An Open Letter To My Congressional Representatives

The quote "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" is attributed to Edmund Burke.  The following letter is only a small step out of nothing but at least it is something.  That said, if everyone in the West who is aware of the injustices that take place in the West Bank on a daily basis decided to write their congress man or woman perhaps we can shift the winds of injustice to winds of justice.  And for those of you who have asked about my recent experience in Israel/Palestine here is a window into that experience.  What follows is one copy of a letter of which there are three—one to my Representative and one each to my two Senators.  My hope is that if this is something that you are passionate about that you too will also pick up a pen or spend some time at a keyboard.  Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed…”

Chris Van Hollen

Congressional Representative

U.S. House of Representatives

1707 Longworth H.O.B.

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Van Hollen:

In 2011 I had the privilege of taking a trip to Israel/Palestine as part of a dual narrative tour with my church.  During this trip we visited holy sites, but more paramount to my experience was getting to hear the diverse personal narratives of the people that live there.  For example, we heard stories from an Israeli settler, an Imam at the Al Aqsa Mosque, a Palestinian Christian pastor in Bethlehem, and a refugee from Dheisheh, one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem, to name a few.

This experience created the biggest paradigm shift of my life! For my entire adult life I had seen Israel as this small oppressed country that needs the assistance of the United States to survive.  I was absolutely wrong in this thinking!  I was aghast at the oppression that Palestinians live with under the military occupation and at the ever-increasing expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank—settlements that are illegal under UN Resolution 446.  Moreover, I was also humbled at the generosity and hospitality that was shown by the Palestinians who so often get demonized in our media here in the West. 

This April I again had the privilege of returning to the West Bank with my wife and one other friend to participate in the Right to Movement Marathon that takes place in Bethlehem.  The experience was similar to my 2011 trip in how my heart was moved to sorrow and anger at the oppression that I witnessed there.  However, I noticed something on this trip that eluded me in 2011.  I noticed how hidden this occupation can be—particularly if one were to visit just Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.  To illustrate this, I would like to share a story.  On a Tuesday my wife, our friend and I were relaxing in Nativity Square in Bethlehem when we met a man named Jamal.  We would spend the rest of the afternoon with Jamal and two of his friends from work learning about their stories and experience in Palestine.  Jamal grew up in Aida Camp which is about a mile and a half from Nativity Square, and we were very excited when Jamal said that he would show us his parents’ home in the camp, which he did after a few hours of conversation in the peaceful and tranquil Nativity Square.

Our experience in Nativity Square that afternoon for lack of any other description was normal.  There was a band practicing for a concert to take place in the square later that week as part of the marathon celebration.  There were the sporadic buses that would show up with westerners wanting to visit the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of the birth of Jesus.  It was peaceful! 

We left Nativity Square close to dusk to walk with Jamal to go visit Aida Camp.  As we approached the entrance to the camp our eyes, noses and throats began to burn.  This was from the remnants of tear gas that had been shot in Aida earlier that afternoon.  As we entered the camp we walked under an arch surmounted by a huge key, which symbolizes the right of return for the refugees who have called this place ‘home’ since 1948.  Just beyond this arch there is a steep hill.  In the opposite direction from the arch, about 200 yards away, is a blue door in the separation wall.  This door is used for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to enter the camp.  At the bottom of this hill were 4 IDF soldiers with machine guns as well as an armored vehicle with at least two more IDF soldiers inside.  At the top of the hill were kids throwing stones.  I was a bit nervous as we began walking toward the soldiers, but we had to walk this way to get to Jamal’s parents’ home.  As we walked, on our right was the separation wall with graffiti of the faces of about 15 Palestinian men.  Jamal told us that these were all men from Aida that were in Israeli jails.  Jamal also told us that about 80 percent of the men from Aida had at some point been arrested by the IDF, including himself on four different occasions.

