Category: Theological Animation

Contemplation Turned Outward

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

CPTBy Mark Van Steenwyk, the executive director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination

Part of what makes contemplation important, both as a a regular practice and an overall posture of life is noticing inner thoughts, images, ideas, and stories that lead us away from deep connection to the Spirit, each other, and the rest of creation.

However, in a society where we have learned to disconnect mind from body and spirit from politics, there is a danger in contemplative practice. I’ve begun to increasingly suspect that many engage in spiritual practice in a way that is disassociative—they use spirituality to disconnect from anxiety and pain, rather than to allow them to give attention to suffering. Continue reading “Contemplation Turned Outward” →

Wild Lectionary: Hope in the Anthropocene

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12419111_234260210253917_6519242895821413984_oAdvent 1A

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  (Isaiah 2:1-3)

By Laurel Dykstra

It is hard to be hopeful in the Anthropocene, in the days when the destructive human impact on climate, individuals and communities, creatures, waterways and ecosystems is unprecedented. The lectionary passages this week have a fierce and compelling urgency but they seem far from the Advent theme of hope and further still from this lectionary project’s focus on Creation. Just what should we be awake to? Why the urban emphasis the focus on judgment?

Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Hope in the Anthropocene” →

Where Does It Hurt?

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Council on the WayBy Nathan Holst, a sermon 

O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, in your way, guide us; Spirit guide all of us today as we listen for where you are moving. Amen.

That song by Sara Thomsen is one I used quite a bit at a gathering in Washington DC just last month where 20 white Christian men came together with Ruby Sales, a Black civil rights and freedom movement leader, to talk about a theology of redemption for white men in this time. My friend and colleague, Tommy Airey, invited me to come and be a part of the group that he and Ruby Sales had put together, and partly because Mother Ruby is one of my heroes and because I was drawn to the work, I said yes. When I shared about it with Pastor Kathy, she asked me to preach and share about my experience, so that’s what I intend to do this morning. And as I share, I want to put up a picture of Mother Ruby to honor her and bring her into this space because she was our spiritual guide in this work. Continue reading “Where Does It Hurt?” →

Wild Lectionary: We Live in Relation

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Landscape with Shepherd and Sheep; Anton Mauve, Vanderbilt lectionary project for art

Proper 29(34)

Jeremiah 23: 1-6

By Reverend Kelly Giese

Jeremiah’s oracles of a future king, a messiah, indicate that the sheep, the pasture, the people, the flock, never leave the watchful eye of the Lord.  All are referred to as “mine” belonging to Yahweh. There is a close association of the Lord the God of Israel to those who  shepherd and know the sheep; and to the land, its fecundity, and even to the spiritual lives of the sheep and shepherds: God dispels fear, corrects those who are in error, and even finds the missing. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: We Live in Relation” →

Listen to the Stones

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HumphreyBy Matthew Humphrey (right),

Not one stone will be left stacked upon another
the teacher said, the twinkle in his eye dimming just a moment,
as they all gasped, Say it’s not so!
Their human gaze traced in adorned temple stones.
Listen to the stones, my friends.

The stones… on which Jacob dreamed at Bethel – the house of God.
The 12 stones… circled round, gathered up from Jordan rivers banks,
by ancestors, all gathered at Gilgal, the circle of standing stones. Continue reading “Listen to the Stones” →

Wild Lectionary: Another World Is Possible

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ClimateStrike20190927-02
Photo Credit Brynn Craffey, Vancouver Climate Strike, 2019

Proper 28 (33) C
Isaiah 65:17-25

By Brynn Craffey

This week’s first Lectionary reading from Isaiah features a vision of the Almighty who promises to create, “new heavens and a new earth,” in which, “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” Restoration is a theme running through Isaiah, and today’s passage conjures up visions of utopia in my soul. I imagine old paradigms collapsing, social justice replacing unfairness throughout the land, and communally supported programs, such as Medicare for All and robustly-funded public health care systems, ensuring that, “No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.”  

Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Another World Is Possible” →

Wild Lectionary: This House in its Former Glory

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Harlington Heights, looking south David A. Galbraith, CC

Proper 27(32)C
Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 98

By Sandy Reynolds

I am often confronted with the destruction of the natural world from my backyard. I live near the escarpment trails that run through the city of Hamilton, Ontario. On a clear day, you can see across the bay to the CN Tower in Toronto. Frequently the view is hazy and the landmarks in the distant are barely visible. Looking through the all too familiar yellow-tinged smog I try to imagine what this land was like when it was pristine. Before my people came. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: This House in its Former Glory” →

A Word to White Men

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

BWKBy Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, presented at the inaugural Council on the Way convened by Ruby Sales in Washington D.C. on October 19, 2019

You, White men, Christian and not, sit in darkness, unseeing how you are advantaged by aggression against others. Your humanity suffers a gaping wound you have been taught not to feel. You are justified by a faith that is an idol and a lie. You are in bondage to a system and a spirit, white supremacy, which is nothing less than a form of death itself. Continue reading “A Word to White Men” →

Deep Love

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological Animation5 Comments

Kings BayBy Tommy Airey

Lindsay shot me a text last Friday afternoon. KingsBay7 all found guilty of all the charges. She concluded with crying emojis. The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 is a motley crew of older white Christians who, on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, broke into a Naval base in Georgia with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace. ¡Personas peligrosos!

The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons—possessed with 3,800 times more destructive power as the weapons that were used on Hiroshima. Hammers? They were literally following the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares.” They discerned the action after two years of prayer and practice. This was a deep symbolic action designed to penetrate souls. Continue reading “Deep Love” →