By Ken Sehested
To move into a seemingly bleak and
ominous future requires laying hold
of stories from our past:
Stories to remind us that buoyancy
emerges from unseen places,
at unknowing moments,
in unpredictable ways,
beyond all calculation
and prognostication. Continue reading “Silent Night”
By Tommy Airey
May the God of peace sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thessalonians 5:23
Back in the 80’s and 90’s, vintage Advent passages about “the coming of our Lord” were infused with the rapture theology of my fresh Evangelical faith. I eagerly anticipated an End Times scenario when Jesus would triumphantly return to rescue us from the sin of the world. I remained vigilant as the Left Behind series of books and movies filled in the blanks of what this letter from Paul assured us would soon happen:
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Our Evangelical pastors repressed our sexual imaginations, but they gave us full permission to fantasize about the End of the World. It was almost too much for my adolescent mind. I conjured images of mass disappearances, freeways suddenly littered with empty cars and football stadiums with fans flying into the heavens. Researching the historical context, though, zoomed me back down to earth. Literally. Continue reading “¡Presente!”
By Joyce Hollyday Reposted from www.joycehollyday.com.
Two days ago, a calf was born on the 120-acre mountain farm next-door. On my morning walk that day, I rounded a turn in the trail and spied him under a chestnut tree by the creek, just hours old, still wobbly on his legs, his mother licking him vigorously. Last night a coyote tried to kill that newborn calf. His mother successfully thwarted the attack, but not without injury to her ear and face. On this morning’s walk, I noticed that all the cattle are huddled together at the bottom of the mountain, the calves in the center of their protective circle. Continue reading “Lions and Coyotes and Calves, Oh My!”
By Rianna Isaak-krauss
we sit in darkness
longing for light
death all around us
yearning for life
remember the advent call to wait
to wait with pregnant hope
as we watch Mother God conceive
and give birth with Mary
give the gift of birth to Mary
A social media re-post from Mark Van Steenwyk, executive director of The Center for Prophetic Imagination (November 20, 2017):
Any anabaptist theology that isn’t re-baptized through liberation theology reinforces oppression.
Anabaptism, on its own, only makes sense as a religion of the oppressed. Just like the Gospels are unintelligible to the middle and owner classes apart from the experiences of the oppressed.
In other words: Any calls for pacifism, meekness, and simplicity that come insistently from the powerful are attempts to keep the oppressed docile and poor.
Nonviolence must be a tool of the oppressed in their struggle, with the aid and support of repentant allies. Otherwise, in the hands of the powerful it becomes an ideology of oppression.
To be clear: I’m a pacifist. But pacifism and nonviolence must be in service to liberation or they become a force for oppression. If you’re a pacifist that isn’t working alongside (and following the lead of) those who struggle for liberation, then your nonviolence is just the velvet pouch sheathing the hammer of oppression
By Eric Martin
until Spring dripped from the fingers of every tree.
She leapt out hungry into the fields
and heard the hymns of sparrows in flight
and children in chase
For a moment she thought she saw
the taxman barefoot and eating cherry popsicles.
The sun pressed itself upon her,
armpits swelling with sweat,
and the grass itched
and the buds gained confidence
and the sky shouted “infinity!” at everything. Continue reading “Psalm 150: With What You Have”
Re-posting this Lectionary reflection from 3 years ago on radicaldiscipleship.net written by Ched Myers.
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mark 1:4-5
–
Continue reading “What Does it Mean that Jesus “Apprenticed” with John the Baptist?”
December 10, 2017
Advent 2B
Isaiah 40:3
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD…
2Peter 3:10-13
…and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed…waiting for the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? … But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: The Voice Crying, “Out in the Wilderness, Prepare the Way””
By Will O’Brien
Among the many manifestations of his project to “make America great again,” President Trump has frequently and pompously declared that “We will be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ again!” When he spoke at last fall’s Values Voters Summit, this vow garnered the most boisterous applause. For many conservative Christians, Trump is the conquering hero who waged battle against secularism in the annual “war on Christmas” – and finally won the war. Like many Trumpisms, this would be simply pathetic were it not for the fact that it is part of a treacherous national vision. Continue reading “The Politics of Christmas in the Age of Trump”