We walked by the IDF soldiers with their guns pointed at us with their fingers on their triggers, but otherwise without incident.  Then we waited for Jamal to convince the teenagers throwing stones that we were friendly and not there to cause any harm.  Jamal as well as a shop owner that lives next to Rachel’s Tomb and whose shop is surrounded on three sides by the separation wall stated that the incidents of tear gas, shock grenades and the shooting of rubber-coated bullets is nearly a daily occurrence in Aida Camp.  In the course of a 35 minute walk I went from the peace and tranquility of Nativity Square to a war zone.  And…and if we had not met Jamal and had we not accepted his invitation to visit Aida Camp we would have completely missed the truth that is so easily hidden from non-perceptive eyes, ears and hearts.  We would have come home with a completely different narrative.

Our secretary of state, John Kerry, was close to the truth when he said that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state.  It is not in danger of becoming an apartheid state; it already is an apartheid state.

Here is my request for you, my representative.  Please go and see for yourself.  I am delivering copies of this letter to our state Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski as well.  Perhaps the three of you can take the trip together.  I have a friend that owns a dual narrative tour company.  My contact information is at the bottom of this letter, and I would be happy to organize a meeting with him to discuss traveling opportunities. 

Sincerely,

Steve Graybill

Constituent

REAL CHANGE THROUGH COMMON CHANGE

A number of years ago I read Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change.  This book asks two simple questions:  What are the biggest problems in the world today? and What does Jesus say about these problems?  As followers of Christ who proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is here.” these are questions that we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis.  Moreover, we need to do more than ask the question; we need to find solutions.

As I begin to answer the first question, I find myself quickly overwhelmed to the point where I feel powerless because of what seems to be an endless list of problems: HIV/AIDS is an epidemic in my home city of Washington DC not to mention the issue of HIV/AIDS worldwide; Also there are close to 6000 homeless people in my home city.  There is an oppressive occupation in Israel and Palestine, myriad wars around the world that destroy life, oppressive justice systems that put people to death rather than recognizing that our Father is a father of restoration and reconciliation; Nearly half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day: There are multitudes without clean drinking water on our planet and there are 30 million people either in slavery or sexually trafficked or both.  And all of this just scratches the surface.  At the start of this year I was in a rut spiritually; angry at God for all of these injustices that are taking place in his creation.  I was also frustrated that I could not solve all these problems—I am not God after all.  To be honest, I am still angry at the injustices that we see each day and I still often want to point the finger at God.  However, as I entered this Lenten season and decided to only drink water and coffee for my liquids—difficult for someone who loves Gatorade and likes to enjoy a daily beer or two or three—things began to shift for me. 

First off, I had the thought that perhaps the enemy wants us to answer the first question that McLaren asks in his book and actually think that it is our responsibility to solve all of those problems individually.  The enemy does this because it knows that by doing so we will be rendered helpless knowing full well that we are just not capable of that and therefore we will just dwell on those problems in our head and never take any action whatsoever.

Second, I was reminded of a couple of rather pithy statements and 1 Corinthians 12, which discusses spiritual gifts and that each of us has a role to play.  I recall Shane Claiborne sharing a brief story of someone confronting God with the question: “Why don’t you do something about all this suffering in the world?”  To which God responds: “I did!  I made you!”  Of course that can easily put one back with taking all of the troubles of the world on their own shoulders, but then I was reminded another pithy statement: “Do for one what you would like to do for many.”

The beauty in doing for one what you would like to do for many is that it requires relationship—generally you must know one person to help one person—when you look at the actions of Jesus we find that he often focuses on doing something for one person, and he does that through personal interaction.  This is how Common Change works. 

Our Common Change group recently had our quarterly dinner gathering.  Essentially, we are a group of 5 affluent westerners—one of us is a South African transplant.  During this dinner that took place the first week of Lent I was amazed and challenged by the community we had in discussing the challenges of being the hands and feet of Christ.  As affluent white people we did not see ourselves as the saviors but felt the conviction of being the oppressors.  We also shared the difficulties and challenges of creating relationships outside of our economic strata--we all agreed that it easy to put $40/mo into a pool, but not so easy to build relationships where we could meet needs with that pool of money.  Most of all though, we felt that we were a community and felt that we were the church during that time—there was richness and depth to our gathering that I have rarely experienced.  I love the epigraph on my friend Valerie Anderson’s email which I think describes our group well: “We are not thinking our way into a new way of acting but acting our way into a new way of thinking.”

