questions

reading Luke 11:37-53

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you - be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it."
One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."
Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.

sometimes i am really confused about the gospel. it says here that if we are generous for the poor, "all will be clean for us." what does that really mean? what about those who care for the poor without acknowledging Christ as Lord?

i am especially confused because i grew up in a church that did not value ministry to the poor, and so i wonder - is there such thing as a gospel without this deep value of serving the poor? are we overemphasizing the role that this should play or has the importance of our service to the poor been evil-ly suppressed by Satan through the sin of Pharisees of the past and present ("unmarked graves that people walk over without realizing it")?

pre-college, well really pre-'before i read irresistible revolution', i really saw my desire to help underserved populations as something separate from my relationship with Christ. but after reading this book, after growing in the past two+ years, i think that realizing that our God is a God who loves everyone, hungers for justice has really taught me to be faithful to God and to trust in His plan and His love. for me, it has been a crucial part of understanding and appreciating and wanting the Gospel in my life. is that something that everyone feels though?

The Gospel

This is an outstanding piece by Kevin DeYoung in response to a letter to unbelievers, written by Shaine Claiborne and published in Esquire.

Kevin explains that this increasingly popular “new gospel” usually has four parts: (1) it starts with an apology; (2) it appeals to God as love; (3) it invites others to join God on his mission; (4) it is ambivalent about eternity.

Why is it so popular? (1) it’s partially true; (2) it deals with strawmen; (3) it leads people to believe wrong things without explicitly stating those wrong things [this is Kevin's most important paragraph, I think]; (4) it’s manageable; (5) it’s inspirational; (6) it’s non-offensive.

Kevin goes on to deal with a number of objections. I know Claiborne would say what he wrote is just pre-evangelism, but I think Kevin’s points are spot on and well worth considering carefully. I encourage you to read the whole thing.

(via jd's blog)

A Sober Reminder in Seeking God

A Passage from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's (of Rutba House) book, New Monasticism:

"This is a book about what new monasticism has to say to the church in America, but I want to stress that new monasticism is about God's gift, not some idealists' dreams of peace and harmony in our time. This is easy to forget - especially when you're young like me (so maybe I'm just preaching to myself here). But Bonhoeffer is right again: "Whoever loves their dream of Christian community more than Christian community itself will become the destroyer of every Christian community, no matter how honest, earnest, and sacrificial their intentions may be." If you don't believe that, all you need to do is live in community for a couple of years. Whenever life becomes about me and my ideals, community isn't possible. What is more, we forget the God who is community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

Bottled Water?

hey guys, Edith just showed me this site www.freepoverty.com, which is pretty cool...the concept is pretty much the same as freerice.com except that it's geography rather than vocabulary and then it got me and Margie talking about water &c &c (each pin you place correctly allows you to donate a cup of water)

anyway, it reminded me of...is it in Irresistable Revolution? when this group of people start a business where they sell bottled tap water (so at basically no cost to them) and then donate the profits earned to providing clean water abroad. we could do something similar!!

so as i type this out, i realize the logistics of this would be absolutely crazy, getting clearance from the administration, most of us have no experience being entrepreneurial (correct me if i'm wrong!)...not to mention if anything were to go BAD from the water what a nightmare that would be. but still, i think we have to look into the amazing resources that we have while we're here at Duke. here, we have FOOD POINTS which students are apt to spend so freely. people buy bottled water not necessarily because of its superiority to bottled but simply because its convenient. if we could somehow channel these two things together...so much potential! although we do have to keep in mind that duke takes something like a 17% cut from all food vendors.

anyway, just to stir your minds a bit...

if you're looking to be inspired by a cool durham-ite...

if you guys have noticed these murals around downtown (also all over the front gates of TROSA), they were put up last year to commemorate pauli murray (more information about her below). anyway, i went last year to hear a talk about the artist who put up these murals and the way they were made (community artwork - they threw block parties and invited locals to color in some parts before the artist finished them up -- why the portraits are so multicolored). anyway, it was utterly amazing. i highly recommend this event. also, it takes place in the community so you guys could meet some more non-dukies :D

November 19, 2009 7:00 pm
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Lyons Park Community Center
1313 Halley Street at Kent Street (919 560-4288) Parking is available at secured lots by the center Free and open to the public

Pauli Murray was a champion for civil and human rights who grew up in Durham. Her insights and vision continue to resonate powerfully in our times. As a historian, attorney, poet, activist, teacher and Episcopal priest, she worked throughout her life to address injustice, to give voice to the unheard, to educate, and to promote reconciliation between races and economic classes. Her beautifully written memoir, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, was published in 1956. The book chronicles her roots and paints a compelling portrait of Durham during its formative years.

As the first annual Pauli Murray lecture, Beverly Guy-Sheftall will speak about this Durham native’s enduring legacy to civil and human rights. Sheftall is the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies at Spellman College. She is also adjunct professor at Emory University’s Institute for Women’s Studies where she teaches graduate courses. Sheftall coedited the first anthology on Black women’s literature, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (Doubleday, 1980). In 2003, she coauthored Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities (Random House, 2003).
Johnnetta Betsch Cole, currently the director of the Washington, DC Museum of African-American History.

The Pauli Murray Project will also be hosting a party at 3 pm on Sunday, November 22, to celebrate what would have been Murray's 99th birthday. This will also be at the Lyons Park Community Center. For more information, please see http://paulimurrayproject.org/one-more-event-post/

Ecclesiastes, Malachi

God gave me Ecc 2:10-11 yesterday to encourage me, and I just thought I'd share it with you guys. At the time, I was kind of frustrated because I had bought a coffee in the evening -- at Cambridge large group, I beelined straight to Nathan and wailed, "Naathaaaan I just bought a coffee" (and he giggled at me). Anyhow, here it is:

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NKJV)
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.

I guess, in and of itself, that verse isn't very encouraging. But the following is a prayer that I wrote down, because we'll probably all have to (re-)pray it at some point.

"Abba, this is the prayer of someone who gives up far too easily: please teach me perseverance and show me why it is good to persevere, so that I may run and finish the race You have set out before me. Give me strength to sacrifice to You the things I do not need, so that I no longer grasp for the wind, but soar upon it on wings like eagles."

:o) And then there was this!

Malachi 3:10 (NKJV)
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

mark 4:24-25

came upon this in my devo today...

24"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

one thing that i've been thinking about since yesterday's meeting as provoked by nathan is when he reminded us to focus on our relationship with God primarily -- it really made me wonder - am i rushing too headlong into these things? am i doing these things with pure enough intentions? how well do i need to establish my relationship with God before i start focusing on my relationships with others?

then i read this passage today and it really struck me because i think it answers some of these concerns of mine. as we consider what we hear (e.g. as we obey God's commands for our lives), he will continue blessing us with more knowledge. our relationship with God and understanding of Him grows as we obey him through service.

"Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/world/americas/16mexico.html?_r=1&ref=americas