Shane Claiborne was tonight’s general session speaker. These speakers are usually the “big guns” and are charismatic, charming, well polished, impressive… you know, the kind of speakers that make you wish you were way better at speaking or preaching. And as we all know Shane Claiborne just wrote a book in the past two years that has just been hugely important for so many of us. It’s turned this little-known servant of Jesus from the rough part of Philly and made him somewhat of a Christian rock-star. People are calling him our generation’s Mother Teresa, etc, etc. I love Shane’s heart, I love his vision, I love what he’s about. And Shane is all about Jesus. Tonight he showed us that, while simultaneously begging the question if we are indeed all about Jesus. You see Shane was flown in here to be tonight’s “big gun speaker” and after about 30 seconds of intro, playing with fire and a joke, Shane just launched into the Sermon on the Mount… and I mean ALL OF IT. Then he ends with “Wow, that was the greatest sermon ever preached. Jesus give us the courage to live it out.”
Done.
Exit stage right.
There was an interesting reaction. On the one hand a lot of people are thinking, what?? he got paid the big bucks and got center stage to just go up and read from the bible? I could have done that. Then immediately following those judgmental thoughts came the reflection on just how hyped up we get on “good speakers” and how distant Jesus’ words have become to us when we hear the greatest sermon ever preached and find ourselves thinking we didn’t get what we came for. You could feel the awkwardness rise in the air as people began to wonder to themselves “was that really IT?” and then a reverence fall over the crowd as we realized what we had just thought and how pitiful we can be at times.
Thanks bro. Two good posts in a row; sounds like you’re hearing some awesome stuff at the conference.
I have yet to read Claiborne’s book but keep hearing many great things. Stories like this just have me more impressed and impassioned to read the book. And beyond that…follow Jesus.
Peace.
How did people react during the Sermon? Was there a feeling of “is he going to stop?”
Your description of the event is vivid, and it conveys well the emotional response that must have occurred. The disciples of Jesus day were probably familiar with the feeling.
Peace.
During the sermon we were captivated. He read it with passion of a person who has built his life on the Sermon on the Mount. You could tell at points, especially dealing with loving enemies and being peacemakers that he had an almost child-like joy in sharing the sermon with us. The expression on his face was as if to say “wow, isn’t this amazing!!??!” I don’t think anyone thought anything of it until he finished and just left the stage.
“Then immediately following those judgmental thoughts came the reflection on just how hyped up we get on “good speakers” and how distant Jesus’ words have become to us when we hear the greatest sermon ever preached and find ourselves thinking we didn’t get what we came for.”
that’s an excellent reflection
Nice. i’ve been craving something just like this for our church, preferably with multiple readers. i’ll speak with the pastor about it and hopefully after Advent we can do it.