By 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”
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:
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”
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”
By 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”
An 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”
An 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”
By 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”
Proper 11(16)
Genesis 18:1-10a
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42
By Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie
When I first looked at these readings, it was the day when the UN High Commission on Refugees released the latest figures. “An unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 25.9 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.” The agency also reported that “There are also millions of stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.”
Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Remembering to listen in turbulent times”
By Shelby Smith
On June 8th I was baptized by my home church, the Wilderness Way Community in Portland, OR. I was asked to reflect on why I was choosing to be baptized.
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”—Micah 6:8
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”—Phil 4:13
The Bible and its legacy is full of contradictions and conflicts and also beauty and strength. In 2014, when I came to Wilderness Way I found myself feeling dry and broken. That feeling was an extended phase that continued for some time. I had a relationship with God but Jesus and Christianity was completely off the table. Except the occasional times when I would pick up the Bible, read some passages—and feel disgusted or bored or confused and walk away again. I wrestled with a lot of shoulds, anger and fears. I struggled to do justice, to love kindness and the walk humbly with God. I struggled acutely with all three of these. Continue reading “This Baptism”
Radical Discipleship 