To show support for new voices in literature, Kiese Laymon, Robert Jones, Jr. and Deeshaw Philyaw came together to create #Lit16, a quarterly reading series celebrating sixteen debut authors. This is their inaugural cohort:
Author: RadicalDiscipleship
Dirt Clods for Love
By Nichola Torbett, a sermon re-posted from The Longing is the Compass (September 6, 2022)
I was honored to preach the following sermon at Skyline Congregational Church, UCC, on September 4, 2022. The focus scripture was Luke 14: 25-33.
That subtitle comes from a quote from Carl Jung, from a part of his Red Book in which he was describing his spiritual journey. He says, “In my case, Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.”
[Invite people to visualize this in a little guided meditation–descending the ladders, the clod of earth that is myself. Notice sensations in the body, emotions (grief? fear? relief?), resistance.]
I think this “dirt clod” image provides us with a key to this very challenging text from the gospel of Luke.
Continue reading “Dirt Clods for Love”Love Goes All the Way Down
A fantastic zoom offering from Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat, the author (with Brian Walsh) of Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice (2019).
The Major Philanthropists of our Society
Barbara Ehrenreich. Presente.
The Way Costs Exactly Everything
By Wes Howard-Brook & Sue Ferguson Johnson, a commentary on this weekend’s Gospel text, re-posted from September 1, 2016
It is no mystery who Luke’s audience is in this week’s Gospel (14.25-33): “For which of you, intending to build a tower (Gk, purgon)…” (14.28). Clearly, this is not a building plan envisioned by landless peasants, lepers and other poor and marginalized people. Luke is speaking here to the young elite of the Roman Empire, seeking to instill in them the cost of rejecting their imperial formation and choosing Jesus’ Way of discipleship. Continue reading “The Way Costs Exactly Everything”
We are Jackson
A message from We the People of Detroit.
The Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition (The Coalition), led by the People’s Advocacy Institute, the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, One Voice, MS, Alternate ROOTS, Mississippi Moves, Operation Good, Strong Arms of Mississippi and over thirty partner organizations, are working diligently to meet the clean water needs of the communities directly impacted by the deteriorating infrastructure in Jackson, Mississippi. After more than five decades of neglect by the State, residents in older cities, like Jackson, have been forced to carry the financial burden of fragile infrastructure and have been exposed regularly to the health risks associated with the need for constant repair. In 2021, residents were under a boil water alert for at least 225 days. In 2022, boil water requirements continue to plague an already resource constrained population. These water woes not only impact the quality of life for Jackson’s residents, they also impact Jackson’s economy (schools, businesses, etc.), further strangling an already under-resourced city.
An Open Letter to Brittney Griner
By Robert Jones, Jr., the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Prophets, re-posted from his website Son of Baldwin (August 4, 2022)
Dear Sister Brittney,
Had you been properly valued in your own country, it would have been unnecessary for you to travel to another. But here, in the land of the “morally superior” but severely degenerate, to be all Black, woman, lesbian is to be thrown a spite that you never asked to receive. For them, it is like: How dare you not be delicate, docile, diminutive, domesticated, dainty; not wait for some man to throw down his coat over a puddle so that you might giggle as you stepped on it, careful not to get your feet wet. They cannot feature you, Sis. Or how you can defy gravity and so there is no need for some white knight to guide you pass waters that you could leap over in your fucking sleep.
To keep reading click here.
Living The Gospel Revolution
Another compelling offering from The Alternative Seminary…
The Sermon on the Mount: Living the Gospel Revolution in Our World Today
EIGHT-WEEK ONLINE CLASS
Thursdays, September 15 – November 10
7:00 – 9:00 pm EST
(NOTE: No class on October 20)
The times we live in seem apocalyptic – war and violence, political extremism and rising authoritarianism, staggering disparities of wealth, ecocide. Meanwhile, much of the church in the United States (and around the world) is increasingly succumbing to a militant and dangerous Christian nationalism.
Continue reading “Living The Gospel Revolution”
Sabbath Economics
By Ched Myers (above, at the US/Mexico border), a commentary on Luke 12:13-21, reposted from the BCM July 2022 E-News
Note: The comments (and slides) below were crafted for the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community this month. The lectionary reading for the 8th Sunday in Pentecost (July 31st) features the unequivocal, doesn’t-mince-words Jesus offering a warning tale about persons and systems. Those of us who come from economic and social privilege should pay special attention to this passage. So we offer this piece (part of my new book project entitled Jesus against Plutocracy: Sabbath Economics in Luke’s Gospel)…
When we approach this text we need to acknowledge that economics is exceedingly difficult to talk about in most of our churches, more taboo than politics or sex. Jesuit theologian John Haughey summarized the dilemma. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinative of our personal and political world than economics—and few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.
To read the rest, click here!
Radical Discipleship 