Category: Theological Animation

In Praise of Ordinary Days

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Ken SehestedBy Ken Sehested

A meditation on Ordinary Time on the church’s liturgical calendar

“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars.”—William Blake

When people of faith speak of God, and how the love of God leads to the flourishing of souls and soil alike, such language appears on the surface as something being done to us, as from the outside.

Merely being acted upon—being objectified—hints at coercion, manipulation, feeble dependency, indignity. As if we are to be kept in chains and, moreover, taught to love those chains—lovely as they may appear, but chains, nonetheless. As if we are merely utensils in a cosmic drama. As if we are chess pieces on a divine board game. Continue reading “In Praise of Ordinary Days” →

Three Ways Faith and Spiritual Leaders are Shaping Movements Today

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Faith ResistanceBy Carinne Luck, originally posted on the Minds of the Movement, an ICNC blog on the people and power of civil resistance (June 18, 2019)

Throughout history, civil resistance movements in North America have included preachers, healers, spiritual leaders, and creative artists who have helped to rouse the public out of complacency while providing nourishment, inspiration, and consolation to those on the frontlines of the struggle. They have served as living proof that another world is possible even while reckoning with the realities of the world here and now.

Many of today’s movements are no different, serving as both home and laboratory to a new, and newly rediscovered, generation of leaders and practitioners. Despite devastating economic inequalities and the stubborn staying power of white supremacy, corporate greed, and militarism, these individuals are helping make movements more sustainable, impactful, and caring spaces. Through their largely unrecognized and often undervalued work, they are shaping the contours of civil resistance strategy itself, as well as how strategies are brought to life. Continue reading “Three Ways Faith and Spiritual Leaders are Shaping Movements Today” →

A Fool’s Economics

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

DollarBy Ched Myers

*Originally posted on the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 31, 2016 (Luke 12:13-21)

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” →

Wild Lectionary: Trembling Birds

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment
3787980398_cbf23f841c_b
 Pigeon Pair by Hal Trachenberg, Creative Commons

Proper 13(18) C

Hosea 11:1-11

By Laurel Dykstra

Today’s lectionary passage from Hosea is a potent cocktail that mixes parental love and anger with political violence and nature imagery. More broadly and more problematically, the prophet’s oracles:

  • imagine religious fidelity and commitment to justice, as sexual fidelity within patriarchy
  • conflate non-monogamy and sex commerce
  • assume that sexual violence (reparative rape) is a husband’s prerogative
  • equate military violence and invasion with divine judgement.

Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Trembling Birds” →

Named and Claimed By God

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized3 Comments
2019-07Jul-21 Oscars Baptism_0060
Photo by Chris Baker Evens

Katie Aikins is pastor of Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia. She and her wife Heather Bargeron are parents to their adopted 20-month-old son Oscar Emmanuel Aikins-Bargeron.  Katie preached this sermon on the occasion of Oscar’s baptism on July 21.

Baptism without the church, without the community of faith, would make no sense. One of the promises we make as parents is to raise our child in the community of faith.

This Heather and I know: That though we will make our promises to Oscar and to this church to raise him to follow in the way of Jesus Christ, to show love and justice, to resist oppression and evil, we also know that alone, we as parents will not be enough for Oscar to live into his full calling and identity as a child of God. The community of faith —the place where we are practicing resisting evil together, where we are growing together in our practices of justice and love – this is the context in which baptism unfolds in its meaning and fruitfulness.  Continue reading “Named and Claimed By God” →

Wild Lectionary: Swimming in the Wastestream

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment
for wild lectionary.jpeg
Photo credit: Laurel Dykstra

Proper 12(7) C

By Lini Hutchings

O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the One who is making the heavens and the earth
and to the One who comes in solidarity to heal all division,
and to the One who sustains us in the Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Swimming in the Wastestream” →

You Must Be Re-Natured

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Bellwether1By Kyle Mitchell

I work on a farm and do a lot of farm-based education with youth. One of my weekly joys right now is walking the farm and leading kids on a tasting tour. We try carrots, sorrel, sugar snap peas, mint, cucumbers, blue borage flowers – which taste like cucumbers oddly enough. I point to a potato plant and ask kids to guess what the plant is. They guess – An apple plant? Tomato? Lettuce? When I dig down with the garden fork and begin to pull up on the plant, I can barely hold in my excitement. I know the squeals and gasps that will shortly ensue when they realize that, “it’s potatoes!” “Can we eat them?” Wait, no, we need to cook them first, I think? Mental note for later, “Google ‘can you eat raw potatoes’”. Continue reading “You Must Be Re-Natured” →

A Fast For Peace

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Kings BayAn Announcement from the Kings Bay Plowshares 7:

Hiroshima Day August 6th through Nagasaki Day August 9th in solidarity with the KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES 7

A FAST FOR PEACE
in defense of life and against nuclear weapons.

 

We suggest the following calendar:
Monday Aug 5:         Arrive
Tuesday Aug 6:        8am-10am Fast/Vigil at Kings Bay Submarine base
Wednesday Aug 7:   Fast/Vigil at Brunswick, GA courthouse, beginning at 8:00 a.m.
Thursday August 8:  Fast/Vigil at sites in Brunswick, GA
Friday August 9:       Fast/Vigil at Kings Bay Submarine Base
Saturday Aug 10:     Depart Continue reading “A Fast For Peace” →

The Only Version of Heaven my God Has Given Me

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

DungyAn excerpt from The Sun Magazine‘s 2018 interview with poet and professor Camille Dungy.

I am a Christian who is sad that it is often difficult for me to say that I am a Christian. I believe in what I understand to be the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ: Love one another, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Justice and care and dangerous, radical kindness — I believe in all that. But I don’t believe that there is just one “right” Church. And I don’t believe in waiting to go to heaven to get my due…I’m going to fight for my due here and now, and for my daughter’s due. This is the only version of heaven that my God has given me, so this is where I am going to do my work. Continue reading “The Only Version of Heaven my God Has Given Me” →

Mary and Martha

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

Mary-Martha-Lazarus.jpgBy Laurel Dykstra, on Luke 10:38-42

*Note: this Radical Discipleship classic was originally posted in July 2016.

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” →