My Influences right now

This is a big one. I opened a lot of books this week. A lot. I'll probably be parking on all of these books for a while, at least until the end of the Sermon on the Mount in two more weeks.

This has been quite a week. Matthew chapter five is wrecking me. It's wrecking me good.

I'm very challenged by these very familiar passages. I've never been so challenged by them in my life.

What's amazing is that as I read, I also keep being confronted with stories of other people who seem to be living it out. It's encouraging, and it's radical. Really.

2 examples

Kat Cardinal

Just read her most recent blog entry.

Now read the one before it.

John Bergen

This is more of a story than I can tell right now.

I was in the middle of seriously meditating on forgiveness as revealed by Jesus yesterday morning.

The phone rang. It was a guy I'd never met before, calling from Phoenix Arizona. He was calling to raise money for an orphanage he's involved in building in Kenya. He called me because I'm a pastor, and I am on pastor phone directories.

I was friendly. I started asking him about himself. Very slowly, he began telling me his story. He was beaten severely by gang members in Kenya and left for dead. While he was being beaten, his wife was being raped. A year and a half later, after praying for the salvation of their attackers for that entire time, they had their first opportunity to meet with their attackers without interruption, mediators, or legal complication. They visited them in prison to tell them they were forgiven, and to share Jesus with them.

You can read their story here, or here, or watch it here, or just google his name.

I didn't read these articles until after our conversation. And he was so humble, too. He was just a brother talking to a brother. There are things told in these news stories that he didn't say. He said very little about the attack to me. He said a lot about Jesus and forgiveness.

What does it mean to love your enemies, friend? To forgive them?

"If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." - Jesus, from Matthew 5:41-44

See? Wrecked.

So. My influences.

Matthew 5 - I meant to read Matthew 1-4 this week, but I just didn't get to it. I just read Matthew 5. A lot. Every day. All the time.

Matthew 5-7 - I read through and considered the Sermon on the Mount this week in preparation for the next three weeks of sermons. I'll study them again in greater depth next week.

I read a lot of books about discipleship, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Sermon on the Mount this week.

The NIV Application Commentary - Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins - Every month my church (that's you guys) buys me a book. This was my book for February. This monster is awesome. I'm definitely taking it slowly, and writing a lot of notes as I go. This commentary is informing my sermon preparation for sure, but is also a part of my in-depth study through the book of Matthew right now.

My complaint about this book so far is that, like most contemporary commentaries, when it comes to application, it's very "nice". After reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and talking to John Bergen, the applications of Matthew 5 in this commentary seemed pretty weak. Matthew 5 is radical. This commentary is not. But when it comes to a thorough and well researched (and well documented) explanation of the original culture and context, it's great.

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer - I love this book. I love this author. If I was going to recommend only three Christian authors that anyone, Christian or not should read, Bonhoeffer would be one. He is so challenging and so real. As much as I love C.S. Lewis, he never had what he believed tested like Bonhoeffer did. Bonhoeffer writes in this book, "when Christ calls a man he bids him come and die". Strong words from a man who was put to death by the Nazis for his resistance, and his part in an attempt to assassinate Hitler.

The second part of this book is fifteen chapters on the Sermon on the Mount, split into sections for each chapter of Jesus' oratory. This is the part of the book I read this week, and I'll reread each relevant section every week until we're through this section of Matthew as a church.

Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw - I wish I had more time to write about this book. Even though this is in the middle of this entry, it's one of the last things I'm writing. This book was an essential resource for helping me understand the parts of Matthew 5 about "turn the other cheek". This is also true of the chapter 5 of

The Powers that Be by Walter Wink, which is where a lot of Shane Claiborne's material came from. I haven't finished either of these books yet.

This week, an anarchist gave me money (cash - just pulled out his wallet and gave it to me) to buy one of these books. That was cool. Thanks to Aaron Brink for the one's I'm currently borrowing.

NIV Study Bible - I forgot to mention this last week. This is a great resource. This is where I found out about the disciples singing Psalm 118 at the last Supper in last week's message.

Esword - This free electronic Bible program helped me in my study and understanding of the greek word for "resist". This was essential to understanding Matthew 5.

This Beautiful Mess - I finished this boom this week. It's by Rick Mckinley, pastor of Imago Dei Church in Seattle. It's a conversational and devotional type book about the kingdom of heaven.

The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy - This book is a translation of course (from Russian), just like Bonhoeffer's (from German). Translations can be tricky sometimes, but I recommend trying it even if only fr the mental exercise. For any Christian who regularly reads the Bible (which any Christian should) I would strongly recommend reading a translated book to help increase understanding of translations generally. The Bible is a translated book, in both language and culture. As soon as any book is removed from its' original cultural and language context, it must be read a little differently to be fully understood. The author of a translated book is usually writing to a different people group, often from a different time, usually with a very different worldview. Reading translated books helps teach the reader to interpret critically and correctly.

This is the first Tolstoy book I've ever tried to read from cover to cover. Kate likes Russian authors, and has read a lot more Tolstoy than me. She's an intellectual. And she's a good kisser. This book is Tolatoy's interpretations of Jesus' teachings about the kingdom of god, especially in their political implications. It was a big influence on Ghandi's philosophies of nonviolent resistance and a reason why Ghandi liked Jesus as much as he did.

Loren Stark - Kate and I met this seasoned pastor and his wife a couple of years ago in Vancouver. They gave us a place to stay while we were visiting for my dad's funeral. We connected through L'Arche. It turns out that they know the mysterious lady that Joel Short is seeing. She is also with L'Arche.

Loren has been preaching through Matthew 5 since September. One chapter. He sent me the notes for his first two messages this week.

Gandhi (film) - Kate and I watched this excellent film this week. I have so much to say about it, that I'll put it in a different post.

Music I listened to that made an impact this week, but I don't have time to write about:

Larry Norman - Bootleg
Chumbawamba - The Boy Bands Have Won
Thrice - Empire (a song)

TV I wasted time watching. Not to say it's always a waste of time. These were just bad:

Community (episode- "Intro to Political Science") - This is a good show. This is a bad episode. Don't watch this episode.

Smallville (episode- "Fortune") - This is a bad show. Don't watch this show.