Touchable Theology

Touchable Theology
Upon the streets and in the fields, in the ghettos and in the hallways of Universities it is not hard to find those that love extravagantly, fight viciously, and do not settle for the love of “Christians” that has been tied down with the ropes of religious practice and mindless tradition. As you walk the streets of Seattle you will see the homeless and abandoned, you will see power in the buildings that pierce the sky. Down on the docks the cranes move endlessly the trade of an empire, the life flow of this massive city.
I traveled only hours away from my comfy home in the Bend and my eyes were opened, I was challenged. I looked into the faces of the poor and homeless and not only through Seattle’s display of her wide array of colors but also through a book, Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.
My accomplices in crime were my awesomely awkward, skyscrapishly tall, and always glee filled friends Kyle and Jesse. Kyle is like seven hundred feet tall, blond, a fellow senior, and man of prayer. The kind of guy who engulfs you in his long arms as he hugs you. Jesse is comparatively tall, Dutch, and hilarious! These two along with my wonderful dad were the team, our mission: To explore and experience Seattle and the little university of Seattle Pacific.
As we drove we rocked out to music as long as my dad could handle, then read out loud the thoughts we deemed worthy from our various books. While we journeyed, read, and rocked, we also dreamt and prayed about the next four years of life. In the thoughts we read I began to get uncomfortable, being challenged by the thoughts from this Shane Calyborn guy who lives out what the bible says like he really believes it. He challenges people to give away there things and follow Jesus. To love like Jesus did laying down his own life to love those that to society were untouchable. To Live to serve, give, and feed the hungry giving names to the faces of the homeless and hurting.
These concepts are all based on the bible that I read each morning, concepts that I know well and even preach, so why only now does this revelation come? I am now uncomfortable with my life and its bubble. I seemed to be gliding a little to the ground that it began chipping away my insulated shell of theology.
After hours of being trapped in the car with my thoughts and all their turmoil we finally reached our first stop in Portland where we were to have dinner with some wonderful friends of mine. After we had begun discussing the possibilities it came up that Mackenzie (one of my wonderful friends) loves to make lunches and feed the poor. In fact it was Her favorite activity when friends come over. Everywhere I looked I could not escape! It was like the prodding of the Holy Spirit saying, “Hello? Do you get it yet?”
As we sat down for our wonderful meal we discussed the homeless, the 36 thousand a year it takes to go to college, socialism, funding, compassion. We argued and laughed and then I stopped painfully realizing the real content of our conversation. We sat at an expensive meal talking, arguing, and debating about how we should love those who don’t have anything while living out a much different conversation of a bubbled up and insulated theology. Where is the contact point?