CREATING PLOWSHARES AND PRUNING HOOKS

A year and a week ago today my wife and I did something a little unique for my birthday.  We drove up to Philadelphia to watch a variety show called Jesus Bombs and Ice Cream.  The premise of this show organized by Shane Claiborne and his friend Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, was what would the world be like if there were fewer bombs and more ice cream?  Well, perhaps there would be some bigger waist lines. However, there would also be more smiles and more peace—seems like a really good trade off to me.

Anyway, one of the things that I vividly remember from that birthday event was an artistic welder who took an AK-47 and turned it into a shovel and a pitchfork.  This weekend I was pleasantly reminded of watching this artist work.  My wife and I organized a whitewater rafting and camping trip with some of the folks that we went to Egypt with this spring. We were enjoying our breakfast Sunday morning when I gave two of the bat-houses that the owners of the property have installed a closer look.  These bat houses were made from 20mm ammo cans.  It instantly made me think of seeing the AK-47 transformed into the shovel and pitchfork a little more than a year earlier. 

 

My friend Brett "FISH" Anderson showing off the transformed AK-47.



“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.  They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3). Witnessing both the bat houses and the AK-47 was such a great reminder that God calls us to be creative and that there are, in fact, tangible ways of seeing scripture that we so often associate with metaphor actually become reality! 



These ammo cans are no longer products of war but are now homes for mosquito consuming bats.  How awesome is that?

It Is Not What You Know, But Who You Know

I have heard this saying many times in my life.  It seems ironically sad that, to my recollection, it has always been used in the context of personally getting ahead. I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about social issues both here in the United States, where I call home, as well as issues throughout the world.  My main thoughts are about the policies that governments could implement to bring justice to these issues.  While recently pondering governmental policies and social justice, out of nowhere, the saying popped into my head.  Suddenly I realized that this saying applies to more than getting ahead in the world--it also applies to social justice issues.  This forced me to acknowledge that, more often than not, I use my thinking on how government policy can affect change as an excuse to not be relational.  This is led me to think about some recent experiences and conversations.

My Friend Aziz

I met Aziz a little more than a year ago while participating in a dual narrative tour that his company Mejdi conducts in the Middle East.  Aziz is a peacemaker by trade and after spending a week with him I considered him to be a walking encyclopedia, or, to use the parlance of our times, a Wikipedia, for Israel /Palestine!  I imagined that Aziz probably read endlessly to gain this knowledge, and I admired that trait of his character.  It would not be until more than a year later that he told me that he really did not read that much.  I remember him saying that people are books and that he likes reading people rather than books.  In other words he spent all or most of his time in relationships and that is mostly how he learned the stuff he knew.  This was really convicting to me.  Until then, I never thought you could be incredibly knowledgeable about something without reading about it.  I am so much more comfortable sitting in a recliner with a book to learn about things rather than building relationships.

My Trip To New Jerusalem In Philadelphia

Since then, I have tried to take my conversation with Aziz to heart and step out and build relationships.  For the last year I have been a part of a small group with my church that focuses on social justice issues.  Having visited The Simple Way a year ago and really enjoying my experience, I decided to lead a trip there with our small group this year.  Describing the Simple Way could take an entire blog post all of its own, so I’ll just say that the Simple Way self-describes as “a web of subversive friends conspiring to spread the vision of 'Loving God, Loving People, and Following Jesus' in our neighborhoods and in our world.”  The highlight of that trip would be our last stop at New Jerusalem. 

New Jerusalem is a drug rehabilitation home that was started by a nun named Sister Margaret.  The entire program is based around community and relational living.  It was amazing to see the support that each recovering addict gave to each other as well as to hear the harrowing stories of how they got to where they are.  It was not difficult to see that it was because of who these addicts knew, not what they knew, along with the relationships of the staff with those recovering was the reason that New Jerusalem boasts a 60% recovery rate—nearly double that of most inpatient drug recovery facilities. 

Joseph’s House

For close to four months now my wife, Hélène, and I have been visiting and volunteering at Joseph's House in Washington DC.  Joseph’s House is a house that serves as a hospice for those dying of AIDS or other terminal illnesses who do not have another place to go.  We got connected to Joseph’s House through a program that our church calls Second Saturday Serve.  Every second Saturday our church has service projects where you can just show up and participate.  The person who had arranged for us to visit Joseph’s House was going to be out of town and asked if Hélène and I could lead this service opportunity.  We jumped in and since then have been blown away by the work being done at Joseph’s House.

