Category: Theological Animation

Never Give Up: Faith as Tenacious Agitation

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological AnimationLeave a comment

By Ched Myers

Note: This post is part of a series of weekly comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during Year C, 2016. [Image below: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes/Associated Press, found at http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/fergusonfridays-black-freedom-fighters-men-interview-black-women-front-line-ferguson/.]

ferguson

This Sunday’s gospel lesson is the second of two key stories about “determined prayer” in Luke. As is so characteristic of the third evangelist, this vignette about a woman’s unflagging insistence on being heard corresponds to an earlier one about similar importunate behavior by a man (see Luke 11:5-13). That text came up in the middle of the summer (see Wes and Sue’s comments on “shameless audacity” and its relevance to the Black Lives Matter movement here). Each story has two “onstage” characters (a protagonist and antagonist), with the Divine “comparison” well offstage. But while the earlier object lesson took place in a village setting and concerned neighborly hospitality and mutual aid among social equals, our text for October 16 takes place in the city and pits social opposites; it pertains to the public vocation of tenacious advocacy for justice. These twinned stories together articulate how deeply connected the personal and political were for Luke, and should be for us. Continue reading “Never Give Up: Faith as Tenacious Agitation” →

To Reconcile and Restore

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

mertonFrom Gordon Oyer’s paraphrase of how Thomas Merton would answer the question “What and where is this Word of God?:”

The word of God is a breakthrough into our real, human experience, and it speaks not just from the Bible but from deep within us, within each of our neighbors, within all of creation. It offers us the means to tear down the false identities we have constructed to fit in with a society rooted in ego-centric self-interest. If we choose to engage it, this word engages us with questions about who we really are, about what person it is who seeks dialogue with the word. If we continue to engage its questions, the word of God will ultimately reconcile and restore us to our true self, to the human community, and to the great and mysterious ground of all being from which our core essence originated.

Prayers of the People

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

prayersBy Heather Robertson-Ross, Salal and Cedar

The earth is yours, oh Divine Creator, and everything in it. You have made us stewards of your creation so that it may nourish us, clothe us, shelter us, and heal us. Your wisdom lives in it, and communicates to us if only our ears are open to hear, and are hearts are able to discern. Your wisdom and ever present spirit nourishes us, like the clear stream nourishes the trees at her banks, so that we might produce good fruits of the spirit to nourish other. Continue reading “Prayers of the People” →

Some

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological AnimationLeave a comment

bread.jpgBy Daniel Berrigan

Some stood up once, and sat down.
Some walked a mile, and walked away.

Some stood up twice, then sat down.
“It’s too much,” they said.
Some walked two miles, then walked away.
“I’ve had it,”they cried,

Someone stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for fools,
they were taken for being taken in

Some walked and walked and walked-
they walked the earth,
they walked the waters,
they walked the air.

“Why do you stand?” they said, and
“Why do you walk?”

“Because of the children,” they said, and
“Because of the heart, and
because of the bread.”

“Because the cause is
the heart’s beat, and
the children born, andthe risen bread.”

 

Have Mercy on Us!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

lepersBy Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson

The final leg of the journey to Jerusalem begins with this week’s gospel (Lk 17.11-19). Alert readers, though, will note that Jesus and the disciples have not gotten very far. At the very beginning, Luke tells us that “they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him” (9.52). Now, eight chapters later, Luke says, “On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the midst (Gk, dia meson, misleadingly translated by NRSV as “between”) of Samaria and Galilee.” Like the Israelites in the wilderness, they seem to be going in circles in the land north of Judea. Perhaps this is a sly reference to the disciples, like their Israelite ancestors, lacking the faith that the journey they are on will lead to the place of God’s abundant provision. Indeed, as we heard last week, the disciples had just demanded of Jesus, “Increase our faith!” (17.5). Continue reading “Have Mercy on Us!” →

Frank Talk with Ruby Sales

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

ruby-salesSome highlights from Krista Tippett’s recent interview with Ruby Sales: 

I think that one of the things that theologies must have is hindsight, insight, and foresight. That is complete sight.

—————-

I really think that one of the things that we’ve got to deal with is that how is it that we develop a theology or theologies in a 21st-century capitalist technocracy where only a few lives matter? How do we raise people up from disposability to essentiality? Continue reading “Frank Talk with Ruby Sales” →

Beyond Christian Duty Into the Way of Jesus

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

treeBy Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson

Many vivid images are squeezed into this week’s Gospel passage from Luke (17.5-10), including one of the oddest in all the gospels: a tree being “planted” in the sea. Understanding this puzzling passage is even more challenging because the lectionary cuts it out of context. We need to start by taking a step back to listen to what’s going on at this point in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Continue reading “Beyond Christian Duty Into the Way of Jesus” →

The Rich Man and Lazarus: Warning Tale and Interpretive Key to Luke

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation9 Comments

fyodorBy Ched Myers, on Luke 16:19-31 (19th Sunday after Pentecost)

Note: This post is part of a series of weekly comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during Year C, 2016. As was the case last week, this is a longer post, because of the importance of Luke 16 to those of us suffering from “Affluenza.” For a recording of a recent webinar Ched did on this gospel text, go here. [Right: Fyodor Bronnikov, “Lazarus at the rich man’s gate,” 1886.]

This Sunday’s gospel completes our journey through Luke 16. How rare it is that the lectionary allows a sustained look at Luke’s narrative argument! Last week’s text was Jesus’ subversive tale of the “defect-ive” discipleship of the beleaguered middle manager of a “filthy rotten system” (16:1-13). I read it as a poignant fable for those who would try to monkey-wrench the dominant economic system to provide a modicum of Jubilee justice for themselves and others.  The “paired” story of Lazarus and the Rich Man represents, in turn, a warning tale about the dark consequences of failing to deconstruct the systems of vast social and economic disparity that hold our world hostage. Continue reading “The Rich Man and Lazarus: Warning Tale and Interpretive Key to Luke” →

Love Must Win Out

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

weddingbelleisleIf anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
I John 4:20-21 (The Message Version)

A wedding homily preached by Tommy Airey for Eliisa & Peter Croce-Bojanic (right, September 18, 2016, on Belle Isle, Detroit, MI).
———————
God and people: you’ve got to love both. Sounds so simple. But the author of these sacred words from First John knew what an extreme challenge that this real, gritty, self-donating love presented. In fact, in the Gospel of John and all three letters that bear John’s name, there is only one ethical command provided for readers: to love. And because love is such a contested concept, because there are so many ideas floating around about what local and organic ingredients actually constitute love’s recipe, John holds up the cross of Jesus as the ultimate symbol: Continue reading “Love Must Win Out” →

Eucharistic Prayer

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

euchWritten by Salal and Cedar

May God be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up
Let us give thanks to God our Creator
It is right to give our thanks and praise

It is right in all times and in all places to thank and praise you Creator of all. We praise you here where the Fraser River meets the Salish Sea, where city and farm, wilderness and industry are side by side. We praise you at a time when the body of earth is broken again and again. Continue reading “Eucharistic Prayer” →