Just this week we were able to meet the need of a friend of ours through our Common Change Group.  My wife and I did a homeless challenge last summer where we spent 72 hours living on the streets to experience what it is like to be homeless.  During the evening you have a homeless or formerly homeless “guide” who essentially stays awake the entire night so that you can sleep and not have to worry about being mugged.  Steve Thomas was one of those guides for us along with keeping us safe we also had the privilege of having him share his story with us.  Recently we saw through Facebook that he needed a walker because of health issues that affect his mobility.  We reached out and talked to him.  The walker is currently in a box in our dining room waiting to be assembled and we have plans to deliver it this Monday while we share a meal with our friend Steve and our other Common Change group members.  We will have done for one what we would like to do for many!

Truth Found in Humble Orthodoxy

While I am confident that Joshua Harris and myself would be at odds with what exactly orthodoxy is, not the definition, but the actual “right beliefs” that Christians should hold and adhere to, I am greatly encouraged by his book.  I believe that we each could certainly sit at a table together to discuss those differences with love and respect for each other.  This is the second book that I have read in the past year that essentially discusses the fact that Christians tend to be on one of two extremes.  It is good to see that each of these books come from, what I believe the authors would agree, different perspectives or traditions.

Brian McLaren’s is the author of Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road.  In his book McLaren argues that most Christians do one of two things well. Their faith is either strong and hostile or weak and benevolent and that we need to have a faith that is strong and benevolent.  Harris argues similarly that Christians tend to have arrogant orthodoxy or humble heterodoxy.  This is what Harris writes regarding humble heterodoxy: “Another popular option is humble heterodoxy.  Heterodoxy is a departure from orthodoxy.  So a person who is humbly heterodox abandons some of the historic Christian beliefs but is a really nice person who you’d enjoy having coffee with” (pg. 7).  Moreover, Harris’ contention is similar to McLaren’s in that we need to maintain a humble orthodoxy (benevolent and strong).

I was able to take away a number of challenging questions and life-applicable quotes from Humble Orthodoxy.  I would like to include several of them here.  Here are some questions I found challenging: “Does God’s word speak to the priority of both humility and orthodoxy?”  (pg. 4).  “…do humility and kindness and engagement with our culture have to involve watering down conviction?” (pg. 8).

And here are some quotes that I found both applicable and challenging to my journey:  “We don’t get to choose between humility and orthodoxy.  We need both” (pg. 6).  Quoting Greg Dutcher: “We cross a line when we are more focused on mastering theology than on being mastered by Christ.” (pg. 27).  “…all of us should be less concerned with whether others are being faithful to God’s truth than with whether we are being faithful to God” (pg. 33).  “Don’t measure yourself by what you know.  Measure yourself by your practice of what you know”  (pg. 37).  “…there’s a difference between having a critical mind that carefully evaluates and a critical spirit that loves to tear down and belittle” (pg. 44).

Orthodoxy is defined as right belief.  Despite all the things that I like about Harris’ book, as stated in the opening paragraph, I believe we would disagree with what the meaning of Christ’s crucifixion means in our lives.  On page 61 Harris writes, “We’re going to be opposed as we preach substitutionary atonement and the truth of God’s wrath toward sin.”  Also, on page 49: “Now, there’s always a need for innovation and new ideas and change in methodology to proclaim the gospel more effectively.  But the conversation that’s taking place in our generation is going beyond mere methodology or practice.  It’s not about how we can be more effective in evangelism.  Really, the conversation is about whether we can reinvent theology and belief.” 

So while I completely agree with Harris that we need to maintain or hold to an orthodoxy that is humble, I believe that we also need to be careful about what exactly our orthodoxy and right beliefs are today. I would argue that theology has evolved since Christ’s crucifixion and continues to evolve today.  How we read scripture should be an organic experience.  Therefore, it is not about reinventing theology but about continuing to wrestle with it; moving deeper into the mysteries of God.  What Harris points to with substitutionary atonement is not really found in the writings of the early church fathers.  It was born out of the writings of Augustine 300 years after Christ and lionized in American culture through seminaries that hold the writings of Calvin, if not canonical, at least close to it.  However, with that said Harris’ book lays the groundwork for people to come to the table to have these discussions and for this reason I would certainly recommend this book.