This is another place that is entirely centered on relationships.  Our service project for Joseph’s House that first month was to help them clean their kitchen.  I still remember walking into the house and having an immediate sense of peace.  I also remember being excited to clean the kitchen, but also pretty terrified about meeting people with HIV.  While Patty, the executive director who also lives in the house with her husband, sat down with us to explain what we would be doing, that is not primarily what I remember.  I remember her telling us that we needed to be a part of the community there, that while we were there to work, it was not so much about the task at hand but experiencing community with those in the house and community within our group.  I also remember her sharing with us about Jose, a resident there, who was dying as we worked.  We found out the following day that he passed several hours after we left.

Some Final Thoughts

My friend Aziz has not succeeded in creating Peace in Israel/Palestine.  Forty percent of those who walk through the doors of New Jerusalem will not get clean.  Joseph’s House can only house 9 people in the U.S. city with the highest rate of HIV infection of any in the country! However, Aziz, Sister Margaret and the staff at New Jerusalem, and Patty and the staff at Joseph’s House are not pondering how government policies can affect change in areas of social justice.  Nor are they spending countless hours with their noses buried in books.  They are doing the dirty, uncomfortable work of building relationships to affect change.  Instead of pointing fingers at the problem they are trying to be part of the solution.  And frankly, to be a part of a solution requires a really close look at who you know.

What next?

I frequently talk with my pastor about the poor and my beliefs that our church is not doing enough in our city to address their plight.  By saying that our church does not do enough to address the condition of the poor in our city I indict myself since I am part of the church.  How can I know what to do for the poor, if my answer to the question, “Who do you know that is poor?” is, “Nobody”?

In the spirit of stepping out from behind the comfort of my books, I have committed to lead a “mission trip” in DC this coming spring.  I put quotes “mission trip” because all that we are going to be doing is spending 72 hours on DC streets as homeless people.  The thought of this is pretty terrifying for me, but I think there is no better way to understand someone than to take some steps in their shoes, which is so difficult and challenging. Instead, most of us, especially me, want to take the easy road of using what I know to accomplish tasks.  A have a friend named Jill who happens to be a social worker.  The following is a quote from an e-mail I recently received from her, “I have so many volunteers that want to stuff envelopes or paint houses but no one wants to actually just sit and talk to someone.”  Until recently, I was one of those people Jill describes so astutely.  But after meeting people like Aziz, Patty, or Sister Margaret, I am no longer content to sit home and read books and ponder intellectual solutions for the world’s problems.  I want to read people instead of books!

I RECALL JESUS SAYING, “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.” NOT, “MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL.”

In Ron Carpenter Junior’s The Necessity of an Enemy he writes: “I believe there’s a level of wisdom and maturity that finally comes to believers who realize they don’t have to condemn or even answer the tongues that are speaking against them.  Remember: Whatever voices you recognize, you’ve decided to give them credibility and allowed them an entry point into your life” (Pg. 171).  I certainly believe this is good advice.  However, I also believe that we need to at least sometimes listen to and heed the words of those that speak against us.  The title of The Necessity of an Enemy is certainly catchy and I agree that there is a necessity for enemies in our lives.  For the most part however, that is where my agreement with what Carpenter has to say in his book ends.  While my many criticisms of Carpenter’s book are my own,  there are parts here and there that I also appreciated.  If Pastor Carpenter were to read this review I would hope that he would at least consider allowing me an entry point into his life.

Before detailing some of what I disagreed with in Carpenter’s book I wanted to provide some context to my review.  Carpenter’s impetus for writing the book mainly stems from an event in his life where the church he pastors began a single mothers ministry that ended very badly.  This ministry was started as a result of a man not long involved with the church approaching Carpenter with the idea.  The ministry was doing great and was even receiving media attention.  It was also receiving monetary investments in large sums.  Not long after these investments came in the man with the idea of the ministry skipped town with the money, resulting in Carpenter being investigated by the FBI.  Carpenter was completely innocent and his church community had been swindled!

