Thursday, March 30, 2006

Currently Reading: The Irresistible Revolution

Shane Claiborne makes me uncomfortable. I'm reading his book, The Irresistible Revolution:Living as an Ordinary Radical, and it makes me very uncomfortable. It reminds me that I'm not living the way Jesus intends me to live, and I don't like facing that fact. I like to think that my life is just fine, thank you, and I don't need to change. But I do. I suffer from what Shane calls "Spiritual Bulimia."

Bulimia, of course, is a tragic eating disorder, largely linked to identity and image,where folks consume large amounts of food but vomit it up before it has a chance to digest. I developed the spiritual form of it where I did my devotions, read all the new Christian books and saw the Christian movies, and then vomited information up to friends, small groups, and pastors. But it had never had the chance to digest. I had gorged myself on all the products of the Christian industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. I was marked by an overconsumptive but malnourished spirituality, suffocated by Christianity but thirsty for God.

Unfortunately, I think Shane has given an accurate description of Western Christianity today. What society deems "Christianity" is this view of who can proclaim Jesus the loudest. Who looks more Christian? Who sounds more Christian? It's all about image. It's all about who's doing right and who's doing wrong. This is nothing at all like the Christianity that Jesus started. Shane correctly notes that from his desk at college, "it looked like some time back we had stopped living Christianity and just started studying it." So Shane went looking for a Christian. He went all the way to Calcutta (literally) before he found one (and no, the Christian he refers to was not Mother Teresa). Shane found a Christian when he looked into the eyes of a leper and saw Jesus. He realized what miracles really are--an expression of Jesus' love. The miracles themselves were not what had lasting significance--it was his love.

Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later, Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick, but they eventually caught some other disease. He fed the thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. And the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives in us.
But how many of us show that love? If a leper walked into your church this Sunday, would you move over and let them sit next to you? What about a smelly homeless man? A prostitute? A drug dealer? If we are the hands and feet of Christ, we should do more. But we don't. This is why this book makes me uncomfortable. It challenges to do more. To be more. And I'm only in the third chapter!

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Posted by Amanda at 3/30/2006 06:17:00 PM

4 Comments

  • Blogger JoyceB posted at 3/30/2006 07:48:00 PM  
    I really like the bulemia comparison... The "who can proclaim the loudest" attitude is one of the things that drove me away - but I still believe. I may have to check out the book for myself!
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  • Blogger Amanda posted at 3/30/2006 07:52:00 PM  
    Whatever you do, don't stop believing based on what people who call themselves Christians do. People are only human.

    I would also suggest to you Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller, and Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell.
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  • Anonymous Kayti posted at 3/31/2006 06:09:00 PM  
    I'm reading this book too... LOVE IT
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  • Blogger Gina R Johnson posted at 10/12/2006 03:11:00 PM  
    The two books that have messed me up and have blown my mind the most this year are Velvet Elvis and The Irresistible Revolution. Whew!

    www.therevolutionnetwork.blogspot.com
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