Making A Commitment

AUTHOR WES HOWARD-BROOK challenges Christians to be radical disciples of Christ: to put nothing above their Christian commitment; to not fear rejection or even death; and to live in intimate community with one another.

For Wes Howard-Brook, Lent is not simply a time of reflection and penitence. It is a time for commitment.

But not a wishy-washy one.

As he leads a series of Lenten talks around the Puget Sound area on the Gospel of John, Howard-Brook is challenging Christians to be radical disciples of Christ: to put nothing above their Christian commitment, to publicly witness how God has acted in their lives; to not fear rejection, hostility and even death; and to live in intimate community with one another.

Howard-Brook, a graduate of Seattle University's Institute for Theological Studies, recently wrote "Becoming Children of God: John's Gospel and Radical Discipleship" (Orbis Books, $21.95), a 520-page commentary on John.

"Ever since the third century, people considering joining the church have used passages from John's Gospel during Lent as part of the process known as `the scrutinies,' " said Howard-Brook. They are the "gates" that catechumens - those receiving instruction in the fundamentals of Christianity before entering the church - pass through as they deepen their understanding of what commitment to their faith means, he said.

Howard-Brook has been using four passages from John in his Lenten series: Jesus's encounter with the woman at the well in Samaria; the story of the man born blind; the raising of Lazarus; and Jesus's washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. Each sheds light on what it is to be a Christian, he said.

Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman was at a time of great estrangement between Jews and Samaritans, said Howard-Brook. Jesus came to Samaria to break down that antipathy, he said. "The story as I read it ultimately involves a question of ethnicity and nationalism," Howard-Brook said. People should reflect on whether tribal, ethnic or national ties have become greater commitments than their Christian ones, he said.

The blind man, whose sight was restored by Christ, was subjected to hostile questioning by the Pharisees. "The story invites people to come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian through the process of responding to hostile questioning," said Howard-Brook.

"You know, most people have religious views and if their life's going OK, they don't think about it much. But if somebody asks them, what do you really believe, who is Jesus for you, who is God, what does it mean in your life? . . . If they are friendly questions, you can give easy answers. The more hostile the questions, the deeper your challenge to think."

Howard-Brook contended that religion is seen as a good thing in American culture, "as long as you keep it in its place." But people become uncomfortable around Christian activists on both the left and right. "What they have in common is a willingness to state publicly what they believe, and accept the consequences."

The story of Lazarus, said Howard-Brook, involves people's attitudes about death. "It is very easy for Christians at one level to say, `Well, of course I'll go to heaven.' But do we live that way? For the most part not, otherwise we wouldn't have burglar alarms and live in the suburbs to avoid crime and all the other things we do to protect our lives.

"I think the story is there to invite the early community and us to not be afraid of losing our lives." He added, "Any part of the world where Christians stand for some kind of relationship that is contrary to the status quo - a violent, repressive one - they're risking death."

Finally, said Howard-Brook, the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet often has been depicted as an act of humble service. "I think that really misses the point of the scene in the context of John's Gospel. . . . It wouldn't make any sense for Jesus to be offering an act of service at this late date. . . . What he is doing is preparing them for his absence. They need each other." The story "means understanding what our sisters and brothers need and being willing to take whatever risk that calls for."

Howard-Brook, 40, was born in Los Angeles and raised in a Reform Jewish household. He majored in criminology at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated from UC's Hastings School of Law in San Francisco.

"I was pretty anti-religion. It all seemed like a bunch of superstitious nonsense," said Howard-Brook.

But one day while hiking on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Calif., he had what he described as a religious, mystical experience, a sense of the unity of all creation under the benevolent watch of what he would later call God.

What followed was a two-year exploration that led him from Eastern religions to the Catholic mystical tradition. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in 1976.

Howard-Brook was a staff lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s. He later worked as an assistant state attorney general in Seattle.

"I got into law in the first place . . . as a vehicle for social change," he said. But he realized that while law can be used to prevent certain overt types of conduct, it does not change people's hearts.

Howard-Brook and his wife, Maggie Kilbourne-Brook, were attending St. Joseph Church in Seattle when he learned of Seattle University's Institute for Theological Studies, which was beginning to offer coursework leading to a master of divinity degree. He enrolled in the program, and later he and Kilbourne-Brook also joined a group called the Galilee Circle, a community in Seattle that drew people who were involved in "faith-based activism," ranging from Central American to anti-nuclear issues.

Howard-Brook, now a member of St. Therese Catholic Church and the program director of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center in Seattle, eschews such labels as liberal or left-wing.

"I believe that God is a loving god who wants us to live in harmony with one another and the Earth. If you call that left-wing, fine. It isn't a term I use."

He will use the term radical to describe himself, as long as it's used in the sense of going to the root of things, from the Latin radix, for root.

"The Christian call is one of witnessing to the world that God is love, even when the world doesn't want to hear it, even when the world is a place of darkness and rejection," said Howard-Brook, summing up his Lenten message.

The Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center is a collaborative venture of six Catholic communities in the Northwest. It works with other denominations and faiths to promote just economic structures, justice for women, and community in neighborhoods, churches and workplaces.