Category: Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology

Finding our Voice

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mary mToday on the Feast of Magdalene, we continue our biblical women series. This time with a male voice. But here Bill Wylie-Kellermann offers a sermon with Peter apologizing to Mary Magdalene.

John 20:1-18

There is a sweet irony, perhaps several, in St Peter’s hosting this service for the Feast of Mary Magdalene, one which makes this traditional gospel for the day more than appropriate.

John’s gospel is among the later to be written. The footrace, on the one hand so exuberant and on the other, so competitive, between Peter and John (or the other disciple) reflects within the text a certain struggle for leadership. Between Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb and her encounter with the Risen Lord, it poses the question: Who got there first? Well, John is fleeter and arrives first, but Peter entered in first, but then John looked around and was first to believe. Is this a carefully negotiated settlement or what? Continue reading “Finding our Voice” →

Mary and Martha

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Uncategorized3 Comments

Mary-Martha-Lazarus.jpgBy Laurel Dykstra

Luke 10. 38-42

I don’t like the story of Mary and Martha.

Most of us already know if we are more like Mary, who sits at Jesus’ feet, or more like Martha, who is distracted by her many tasks. And it seems to me that no matter how nice they try to be about it, most of the sermons and commentaries on this passage seem to say, “Yay Mary and Boo Martha” Continue reading “Mary and Martha” →

10 Reasons I believe in the Sacrament of Marriage

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology2 Comments

weddingBy Lydia Wylie-Kellermann,
(first published on Converge’s website a couple years ago)

Lately, I have found myself in conversations with friends about relationships and commitment. I’ve been hearing them say, “We will be together as long as it works and if it stops working, then it will end.” There seems to be a distrust and even suspicion of the act of marriage. These are friends who have relationships I admire and who are clearly in it for the long haul. I trust their decision making and discernment, but it has made me pause to reflect on why we choose marriage.

1. Community

A marriage is rooted within a community. We prayed that our relationship would be a gift to the larger community and asking for the help of accountability and support when things are difficult. Continue reading “10 Reasons I believe in the Sacrament of Marriage” →

Solid Footing

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

joyceBy Joyce Hollyday

It was a rainbow more spectacularly breathtaking than any I had ever seen. Bill, our dogs Micah and Tasha, and I were taking our nightly twilight walk down our rural mountain road on Friday evening. Emblazoned over us was a complete arc of brilliantly vibrant color against a sky that glowed with electric pink and fuchsia.

We weren’t alone in our awe. At Circle of Mercy two nights later, I discovered that my seven-year-old friend Abby was riding in the car when she saw the rainbow and couldn’t take her eyes off it. “It seems like it’s following us home,” she said to her mother. “Is it solid enough to stand on?” Continue reading “Solid Footing” →

The Woman with an Issue of Blood

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clayBy Denise Griebler. Part of a continuing series on badass women in the bible.

“If I could but touch the hem of his garment.
If I could but touch a part of his robe
I know I’d be healed, my sins all forgiven.
If I could but touch him I know I’d be whole.”
– the chorus of a gospel song by Rev. George A Rice

Matthew 9:18-25; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:41-56

The story goes that while Jesus was walking through a crowd, she touched him and was restored to herself.  Imagine that gutsy move.

She’d been hemorrhaging for twelve years.  Her search for a cure had bled her of everything she had and after all that, her condition was worse not better.  Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza says through this woman we glimpse of  the impoverishment of the permanently ill.  And she didn’t just suffer an incurable illness, but she was also permanently unclean and impure.  Whomever she touched would also be made unclean.  Imagine 12 years of untouched isolation. Continue reading “The Woman with an Issue of Blood” →

We say their names again and again…so their lives will not be forgotten

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Just Peacemaking, UncategorizedLeave a comment
orlando_shooting_lgbt_vigil_ap_img
photo from The Nation

Akyra Monet Murray, 18
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
Amanda Alvear and Mercedez Marisol Flores, 25 and 26
Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28
Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25
Antonio Davon Brown, 29
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49
Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24
Cory James Connell, 21
Darryl “DJ” Roman Burt II, 29
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 Continue reading “We say their names again and again…so their lives will not be forgotten” →

Do You See Her?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Theological Animation1 Comment

Anointing FeetBy Ched Myers, Fourth Sunday of Pentecost, Luke 7:36-8:3

Note: This is part of a series of weekly comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2016. Thanks to Wes Howard Brook and Sue Ferguson for their reflections that took us through Eastertide and into Pentecost; we’ll again now trade off more regularly during “Ordinary Time.” As this story represents a hermeneutic key to Luke’s social outlook, my comments here will be longer; their purpose is to reveal exegetical details that can help restore the dynamism of this encounter (I recommend acting the story out). Painting (above right) by Wayne Forte.   Continue reading “Do You See Her?” →

A Call for 10,000 Black Women, Girls & Femmes

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, RaceLeave a comment
MonicaTawana
Photo by Valerie Jean

What does it mean for Black Women, Black Girls and Black Femmes to respond to dying cities and the death of Black families in dying cities? What does it mean for Black Women, Black Girls and Black Femmes to call out from Detroit to the world to not only recognize the humanity of Black lives, but to challenge the world to respond with the full of their own humanity? We live in movement times. A time where we can clearly articulate all that is wrong in society and all that is wrong in the world. A time where the stark contrasts between which Black lives matter and which don’t, are becoming more and more prevalent within the Black community. Continue reading “A Call for 10,000 Black Women, Girls & Femmes” →

Bodies in the Street

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

SekouFrom Rev.Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou in an interview with sankofa.org:

The question I ask myself is ‘what does social justice as a spiritual discipline look like?’ Part of it looks like the way in which we do not become our oppressors. We do not take on their attributes. That we ‘envy not their ways.’ So I don’t want to tear gas children. I don’t want to lock up a generation. I don’t want to be part of an institution that has close to a thousand bases around the world, extracting natural resources, disciplining and punishing bodies and policing knowledge. I don’t want to do that. So for me, non-violence is part of that practice. It is not becoming them. Then we can sustain this movement… Continue reading “Bodies in the Street” →

It’s All Worth It

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VillegasFacebook post from Isaac Villegas, pastor at Chapel Hill Mennonite Church, who performed a same-sex wedding a couple of weeks ago:

Tonight I received official word from the Faith & Life Commission of the Virginia Mennonite Conference that they have suspended my ministerial license because I officiated the wedding of two women in my community last weekend.

But it’s all worth it. It’s worth it because of what it meant for Kate Dembinski (one half of the couple I married)–this is from her FB post: “This whole experience with Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship has been very restorative for both of us. We have both been deeply wounded by the church in our own ways, but getting married has done a lot to make us feel loved by this congregation. Y’all stuck your necks out for our sake, and we are genuinely grateful for your sacrifices on our behalf. ‪#‎WeStandWithIsaac‬ ‪#‎StillOurPastor‬ “ Continue reading “It’s All Worth It” →