Meeting Shane Claiborne

Tonight Angela and I went to see Shane Claiborne speak and chatted with him for a few minutes afterwards. If you don't know who Shane Claiborne is, he is the author of The Irrisistable Revolution and founder of the Simple Way, a ministry to the poor in North Philadelphia. His book is a must read. Really, it is.

Shane's talk was primarily what he talks about in his book. He is a little crazy, which you know if you have read his book. He started out by leading us in a blue grass song that the people in his community wrote. Here are the words:

Come now and join the feast,
From the greatest to the very least,
All are welcome at the feast,
here now in the belly of the beast.

To be honest, that pretty much sums up what he is all about. The words of the song are a snapshot of what his ministry is. There is a feast going on that he is inviting everyone to be a part of, and it is now. We are not holding out for heaven, but expect justice and victory now, on this earth, the enemy's territory.

He, of course went on to tell about his upbringing, how he was saved, how he befriended some homeless people in college who captured his heart, how he went to Calcutta India to work with Mother Theresa, how he traveled to Iraq in the wake of 9/11 to minister to the Iraqi people, and lots of other riveting stuff. I will write about that in the weeks to come. But ultimately, Shane is a normal guy who is living out the message of Jesus. It is amazing how he is the quintessential combination of a normal guy and the completely polar opposite of normal. It is what he calls an "ordinary radical."

Oh, how we need more people like him, being the hands and feet of Jesus in our world. May we reach out to the Calcuttas that are all around us, and may we be great lovers of people, "from the greatest to the very least." It is what God is calling us to do.