

“When we are first aware of our own brokenness, our eyes are opened to see our own faces in the faces of the oppressed and to see our own hands in the hands of the oppressors. Then we shall all be truly free.”

-       Shane Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution p 253)

…When we are able to simultaneously open our eyes to our stains and our beauty, we will be cured, freed, liberated… to see others in the same way.

“When we have new eyes, we can look into the eyes of those we don’t even like and see the One we love. We can see God’s image in everyone we encounter”

-       Shane Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution p 266)

 

I will be the first to admit that I am full of imperfections - Full of sin.  I’ve drank, I’ve judged, I’ve lied, I’ve cussed, I’ve made bad – no awful - decisions…I am human, and will be the rest of my life… I am full of imperfections and error (and if you really want to know more about my fallibility I’d be more than glad to share with you all my pitfalls and failures)– but that is what is SO GREAT.  That is the BEAUTY of the God we are called to worship…“It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.”  (Matthew9:12-13)… haha ok, good! There is hope for the fools, sinners, and hypocrites like me!

 

I am so grateful to know that our God is a God that preaches the Gospel of Love.  And through this Gospel of Love we learn that the Fruits of the Spirit He preaches are: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control….A Gospel of Humility, Service, and Selfless Love…

 

SO what would good ole JC say if He were to appear today?  You think He would be proud of the way we, who call ourselves Christian, have read and listened to His word? - To His Gospel of Love?

Do you think He would agree with those street preachers who hold up signs saying “ASK ME WHY YOU’RE GOING TO HELL!” or “REPENT SINNER”?  Do you think He would be the first to agree to that new addition to that mega church down the street so we can add a new building, parking lot, gymnasium, or cafeteria instead of using that donation money to feed the poor?  Do you think He’d be happy with a “Just WAR” when he calls for PEACE?  Do you think He cares more about our troops or our country over theirs? Do you think He would stand for “his follower’s” selective hatred and intolerance of others who are different? Do you think He loves straight people more than homosexuals?  Conservatives more than Liberals?

 

Can we deny others the need to move gradually to perfection when we,

ourselves, are doing the same? We are involved in a process which means that we remain imperfect.

 

 

I think that If Emmanuel was here He wouldn’t call Himself a Christian.

 I think He would listen and converse, rather than shouting single-minded, self-righteous messages that turn more people off than on and come across as “I have the answer and you don’t. Why don’t you come over here and I’ll tell you how you screwed up.”

            -(what’s “crazy” or “wrong” is all a matter of perspective… what’s crazy is that the US, less than 6 percent of the world’s population, consumes nearly half of the world’s resources, and that the average American consumes as much as 520 Ethiopians do, while obesity is declared a “national health crisis.”… we as the “middle” class in America are also in the top 5 percent, wealth wise, in the world)

I think He would storm our earthly materialistic “temples”, flipping over tables, writing “blessed are the poor” graffiti on our millions-of-dollar churches asking why we stole the money that was meant for the human temples… why we weren’t feeding the hungry – why we weren’t clothing the naked – why we weren’t housing the homeless…

I think He would ask us what we meant by  FIGHTING for PEACE?

I think He would challenge us to be bold, to be daring, to be creative… To do the more difficult… to walk the life of Love rather than just talking it…I think He would dare us to Move…

 

“Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”

-       Jacques Ellul (French Theologian)

 

“your country is declaring war in the name of God and asking God’s blessing, and that is the same thing my country is doing. What kind of God is this? What has happened to the God of Love, to the Prince of Peace?”

                                                -An Iraqi Mother.

 

“There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire trucks go through that red light, and normal traffic had better get out of its way.  Or when a man is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed.  THERE IS A FIRE RAGING… for the poor of this society. Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the EMERGENCY is solved.”

-       Dr. Martin Luther King JR. (The trumpet of Conscience)

 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.”

-       Ephesians 6:12

 

“There are so many people who are longing to be brought to life, who know all too well that they have done evil and long to hear not only of a God who embraces evildoers but also of a church that does the same.”

-       Shane Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution p 258)

 

…An “EYE for an EYE” leaves the whole world blind.. we all are at fault…

”Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)

 

 

“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 as 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, ad 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 restlessness that will challenge 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.”

                                    -Kaj Munk

 

“Righteousness,” says Pope Benedict XVI, “is the term for fidelity…to the Word of God…Faith unites us with the righteousness of Christ himself.” Jesus demands of us “righteousness surpassing that of the Pharisees” because his presence makes it possible for us.  Too often our fidelity is to our anger, our resentments, our gripes. They become idols for us. But out hope is in the promise that even “the wicked” can do “what is right and just.”

                                    -Magnificat March 6, 2009

 

 …A word or two from a couple of my favorite “freedom fighters…

 

“When the world desires the power of Love more than the love of Power, then we will know Peace”

                                    -Jimi Hendrix

 

“I don’t know why man wants to fight so many wars when they can fight poverty”

                                    -Bob Marley

 

 

 

The Christianity we are called to is never a safe road, but we can find safety in always knowing we are in the Hands of God.  So I pray we might take courage in doing what is right rather than what is cool or what society tells us – that we might live for the poor, the hungry, the displaced… that we might love our enemies…

 

I pray WE might learn to walk with our God in aiding the homeless instead of “enlarging our territory”, feed the hungry instead of sagging our tables - learn to walk and not just talk… I pray that God may provide WE (you, me,…and yes..even Dupree) to “take the wheel and drive”, allowing God to shine through our darkness…That we might “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory, Glory.”

 

Life, Love, and Peace

 

Uncle Matthew