This was the inaugural month for the #TransitLounge book club. Together, friends from Luxembourg, UK, Canada and all across the US read Inspiration & Incarnation by Peter Enns. We read, tweeted and then posted our reflections. I loved seeing tweets throughout the weeks, reminding me of our collaborative read and sparking my own thinking about the OT issues raised by Enns. Fellow readers provoked me, made me laugh and added their expertise to my reading. I also discovered some new friends, kindred thinkers, along the way!
This month we will take on John Howard Yoder’s seminal work – The Politics of Jesus. Written in 1972, this book launched so much of our current day thinking on the intersection of politics and the witness of Jesus. I figured it was time to read this theological classic. The first chapter was a bit slow for me, but he’s outlining his approach and setting his terms, as all good professor/scholars do. The second chapter gets into the text – Luke to be specific. Yoder decides to look at the political actions of Jesus through the lens of Luke’s Gospel… so this ought to be good because I’ve always had an affinity for this Gospel. (confession: Mark is my Gospel of choice, but so glad we’ve been given all four!)
Other things I’ve been into…
Lately I’ve been hungry for good preaching. I find weekly nourishment from Walter Brueggemann, reading a sermon (or two) every Sunday morning. Sometimes mid-week I’ll take in a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor from one of her collections.
But I’ve wanted the voice, the immediacy of the prophetic moment as a preacher gives a word of life to a congregation… and I found two great preachers who’ve challenged me and moved me to tears.
The sermon I cannot get out of my mind is Betrayed by a Kiss preached by Brian Zahnd. I’ve always been intrigued by Judas, and never felt he was rightly understood somehow. And Brian unlocks some things about this much maligned disciple that rang true for me – and convicted me at the same time. He talks of both Judas and Jesus in Gethsemane, each in turn, and I was rapt the entire time. His final declaration of the Gospel message in light of these two men just had me on my feet, pumping my fists, shouting YES, YES, YES!
The other sermon that moved me to tears, multiple times, was preached by Jonathan Martin. He is currently offering a series called SEEN: through the eyes of women in the gospels, and his own seeing of these women (and men) is masterful, insightful and so tender. The first sermon is The Woman at the Well. I cried through this sermon and sent it to several friends – who also cried through the sermon. I recommend you start with this one, but then listen to all the others because Jonathan captures something about the women and men around Jesus that I find so refreshing and personally restorative.
Wells… I’ve been into wells this month, too. My sisters at SheLoves Magazine raised over $12,000 in under 2 weeks for a well in Bubanza, Burundi (read about it here). Bubanza is a community of over 660 families who Claude and I work alongside, offering community development skills to their hopes and hard work so we can renovate their neighborhood. For so long they’ve wanted water – a well. This is the year… more than one well for such a large community, wells enough for them and for them to share with their entire neighborhood! So the first well came on line in February… clean water for my friends. Claude emailed me pictures of kids showering and swimming in water and I just lost it… creating a well of tears in the middle of Starbucks. God still brings water to the dry places, He still transforms landscapes and lives with His tangible goodness!
I’m also into my husband this month… seriously! I’m into him every month, but this month he blew me away with his capacity to work tirelessly on behalf of others and bring about change to families that is good news TODAY. The central market burned down in Burundi – and he worked 18 hour days to get all our clients back into the economy with bridge loans, training sessions, home visits and other strategies to ensure no one was left out. He advocated for the 300 mamas who lost everything in that market, going to each bank and business leader to implore them to stand by these women, their neighbors. And then he helped these business leaders give to keep the mamas in business – so they, as high risk borrowers, could also get back into the local economy with the support of their community.
And amid all this he shepherded our friends through their first funeral in Matara. And he make his way up to Bubanza to celebrate the first well… and select the location for the next one (because SheLoves sisters get things done…).
And I am in awe of this man who never wants to be up front, who just wants people to have a chance at the good news Jesus promised. In the month of February little Burundi has been hit hard with loss. But then God lavishes love – women who rally to provide a well, and a man willing to pour out all his earthly energy to see people back on their feet, back in the economy. And I know that my love for my Valentine grew this month…
So that’s what I’ve been into, friends!
{ I’m linking up with Hopeful Leigh… join us and share what you’ve been into! }
What a beautiful {and very accurate} description of Claude! “A man willing to pour out all his earthly energy to see people back on their feet…” Love this!!
Your “What I’m Into” post puts me to shame it’s so good. I think you need to add a “Guilty Pleasures” section here so that everyone knows about your love for Gunner and Scarlett’s songs and Nashville. 😉
Even though I’m not participating in #transitlounge, I enjoyed reading people’s tweets. It sounds like you all got so much out of that book. I’m generally too antsy to listen to audio-anything but I’ve been wanting to listen to Jonathan’s sermons and that one by Brian sounds quite thought-provoking as well.
A hearty “eshet gibor!” to Claude for his tireless efforts.
Mark is my favorite gospel as well. Mark “spoke” to me at a very “lonely” time in my life. In Mark, I see Jesus over and over again saying – “hey – don’t cha get it?” And feeling how with out human understanding he must have felt at times. But your reflection rings with “community.” A reading community, a church community that reaches out over the internet, a community of money raisers who were challenged with a vision, a mission community, and a marriage partnership that opens arms wide and invites others in. And then this fb community. Thank you.
Tears … Just tears. Thank you for the privilege of doing life with you and Claude.