The art of not ducking the responsibility and joy of obedience

A brief quote.

"We have listened to the Sermon on the Mount and perhaps have understood it.

But who has heard it aright?

Jesus gives the answer at the end (Matt. 7:24 – 29).

He does not allow his hearers to go away and make of his sayings what they will, picking and choosing from them whatever they find helpful and testing them to see if they work.

He does not give them free rein to misuse his word with their mercenary hands, but gives it to them on condition that it retains exclusive power over them.

Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways.

Jesus knows only one possibility:

... simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it.

That is the only way to hear his word. He does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with it."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (from the opening of Eberhard Arnolds book "Salt and Light". Download the free e-book here!)

Burma

Recent events in Burma will not have escaped You I´m sure!

General Than Shwe`s government decided on the 15:th of august to increase the price of fuel... big time!
Petrol and diesel prices doubled and the price for compressed gas used to power public transportation buses increased fivefold!

Public transportation prices rose inevetably...
A grim knock-on/domino effect also upped prices for rice and cooking oil...
The cost of living in an allready poor country now not only grazed the border of the absurd, it crossed it!

People were pissed off, obviously, and on the 18:th of august main city Rangoon saw the first protest march which numered 400! The largest demonstration in the military regime for nearly twenty years!
More demonstrations followed and also the inevitable quelling of protests from the regime with police arrests.

However, demonstrations continued on a smaller scale throughout the country. After a peaceful rally was broken up by force on the 5:th of september and a small number of buddhist monks were hurt the monks began participating in large numbers, effectively making them the moral leadership of the growing protests against the regime.

Lately the violence against the protesters has increased and the ugly face of oppression and brute force has uncovered itself... it is an ugly one!
Also, the five main monasteries have now all been sealed off in an attempt to quench the leadership of the clergy and diminish the thrust of the protests aiming to "wipe the military dictatorship from the land of Burma".


What are we seeing here?

Violence! Batons cracking heads, bullets fired from close range at japanese journalists, monks taken hostage and beaten.

Oppresive action! The increasing prescense of miltary forces, sealing off monasteries, scare tactics, firing bullets over head and dawn to dusk curfews... not to mention the price increase that started everything!

No one ever said that peacemaking or marching o the streets for justice would get you friends in high places!

The longing for freedom and the peacful marching of people in protest can create nothing but unrest for the Burmese government because it threatens the status quo that it wants but ultimately can never have. The government knows this and acts/reacts accordingly... grabbing hold of what it thinks it owns with the means of guns, threat and censorship.

This is one true face of evil...

Also: What the monks have shown us is in many ways (part from the odd way of taking government officials hostage on one occasion!) the essence of what moral leadership is - Its about leading the way through action and practice. In this case by heading up the demonstrations and displaying the cost of freedom and justice with their own wounds!

That sounds familiar.

Who made that example with his own life?
Who made that the ultimate way of life and action for anyone where justice and freedom is lacking and violence and oppressive action are commonplace?

It´s a bit odd that buddhist monks (my prejudice was that they were "politically" passive!) and ordinary burmese people in the midst of a violent crisis so powerfully reminds me of the way of Jesus.

Yes, a bit odd, but their courage energizes me!

And...

Tonight, presenting the third night of the KOPAFestival, I´ll be wearing red!

Than Shwe! The world is watching!

Dr King said it well

"... My ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that He died for them...There will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries..."

Some core sentences from Dr Martin Luther Kings speech on why he was opposed to the Vietnam-war! It is almost 40 years old and has its context in the USA, but still speaks straight in to any conflict of man on any scale with painful truth and clarity.
Hearing Dr Kings confession of foundation and point of reference for action, I can be nothing but astonished and humbled.

And only one thing can be suggested for action wherever there is violence, opposition and war.

Not the politics of neutrality or flip-floping
Not the agressive politics of war.

... But only the costly embrace of the enemy and the recognition of their brokeness. The embrace of the soldier, the bully, he/she who is a thorn in your side, the strangers whom we demonize...

This is love

The urging to love our enemies is not about gaining a sentimental affection to people we don´t like - or even hate. It is an urging to be like Jesus, to embrace his vocation and to walk the walk of life His way.

Offer to serve your enemy!