I received this book without charge from Waterbrook Multnomah for the purposes of this review.

 

Street Reflections

I recall several friends asking me to let them know if/when I wrote a blog entry about my homeless experience.  I thought a lot about what I could write about during the trip.  I expected to have a blog post up within 24 or 48 hours at the most and I had loads of ideas during the trip about angles I could take.  However, in retrospect none of them can capture our experience with the justice it deserves.  Moreover, I really do not want to capture the experience in writing or at least I do not want anyone to live vicariously through our experience on the street.  I even cringe writing that last sentence knowing that it can come across as prideful, but “so it goes.”

Tomorrow it will be three weeks since 8 of us from National Community Church decided to experience what it is like to be homeless.  We walked into National Coalition for the Homeless dropped off our cell-phones and wallets and left with the clothes on our back, a black trash bag containing two blankets, a journal, Bible and a pamphlet from Pathways to Housing that lists locations for services for the homeless.  That pamphlet was our meal ticket if we could not glean locations to eat from those on the streets.

In the weeks since the trip I have had numerous people ask me about my experience.  And I have enjoyed those conversations.  It seems that most think this decision to go homeless for 72 hours was at least a bit out there.  Oddly, I do not see it that way at all.  Based on the scriptures, particularly the Gospels and Jesus’ life, we decided to be with those that Jesus would have been with.  I am now back in my comfortable home in front of my laptop and life actually seems a bit off kilter.

Moreover, there are just as many homeless in DC at this moment as there were before we decided to go on this “plunge.”  For those interested the number is close to 6,000 for the District of Columbia.   So, really, what was it we accomplished during our time?  This, I think, is a great question to ask.  For one, I believe all eight of us have a better understanding of what it feels like to be homeless.  We all were required to panhandle and seven of the eight of us thought it was the most humiliating experience of our lives!  Personally, I had several takeaways from this experience.  One is this: there is a really good chance that saying “Hello” and asking the name of someone who is panhandling and not giving them any money at all just might be the bright spot of their day.

In DC there are many services available for the homeless community.  The spectrum of these services is broad, and I continue to learn more about them.  There are currently food deliveries at 5:30 and 7:00 on weekdays at Murrow Park located at 18^th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.  And on weekends just a few blocks away at Franklin Park located at K street and 13^th there are food deliveries as well as clothing distribution.  Note: these details are included in case any of you may want to stop by and find a new friend.  There are shelters and quite a few places that have hot meals—some secular and some faith based.  I did not visit any shelters but heard some nightmare stories about the conditions of many of them.  Another takeaway is that I am confident that I would prefer living, i.e. sleeping on the street rather than in a shelter if I were homeless.

In my opinion, too many of the services provided for the homeless in DC lack a relational focus.  I recall getting breakfast at one place and feeling like I was herded in and out.  There was something inhuman about this.  That is why I feel so strongly about the power of acknowledging a person panhandling.  Moreover, this is what Jesus does over and over in the Bible; acknowledging someone’s humanity.  Acknowledging someone’s humanity is the centerpiece of the “Good Samaritan” Parable.  Jesus acknowledges the humanity of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.  He acknowledges the humanity of the woman caught in adultery while helping those that want to stone her to recognize the humanity in themselves in John 8.

The woman in Luke 8 who had a problem with bleeding, making her a major social outcast in Jesus’ day, touched Jesus cloak and was healed, yet Jesus does not allow her to just be healed he longs to interact with her.  Verses 46-48 are worth quoting here—again the scripture states that she has already been healed yet:

 Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

In calling this woman “Daughter,” Jesus acknowledges her humanity—she is no longer the outcast that society has made her.  This is what I hope my time on the streets allowed to me to learn—that I can acknowledge the humanity of anyone and everyone.

6,000 is a large number, but not insurmountable in my honest opinion.  How amazing would it be if we could put all of the homeless NGOs in DC out of business in our lifetime?  This is a God-sized dream, but one I want to be a part of.

