A few weeks back I posted a quote from Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw that explained from their perspective why they wrote this book. Here it is again…
This book is a project in renewing the imagination of the church in the United States and of those who would seek to know Jesus. We are seeing more and more that the church has fallen in love with the state and that this love affair is killing the church’s imagination. The powerful benefits and temptations of running the world’s largest superpower have bent the church’s identity. Having power at its fingertips, the church often finds “guiding the course of history” a more alluring goal than following the crucified Christ. Too often the patriotic values of pride and strength triumph over the spiritual virtues of humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love. (17)
I have recently been told that some of the things the authors speak of are IMPOSSIBLE to do! That we are not able to change the way the culture has “grabbed us by the wrist and directed where to go.” My first response is that this is not a how to book. Rather, I see this book a small prophetic voice crying out to wake us out of our slumber. A book that reminds us that “Another World is Possible.”
Walter Brueggemann says it like this…
The contemporary American church is so largely enculturated to the American ethos of consumerism that it has little power to believe or act. This enculturation is in some way true across the spectrum of church life, both liberal and conservative. It may not be a new situation, but it is one that seems especially urgent and pressing at the present time. That enculturation is true not only of the institution of the church but also of us as persons. Our consciousness has been claimed by false fields of perception and idolatrous systems of language and rhetoric.
The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.
My hope is that this conversation will provoke our imaginations, to bring us to a place to where we move past despair, and to allow us to see that another world is possible.
Filed under: books, church, Jesus, Jesus For President, Politics, Shane Claiborne | Tagged: ecclesia |
hope like mad 
What the authors suggest does SEEM impossible if one is expecting everyone is the US to agree and live the way the authors suggest. Can God not do the impossible? Sodom and Gomorrah repented when Jonah told them to turn or burn. I can honestly say I would be socked to see national change in my life time, but the real question is what is the next step for each of us, and are we willing to listen to God no matter if it seem impossible or not. Wasn’t every hero in the scriptures asked to do the impossible even if it meant putting their life on the line. Are we too comfortable to put our comforts on the line? Is the way we fit in with those around us really more important than God? I think the problem is that there aren’t enough Christian willing to let go of the comforts that our nation and culture tells us we deserve. It seems we might be sending a strange message when I hear that a music pastor at a church in Dallas is earning $125,000 annually, is given a house, full medical and dental, 5 years of college tuition and private school for his children. Yet today 35,000 children died because they couldn’t get basic nutrition. He must be a damn good showman, since that what Jesus teaches his followers should be about. I’ll admit I’m not the best at giving up my comforts, so pray for me too, but lets have ears to hear and see what God can do.
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