Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  I've had a number of other projects taking up time as well as less time to read with two growing boys at home.  Recently I read a book that had been on my "Books to Read" list for a while.  The Wisdom of Stability by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a tough book.  It's not a hard read, but the implications are very counter-cultural.

If you're not familiar with Wilson-Hartgrove, he is a leader in the New Monastic movement within the church.  At the beginning of the Iraq war he was a part of a Christian Peacemaker Team that was in Iraq to care for the victims of violence.  On their drive out of the country one of the vehicles had a serious accident.  Muslims from the town of Rutba cared for the injured Americans.  Rather than monetary compensation for caring for the wounded the people of Rutba asked them to tell people about the story.  Wilson-Hartgrove and others realized it was like the story of the Good Samaritan where the one who is supposed the be the enemy demonstrates love.  Upon their return to the U.S. Wilson-Hartgrove and his wife felt called to begin a community of people who would demonstrate radical hospitality to people as they had been shown in Rutba, Iraq.  Wilson-Hartgrove and his family now live with others in the Rutba House in Walltown in Durham, North Carolina where they attempt to welcome in the stranger and outcast.

The Wisdom of Stability draws on wisdom from the dessert fathers and mothers as well as other monastic groups who have dedicated themselves to living out the full implications of community and life together.  He talks about his own spiritual journey that began by trying to get away from his small town and change the world for Jesus.  This took him over seas to Iraq and other countries.  Eventually he felt God was leading him back to take up residence and seek the good of one place and work on changing his heart and the lives of those around him.  Wilson-Hartgrove suggests that one of the biggest temptations facing people today is to succeed and for young adults to get and education and go out into the world to make something of themselves at the expense of the place that raised them.  Drawing on the sayings of ancient and contemporary monastics, he calls the church to commit to a church and commit to a place for the long haul.  In chapter five he talks about the demons that tempt us to leave our communities or our local church.  He suggests ambition, boredom and vainglory (seeking our own interests) all tempt us to go somewhere else.  He talks throughout the book of what we can learn from being on the front porch of our homes (think of southern front porches with rocking chairs or sitting on the stoop in the city).  On the front porch we sit and listen to our neighbors hurts.  We tell stories about our shared history and community.  We fight with our neighbors and work at resolving conflict.  We move slowly.  Sometimes we see things change for the better; other times not.

This book is challenging.  Even in our churches we are driven to "succeed" often by worldly standards.  Do we have larger numbers of people?  Do we have great (and expensive) programs?  We don't often see people commit their lives to one place and one people and one church for a lifetime.  If we get mad or bored we go somewhere else where everything will be better (the grass is greener on the other side, right?).  As Wilson-Hartgrove says, "Choosing a spirituality that works for me is so much easier than dealing with the people who show up at the church in my neighborhood."  In the end he says some may be called to go to other places.  The Gospel does need to go out from a place to others who haven't heard.  It also needs to be retold and relived daily as we work at loving our neighbor and seeking the prosperity of the place God calls us to live.

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