First you'll laugh...then become slightly uncomfortable. I sure did.

Could it really be said any better?

(Click on the picture to see a larger copy.)



(Much thanks to Lucas for pointing out this gem from the Corner.)

Tomorrow, Sunday January 21, is Jubilee Sunday. Christians around the world are asked to pray for an end to global poverty. Local churches will undoubtedly read from Luke 4:14-21, a key Jubilee scripture in which Jesus declares a jubilee or "year of the Lord's favor" by proclaiming God's liberation for all oppressed and impoverished people.

And some, if they really want to stir things up will read from Leviticus 25, which is God's instructions to the Israelites regarding the Sabbath and Jubilee Years. In this passage, God requires his people to not only observe one day of a year for prayer. Nay, he calls for his people to regularly devote whole years to give rest to the land, release men from debt, give the poor man his land back if he lost it, and to allow the indebted servant to return to his family.

Seems that God asks for more from us than one Sunday a year of prayer for the poor. He asks for years of our lives. And it also seems that the Leviticus passage calls for more than prayer. It calls for action.

I'm ashamed to even consider how much of my life I've devoted to the poor. To proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

As Jubilee Sunday approaches and we're asked to pray, I can't help but think of what I've actually done. What are my acts that bring jubilee to the poor around me?

Some final thoughts:

Across the country, our homeless brothers and sisters have had to endure the same winter storms that we have. While families look forward to such times that may indicate days off of school and work, the homeless (who would no doubt cherish those very jobs) are usually stuck outside in those conditions as shelters fill up to capacity quickly. What can we do with our warm homes, complete with guest bedrooms, fold-out couches, and closets full of coats?

Our Congress is constantly faced with the issue of the poor and the refugees around the globe. 1 in 5 people in the world live off of less than $1/day. In Africa, millions are forced to flee from their homes or risk being victims of genocide. What are we as a literate people capable of and what can we do as a people responsible for the very congressperson representing us today?

We're grateful for our days here in Virginia that have given us due rest and time with loved ones. Since arriving here 3 weeks ago, we've also been encouraged by responses from friends and family as we seek to reach our budget for our move to Central Asia.

Faith and I are excited because we've been able to meet all of our one-time expenses! This includes costs like air-travel, visas, setting up a house, etc.

Now we're focused on meeting our monthly expenses. Currently, we still need $700 of monthly pledges before we'll be permitted to move and join the Central Asia Harvest Project. Our original departure date was set for mid-February, however if we aren't able to meet the final $700/monthly then the date will be pushed back.

If you're interested in partnering with us in prayer and/or financial support, please contact me. You can also begin a pledge online by going here. (If you commit online, please indicate in the "comments" box that the pledge is for Aaron and Faith Dowdy.)

Many of you have seen Silas, a.k.a 'The Gargantuan Son' lately in all of his mass. However, if you haven't or if you simply want to see what this not-so-little guy is up to these days, check out this video!

My friend Lucas posted an intriguing article by thinker and people-lover Shaine Claiborne entitled: "Grace is hard to communicate with a noose". The posting was due, of course, to the recent execution of Saddam Hussein.

Throughout the weeks leading up to and during Hussein's hanging, I couldn't help but feel uneasy...uncomfortable. Sure Hussein was guilty of horrible atrocities and needed to be held accountable. And even though I've always been oppposed to capital punishment, I didn't think the idea of Hussein's execution would phase me. Then it came time to happen. And as the days and hours drew near for his death, the more I realized that I couldn't allow myself to agree with this capital punishment either.

Unfortunately, I remained regretfully silent these past weeks over the matter. And I've found myself feeling "dirty" (as McLaren puts it.) To learn something and become a voice of love out of this matter is what I pray for. So that hopefully it may become "redemptive dirtiness".

I've posted Claiborne's and McLaren's articles below. PLEASE take the time to read them.

