A Storm Blowing From Paradise…

On June 18, 2015June 25, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed Discipleship2 Comments

Pope Francis delivers his speech in St. Peter's square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience Wednesday, June 26, 2013.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) — Pope Francis delivers his speech in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican during his weekly general audience Wednesday, June 26, 2013.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By Ched Myers (4 Pentecost: MK 4:35-41)

Note: This is an ongoing series of Ched’s brief comments on the Markan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year B, 2015.

This Sunday’s gospel text is the poignant story of Jesus and his disciples caught in a storm at sea, which threatens to drown them. It is a profound, archetypal scenario that Mark narrates twice (again in 6:45-52). Because today is the day that Pope Francis’ historic encyclical on climate crisis is being published, I will focus on how this appeal addresses the storm that is Climate Catastrophe. A month from now I will return to Mark’s sea stories for Pentecost 8 (on which day the Lectionary inexplicably hops over the second boat journey in its piecemeal gospel selection, which we’ll rectify!). Continue reading “A Storm Blowing From Paradise…” →

Learning from Laughter: Beside the Beaver’s Dam

On June 2, 2015May 31, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

“I love nature. Nature is cool. The forest is my classroom. The earth is my school. Trees are my teachers. Animals are my friends. And on this school all life depends.” Joe Reilly, I Love Nature

Isaac tiptoes through the forest, climbing over fallen branches and stopping to smell each flower. We follow behind delighting in the comfort he finds in the place. Down the hill and around the bend of the stream, we walk the deer’s path honoring their daily wisdom and knowledge of this wood. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter: Beside the Beaver’s Dam” →

When they turn off our water..

On May 19, 2015May 20, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

Written by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann for the Detroit Peace Community’s Stations of the Cross. This week the City of Detroit has resumed shut offs to 30,000 homes.

When they turn off our water, prohibiting us from cleaning our clothes or our bodies, they strip us of our dignity.

When they turn off our water, leaving us unable to care for medical needs and sewage backs up, they strip us of our health.
Continue reading “When they turn off our water..” →

The Only Path to Resurrection

On May 15, 2015May 1, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Repost from The Abundant Table Farm Project–a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Flight to Arras (1969):

Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas. Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness. I take it for granted that to create a tree I condemn a seed to rot. If the first act of resistance comes too late it is doomed to defeat. But it is, nevertheless, the awakening of resistance. Life may grow from it as from a seed.

Keeping Quiet

On May 14, 2015May 15, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
Continue reading “Keeping Quiet” →

The Pedagogy of Place: The Whisper of the Wind

On May 6, 2015May 4, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Tommy Airey, the final post in a series about how we learn from our location about what is truly Divine
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In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Toni Morrison

Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side…
Mark 6:45

The wind is deceptive in Detroit. When it is at your back, you forget it’s even there. On the bike, on my way to the church, the electronic marquee at the Prince Valley Supermercado registers 25 degrees. I doubt it. I’m traveling fast and I’m working up a sweat. But at the end of the work day, trekking west back to the block, I have a stubborn epiphany, once again, that the wind was there all along. Now it’s 40 out, but the wind is blustering my face off, cracking my lips into a pot pie crust. It’s virtually impossible to complete the journey without cussing. A lot.
Continue reading “The Pedagogy of Place: The Whisper of the Wind” →

The Pedagogy of Place: Psalms & Seinfeld

On April 29, 2015April 29, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

By Tommy Airey, the 2nd post of a 3-part series about how we learn from our location about what is truly Divine

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.
Jerry Seinfeld

When I met Reggie on a Tuesday morning a few weeks ago, he was beaming a world-class smile. He was copping a holy swagger. After his second cup of coffee, he hollered at me from his seat 20 feet away: “is it the 7^th?” His curiosity was cut off by another guest asking me for a cup of hot tea with sugar. Reggie flew into a spontaneous fit of rage. Shortly thereafter, he approached me to apologize for the outburst: he just needed a confirmation of the date, he explained, so he could resume his daily reading of the Psalms.
Continue reading “The Pedagogy of Place: Psalms & Seinfeld” →

Word and World Land and Water School

On April 14, 2015April 13, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

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An invitation from Word and World

On March 20, 2015March 20, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

Dear Friend of Word and World,

The stakes of climate change and climate injustice are too high to stay hunkered down in silos of race, class, religion, or seemingly disparate justice issues. The times necessitate following the lead of communities of color organizing for the health of land, water, and community. On July 15-19, 2015, Word and World will host a Land and Water school, a local/national/international collaboration putting down roots in Detroit to build and energize movement around land, water, sustainability, and environmental justice. Continue reading “An invitation from Word and World” →

A Prophetic Imagination: Right Here, Right Now

On March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

By Tommy Airey

…they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
Micah 4:3-4

*This is the fourth installment in a series of seven pieces on Micah posted every Wednesday during Lent.
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As we travel the Lenten road of death and resurrection, we continue to inventory both the personal and prophetic. The more we pursue the personal the more we realize that the addiction, abuse and alienation in our homes are symptoms of the wider systems in our world—the social, economic, political and religious structures that organize and, ultimately, pulverize our lives.
Continue reading “A Prophetic Imagination: Right Here, Right Now” →

Radical Discipleship

Category: Watershed Discipleship