Jan
20
‘Hating Religion, Loving Jesus’… getting ‘hits’, dishing hits, and waking up the church
Jean Vanier is the image that came to mind when I saw the video below that has been getting so many hits this past week. Why? Because as this poem was receiving so many hits on the web, it was dishing some of its own. While the majority were well placed, I couldn’t help but wonder whether people watching it were lumping all of Christianity together in their minds.
Who is Jean Vanier and why should you care? He is a Christian who, like Bball1989, believes that we are all broken in some way. Vanier disagreed with the reality that those who society deems as more broken or less useful should be sent away from community or locked up in institutions. So he began a movement of L’Arche communities where people live together in Christian love and take care of each other. He is a Christian who has dedicated his life to bringing together people of different abilities to live together in community.
There are also young people, who are just beginning to establish their witness. Young United Methodists like David and Rebekah Byrd-Arthur, who felt the calling of God to live out what is written in Isaiah 58 and who established the Isaiah House in Durham, NC to do so. And then, together with members of their church and community established The Jubilee Restoration Project in order to help others get involved. [You've got to read Isaiah 58, by the way, you'll see that the video below is the latest in a tradition of thousands of people who for thousands of years have gotten frustrated with the way the movement was living. There have always been people like David & Rebekah trying to live out the Scriptures in an inspiring fashion, and there have always been people like Bball 1989 trying to figure out how to remind the rest of us to wake up and get moving as well. And that is why the movement lives on]
When I watched this video, did I feel the need to defend the word “religion”? No, certainly not, I have issues with it myself. However, after a few days of contemplation, I feel it is important for us to think about what we mean when we use that word. What is religion? How is the word being used? When we say “religion” are most people able to separate that from authentic Christian community, or does it end up getting lumped all together – the baby thrown out with the bath water?
See, the Christian movement is made up of so many different kinds of people. People like Elias Chacour, the Archbishop of Galilee, a Palestinian, Arab, Christian, citizen of the Israel. A man who was driven from his home as a child because he was a Palestinian but who has gone on to lead one of the most ancient Christian movements and to found a school, Mar Elias, where children from Israeli and Palestinian families – Christians, Jews and Muslims – can learn to love one another.
The Christian movement is made up of people like our own Bishop Peggy Johnson here in the Northeast, who has dedicated her life to reaching a hand of friendship ever further into the areas of the church community that are marginalized or pushed aside. Advocating for the Deaf community and the Disabled community, ensuring that they are not only included in the church but also given leadership, and telling the stories that often go untold has been her life’s work.
I am not pointing out these people because they are exceptions to the rule though – instead, they are part of the tapestry of the Christian movement. They are one spot on the continuum of what it looks like to be a Christian. They are people I know, and respect and love. They are faithful church participants and leaders, people who sit in pews with the rest of all God’s complicated sinful children – and who also do their best to show the world that sitting in a pew is not all that Christianity is about.
This is always the way it has been since the beginning of the Christian movement. There are people who will dismay you but there are also people who will inspire you. That is what it means to be a church. And you could be one of those inspiring people starting today. The first step is to move beyond cynicism and criticism and into hope and action.
And if there is anyone out there reading this who looks at themselves in the mirror and, whether out of arrogance or despair, is thinking that they are the only one who is living the way that Jesus would want them to, I promise you there are others. If you want, I’ll help you find them.
BBall1989, thanks for getting the conversation started, I hope we can continue it. As Jean Vanier wrote in Community & Growth, “Love is neither sentimental nor a passing emotion. It is the recognition of a covenant, of mutual belonging. It is listening to others, being concerned for them, and feeling empathy… It is to see their beauty and reveal it to them.” Let’s all work harder not just to reveal and expose the ugliness of the Christian movement – we all know its there – but also the beauty as well.
A birthday party at Isaiah House brings together residents (from left) David Arthur, Luke Arthur and Rebecca Byrd and former guests Jewells and Jaden. Photo courtesy of Sarah Arthur