I have never experienced anything even close to resembling the kind of betrayal that Pastor Carpenter experienced in my life.  Personally, I like to believe that I live out Jesus’ words of, “Love your enemies.”  If I am honest though, I must admit that I have never really been in a situation that stretches my ability to follow this command and certainly not anything close to what Ron Carpenter had to go through.  This incident in Carpenter’s life sets the stage for the rest of the book.  While I do not agree with most of what Carpenter contends with respect to enemies, without going through something similar myself I cannot say that my ideas on enemies would be much different from Carpenters.  Therefore, I was concerned with how to write a negative review of a book without assassinating the character of the writer.  This, for me, is a challenge!  Therefore, please read what follows critically and with an open mind.  Feel free to disagree or agree—with parts or with the whole.  Also please keep in mind that while I am reviewing a book, I am not reviewing a person.

One, if not the biggest, issue that I have with Carpenter’s book is its failure to distinguish between enemies that are people and enemies that are not people.  By enemies that are not people I mean such things as chemical addictions, lust, greed which all stem from the ultimate enemy Satan.  His book does not have conventional chapters but is broken into small sections, each of which fall into nine different parts.  The following is the title of those parts:

-Part 1: The Necessity

-Part 2: The Plan

-Part 3: The Target

-Part 4: The Enemy Within

-Part 5: Weapons of Mass Destruction

-Part 6: Prowling Your Neighborhood

-Part 7: How to Fight to Win

-Part 8: The Spoils of Victory

Every one of these parts can be interpreted through the lens of war.  Failing to distinguish between human enemies and non-human enemies while using war language does not strike me as something that, in my opinion, Jesus would do.  I honestly believe that a book on The Necessity of an Enemy really needs to be broken into two very clear categories of enemy: our human enemies, and our non-human ones.

“They will beat the swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”  This passage is found in two of the Old Testament Prophets (Isaiah 2 and Micah 4) and if you are not going to start with Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” found in Matthew 5 this prophecy regarding war would be a good place to start for writing a book about enemies.  The story of the Good Samaritan would also be a good place to start.  Carpenter's book however does not really touch on any of these verses or stories in the Bible.

Carpenter’s book, however seems fixated on making our enemies footstools.  “God’s intent is to make all your enemies your footstools” (Pg. 166).   “As you move through life and ascend to new levels of potential and breakthrough, you’ll discover that your enemies are just as essential as your friends; in fact, they may be even more critical in your times of transition, if you’ll recognize them for the stepstools they are for you” (Pg. 11).  Personally, I believe God calls us to at least try to make our enemies our allies through love.  Nowhere in the New Testament does God call us to make our enemies our footstools if that enemy is another human being.  Of course, “Till I make thine enemies thy footstool” is in three of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. In those three gospels it is the same story of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and quoting Psalm 110:1.  I contend that Jesus is using this quote to challenge the Pharisees regarding who Jesus is.  Psalm 110:1 reads: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’”  Jesus is concerned with, “The Lord said to my Lord” part of this passage because the Pharisees know Jesus comes from the line of David and believe that he is not the messiah.  Jesus therefore asks the Pharisees to explain why David, being the King of Israel and therefore having no Lord, would start one of his Psalms with “The Lord said to my Lord.”  I further contend that Jesus continues with “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” to put the Psalm in context, that is, making sure that the Pharisees know that it is a Psalm of David. I honestly believe that Carpenter’s book has missed the point here—I would perhaps even say that the book has hi-jacked this verse and avoided the paramount topic of reconciliation.

Despite my belief that Carpenter’s book has really missed the point with the necessity of an enemy, some passages pleasantly surprised me.  For example, Carpenter mentions that he wants to “…confront racism in the church and to seek to help break the bondage of poverty in this region” (Pg. 38).  Both of these speak to me and I would be very interested in reading a book by Carpenter that addresses these issues.  Furthermore, toward the end of the book Carpenter pens my favorite paragraph from the entire book: “Jesus always had a way of creating an atmosphere where weakness could be revealed, but we have developed in families, in friendships, and especially in churches today an atmosphere where weaknesses are hidden.  This pressure to be okay and not have our problems show isolates us further from the people and places we should be able to go to for healing of our internal struggles”  (Pg. 199).  This reconciliatory paragraph appears paradoxical when taken with the context of adversarial-enemy relations that the rest of the book presents.  However, being toward the end of the book my hope and prayer is that it is reconciliation that Pastor Carpenter is moving toward rather than the adversarial confrontation  dominating much of the earlier parts of the book.

