On the beatitudes …
I've been enjoying my friend Fr. Richard Rohr's beautiful reflections on the beatitudes that come in his daily devotional emails (you can sign up here ... highly recommended!). After the jump, I'll include a few that have touched me especially.
On the beatitudes, I wish a US publisher would make Dave Andrews' beautiful book Plan-Be more widely available here in the US. Dave sent me the book from Australia, and it is a real gem. There's nothing like it available here in the US. Here's a video put together by the Aussie publisher:
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Ramadan 2009: Day 1
Here is my prayer today:
God, Creator of all people, in this month when a billion people will observe Ramadan with fasting and prayer, with devotional reading and with kindness to the needy, may your Spirit be at work in the hearts of Muslims, Christians, and Jews (who together make up over half the world's population) as well as people of other faiths and no stated faith.
May your gentle voice call us to move beyond our tribal visions of a deity who loves "us" but hates "them." Help us to see you more truly as you are, a God who is pure light, rich in mercy, whose mercy triumphs over judgment, who knows us each by name, and who graciously considers us beloved, wherever we are from, whatever our background, whatever labels we apply to ourselves or others apply to us.
May your voice of truth call us to question the prejudices and misconceptions about you and about one another that we learned from well-meaning but misinformed authority figures, even when they thought they were speaking in your name.
May your voice of peace make us ashamed of our violence, hatred, fear, superiority, and resentment. And may your voice of courage inspire us to walk in the way of reconciliation, even when that path is dangerous and difficult.
May your voice of compassion teach us to see one another - and ourselves - with new eyes, your eyes. And so may we forgive one another where we have been hurt by one another; may we humble ourselves and admit the truth where we have done the hurting; may we repent where we have chosen the small ways of revenge and exclusion rather than your greater ways of reconciliation and embrace.
May your voice of wisdom call us out from our vicious cycles of self-destruction.
With your help, Lord, may we, who are faithful and loyal to the different doctrines and traditions we learned from our beloved parents and respected teachers, not let our loyalty to sacred teachings and traditions make us disloyal to you or to one another. For in this age of crushing financial debt, we all have a beautiful and liberating debt, Lord, to you and to one another: a debt of love. For as Jesus taught us, the greatest command is to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors - including those who consider themselves our enemies - as ourselves.
May your voice of goodness nourish in our hearts a desire that is even greater than the desire for food and drink. May you create in us an insatiable hunger and thirst to be filled to overflowing with your goodness - to everyone, Lord, but especially to the poor, the sick, the misunderstood, the rejected, the vulnerable, the forgotten. For the common good, Lord, bring together those of us who have all that we need and more, and unite us together with those in need, so that all will soon have enough and more to share.
It is good, Lord, when people pray and sing praises to your name. But how hollow are those words and songs when we do not also honor you by honoring one another. For how can we honor the God who cannot be seen when we dishonor our neighbor, made in your image, who can be seen?
So, Creator and Provider and Sustainer of Life, Giver of all grace, Source of justice and mercy, may your voice be heard deep in my heart, and in the hearts of all people on earth, this beautiful planet that displays your artistry, majesty, and power. Amen.
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The Justice Project
The Justice Project may be purchased* online at: amazon.com, barnes and noble, and christianbook.com.
When the editors of Baker Books (joined by Doug Pagit and Tony Jones) asked me to consider editing a collection of chapters on justice, one of the reasons I said yes was the chance to expose more people to some of the wonderful justice-workers I've met in my travels around the world. First, I thought of who my co-editors should be, and immediately I thought of Elisa Shannon Padilla, a tireless justice advocate who works with Kairos based in Argentina, and Ashley Bunting Seeber - not only a brilliant graduate student (in post-colonial studies in the UK), but also a tremendous organizer and project manager.
Then I started thinking of who else should be invited to write ... so that more and more readers in the US and abroad could hear from Native American voices who are so often forgotten, Latino advocates and activists who pursue "mission integral," African Americans with their rich tradition of a justice-integrated gospel, people working among the poorest of the poor in urban slums and rural villages, people working to save ecosystems and the beautiful creatures who live in them. I wanted to be sure people got to know some of the amazing people in my circle of friends - thoughtful scholars and grass-roots practitioners, older and younger, homemakers and agitators, conservative and liberal and otherwise. So ... as you can imagine, this project has been a real joy for me.
Here's how Baker describes the book:
"Justice and the call for change are in the air. Whether it's extreme poverty, human rights, racism, or the Middle East, news outlets bombard us with stories about the need for justice in the world. But how are Christians to respond to these stories and the conditions to which they refer? Here's help. Editors Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber have amassed a collection of over 30 brief chapters by some of the most penetrating thinkers in the justice conversation, including René Padilla, Peggy Campolo, Will and Lisa Samson, Sylvia Keesmaat, Bart Campolo, Lynne Hybels, Tony Jones, and Richard Twiss. Divided into sections, "God of Justice," "Book of Justice," "Justice in the USA," "Just World," and "Just Church," The Justice Project invites readers to deepen their understanding of the pressures our world faces and to take up the challenge of alleviating them. Never has the world been in greater need of Christians who "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." This resource will help them do just that."
I'm especially hoping that this book will become the basis for lots of small group and classroom dialogue, in person and online, because you don't often get to hear from an assortment of spiritual leaders like these, all gathered together in one place, all sharing the passion of seeking God's kingdom and God's justice "on earth as it is in heaven."
*My share of advance and royalties for this book will go to la red del camino, an important young network for integral mission across Latin America, and emergent village, which resources a growing generative friendship among missional Christian leaders in the U.S.
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Ramadan 2009: Part 5
After the jump, you can read Eboo Patel's current newsletter about how a Jewish and Muslim college student teamed up to make a difference for needy people in their community, and brought along a lot of their college students in the process.
Their endeavor reminds me of a parallel initiative among Christian pastors who decided that the best way to honor the birth of Jesus was probably not by buying additional luxuries for luxury-saturated friends and relatives. They came up with a creative alternative that more and more churches are joining to support. Maybe yours? You can read about the Advent Conspiracy here.
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Ramadan 2009: Part 4
I recently wrote about an experience of fasting I hope to share with Muslims in the month of Ramadan, which begins (in the US) tomorrow night. I don't want to say too much about it at all (keeping Jesus' words in Matthew 6 in mind), although I will try to post on the experience once a week or so. For reasons I explained earlier, I'm not planning to respond to criticism about the Ramadan fast during the Ramadan fast. But after the jump, I'll include two emails that came in already, along with very brief responses, and a powerful quote from Protestant Reformer John Calvin.
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