Aaron Snow :: Friends blog

HWJV -- How Would Jesus Vote?
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So near the end of the month we at Kairos Los Angeles we will be starting a series on Faith and Politics, two hot potatoes of our day.  And when you put the two in conversation or talk about them in the same breath, it is bound to generate some sparks.  For they both shape people's lives in profound ways.  I'm in the process of putting together a list of books that would be important to read, books that touch this topic in a thoughtful way.  I am writing this post to ask you for suggestions.  I went through my bookshelves to see what I already had on the topic, and here are some of the books that I found, in no particular order:

God's Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics by Stephen Carter
The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center by David P. Gushee
Christian Perspectives on Politics by J. Philip Wogaman
Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Wiliam H. Willimon
The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder
The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel by John Howard Yoder
The Original Revolution by John Howard Yoder
Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth by Lesslie Newbigin
A Private and Public Faith by William Stringfellow
An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land by William Stringfellow
Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World by John G. Stackhouse
The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America by Jim Wallis
Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw
The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church by Gregory A Boyd
Is Jesus a Republican or Democrat by Tony Compolo
Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World of Disorder by Richard A Horsley
Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life by Charles J. Chaput
The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World? by Ronald J. Sider

There are other books that speak to this issue in a chapter or two that I have, but what I wanted to ask you is which of these books have you found most helpful, (I have read a number of these, but I have not read them all yet) and what other books would you say are a must read for this topic?  I look forward to your response.

.cristaleira.
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A Read Exodus-shaped Redemption Leads to a Real Exodus-shaped Mission
This is the heart of the post that Scot McKnight at the Jesus Creed makes when he is summarizing Chris Wright's (The Mission of God) the second half of chapter 8.  If you want a great short summary of how to avoid being just a spiritualizer or a politicizer, this post is rich, concise and helpful.

Using a Cultural Continuum
Jonathan Dodson at Creation Project has a great short post summarizing a way for us to engage culture "avoiding the fundamentalist and liberal polarizations." It's worth your read.

Bonhoeffer on the Task of the Preacher
Ben Myers at Faith and Theology gives us a thoughtful quote from Bonhoeffer's book Discipleship and the role of the preacher.  For those of you who communicate regularly, even for those of you who don't, it's worth your read.

While the first six verses of this Psalm focuses on: God Knows All About Me, the second set of six verses focuses on: God Accompanies Us Everywhere.  Not only does He know us intimately, but is is present no matter where we happen to be.  Listen to how David puts it.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

John Ortberg talks about this guy by the name of Nicholas Herman who worked in the food industry as a short order cook and bottle-washer.  He became deeply dissatisfied with his life; he worried chronically about himself, even whether or not he was a Christian.

One day Nick was looking at a tree, and it struck him, the secret of the life of a tree is that it remains rooted in something other and deeper than itself.  He decided to make his life an experiment in what he called a “habitual, silent, secret conversation of the soul with God.”

He is known today by the new name given to him by his friends: Brother Lawrence.  He remained obscure throughout his life.  He never got voted pope.  He never got close to becoming the CEO of his organization.  He stayed in the kitchen.  But the people around him found that rivers of living water flowed out of him that made them want to know God the way he did.  They said about him, “The good brother found God everywhere.”  One of them wrote, he found God “as much as while he was repairing shoes as while he was praying with the community.” 

After Lawrence died, his friends put together a book of his letters and conversations.  It is called Practicing the Presence of God and is thought, apart from the Bible, to be the most widely read book of the last four centuries.  This monastic short-order cook has probably out-sold novelist John Grisham and Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling put together.

Hildebert of Lavardin who lived in the 11th century wrote, “God is over all things, under all things, outside all; within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding, wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly without, embracing, wholly within filling.”

So because God is present no matter where we are, when I am lonely, God is my companion, when I’m feeling inadequate, God is my confidence.  When I’m tempted, God is my counselor and when I’m discouraged, God is my comforter, if I learn to be more attentive to His presence.

There are many ways to be more attentive to His presence, one is to simply be still and know He is God by taking times in silence and solitude.  Blasé Pascal said, most of man’s problems come from his inability to sit still.  So take some time just to be quit, to sit in silence.

One of the practices that I have taken up and occasionally do with our staff is an adaptation of a practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola.  This practice involves meeting God in the events of life.  St. Ignatius had a five step process that one author broke down into just three simple steps: Stop, look and listen.

STOP
Stopping is simply taking the time to slow down.  We all often go as such a fast past and I think we just need to take a deep breath, and sit before God.  Just steep ourselves in God reality.  Sometimes simply breathing helps.  Sometimes I breathe in and say, Christ have mercy, and breathe out and say God have mercy.  But to stop is simple to put ourselves before God, remove ourselves from any distractions.

LOOK
Then we want to look.  We want to take a look at the last week or the last twenty-four hours.  Look at God’s initiative, his provisions.  We often miss what God is doing.  C.S. Lewis says, God is often incognito.  So you take some time to look at what God is doing around you.

LISTEN
After taking a five minutes or so to look at your life, and examine what God is doing, I start listen.  I try to sense what the Spirit has to say to me.  Sometimes I feel a slight nudging of the Spirit, other times I feel as if the Spirit brings a verse or passage to my mind, sometimes it is something strong.  But after taking a period of time where I stop, and then look at my life, I take some time to listen.  Stop, Look and Listen.

This is an extremely rich resource for spending time with God and enabling us discern His presence in our daily experience.  As one person has stated, “Life keeps happening.  Changing situations – some desirable and others definitely less so – provide important opportunities to better know both God and our self.  Each gives us a chance to examine where God is in that experience and what gifts God is offering for our growth.

What this exercise helps me to is to meet God in the concrete circumstances of life.  I like how Paul Stevens puts it, “If God has come in the flesh, and if God keeps coming to us in our fleshly existence, then all of life is shot through with meaning.  Earth is crammed with heaven.  Nothing is wasted.  Nothing is lost.  Nothing secular. Nothing absurd… All are grist for the mill of a down-to-earth spirituality.

You see, the omnipresent God whose name is Immanuel is not distant but nearer to us than we can imagine.  God is not alien to the circumstances of our lives, but comes to us in them.  Our challenge is to unmask the Divine in the natural and name the presence of God in our lives.