The past few weeks at Imago Dei Community (it’s the church I go to) we have been looking at what it means to leave the Empire—that empire being the system of caesar, the governments, economies and rulers of this world (also America.) The idea of subverting empire is a relatively new concept to me. I grew up in a church that said to submit to the authorities and I always felt like there was something wrong with that, maybe because the authorities were the ones who kicked me out of sweet skate spots. “Come one, it’s just a handrail!” I would yell, and then take off with my middle finger in the air. However, within this system of Christianity was an unspoken, indirect idea to worship ceasar and his system over the way of Jesus. That system includes the myth of redemptive violence, the lust of consumerism and the idea of individual success which, by the way, happens to be killing our communities and souls. So the past year I have been learning what it means to subvert the empire.
My unknowing mentors in this area have been the Jesus Radicals (Jesusradicals.com,) a group of Christian Anarchists, yeah you heard right. The guys at Free Jesus.com, who are a bunch of socialist Christians dedicated to freeing the Jesus from the misconstrued minds of the right wing, as well as the Ordinary Radicals (theordinaryradicals.com,) made up of Shane Claiborne and his fellow cohorts. I love these people and these ideas because it’s so punk-rock and rebellious, and makes me want to wear spiked leather belts and get more tattoos. Who knew Christianity was such a rebels sport? It feels more right to me, I mean if we really are going to take Jesus seriously.
So the next few blogs I would like to talk about what it means to truly follow Jesus, partly because I have no idea. I have always been an all or nothing sort of guy—either I’m going to follow Jesus and sell all my possessions or I’m getting drunk tonight! And having sex with some pretty girl in a yellow sundress.
2 comments:
Levi,
Great to see the link... but it's a little off, it's www.theordinaryradicals.com.
I can totally identify with what you're saying. But it's not necessarily "sell all of your possessions or nothing. There are a multiple models throughout the Bible on possessions and "stuff". Selling everything is just one of the models, But at the same time, all of the models do involve extreme sharing. Ron Sider's books cover a lot of this- specifically that there are different models for lifestyle and that selling everything isn't the only answer (he's the first interview of "The Ordinary Radicals").
Peace-
Ryan Paetzold
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"The Ordinary Radicals"
Thanks, man. Sorry about that. I just changed it. I love the film too, man.
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