By Ken Sehested, the curator of prayerandpolitiks.org, an online journal at the intersection of spiritual formation and prophetic action
Last week I wrote a quick note to my friend Kyle, who gets as excited about baptism as I do, to share the news.
“We’re baptizing seven of our youth group this coming Sunday. Is it OK to brag about this?”
“Yes,” he responded. Continue reading “Getting Soaked: A Meditation on the Recovery of Baptismal Integrity”
By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
September 30, 2018 at Day House Catholic Worker
James 5:1-6
“Guess what Mommy? Cockroaches are awesome!!!” Isaac said to be right after school last week.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, they can hold their breath under water for a whole hour! (or at least 4 minutes) And they have a hard shell! Also, they took lady bugs into space where it was below 0 degrees and they were still alive. So lady bugs can live in space!!!”
It was with such joy and enthusiasm as if these bugs had super powers!
Continue reading “Sermon: Cockroaches are my superhero too?”
A litany for worship adapted from St. Francis’ “Canticle of the Sun” and related Scripture texts
By Ken Sehested
What is it you wish to know, oh mortal one?
Do you think you must ascend to the highest heaven or descend to the deepest pit?
Do you not know that Wisdom has pitched a tent in your midst?
Ask the four-legged, and they will mentor you, or the winged-of-air, and they will school you;
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
Who does not know that the Gracious Host has done this?
In the Blessed One’s reach is the heart of every creature, the breath of every living thing.
Brother Sun declares the Beloved’s glory. His voice goes out o’er all the earth, his words to every inhabited place.
Sister Moon and stars pour forth speech to brighten the night in splendor and counsel.
Now hear the blessed promise of old, made new in your hearing:
May you go out in joy and be led back in peace, the hills bursting in song, the trees in applause!˙
30 years in and Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus(1988) is more relevant than ever. This week’s commentary homes in on Mark 9:38-50.
The arrogance in John’s objection lies in its attempt to erect boundaries around the exercise of compassionate ministry “in Jesus’ name.” He equates exorcism with the accrual of status and power, and wishes to maintain a monopoly over it. This is especially ludicrous in light of the disciples’ lack of exorcism power, which we have just witnessed (9:14-29). But more importantly, it cuts directly against the grain of “receiving” in 9:37, an exhortation to inclusion, not exclusivity. On top of all this, John’s censure is based on the fact that the stranger “was not following us.” The disciples want to be followed, not followers. Never was a “royal we” less appropriate! Continue reading “Practice, Not “The Right Name””
An excerpt from Tommy Airey’s recent release Descending Like A Dove: Adventures in Decolonizing Evangelical Christianity.
A few weeks into 2016, the Flint water crisis went viral. Tap water was poisoned with high levels of lead and bacteria. As complaints from residents came pouring in, city and state officials did nothing to change the situation. Just denial. For almost two whole years.
A month after the crisis made the headlines of every major newspaper in the world, Flint native and retired autoworker Claire McClinton drove sixty miles south to visit a group of us organizing for clean and affordable water in Detroit. These were Claire’s opening remarks:
We send you greetings from the occupied city of Flint. You can go to the gas station and get lead-free gas. You can go to the hardware store and get lead-free paint. Even a capitalist knows the dangers of lead. But we can’t go to our sink and get lead-free water. I’ve got PTSD. In fact, everybody’s got it if you care about humanity.
Renewing Corporate Memory for our Ecological Dark Night
Proper 21(26) B
19th Sunday after Pentecost
By Jason Wood
Psalm 124
One of the things I’ve struggled the most with in singing contemporary worship songs is the almost exclusive focus on “me.” If you grew up like I did in a variety of evangelical churches, we tended to sing a lot of songs about how “I could sing of your love forever,” or how God “set me free,” or “here I am to worship.” And I really don’t mean to bash that, because there’s a lot that’s beautiful about reminding ourselves of the deeply personal and intimate love of God. The Christian faith proclaims: God does love me, and because of that I can live a transformed life. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Singing to Remain”
By Will O’Brien, executive director of Project H.O.M.E. in Philly and the curator of the Alternative Seminary
*This Saturday, September 29, the Alternative Seminary and a group of Mennonite pastors are hosting a gathering in Philadelphia to deepen understanding and discern a call to respond to the Doctrine of Discovery
Of the many crimes perpetrated through history in the name of an imperialized Christ, one of the most pernicious is also one of least known.
The “Doctrine of Discovery” is a philosophical and legal framework dating to the 15th century that gave “Christian” governments in Europe the moral and legal rights to invade and seize indigenous lands and dominate indigenous peoples. For more than five centuries, this doctrine and the laws based upon it have legalized the theft of land, labor, and resources from across the world – crimes that continue to this day. Continue reading “Understanding & Responding to the Doctrine of Discovery”
Oh God, I wake up to weather
in this world you created whole and intricate
and I think how it matters;
How sun, season, gray or blue
can turn my heart. Such a little
and a cosmic thing.
And I ponder that in a world of agony,
small things—heat, cold, fleas, dust,
broken appliances—
cause me more emotion than
true tragedies and losses;
earthquakes and floods
elsewhere.
Sometimes I live so small. Continue reading “Prayer for a Blue Day”
30 years in and Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus(1988) is more relevant than ever. This week’s commentary homes in on Mark 9:30-37.
They next reach the home in Capernaum. That the community would stop in here on its way south, specifically for instruction on internal matters of power and discipline, is significant, for Capernaum was the center of gravity for the first part of the Gospel (Mk 1:21; 2:1). It is here that Jesus really begins to unmask his disciples’ true aspirations to power. Not only do they not understand where Jesus is trying to lead them; they are headed full speed in the opposite direction. Mark contrives the episode for maximal irony: the disciples are caught debating who was greatest among them “on the way” (twice, 9:33b, 34a)! For Jesus’ response, Mark sets a familiar stage: the twelve are called (3:14; 4:10; 6:7; 10:32; 14:17) and Jesus takes his seat (4:1; 12:41; 13:3). The narrative signals: Pay attention to the teaching that follows! Continue reading “Radical Status-Reversal”
18th Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 20 (25)B
Proverbs 31:10-31
By Caitlin Reilley Beck
A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:10-11
This passage makes it clear who is writing Scripture and who isn’t. It reads like the vision board of the patriarchy, and capitalism for that matter, though it doesn’t originate in this economic system. According to this reading, the dream is to have a wife who will do a thousand different things – truly she is one who works to “have it all.” Except, surprise, surprise, she only gets “a share in the fruit of her hands” (31:31). If this is the Bible’s job posting for being a wife in a straight, monogamous marriage, it could use some workshopping because it is not very appealing. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: What is a good wife anyways?”
By 
Radical Discipleship 