Everyone's Talking Revolution

So good friend Oense said to me over Christmas “You need to read this book.” You need to understand the Oense reads a freaking ridiculous amount of books. I slog away through one book a month, and he has three or four book on the go every month. And he remembers what he reads! Who does that? So he hands me “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne. I decide that I do not have time to read this book. I don’t have time for a revolution.

Last week Wednesday I arrive at school and Oense says “Shane Claiborne is speaking in Langley, we are going to listen to him.” Sweet. Road trip. So we head to Langley. We get to the place Shane is speaking and I say “Should we sit up top or down low?” This seemed reasonable to me. Oense has other plans: “Neither, over there, we’re going to sit next to him,” pointing to someone I’ve never seen. We walk over to this mangy haired, goatee bearing, hiking boot wearing hippee. “Hi, I’m Shane” he says. Sweet. I suddenly liked the way this is heading.

We sit and listen as he basically tells us why his life was transformed from being a Christian to a Christ-following ordinary radical (there is no way I can really justify what he said in this space). It seems to come down to reading the gospels and realizing that we have domesticated Jesus to meet the standards of Western Culture. He was looking for more and he went in search of a Jesus he never knew. He shared stories of spending time on a Christian Peacemakers team in Iraq, working with Mother Theresa (“Momma T”) in Calcutta, and getting arrested in Philadelphia a few times as he tries to advocate for the poor (one thought: "charity is giving things to the poor; justice is getting to know the poor). I went back with my nephew the second day and listened to him again. This was where things got a little weird.

As I’m sitting there on day two, another friend, Josh, comes up to me and says “What are you doing after this?” Well, it was a sweet snow day from school so the agenda was wide open (not totally true, I needed a reason not to grade some assignments). “Sweet,” says Josh, “you and me are going to drive Shane Claiborne to the airport.” This I can do. I need to point out here that neither Josh nor I had ever met Shane before this week. In fact, 24 hours ago, all I knew was that he was the author of some book I was sure I was never going to read. I’m not sure how it all happened, but these things seem to happen when you hang out with Josh. I was quite sure Shane didn’t know my name, which I was totally cool with in case I said something really stupid. I was also quite sure that spending an hour in the car with him and just letting him talk was going to be worth every minute. And it was.

I now have finished reading “The Irresistible Revolution.” You need to read this book. And you need to check out “www.thesimpleway.org” and read more about what Shane and his community are doing. With all due respect, they are not normal. They take the gospel way too serious; it is very un-North American. As Oense said this week after listing to Shane speak, it is time for us to create a “New Year’s Revolution.” I think it might just be easier being a Christian.