we can do no great things, just small things with great love

I'm rewriting this last post because my abiguity has lead my father to believe I'm joining a free love, pot smoking, hippie commune and has caused my mother to do research on current cults in North America (ok I'm exaggerating, but the first thing my concerned mom said when I called her last night was, "Let me pass the phone to Dad, he wants to talk to you about your blog...").

Previously on Matt's blog...I wrote about The Simple Way, "a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless of Kensington, North Philadelpia". Something I ran across a couple days ago in an article by Christianity Today Magazine while at Mardel's, a mega-Christian bookstore in Lubbock that I normally avoid (I find a bigger, more beautiful and loving God in Barnes and Noble...and they have Starbucks).

I offered it as an alternative to the gospel "taught" by a lady in the Bible Translations section that day...While pretenting to read C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew I overheard her explaining to a group of people why the KJV is the only inspired Word of God..."The King James is the only translation that captures the true name of God...Yahvey (emphesizing the "v"). All the other translations use Yahweh, which is inaccurate... Revelations (something or other...can't remember the chapter and verse she took out of context) states that the Word of God is the name of God and if you don't have the name of God right, you don't have the Word of God right" and "Actually, (she started to wisper, I leaned closer discreetly turning pages in my book) Satan is in the other translations...this is His doing".

Everything in me wanted to throw my book at her, point my finger in her face, and scream at the top my lungs for every one in the store to hear, "No, you are frickin' Satan! And there is a special seat in Hell where you can read your poop of a translation King James Bible for all eternity." But I calmly walked away...my outburst would have only provided her more opportunity to lie. While fleeing from this King James fanatic, I found myself on the other side of the store, reading about a differant kind of radical, one closer to the likes of the name they both bear...Christ-ian.

Shane Claiborne (one of the six original people who started The Simple Way community) found himself as an "ordinary radical alienated from secular activism and disenchanted with Christian inactivism." He began a search to find a Christian...someone who was asking the same question he was..."What if Jesus meant the stuff he said?"...someone who was taking Him at His word. His "Christian-hunt" took him to Mother Teresa and the Missions of Charity in Calcutta and to Gandhiji Prem Nivas, a community of lepers in India. Reflecting on his journey, Shane says:

"I had gone to search for Christianity, hoping to find an old nun who believed Jesus meant what he said. And I found Christianity, but it didn't just belong to Mother Teresa...I did indeed see Christ in Mother Teresa, but I also found Christ in the lepers, the children, the destitute, the workers...and even began to recognize that Christ lives in me."

Dad, Mom...Despite a slight curiosity,I'm not looking to smoke weed...or to live on the streets and leave you with all my college debt. I just want to believe that Jesus meant what he said. I just want to find Him. And begin to recognize that He lives in me.

If anyone else is feeling this way too and has a day or two or seven free in December, let me know. I want to visit The Simple Way. You can read about it here...http://www.thesimpleway.org/. Let me know ASAP if you want to go. They like a week notice for visitors.

And if you want the article I found at Mardel's. Click on this: www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/009/16.38.html

"We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it" (Mother Teresa).