Dr King knew this and he embraced it and faced pain of his own.
Being a follower of Jesus, he counted that as a privilege.

I hope I can someday reach that maturity as a man.

More Bergman and cocoa related hope

Some more on the passing of Ingmar Bergman and the Italian moviemaker Michelangelo Antonioni. Read Gareth Higgins blog on God´s politics that deals with spiritual growth and artistic expressions while musing on the artistry of theese two movie icons.

Also: Being finally moved to action through experiencing the chasm between the raw deal for Ivorian cocoa farmers and the just rule of God (see a previous blog), me and some friends are moving towards some kind of microfinance enterprise in the Ivory Coast.

So please:

Pray for us to be able to sustain this idea into action.

Encourage us to do it. Urge us even...

Cocoa related hope

This morning i saw a short documentary on BBC World called "Bittersweet" . And it did indeed leave me with just that mixed taste in my mouth.

The short recap of it is this:

The Ivory Coast is the single largest export country for cocoa beans in the world. The demand for cocoa products has steadily increased since the 80:s but the money paid to the farmers has stayed the same thus creating a huge gap between demand and salary. With increasing demand, cocoa farmers are getting poorer and the working conditions are getting worse - many working for minimum or no wages and many are child laborers forced to work and away from school to support their families. In 2003 there was approximately 103.000 child laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in what has been described as the worst form of child labour.

In 2001 a bill was passed in the US congress obliging the chocolate industry not to use child slave labour in the process of harvesting cocoa beans. The result has so far been poor or none.

About the mixed taste then:

A bitter taste - coming from the (in many ways unvoluntary!?) sad numbness of the big corporation (Nestlé ,Cargill) ceo:s and the middle men (those who buy and sell the unrefined product), the hunger for profit disregarding the suffering of others (minimum or no-wage workers in the cocoa plantations) and the fact that I, as a consumer, for so many years never realised that my sweet tooth was being pleased by and through someone elses slave like labour.

This, using the language of theology, is - evil!

It is proof of a broken world

More on taste now:

A sweet taste - from the fact that there are congressmen and faitrade company ceo:s that want to make a change even if it will end up doubling the retail prices for our favourite Twix-bars and M&M:s. A sweet taste also from the fact that my knowledge of who my "neighbour" is allows me to participate in a change. A change and an activity (You might even say way of life) that Jesus calls "The rule of God" . (or The Kingdom of God/heaven)

This rule is about justice.

The kind of justice that operates on behalf of the poor and powerless (or slave-laborers on cocoa plantations) and opposes the numbness and greed that put them into that kind of life. This justice - and the way of life it is significant of - creates an opportunity for me and you to buy chocolate (or tea, coffee, rice, sugar, fruit, clothes etc) that provides decent wages, decent education and freedom to people that are now on minimum or no-wage and risk staying there the rest of their lives.

However, we might think of an opportunity as something that we make a buck out of rather than ending up paying doubled prices for our favourite choc-bars.

It´s a matter of identity.

Jesus speaks about neighbour love, and when he does that his focus is not on me (suprise?). It´s on my neighbour and on how God sees him/her. I can only be my true self if I stop "reflecting on me" first, and instead take on the identity of a generous, neighbour-loving God and see to my neighbours needs.

So who is my neighbour in a globalized world, a glocal village?

If God´s rule is about justice, then I´m pretty sure one of my neighbours must be that 10 year old boy harvesting cocoa beans for no wage, missing out on a proper education.
My opportunity then, to promote the just rule of God (read: In this case decent wages, educational possibilities etc) is to stop and to start!

Stop buying stuff that is not fairly and ethically traded!
Start buying stuff that is fairly and etichally traded and start looking for opportunities to promote justice in your global neighbourhood. Why not write some letters to the ceo:s of Nestlé and Cargill?

Those are the basics!

Basics folks...

Further steps might include:

Getting your group of close friends, your church or company to start or support microfinance enterprises. Taking a decision (and this is "mandatory" for churches only...) on spending 50% of your money on work among, and on behalf of, the poor and powerless in and outside of your local community.
Actually it seems that the church of the first two centuries largely did that in one way or another ... well actually they seem to have spent far more than 50%, but let´s start somewhere managable shall we?

You can find a Global Exchange document on the situation in The Ivory Coast, on child labour, fairtrade and the chocolate industry here.

