ordinary radicals

Last week, we had a special guest visit us for lunch one day...  Shane Claiborne was in the city speaking to a gathering of Canadian YFC staff, so we took a chance that he might be interested in our community and invited him over for lunch. Turns out he gets those kind of invites all the time, and genuinely enjoys seeing what other communities are up to.

So, Bren whipped up some bannock sandwiches and broccoli soup, and we all ate and chatted.  We asked him about sustainability, inspiration, and the content of internships at Simple Way.  He asked us about shared vehicles, exercise equipment, and using our artspace for community engagement.  (I had a good laugh when he snapped a photo of our van rules - he especially liked the $5 surcharge for leaving a mess in the shared vehicle... I guess my husband goes down to their place and leaves coffee cups all over their van too?!?)  We saw some really sweet pics of his lovely new wife and their wedding day in their neighborhood.  It was low key, helpful, and encouraging to be together.

A really inspiring part of the lunch was that 3 of the folks who were there shared with Shane that Irresistible Revolution - and other books he's written or contributed to - were part of the reason they were at Flatlanders at all. That his writing had shaped their decision to be part of living in community.  I was one of the three; I remember when I got my copy of Irresistible Revolution for Christmas one year and had it done by New Years Day.  I underlined things like:

• We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did.  We can applaud what he preached and stood up for without caring about the same things. (p. 113)  
• the nature of the kingdom of god has an ethic and economy that is diametrically opposed to those of the world (p. 104)
• Even though there is enough for everyone, greed and injustice will always create poor people in the land, so God teaches us personal responsibility to our poor neighbors... God systematically interrupts the human systems that create poverty. (p. 171)

Although we didn't expect otherwise, it turns out that Shane is just a regular guy who likes to eat lunch around noon time.  Imagine that; a very ordinary person doing radical things.....

This shot has nothing to do with lunch.  i just want to brag about getting better with the camera... this is fireworks from Canada Day at the Forks.