Irresistable Revolution

"Ask the poor. They will tell you who the Christians are." - Gandhi

I'm one of many, no doubt, who have read this book by Shane Claiborne and wondered what to do about it. I haven't even read the whole thing; I'm stuck on chapter 6, and don't want to move past it.

My current paragraph of "stuckness": "Simplicity is meaningful only inasmuch as it is grounded in love, authenic relationships, and interdependence. Redistribution then springs naturally out of our rebirth, from a vision of family that is larger than biology or nationalism. As we consider what it means to be "born again"...we must ask what it means to be born against into a family in which our brothers and sisters are starving to death. Then we begin to see why rebirth and redistribution are inextricably bound up in one another... It also beomes scandalous for the church to spend money on windows and buildings when some family members don't even have water. Welcome to the dysfunctional family of Yahweh."

I learned as much as I could from the rice diet, which has since been abandoned but I will probably return to several times a year to RELEARN the valuable lessons of simplicity and empathy. It was a really good jumping point to getting stuck on chapter 6, though, where it is pointed out that "rather than being bound up by how much stuff we need to buy, we can get enslaved to how simply we must live."

The Bible says that "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none." (Luke 3:11) It is so easy for us to say, "I don't know anyone that has no shirt." My newest question is, what do I have to do so this is no longer the case? What is my responsibility? Jesus said that the poor would always be among us. Shane Claiborne suggests that this wasn't just a descriptive statement, but was pointing to one the fundamental tasks of the church, and that if the poor are NOT among us, we are not in the right place.

Forgive us, Father. You've told us EXACTLY what we are to do, but we've spent so much time asking "What does this mean?" that we've stopped looking at Scripture and asking "What can I obey?" We've insulated ourselves from the plain truth of Scripture by making everything so complicated that was never intended to be.

God solved the problem of poverty ages ago by setting up the system of Jubilee; this is something that only recently came to my attention, and it is SO intriguing to me. We don't have a right to ask, "Why does God allow poverty?" because frankly he did his bit --- the Israelites just never carried it out. But the principles remain. So what do we do?

"Folks always say the Israelites never fully lived out the Jubilee. But... Ched Mysers says, "That's no excuse to ignore God's commands. That's like saying we don't need to worry about the Sermon on the Mount since Christians have never fully practiced it."" (Irresistable Revolution, Pg. 171)

Read this carefully

Of all of the things I've read recently, this is by far the most compelling. This is from the rule packet for the game "Tichu", a card game I don't know how to play properly, but do so enjoy reading the rules for. If this doesn't make you want to play it, you have no sense of humour. This is not the exact wording of the rules including in the English game --- it is a rough translation directly from the German. Enjoy!:

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We thank Mr Chuang for everything. Tour leader, German language section, Nanking (Nanjing). Highly recommended. He knows everything. Lengths of bridges, meaning of Buddhas, number of lorries in the province. On request also meaning of bridges, number of Buddhas and length of lorries. Some monument with five goats and a heap of 38 resistance fighters is the landmark of the town. Or perhaps only three goats and 58 figthers - anyway, there are basically more fighters than goats. And to tell the truth - that stuff about landmarks could also be said of Canton (Guangzhou) or Wuhan. But in Nanking there stood a thousand Buddha temple - the area most certainly has a landmark.

Yes, Mr Chuang is an outstanding tour guide. He casts his own Nanking aside into the Yang Tze and leads us into an unknown land: a rock concert, a psychiatric clinic and a private audience with magician. Only with the game was he not so outstanding. Naturally he knows them - he knows everything. Yet the strange card game which the people are playing everywhere in all the parks and squares seems to be frowned upon. Again and again he lures us away from the knots of people. The game is not to be explained.

Tichu is not to be explained

(If we had believed that there would be no rules with this pack. But we brought Mr Chuang round. He drummed up a game in the backroom of the souvenir shop of the Confucian temple. At first we were only allowed to watch. Then we played and the Chinese experts gave us good advice. A first rate introduction to the game, by the way. We recommend this method of learning most warmly.)

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Another of my favourite parts (there are many) is the following; it comes from a variation of the actual game: "The objecttive of the game does not exist. It is all for fun. At any rate the Great Lord should be able to enjoy unrestrictedly all privileges and comforts of the house (a cup of tea, a little dance performance, a parasol, choice of TV channel, even the desire to continue this lordly game for another round) "


If you are a player of this game, please let me know! I have questions! For the rest of the rules, visit: http://www.fatamorgana.ch/tichu/Tichu_english.html