While I was on the streets there were so many experiences that I thought I might share, but they are the experiences of our group.  I kind of see them as sacred and am now reluctant to share them.  Besides, for $50 you too can have this experience—it will be the cheapest vacation you ever take and you will have your own sacred experiences as well.  So perhaps that is my biggest takeaway—more people should step into the shoes of the homeless—experiencing what life is like from the other side is one of the best bridge-builders out there.

A Lot to Learn From a Small Town in Iraq--Review of The Gospel of Rutba

I finished Greg Barrett’s “The Gospel of Rutba” yesterday.  I imagine that I will be processing this book for the days, weeks, months and possibly years to come.  It evoked sadness, anger, disgust, guilt, as well as joy, hope and peace within me.  In Rutba, Barrett juxtaposes the macabre realities of war with one of the most amazing stories that you will ever hear of grace, friendship, forgiveness, inclusivity, hospitality and peacemaking.

After reading about the lives of Shane Claiborne, Cliff Kindy, Weldon Nisly, Peggy Gish, Logan Mehl-Laituri, Kathy Kelly, and Sami Rasouli, the primary subjects from the West in the book, and their demonstrations of loving the enemy I am embarrassed to self-apply the term Christian.  Reading this story has challenged me to my core.

With a ridiculous amount of research—the endnotes amount to about a 1/3 of the text—Barrett exposes the tyrannical “Domination System” that the United States has become.  Rutba is the story of Iraq that you do not get on CNN or Fox or even Al Jazeera for that matter. However, it is the stories like these that need to be told.  If enough of them were told we might begin to see the humanity in people—even those that we call our enemy.  It is far from an easy read, but every American needs to read this book—and not just the chaptered section, but endnotes too.

In fact, I plan to buy a case to give to friends for Christmas presents—perhaps it will help “sow the peace.”

Reasons I am Going Homeless This Wednesday Through Saturday

I have been part of a church small group that is led by my friend Jill Carmichael (who will be joining us on the streets as well) and focuses on social justice issues for a little more than a year now.  In August of last year this small group took a trip to visit The Simple Way located in one of the poorest parts of Philadelphia known as Kensington.  The Simple Way is…well it is hard to explain exactly what The Simple Way is other than to say that is a group of subversive friends that have a heart for social justice.  Shane Claiborne is one of the founders of the group and has called Kensington home for more than 10 years now.  He is also a best-selling author.  Our group read one of his books together and we were interested in learning about how The Simple Way approaches Social Justice.  It was on the ride home from this trip where I mentioned, to Jill, “You know, it would be a good, potentially life-changing, experience to see what it would be like to be homeless.”  Jill, being a social-worker for Friendship Place, immediately responded with, “You know National Coalitionfor the Homeless (NCH) does something called a “homeless challenge” where you do exactly what you have mentioned.  You should try to get this approved as an A1:8 trip.”  A1:8 based off of Acts 1:8 and summarized by National Community Church as: “Ordinary people, empowered by God’s spirit, doing what Jesus did, together, wherever they are” is the title for their missions programs.  I did not have to think more than a second at Jill’s chiding.  The next day I was pushing my pastor about doing the trip.

I have several reasons for wanting to do this trip.  Personally, the more I study scripture as a Christian the more I see Christ as a social revolutionary who was relational and had a heart and passion for the poor as well as someone that welcomed interruptions to his daily routine.  Oddly, I have called myself a Christian for more than 20 years, but only in the past couple years would I say that I have seen, or at least gotten glimpses of who the real Jesus is.

I see myself as someone unique in that I am pretty much a classical type A personality and an introvert at the same time.  I am not all that comfortable initiating relationships—I run from most of them.  Also, I am someone who is very task-oriented and who really dislikes being interrupted from my tasks.  These are two personality characteristics that I do not see at all in Christ.  I see the Homeless Challenge as a huge interruption to my daily routine as well as a huge opportunity for initiating relationships with homeless people in my own city—a chance to develop qualities I see in Christ that I lack in myself.

