By Jim Perkinson, a sermon for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (pictured above) in Detroit, Michigan (July 21, 2024)

As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things (Mk 6:34).

⁴ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ⁵ “Go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord: “Would you build me a house to dwell in? ⁶ I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling (2 Sam 7:4-6).

Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel (2 Sam 7:8b).

So, where are we today—in reality, in the text?  In our reality, it is simple, at one level. Apocalypse. An ending of the world as we have known it.  Not an absolute end, but a proximate and particular end.  “What” is ending?  Ah, the big question.  I would say: in a word, civilization.  Not the earth. Not the universe. But our species’ delusion about who we are on the planet.  And already I am deep in it, so let’s back up.

It is interesting in the texts today.  Jesus calls the disciples to go away to a desert-place (Mk 6:31).  Why? As we read in the lectionary offerings two weeks ago, he has gone home to Nazareth and been threatened with death (Mk 6:1-6; Lk 4:16-30). Sent the twelve out for a first foray into . . . . what? Actually, into gift-economy reciprocity and sabbath-sharing, with the very people—peasant small farmers—they are sent to (Mk 6:7-13). They don’t take a credit card and carry-on luggage with themselves.  They depend upon the people they are sent to.  Gift economy hospitality.  (Which, hint, hint, in this [biblical] tradition is characteristic of animal-herding lifestyle, not city-dwelling self-concern and opportunism. Pastoral nomad Abraham offering a meal inside his tent-flaps to three “wanderers” that show up at his “door” not urban Sodom’s exploitation and abuse of strangers as we read in the archetypal story in Genesis of the lifestyle difference between sheep-herders and city-dwellers.) (Gen 18:1-15 vs Gen 18:16-19:29).

Continue reading “A House of Cedar or a Tent of Hide: Why Does It Matter?” →

An open letter from faith leaders to the administration of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

June 26, 2024

President Espy, Provost Clabo, and the WSU Board of Governors,

We, the undersigned faith leaders from varied traditions and denominations, write to express our profound concern and condemnation regarding the police brutality against students and community members that occurred on May 30. A number of us have been present to the Wayne State encampment and others similar. They strike us as embodying beloved community, listening and learning gatherings of conscience. Indeed we are taught by them.

We understand the demands of the students – the divestment from war and weapons manufacturing – to be a good and just pursuit for which you should take pride as university leadership. Instead, you authorized the deployment of riot police and the use of brutal force against members of our communities, including the violent removal of a woman’s hijab, a grave violation within the Islamic faith.

Continue reading “We Are Taught By Them” →

At the end of this month, RadicalDiscipleship.net will be joining an interfaith coalition in D.C. to take on Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest Zionist organization in the country. For those unfamiliar, Christian Zionism is a far-right fascist ideology that is not only antisemitic and a majority force responsible for the ongoing U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide being waged on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, it is aggressively white-and-Christian supremacist in a way that is actively working within the highest places of power in our nation to strip us all of our rights, safety and freedoms here domestically as well. In the face of the full court press these far-right Christian extremists are waging, we will be participating in the largest interreligious protest for Palestine. Please consider joining us July 28-30 if you can! Both in-person and online options are available.

For more details, join this mass informational call hosted by Christians for a Free Palestine tonight (9amPT/12pmET): https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/events/iapinfo2

To register to join in this action in some capacity, click here: interfaithforpalestine.com/takeaction 

RD contributor Cindy Wallace has a new book out about Simone Weil, who was raised as an agnostic by Jewish parents, had mystical encounters with Christ in her late 20s and died in England at 34, after contracting tuberculosis and refusing to eat more than those who were resisting Hitler’s regime in France. This is an excerpt from a little interview Cindy did with Canadian Mennonite. Check out Cindy’s book here.

Over and over again, in moments where there’s no room to talk about religion in public life or what it looks like to choose self-sacrifice over comfort, to choose to take up our crosses and follow Jesus in a literal way—different generations of writers find a conversation partner in Weil.

She doesn’t give all the answers, but she is provocative and countercultural enough to makes us think, ‘Oh maybe business as usual isn’t the best way to live a full and fruitful life.’ She’s a conversation partner for questions about what it looks like to live a countercultural life that’s still open to beauty, goodness and joy.

Thanks to the WEB Dubois Center at UMass Amherst for posting this on Juneteenth.

An offering from Lina AlSharif, a Palestinian poet living in Qatar. Penned in 2019. Even more relevant in this moment.

What does it really mean to pray in this season of resisting settler-colonial violence? This is how Walter Wink articulated it in Engaging the Powers.

When we pray, we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged in an act of co-creation, in which one little sector of the universe rises up and becomes translucent, incandescent, a vibratory center of power that radiates the power of the universe. History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being. If this is so, then intercession, far from being an escape from action, is a means of focusing for action and of creating action. By means of our intercessions we veritably cast fire upon the earth and trumpet the future into being.