I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah, who I would like to express sincere gratitude toward for allowing me to share my honest thoughts, insights and criticisms.

Justice Work and Humility

I am currently reading Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  I feel really fortunate to be on a roll with books lately—I am both enjoying and being challenged by them.  I was compiling notes today on Bailey’s chapter on “The Parable of the Rich Fool” Found in Luke 12:13-21.  The following quote rings so true for my life regarding fighting for justice, “Another difficulty is that the person who fights for a just cause usually thinks that he or she is thereby a just person.  Everything such a person does in fighting for that cause usually becomes right in his or her eyes.  Woe to those who fall under the sway of this kind of self-created justice.  This parable presents a new perspective on the cry for justice.”  

This quote hits home for me!  The more I feel called to justice and the more I pursue it the more I realize how easy it is to become prideful and thereby believe that I am just.  The only way I have found to combat this is to ask for humility through prayer.  In fact, convincing myself to write this blog entry is helping me confirm how lacking I am in justice work—a definite answer to prayer in writing and sharing this.  

Sadly, I am thinking over the last week looking for a single example where an act of mine was intentionally done in the name of justice and I am drawing a blank.  I can think and have just thoughts, but they are really meaningless if they are not put into action.  This means it is time to start looking for and seizing opportunities to act on behalf of “the least of these.”

Quiet Speaks Volumes

Cain has written a remarkable book that is both thoroughly researched and beneficial not only to introverts but to extroverts as well.  While Quiet is not a biography, Cain uses many biographical references juxtaposed with psychological studies to support her argument that introverts are overlooked, oppressed even,  in Western society despite having just as much, even more in some cases, to offer than extroverts.  Of course Cain is writing subjectively being an introvert herself.  However, she does not use the book as a platform to bash extroverts.   She contends that extroverts and introverts both have much to offer and rather than societies favoring one personality type over another there needs to be partnership between both.  She argues that in current Western mentality, extroverts are exalted while introverts are viewed as weak or lacking in character.  According to Cain, this painfully overlooks the fact that there is strength in the quiet introvert. 

In her introduction Cain writes about the partnership of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Parks herself seemed aware of this paradox, calling her autobiography Quiet Strength—a title that challenges us to question our assumptions.  Why shouldn’t quiet be strong?  And what else can quiet do that we don’t give it credit for?...Take the partnership of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.: a formidable orator refusing to give up his seat on a segregated bus wouldn’t have had the same effect as a modest woman who’d clearly prefer to keep silent but for the exigencies of the situation…Yet today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles.  We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.  We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts—which means that we’ve lost sight of who we really are“(Pg. 2-3).

The book is divided into four sections: 1) The Extrovert Ideal; 2) Your Biology, Your Self?; 3) Do All Cultures Have An Extrovert Ideal; 4) How To Love, How To Work. In the first section Cain demonstrates how extroversion has come to be the standard for Western society.  Cain convincingly argues that the rise of the Extrovert Ideal began with Dale Carnegie.  She writes, “Carnegie’s metamorphosis from farmboy to salesman to public-speaking icon is also the story of the rise of the extrovert ideal…America had shifted from what the influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality…when they embraced the Culture of Personality, Americans started to focus on how others perceived them.  They became captivated by people who were bold and entertaining” (Pg. 20-21).  Cain also shares stories about attending a Tony Robbins Unleash-The-Power-Within seminar and visiting Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church to further support her contention of the Extrovert Ideal.

Cain’s distaste for the Tony Robbins seminar and her experience with  Saddleback Church resonate with me—I completely indentify with her!  I feel like these kinds of institutions are pushed upon us by society and Cain convincingly argues that while these institutions may be good for extroverts they are not the best environments for introverts to thrive and our western society would be much better served if this was recognized resulting in more introverted-friendly institutions or environments.

Having established that the West lives within the paradigm of the Extrovert Ideal, Cain looks at the psychology and science related to extroversion and introversion in the second section.  The studies that Cain presents are both enlightening and fascinating.  It was interesting for me at least to learn that evidence suggests that 40 to 50 percent of introvertedness and extrovertedness is genetic (Pg. 108).  I was relieved to learn that a third to half of Westerners are introverted.  Moreover, the fact that introvertedness can be tied to genetics gave more credence to the fact that I am normal.  Finally, as a quick aside to this section if one is not familiar with the life of Eleanor Roosevelt the brief, yet fascinating, biography found at the beginning of chapter 6 alone makes Cain’s book worth purchasing.    

