Prayer for New Year’s Day

On January 1, 2018January 3, 2018 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

robin-bird-with-chicks-on-nest-367x544 By Dee Dee Risher

Oh God, I stand on the threshold
Of this new-old beginning day,
open throated as a small robin
huddles in the nest,
waiting with all my senses
for you, oh Spirit,
to fill me. Continue reading “Prayer for New Year’s Day” →

Fourth Sunday of Advent

On December 24, 2017November 17, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Advent 4

Advent Song

On December 22, 2017December 23, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Theological Animation, Uncategorized1 Comment

images By Kim Redigan

this advent i need a woman’s space.
a dark space.
a silent space.
somehow i’ve got to find my way
back to the womb of my own life.

this advent i need shawls and songs.
the sacramentals of ceramic mugs
and solitary candles
standing like sentries
throwing shadows on the darkened walls
of my winter heart. Continue reading “Advent Song” →

Wild Lectionary: Mary, Hildegard and the anawim

On December 21, 2017December 20, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized1 Comment

Advent 4B

Luke 1:26-38, 46b-55

You have deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places. Luke 1:52

By The Reverend Marilyn Zehr

I met her this afternoon when I went for a walk. She was throwing the ash from her woodstove onto the snowy road just outside her front door.

“Helps the cars get traction,” she said. “You’re the new minister aren’t you? Want to come in and see my Christmas decorations?” Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Mary, Hildegard and the anawim” →

An Alternative Seminary Experience

On December 20, 2017December 18, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

By Laura Newby of Twin-Cities-based Underground Seminary

*NOTE: Underground Seminary is now accepting applications for their 3rd cohort starting Fall 2018.

Christian leadership requires radical revisioning in the twenty-first century. The patriarchal, white, Western, capitalist framework that has dominated the globe the last few hundred years has lost credibility. Whiteness was birthed in conquest and theft, and has led to a global neoliberal system where everything is a commodity to be devoured for profit. The earth cries out on the brink of eco-systemic collapse.

This is an age for prophets and healers. Yet we are heirs of a religious tradition that is deeply complicit in our apocalyptic moment. What does it mean to serve as Christian leaders when Christianity has been the primary ideological center of this destructive colonial worldview? Do we realize the extent to which our ideas about leadership continue to be shaped by the chimera of whiteness? Continue reading “An Alternative Seminary Experience” →

Prayer: There is a moment between sleep and awakening

On December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

By Michael Boucher

There is a moment between sleep and awakening
When the dream world makes itself available
For us to deeply remember
What it is we need to know

Original instructions
On how to be human
On how to be in creation
On how to risk
On how to care for one another
On how to find joy

Continue reading “Prayer: There is a moment between sleep and awakening” →

Third Sunday of Advent

On December 17, 2017November 17, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Advent 3 — Bioregional Advent Wreath by Sarah Holst

Silent Night

On December 15, 2017December 1, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

By Ken Sehested

To move into a seemingly bleak and
ominous future requires laying hold
of stories from our past:

Stories to remind us that buoyancy
emerges from unseen places,
at unknowing moments,
in unpredictable ways,
beyond all calculation
and prognostication. Continue reading “Silent Night” →

¡Presente!

On December 13, 2017December 12, 2017 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation1 Comment

By Tommy Airey

May the God of peace sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thessalonians 5:23

Back in the 80’s and 90’s, vintage Advent passages about “the coming of our Lord” were infused with the rapture theology of my fresh Evangelical faith. I eagerly anticipated an End Times scenario when Jesus would triumphantly return to rescue us from the sin of the world. I remained vigilant as the Left Behind series of books and movies filled in the blanks of what this letter from Paul assured us would soon happen:

For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Our Evangelical pastors repressed our sexual imaginations, but they gave us full permission to fantasize about the End of the World. It was almost too much for my adolescent mind. I conjured images of mass disappearances, freeways suddenly littered with empty cars and football stadiums with fans flying into the heavens. Researching the historical context, though, zoomed me back down to earth. Literally. Continue reading “¡Presente!” →