One for the road...

Start with what I have, start with who I know, start from where I am...and give away more than I need to those who need it...

I have been reflecting on the last few days on the question I asked on my last post - about wheree to start in taking the NOW of the Kingdom of God seriously... and have been inspired having watched this clip reminding me of God's heart for the poor, the oppressed, the lost and the least, something you also may wish to do:

HT to Jamie

More than ever I think that the following words of Jesus sound the simpliest and yet seem the hardest to put into practice but maybe that has just been an excuse.  This year I said I would like to live more graciously and generously than last yr so I will try and take these words as being for NOW and not just for some other better time and ask Jesus and fellow followers like me to  help us all to live this sort of revolutionary life giving/revealing light...

"To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind."

The Kingdom of God - making poverty history?

In the comments to my post on consuming conscience, Molly wrote this awesome Q:

"Can we actually make poverty history? This is probably my Dispensationalist Background speaking here, but didn't Jesus say, "the poor you will always have with you?" Obviously He wasn't saying to IGNORE them, because He sure focused on them BIGTIME, but...can we get rid of poverty altogether on this planet?"

It's a great Q for me to reflect on, especially as I am thinking about a series of posts about Luke 4:18, which is the prophesy of Isaiah that Jesus applies to himself and then lives out (and how we should do likewise :).  The first line of this is Jesus saying he is is about preaching good news to the poor and goes on to say as well that he is about liberation of the oppressed too.  We can often turn 'poor' into the spirtually poor, but what if Jesus first meant the literal poor, those who have not, who are at the bottom ofthe pile, the oppressed, the used, the least?

 

My thinking has been shaped listening to 2 great talks by Brian McLaren on the  Secret Message of Jesus (part I) and  (part II) about the Kingdom of God and the outworking of it in action towards the poor and the oppressed.  In particular, Brian looks at the story of Jesus conversation with the rich young ruler to demonstrate that Jesus is concerned not just with with moral success but with a revolutionary call to join the  Kingdom of God  (KoG) and liberate the poor and the oppressed.  Brian asks:

• is eternal life, not just about going to heaven but living a life that ‘echo’s through eternity;
• you're rich, young, successful, powerful, moral, isn't that we all want? – so why does Jesus think something is missing?
• Is Jesus a personal and socially concerned King and is this not the both/and of his Kingdom?
• the poor and the rich: an impossible task for a possible God…and what of his followers?

I've fleshed out some of Brian's comments below... oh and apologies for the poor formatting, the html is all over the shop :( Now much better :)

Philosophy of poverty...

Words are a powerful thing... [Caution explicit lyrics]

Poverty of Philosophy

Immortal Technique

"Most of my Latino and black people who are struggling to get food, clothes and shelter in the hood are so concerned with that, that philosophising about freedom and socialist democracy is usually unfortunately beyond their rationale. They don't realize that America can't exist without separating them from their identity, because if we had some sense of who we really are, there's no way in hell we'd allow this country to push it's genocidal consensus on our homelands. This ignorance exists, but it can be destroyed

Nigga talk about change and working within the system to achieve that. The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you. There is usually nothing wrong with compromise in a situation, but compromising yourself in a situation is another story completely, and I have seen this happen long enough in the few years that I've been alive to know that it's a serious problem. Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions of their natural resources.

I'm quite sure that people will look upon my attitude and sentiments and look for hypocrisy and hatred in my words. My revolution is born out of love for my people, not hatred for others...

A tale of a consuming conscience (or am I a fashion victim for the victims of fashion?)

Dan Kimball has this great post asking whether all the current interest in social justice is just  the trendy thang to be doing at the moment - a great Q which has pricked my conscience to write this response to Dan's thoughts...

The scary thing is that most of us (including me) do care for the poor through consuming an event  or a product- so I go watch 'live 8,' wear the white wrist band for make poverty history (or if we have a blog put it in the corner), go buy a red GAP tee using my red american express, give a few $ to  some guy collecting on the corner get my sticker and feel suitably smug that I am helping the poor - "heh what did you do?"  "I bought the live 8 dvd box set!"  Wow that is so awesom, can I watch it after you?" etc...

cont...

"We're asking President Bush, Primeminister Blair and all the world leaders to do something extraordinary, not put a man on the moon more like put mankind back on earth..." Bono

We don't need your money, just a few seconds of your time... 

If you're from the USA visit the One campaign and sign the declaration

If you're from the UK :

1. please vist the drop the debt campaign and send an email to Chancellor Brown asking him to cut the strings of debt - all you need to do is complete your details and hit submit
2. Now you are on a roll please  go and vote for trade justice as well - just compete the on-line voting form
3. keep yourself informed:t make povery history

Thank you.