Love Your Enemies

Jillian, Jude and I attended a peace vigil for the Iraq war on Tuesday evening. Here's a shot of Jude in his Mei Tai baby carrier and the sign I made (thanks to Thomas Knoll for the broken heart image).

It was an interesting night. The first sign I paid attention to was one held by an elderly lady sitting on her walker/chair. It said, "Make soup, not war." Nice.

It was interesting to see people's responses as they drove by. Many more people honked or gave us the peace sign than yelled demeaning/confrontational things. But really, people seemed to try to avoid eye contact with me.

One bold young man was stopped at the red light with his girlfriend in the car. He looked at my sign, looked ahead, and then stood up through his open sunroof and shouted, "George Bush is the shit!" I smiled while his girlfriend shot him a look, shrunk down in her seat, and gave me a timid smile while mouthing the words, "I'm sorry."

Another young man yelled as they pulled away from the light, "Our enemies hate us!"

It reminded me just how polarizing and counter-cultural the Gospel really is. It really isn't a rational thing, is it? To go the extra mile; to turn the other cheek; to be a leader washing people's feet. But this is just part of what it means to follow the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Help us to love well, Lord. And help us to love the enemies in our own day-to-day lives as we proclaim Your message of love and reconciliation. Amen.

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broken heart manifesto, bhmt07, iraq war

Iraq War Anniversary - A Call for Peace

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thomas merton, pacifism, peace, sojourners

More from Sojourners and their Verse and Voice daily e-mail:

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.
- Thomas Merton, from "Thomas Merton on Peace"

Today marks the 4-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. Jillian and I had planned to attend a Vigil service for peace this evening on courthouse square in Scranton. But now it is snowing and with a swollen ankle (and pregnant belly), Jill isn't feeling up to it. Frankly, I'm exhausted and am glad to stay home. At the same time, I had really hoped to go. I've never been to a protest or rally, and I want to lend my voice, my presence, and my prayers to this issue. I suppose that's one reason I have a blog.

It is my prayer this evening that those who lead find a way to end armed conflict and to work towards lasting peace - in Iraq and around the world.

Be the Change

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abolitionist, youth ministry, zach hunter

Zach Hunter, author of Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World was featured on ABC's Good Morning America this morning. You can catch the 5-minute clip here.

My 2 youth groups are meeting on Thurday nights to read this book together and discuss it. A Starbucks recently opened in Clarks Summit (the first coffee shop in that community open past 7 p.m.), so we're meeting there for our book group. The original idea was for it to be a Lenten book study and to do at least 2 chapters a week, but we're getting a lot out of reading the chapters out loud together and taking time to thoughtfully discuss them. So, more than likely, we'll be reading this book well past Easter. The kids say they're fine with that; they'd rather slow down, have us take our time, and really dig in.

If you think a book written by a 15 year-old kid based on his efforts to end modern-day slavery is too specific for you or your youth group, think again. While Zach does share about his own story, the book is organized around chapter themes like "Inspiration," "Community," and "Courage," to name just a few. The main emphasis so far seems to be to write about and encourage kids his own age to find something they are passionate about and to let them know they can do things to change the world.

Not bad for a 9th grader, eh? I'm no paid lackey for Youth Specialties, but I've found the best prices for this book there. If you take a look around, you'll find discounts on 5- and 10-packs of the book. I didn't find those deals during my initial order and I think I overpaid, but you'll get 25% off of the retail price if you order the 10-pack (single copies are 15% off the retail price currently). I ordered 10 copies to start, and put in another order of 10 this past week because the kids are so interested!

30 Hour Famine Weekend

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30 hour famine, hunger, poverty, world vision, youth ministry

Just finished doing the 30 Hour Famine with my 2 youth groups. I'm so very proud of their efforts this weekend. They did a great job fundraising as a group and they were also very attentive throughout the day today as we discussed issues of faith, mission, justice, and charity.

Kudos to the 2 churches I work for; they took a chance and allowed us to throw a benefit concert at a local multi-purpose venue. We had well over 300 students show up to rock, 5 bands that tore it up for them, and ended the night taking in nearly $1800 for World Vision's hunger-relief programs throughout the world.

Amazing what a group of 12 kids can pull off, eh?

Jeremy Del Rio - Activism

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activism, jeremy del rio, shift conference, youth ministry

God took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood

challenge in Isaiah to perceive the new thing God is doing

"young people are closer to God's heart than anyone else" - defends this by quoting the "become like little children" verse

we've bought the lie that young people are the future. there is some truth in that, b/c children do have A future; but God trusts 13 year old david, a teenage virgin to birth and mother Jesus, a teenage esther is a "beauty contest winner" who helps save her people.

re-frames the story of Jesus into that of a teen who as an immigrant moves into a community...develops the whole story.
**my thoughts - interesting way to push me into how i can engage story, something we've been thinking through. why not write the story ourselves for our community? re-create, re-member the jesus story**

Luke 10 - v. 25, expert in the Law stood up to test Jesus. begins w/ a question - what must one do to inherit eternal life? Jesus doesn't respond w/a "sinner's prayer;" he returns the question: what does the Law say, and the lawyer says we must love god w/ heart soul mind and self, and love neighbor; Jesus says he is correct and do this; but he adds a twist, and says to love your neighbor as yourself. lawyer asks, who then is my neighbor (looking to justify himself); Jesus replies with - you guessed it - a STORY: the good Samaritan story.

"justice is more than compassion" - compassion would have been to give the guy a glass of water and leave him there; justice is the Samaritan picking up the guy, caring for his wounds, putting him on his ride, and prepaying his medical bills.

end of Isaiah 61: "I the Lord love justice"

justice is about righting wrongs; you give your life to right the wrong.