Politics of terror and politics of peace

As Mr Tony Blair now officially has resigned from his position as british prime minister and Gordon Brown has stepped in, I feel an urge to restate some thoughts published on this blog in early may. The questions posed there seem all the more urgent regarding the terror-related events of late in britain.

Read the blog here

Some questions on life-legacy, faith and politics for Mr Tony Blair

Tony Blair has announced that his resignation day as prime minister for the UK will be june 27:th. Being one of the most recognised world leaders of the last decade, he will naturally leave a legacy for the political world to ponder on for some time. BBC news political reporter Brian Wheeler has written a short "story of Tony Blair" on the BBC news homepage where Blairs personal history and legacy are at front.

Reading the story made me think about the issues of legacy and history and the cutting edge of faith and politics. (Blair being fairly open with his confession of christian faith). What kind of legacy do I want to leave? How would I want people to describe the way I lived my life in retrospect? The article also leaves me with the desire to ask mr Blair some questions.
Wheeler writes the following on Blairs years in Oxford training to be a barrister. Years profoudly shaping his future outlook on politics and life.

"... Blair was also developing a more thoughtful side. He began to talk about left wing politics and, unusually for the times, became increasingly serious about his Christian faith, taking confirmation classes... In his first year at the university, he befriended an Australian priest, Peter Thompson, with whom he would debate social issues and theology late into the night. Blair later credited Thompson with awakening in him an interest in Christian socialism, and a desire for social change."

What questions would I ask mr Blair? Many, but at least theese four:

- Did you often experience the tension between the politics of Jesus (i.e: peacemaking, radical criticism of traditional expressions of power replacing them with non-coercive and serving leadership) and your "responsibility" for the society to be stable and for keeping the public happy?

- Did you reflect, during the 9/11 crisis and the following "war on terror", on how (or if) a radical obedience to this Jesus (whom I suppose you, being a christian, confess as Lord) could have shaped your political actions in a deeper way?

- Did you and mr Bush discuss or even agonize over the apparent tension between Jesus radical and activist pacifism, the call to his disciples to be peacemakers and the politics of power and violence finally being your means of "positive change" in Iraq?

- What issues of social change would you derive as most directly coming out of You being a follower of Jesus?

No easy questions. No easy answers, as so often in life.

Ben Parker, the uncle of Peter Parker (aka. Spiderman) said it right and well: "With great power comes great responsibility".
I guess no matter who you are, or what your profession is (Including prime minister of the UK) this would be true: If you are a follower of Jesus he has to be the first and greatest authority in your life. The greatest responsibility for any one man (or woman) is to be faithful in life and practice to him! I hope mr Blair has reflected on this and wrestled with its implications often during his tenure at Downing street 10. I hope he will continue to do so as his position of power in this world changes.

Best of luck mr Blair... and mr Brown!

A post-christian story

Due to an official complaint from a secular humanist, all bibles in the rooms of Scandic Hotels (affiliated to Hilton Hotels) are to be removed as they "obviously" flag an inapropriately intolerant wiev towards guests that are not "christian" (Jews, moslems, secular humanists etc). This has already started a debate in Sweden, and many christians have, in various ways, responded to this action. Most of the stuff i´ve seen seem to have at least some root in a fear of loosing what you might call "a witness of the christian faith" in the Scandic Hotels, or you might say a fear of loosing even more foothold in an increasingly secular society.

Mr Olle Nordahl, Swedish head of the Gideonites who provide Scandic (and other) hotels with the bibles says; (from an independent translation) "We distribute Bibles because we know people are helped by it. People find comfort and support by reading the Bible... It's the spontaneous reading of the Bible in one's darkest hour that helps the most"

Just a thought; What if the distinct "witness of christian faith" needed in a post-christian society has a more practical nature than just reading, and a slightly less inwardly therapeutic nature than finding comfort?
What if the gideonites (or by all means any christian group) would just pull up their sleeves, march on up to their nearest Scandic hotel and make an offer to clean each and every toilet seat in the facilities... for free? If people then ask why they do this they might invite them to borrow one of the bibles available in the reception desk (they will be allowed there!) and look up the story of Jesus and his disciples... or just share how that story connects to the story of the gideonites (or any christan group) who clean up filthy toilet seats for free.