Category: Subverting Empire

Lamentations’ call to arms

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kenA poem inspired by the book of Lamentations (especially chapter three)

by Ken Sehested

Turn off (what passes for) the news.
Boycott the season’s electoral charades.
Don’t give in to Pokémon’s promise of
“augmented reality.” Attend instead to
unmitigated reality: bloodied, stricken
and strewn. Offer grief the hearing it
demands, the voice it obliges, and
the risk it assumes. Continue reading “Lamentations’ call to arms” →

Staying Awake in the Summer

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

St LukeBy Wes Howard-Brook & Sue Ferguson Johnson

In the soporific summertime, it is easy enough to lie back, close one’s eyes, and fall into a tranquil sleep. Indeed, many of us could use more sleep, driven as we often are by the exigencies of empire into never-ending task mode. Perhaps ironically, getting more sleep could help prepare us for Jesus’ word to us this Sunday: stay awake (12.32-40)!

The church cycle offers us Lent and Advent as seasonal opportunities to practice anti-imperial wakefulness. With school out, though, the church year seems to take a break from the call to faithful vigilance. But the lectionary surprises us this week, just as Jesus’ message within the text from Luke gives us images of surprising arrivals. Perhaps equally surprisingly, a close listen to our Gospel text invites us to hear precisely what we are called to stay awake against: the lure of the exploitative, anxiety-ridden, imperial economy. At the same time, we are called to stay awake for the opportunity to be servants to one another and all creation. Continue reading “Staying Awake in the Summer” →

Precious Little Purchase

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From Mark Van Steenwyk (right: with son Jonas)Mark, co-founder of the Minneapolis Mennonite Worker, in a Facebook post from July 6:

If I lived in a swing state, I might vote for HRC. Thank God, I don’t. I have the luxury of voting my conscience (or non-voting my conscience) without much risk.

But I wish and pray and beg that folks would put the same energy into organizing or campaigning or protesting for justice that they put into this horrible excuse for democracy we call “presidential politics”. Continue reading “Precious Little Purchase” →

A Fool’s Economics

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation7 Comments

DollarBy Ched Myers, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 31, 2016 (Luke 12:13-21)

Note: This is part of a series of weekly comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2016.

In Luke’s gospel, the deep memory of Sabbath Economics is shown in Jesus’ wilderness feedings of the poor (Lk 9:12-17), and told in the central petition of the Lord’s Prayer:

“Give us today enough bread” (Lk 11:3).

But nowhere is the old vision more clearly asserted than in Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:13-34. Continue reading “A Fool’s Economics” →

A Prayer of Kingian Nonviolence

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MLKFrom Matt Guynn of On Earth Peace, a prayer based on MLK’s Six Principles of Nonviolence:

Holy One, singing at the center of my very being, resonating and vibrating me toward liberation and life,

Help me to grow in courage, in persistence, in confidence, in boldness in the face of the violence and harm in our world, our neighborhoods, our streets, our own faith communities. Deepen my ability to dwell moment by moment in the reality that I am enough, that I am beloved. As hard as it is, help me to remember that those whom I detest, dislike and disagree with are also your beloved children. Guide me toward a future in which all are cherished in communities of belonging and belovedness. Give me strength and insight to challenge the forces of evil and injustice which oppress and downpress me, other people and entire communities. Guide me to count the cost of waging nonviolent conflict and to accept sacrifice and suffering when necessary, for the sake of the cause and to achieve the goal. Help me to see clearly the violence in my heart, and to see that, unchecked, this violence can grow into expressions of harm towards myself and others. Strengthen me for this long journey as I lend my hands to yours, bending the arc of the universe towards justice. Amen.

‪#‎KingianNonviolence‬ ‪#‎PrayforPeace‬ ‪#‎PraythePrinciples‬

The Sermon on the Mount Unadulterated

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GandhiFrom Gandhi, in an address delivered at the YMCA in Ceylon in 1927:

The message of Jesus as I understand it is contained in the Sermon on the Mount unadulterated and taken as a whole… If then I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, ‘Oh, yes, I am a Christian.’ But negatively I can tell you that in my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount… I am speaking of the Christian belief, of Christianity as it is understood in the west.

Trauma and Memory

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, Subverting Empire1 Comment

ElaineFrom the conclusion of Elaine Enns’ recent piece “Trauma and Memory: Challenges to Settler Solidarity” in the recent edition of Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology. Click on to read the full article HERE:

Faith communities among Settlers need to create safe spaces to give testimony about intergenerational trauma, but also provide opportunities for privileged people to face our culpability, and build courage and skill to engage in justice-work. Over the last year I have engaged a variety of groups to do this work. Continue reading “Trauma and Memory” →

How Can You Be Objective?

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HedgesFrom Chris Hedges in The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress (2013):

I have never sought to be objective. How can you be objective about death squads in El Salvador, massacres in Iraq, or Serbian sniper fire that gunned down unarmed civilians, including children, in Sarajevo? How can you be neutral about the masters and profiteers of war who lie and dissemble to hide the crimes they commit and the profits they make? How can you be objective about human pain? And finally, how can you be objective about those responsible for this suffering? I am not neutral about rape, torture, or murder. I am not neutral about rapists, torturers, or murderers. I am not neutral about George W. Bush or Barack Obama, who under international law are war criminals. And if you had to see the butchery of war up close, as I did for nearly two decades, you would not be neutral either.

Embracing the Personalist Approach

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson JohnsonMartha

“Some people are Marys, and some are Marthas.”

Uh, no.

The little story of Mary and Martha in Luke’s Gospel is one that we regularly hear interpreted as a choice between two lifestyles, the “active” and the “contemplative.” Read in context, though, Luke’s message is not that at all. Let’s try to listen to this familiar story with fresh ears. Continue reading “Embracing the Personalist Approach” →