Justice Hangs By A Thread

“Justice is a garment, a billion threads, interwoven, interlocked, knit together with strength and integrity. Pull one thread from the fabric and the garment begins to fray. Pull ten million threads and justice unravels into injustice. The work of justice is to mend the holes injustice inflicts upon the garment…” from The Justice Conference website.

I’ve attended a lot of conferences and I’ve walked out of a lot of conference sessions because I found them boring or I was just tired of sitting in one place. But at the Justice Conference 2011 I attended every pre-conference workshop and every main session, and made good use of breaks and mealtimes to connect with other attendees and speakers. It wasn’t hard to fill each free moment with great conversation, given that over 1000 people showed up for this 2-day conference in the middle of nowhere. (My apologies to lovely Bend, Oregon, but you are pretty hard to get to!)

The next Justice Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon on February 24-25, 2012. I wouldn’t think of missing it! I’d show up just to hear Walter Brueggemann and Miroslav Volf. But they’re just the beginning; the speakers’ lineup includes Francis Chan, Ken Wytsma, Stephen Bauman, and Rick McKinely, just to name a few (and oh yeah, me). In pre-conference workshops and main sessions we’ll have the opportunity to explore subjects like Christian ethics, gender equality, genocide, the environment, immigration reform, human trafficking and the sex trade, conflict and hope in the Middle East, social entrepreneurship, and how to raise compassionate kids.

The conference is co-sponsored by World Relief, which is why I attended the event last year. I had previously been involved with World Relief’s ministry to immigrants in Chicago as well as their work against gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. World Relief’s passion and expertise, and the passion and creativity of young activists from Kilns College and Antioch Church, combined to create an extraordinary conference in 2011. I’m confident that the 2012 conference will be even better, offering a great opportunity for individuals or church groups to be educated about the gravest issues facing our world—and to be challenged to take next steps. One of the pre-conference workshops I attended at last year’s Justice Conference inspired me to write an article on human trafficking, so I know the power of this conference to move people to action!

Check out The Justice Conference and register today. See you next February.

Love Wins

No, I am not submitting a belated entry into the heated conversation about Rob Bell’s latest book. I haven’t read Love Wins, so it would be inappropriate for me to enter the conversation. I do know, however, that long before Rob wrote the book he preached a series of sermons by the same title. I didn’t hear the sermons, but my daughter and son-in-law happened to be on the staff of Rob’s church at that time, so I did end up with a LOVE WINS sticker, which has long been stuck on a wall in my office.

The photo above shows the sticker flanked by a collection of precious (to me) mementoes: a cross carved decades ago by my friend and mentor, Gilbert Bilezikian, while he served as a military medic in the deserts of Algeria; a paper-covered vase made over thirty years ago by my daughter when she was in preschool; a rock I picked up on a wind-swept beach in Ireland (yeah, I have a thing for rocks and a thing for Ireland); a mug I received in December from a Christian in Cairo who later raised her voice in protest in Tahrir Square; and an olivewood cup from which I drank communion wine in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.

The communion cup is the most recent addition to my collection of artifacts. I was at the Garden Tomb just weeks ago. It is always a moving experience to reflect on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the land that was the geographical setting for his incarnation. But on this last trip there was an unexpected poignancy to the experience. While our group of thirty Christian leaders huddled in the rain, preparing to honor the Prince of Peace, someone else was detonating a bomb in Jerusalem. We passed the broken bread and poured the dark wine to a haunting accompaniment of screaming sirens and hovering helicopters. We eventually made it safely back to our hotel in Bethlehem, but snarled traffic and closed checkpoints made the journey slow and frightening.

For nearly two weeks after that we visited holy sites that called us to a deeper appreciation of Jesus, and we visited decidedly unholy sites—places of violence and injustice that must break the heart of God. We listened to the brave and peaceful call of Christians, Muslims and Jews—both Palestinians and Israelis—committed to security and justice for all the people of the Holy Land. And we listened to the disheartening rhetoric of those whose violent words seemed incomprehensible—not to my mind, but to my heart, my spirit, my faith.

I’m still shell-shocked by my recent trip to Israel/Palestine; I’m not ready to reflect on all that I saw and experienced. But four kids from my church, equipped with two cans of paint and four paintbrushes, captured the essence of my thoughts about the future of the place of Jesus’ most dramatic visitation. LOVE WINS they painted on the giant wall that divides the people of the Holy Land. A day later a group of Westmont College students repeated the message in Arabic. I didn’t take many photos on my recent trip. I’m so glad one of my friends photographed this message on the wall in Bethlehem, because I really do believe that in the end, love wins.


I’m not making a big, cosmic, eternity-touching statement when I suggest that love wins. I’ll leave the big, cosmic, eternity-touching statements to theologians and biblical scholars and preachers and controversial authors. I’m just saying that the longer I live and the further I travel and the more I see and experience of the brokenness of life, the more I realize that every encounter and every relationship goes better when we approach it from a position of love. I don’t think love means that we have to agree about everything. But I think it means that we listen hard, and that we do our best to understand the fears, the frustrations, the dreams, the worldview, the experience of “the other.” And while we listen, we pray that God will open the eyes of our hearts and expand the capacity of our minds. And we pray that the Spirit, the Passion, and the Redemptive work of Jesus will have its way in us and in the world.

So…I’m sitting in my at-home office, looking at the collection of personal artifacts I’ve gathered during (almost) 60 years of life and thousands of miles of travel and countless conversations with people in pain. As I scan the walls and shelves that hold my holy clutter, I set my gaze on the source of my hope and on my steadfast belief. LOVE WINS.

I’m So Excited about Wild Goose!

For years I wished I could attend the Greenbelt Festival in the UK—an edgy focus on art, music, spirituality and justice—but it’s always held in August which conflicts with annual family commitments. But this year, for the first time, the US has its own version of Greenbelt—the Wild Goose Festival—held in the Shakori Hills of North Carolina on June 23-26, 2011. Even if I weren’t speaking at Wild Goose, I’d be attending anyway. I can’t wait!

The Wild Goose is a Celtic metaphor for the Holy Spirit. A diverse group of followers of Jesus came together to create this festival rooted in the Christian tradition and open to all regardless of belief, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, denomination or religious affiliation.

I love this blurb from the Wild Goose website: “In adopting the image of the Wild Goose we recognize that in the current climate of religious, social and political cynicism, embracing the creative and open nature of our faith is perhaps our greatest asset for re-building and strengthening our relationships with each other, with our enemies, with our stories, our texts, and the earth. In that spirit, in a festive setting, and in the context of meaningful, respectful, and sustained relationships, we invite you to create with us!”

I suspect I’ll be one of the older attendees at the Wild Goose Festival, and it’s possible I will not resonate completely with every perspective and opinion presented—but that’s why I’m so excited to go. I want to be challenged to learn and stretch and grow. After three years of traveling extensively in troubled regions of the world, I am fiercely gripped by the importance of personal relationships and friendship, I am increasingly committed to peace-building, and I am more impressed than ever with the way of Jesus. Wild Goose seems like the next right step on my journey of learning and of loving God’s beautiful but broken world.

What about you? Why not join the creatively redemptive community of Wild Goose!