Sharing Stories at the Wild Goose Festival

Last updated on: June 25, 2012 at 4:17 pm by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Sharing Stories at the Wild Goose Festival 2012-06-25T16:17:57-06:00 Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

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I’m just back from the Wild Goose Festival in Chatham County, NC. Camp meetings like this have a history in American religion. Like Cane Ridge in the early 19th century, we had communion. Like Finney’s open air revivals in the late 19th century, we had some spit-fire preaching and calls to action. Like any camp out, there was lots of food and fellowship, catching up and having a good time while trying to stay cool in a North Carolina summer.

But my favorite part was getting to share stories of good news like the stories we share here at The Everyday Awakening.

If you read my post on the Gospel of Rutba a couple of weeks back, you heard about our plans to share about the radical hospitality of Rutba, Iraq in 2003 and all that’s come of that. Greg Barrett, who wrote the fine book documenting all of this, brought his momma along. She caught a bit of out story-telling on her flip camera.

http://vimeo.com/44654202

After we shared about the doctor who saved our friends’ lives and told us, “You don’t owe us anything. Please just go and tell people what’s happening in Rutba,” we reflected for moment on how we had lived the Good Samaritan story, learning what God’s love looks like from the good Iraqis. At the end of that story in Luke’s gospel, Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”

It’s an invitation to take the gospel of Rutba with us and live it wherever we are.

We shared this invitation with the crowd that gathered at the Goose. We recalled how, 50 years ago in the South, the Spirit moved in Montgomery and in Birmingham, at the lunch counter in Greensboro and on the bridge in Selma. Those stories were told and they went around the world as people learned to sing with black Americans, “We Shall Overcome.” We told folks how, when we were in Baghdad, living with people there under the bombs, we met some kids who knew the song and sang it in Arabic. Then we played a clip of those kids singing, joining them in singing and committing together to take the gospel of Rutba home with us–to spread the story far and wide.

I’m back at Rutba House today, working with a friend who just got out of prison and some kids in the neighborhood–trying to figure out what radical hospitality and the transformative power of love look like here today.

I hope you’re doing the same where you are. At www.gospelofrutba.org we’ve put together a list of ways you might get started today.

There is a particular magic about taking the Gospel of Rutba and acting on the unthinkable and the practical. This little list is simply designed to spark your imagination with ideas for how you can take this gospel and go and do likewise.

use the equity in your home to help someone who’s considered “illegal” buy a home

host a dinner once a week for people who aren’t like you

visit a church, mosque, or synagogue outside of your own faith tradition

visit your local prison (invite someone who’s getting out soon to come and stay with you for a while)

pray for your enemy

ask your government to stop funding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; when it’s time to pay taxes, consider direct action to cut defense spending (see War Tax Resisters League)

write someone on death row

the next time someone asks you for money, ask them to tell you their story

read a book by a Muslim author

read the Bible with someone who’s not like you

add to the list on Facebook or twitter @GospelofRutba.

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