In the third section, Cain looks at Eastern cultures and shows that the Extrovert Ideal is not universal.  In this section she spends time interviewing Asian students from Harvard’s business school and high school students from a public school system in California.  Cain writes, “Individuals in Asia see themselves as part of a greater whole—whether family, corporation, or community—and place tremendous value on harmony within their group.  They often subordinate their own desires to the group’s interest accepting their place in its hierarchy.  Western culture, by contrast, is organized around the individual” (Pg. 188-189).  If there is one area that lacked research in this book this would be it—her research seemed to be limited to those from Eastern cultural backgrounds residing in our Western culture.  It would have been interesting to read about a more thorough discussion of firsthand experience with Eastern cultures.

The fourth section can be best summed up in Cain’s words, “Probably the most common—and damaging—misunderstanding about personality type is that introverts are antisocial and extroverts are pro-social.  But as we’ve seen, neither formulation is correct; introverts and extroverts are differently social” (Pg. 226).  Cain also argues that there is a time for introverts to put on an extroverted face, she writes, “Yes, we are only pretending to be extroverts, and yes, such inauthenticity can be morally ambiguous (not to mention exhausting), but if it’s in the service of love or a professional calling, then we’re just as Shakespeare advised…’To thine own self be true’” (Pg. 210). 

At one point in the book I wrote in the margins, “When you boil it down this book is essentially about relationships.”  Of course no one is a pure introvert nor a pure extrovert but all of us are going to lean one direction or the other and fall on different points along the spectrum.  Cain’s book has helped me realize that if we are more sensitive to these leanings we can be more productive as a society and more importantly we can have more meaning in our lives because our relationships will be deeper.

Frankly, this book spoke to me.  For my whole life I have struggled with the fact that I am a “quiet” person and very introverted—not necessarily shy but, yes, introverted.  I was frustrated that I did not fit what seems to be the norm for our society.  After reading Cain’s book I am both thankful for who I am and much more comfortable with who I am.  For the first time I believe that I have a lot to offer not in spite of my introvertedness but because of my introvertedness.  Moreover, this book helped lessen my animosity toward extroverts because I no longer need to be envious of them and this will allow me to approach them in love and community.  I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah for the purposes of this review.

NARRATIVES AND TENSION

So, I am back from Egypt and feel like I have so much to process.  One theme that I am currently processing is the idea of narrative.  The more I ponder this concept the more I realize that for as many people there are in the world there are a corresponding number of narratives.  Moreover, each of these narratives deserves a listening ear.

I am currently reading Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  In Chapter 5 the paradigm of narrative fits perfectly with my experience in Egypt.  In this chapter Bailey compares Luke 6:20-26 with Matthew 5:3-12.  It is apparent that these are the same speech in Jesus’ life—The Sermon on the Mount.  However, the narratives differ substantially between the two.  Matthew’s contains nine “Blessed are…” while Luke begins with four “Blessed are…,” but ends with four “Woe to you…”

If you were to ask me what this means for me I could ponder it for some time.  I find it interesting, though, that much of Christianity wants things black and white.  However, if God wants things to be black and white why does his word contain similar, yet at the same time, very different accounts of what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount?

Of course, my answer is that God does not want us to live so much in black and white models as He wants us to dwell in tension.  I believe that it is in tension that God breaks us down and molds us into who he wants us to become.

A Brief Thought On The Term "Judeo-Christian"

On a friend’s blog this morning I read the following quote: "Our nation's founders held the Judeo-Christian belief that all human beings are sinners."  I am not sure if it is because in less than a week I leave for a trip with my church to Egypt with our focus being on peace and reconciliation but I was really struck by the exclusion that exists in the term “Judeo-Christian.”

We see the term “Judeo-Christian” so often, yet there is, as many of us know, a third Abrahamic faith and I have never seen its inclusion in the Judeo-Christian term. If we are working toward peace and reconciliation and we want to use the term “Judeo-Christian” we may want to use another, more inclusive term--perhaps “Judeo-Islamic-Christian.”

For me “Judeo-Christian,” while on the surface appearing to be inclusive reinforces the Zionist mindset and is more exclusive than inclusive.