Book Recommendation. Sort of.

I have been recommending John Steinbeck's novel, In Dubious Battle, for years. Mostly so people can get an insight into the turmoil in our nation the past 10 years or so. The novel is about communist infiltration/agitation/provocation of an apple picker's strike in California, in the Depression era. Steinbeck doesn't really take a side; he describes. Steinbeck tended to make everybody mad at some point because he was not particularly ideological. Essentially why I recommend the book is because it is a very natural rendering of how protest and violence happens. It's not random. Steinbeck kind of looked at life as if we are in a petri dish, and we are acted upon forces beyond our ken and control. Those forces are real, though, and he shows them for what they are. Woe to the person who tries to break out of the system; think Doc in Cannery Row.
But there has always been a kind of sweet part of the novel, or maybe I should say, a sentimentally stirring part. The first couple chapters. One of the protagonists, Jim Nolan is down on his luck. In the wrong place at the wrong time, he is arrested for vagrancy (ha! My mom always used to tease me saying I would be arrested for vagrancy.) His employer won't vouch for him when he finds out he was at a communist speech. So he is out of work, down on his luck. And decides maybe he really will be a communist, so he applies to join the party. As soon as he walks in the "office," he feels at home with the guy taking his application. Gets some hot but maybe not good coffee. They take him to the next office. He hears some stories, meets some characters, does some clerical work, and the guys eat a stew from what they put in a common pot.
I am not a communist. But I see why people could tend that way. For the average person, it is less about ideology and more about belonging. [The classroom commies we have now, they're another story.] If you're hungry, you go get help.
Thing is, so much of what the communist "recruiter" tells him sounds like becoming an evangelist! "The people you're trying to help are going to hate you most of the time." That hit home. Ever done any street evangelism?
Jim, the young idealist kid, tells the recruiter he wants to be a communist because he's got nothing left to lose. The "recruiter" gets quiet.
“Nothing except hatred... You’re going to be surprised when you see that you stop hating people. I don’t know why it is, but that’s what usually happens.”
Maybe John Prine said it best: "I got no hate and I got no pride. I got so much love that I just can't hide."
Now all that to get to this. What is going on in our House Group?! It is fixin to reproduce not once but twice. That will be four times. One group faded out. One is rocking. Two new ones coming.
Wild, wonderful testimonies of God's work. Tons of praying for one another.
Disciplsehip growth. And then this:
For our meal this past week, we decided on "Brinner." Anyone try getting eggs end of the week? We didn't need tons, but feeding 10 people.... seems like everyone brought a few eggs. Drewski brought his skillet and slung pancakes. Boxcar said, "this is the best meal I eat all week."
Pastor, are you trying to be sympathetic to communists? No. But just where do you think they learned the process from? Put dudes on the street to teach the people. See if they are tough enough, can think on their feet. Are they willing to hand out tracts? Will they go hard places and say hard things, for the sake of love? Will they share what they have with the group to scrounge up a meal? Will they meet together to study what they believe and encourage one another to live it out for the sake of the masses? Where do you think the commies learned it from?
It's The Dirtbag Way.