From Shaine Claiborne:

The gospels tell the story of a group of people who have dragged forward an adulteress and are ready to stone her (this was the legal consequence). Jesus is asked for his support of this death penalty case. His response is this... "You are all adulterers. If you have looked at someone lustfully, you have committed adultery in your heart." And the people drop their stones and walk away with their heads bowed. We want to kill the murderers, and Jesus says to us: "You are all murderers. If you have called your neighbor 'Raca, Fool' you are guilty of murder in your heart." Again the stones drop. We are all murderers and adulterers and terrorists. And we are all precious.

When we have new eyes we can look into the faces of those we don't even like, and see the One we love. We can see God's image in everyone we encounter. As Henri Nouwen puts it: "In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hands. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile." We are made of the same dust. We cry the same tears. No one is beyond redemption and no one is beyond repute. And that is when we are free to imagine a revolution that sets both the oppressed and the oppressors free. The world is starving for grace. And grace is hard to communicate with a noose.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Brian McLaren: How Does Saddam's Execution Make You Feel?

I see little or no value to weighing in on the subject of capital punishment. People have their opinions and relatively few seem interested in changing them. But I would like to express in personal terms how I felt after the news coverage of Saddam Hussein's hanging. I'd like to share it especially for those who support executions, not to change their opinion necessarily, but simply to make a request of them.

The best word to describe my feeling: dirty.

I felt the same way when the "Shock and Awe" campaign was launched on Baghdad. I thought of all the little children cowering in closets and under beds, feeling (I imagine) that the whole world was coming to an end. I imagined them tearfully asking their moms and dads why this was happening and who was doing this to them, and them answering, "The United States." I felt embarrassed, ashamed, and polluted to be party to frightening innocent people, much less killing them as collateral damage. I thought of how similar "shock and awe" are to "terror," and because I don't want to terrorize anybody, those bombs didn't speak for me. And yet, against my will they did, and I felt dirty.

I know that Saddam was in no way innocent. I know he deserved to be held accountable for his disregard for human rights, for human life. But even if I supported capital punishment, I think I would still have felt dirty. Perhaps I'm too morally thin-skinned, but taking the human life of a person in the name of human life brings no sense of justice or satisfaction to me. Rather, it brings the opposite.

Others see it differently, I know. Some might use Bible verses to justify "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life" (although Jesus seemed to put a rather authoritative spin on those verses, preceding them with "You have heard it said," and following them up with "But I say to you..."). Whether executions are justified or ot, I feel dirty and ashamed whenever I hear of an execution, and Saddam's was no different. I hope I don't ever stop feeling that way.

I have friends who have become sexual addicts. They tell me the first time they cheated on their spouses, they felt terrible. But somehow they survived, and the next time, they still felt bad, but a little less so. By the twentieth time or the fiftieth time, they felt the tiniest pang of guilt, nothing much, really. Cheating became easy. The same thing happens with liars and spouse abusers and other addicts.

We've all seen similar patterns in our own lives. We become desensitized to things we shouldn't, and as that happens, we are in such great danger of becoming worse people than we ever imagined being, ever wanted to be.

So, if you felt as I did after the execution of Saddam Hussein, dirty, I wouldn't dismiss the feeling. I would say that it might be a redemptive dirtiness, and without it, I am afraid of what we could become.

The forecast for today for our village in Central Asia is for the low to be 8 degrees. Here in Virginia we'll be in the 50's today and 70's by the end of the week. My brother and I played soccer the other day in shorts and t-shirts!

As extreme as the weather sounds for our friends abroad, that's actually quite average for this time of year. Winter lasts for several months, and the wind can be quite bitter.

Nonetheless, pray for the "YOU" people during this time of year, as they rely on limitied supplies of coal for heat while sleeping on the cold, hard floor of their houses.

Continue praying for us as we seek to have our budget raised within the next few weeks. We're still several hundred dollars away but expect God to provide supporters (maybe you?) to join us as we seek to live with, serve, and love the YOU people.

The photos below were taken from our village during the winter. Enjoy!