Also, our church is incredibly missional, locally, nationally and internationally.  I believe our faith community can be much more involved than we are locally though.  However, if I make a statement like that, than the finger-pointing needs to be at myself.  My hope is that this trip will be something that our church does every year.  Perhaps, together with NCH, Street Sense, Mariam’s Kitchen, Loaves and Fishes and every other NGO working with the homeless in our city we can put ourselves out of business!  What can I say…I wear a bracelet that our lead pastor had made that reads: “Dream Big, Pray Hard, Think Long.”

Lord Help Me Be More Polychronic

A little more than two years ago I was required to read Brian Fikkert’s When Helping Hurts for a trip to Israel/Palestine.  I recall there were differing opinions about much of the content of the book within our group.  What those differing opinions were has become hazy with the two plus years.  However, there is one section the book that has remained with me and had an impact on how I see people of other cultures, faiths, and walks of life in an amazingly positive and inclusive way.

Last Wednesday I had just parked my car at the Silver Spring parking garage and was walking to the metro station.  I was also a bit behind schedule to get to “The Living Room,”  a gathering of friends that meets in the basement of Ebenezer’s Coffee House in Capitol Hill, DC.  Our group is a gathering of misfits, one might say, that share a meal and study the Bible together.  There are a few of us currently living on the streets, a few of us who formerly lived on the streets, some that have never lived on the streets.  Regardless, come to “The Living Room” long enough and it starts to become an extended “dysfunctional family” as Bobby, one member of our group, likes to remind us each week.

So, back to my short walk to the metro platform to catch the Red-Line heading in the Shady Grove direction for the 5 or 6 stops—I have been doing this ride somewhat regularly for years and one would think that I would know the exact number of stops, but I don’t—To Union Station.  There is frequently a paper vendor outside of the Silver Spring Metro Station selling copies of Street Sense.  Street Sense is a non-profit based in Washington DC assisting the homeless and trying to put an end to homelessness in the city.  One thing that Street Sense does is employ homeless folks as street vendors for their newspaper of the same name.  The paper is about 30 pages long with stories that mainly focus on homeless issues. Many of the articles are written by the vendors.  It is pretty cool to buy a newspaper from someone who may have written one of the articles!  Anyway, Earl is the name of the vendor at the Silver Spring Metro.

I remember beginning my descent down the stairs toward the entrance of the metro station thinking, “hmmm…I wonder if Earl will be there with his newspapers today?”  I was excited about saying “hi” and getting a paper.  However, this thought instantly changed to, “Man, I am running late I really hope that Earl is not selling his paper today so that I am not late for ‘The Living Room.’”  In that instant I was filled with guilt and simultaneously reminded of Fikkert’s When Helping Hurts.

When Helping Hurts introduced me to two words that have forever changed, as stated in the opening paragraph, how I see those of other cultures and faiths and how I believe we, as people, should interact with them.  In his book Fikkert describes two very different cultures.  One is a monochronic culture and the other is polychronic.  If there was a poster-child for monochronic  culture the United States would be it, and much like DC is the capitol of the United States it makes a strong case for being the capitol of monochronic culture as well. 

People living in a monochromic culture tend to: concentrate on the job, commit to the job, be timely and efficient, and adhere religiously to plans.  On the other hand, those living in a polychronic culture tend to: allow distractions and manage interruptions well, change plans often and easily, be committed to people and human relationships—things that drive most westerners crazy including this one. 

However, I have had the privilege to spend time in Mali, Israel/Palestine, and Egypt and see polychronic culture up close!  I was and am humbled and convicted by the love these people had for one another and how much more important relationships rather than tasks were to them. 

Of course, there are positive and negative aspects to both of these cultural leanings, but we need to recognize that one is not right while the other is wrong as well as recognize that both exist.  I would argue that living on the far end of either spectrum can lead to a less fulfilling life – whether by being so task-oriented that relationships suffer or even fail to be developed, or by being so people-oriented that nothing ever gets accomplished.  I know that for me personally to be less focused on tasks and more focused on relationships is something that should be incorporated into my life. 

Sadly, Earl was not selling papers that day so I really do not know if my monochronic leaning would have pushed me by Earl without saying “hi” and getting a paper in order that that I could obtain my goal of making it to “The Living Room” on time, but I certainly hope not!