God in a Grape; Spirit in a Sheep

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment
JPerk, Ilustration
Icon of the Unburnt Bush 

By Jim Perkinson, a homily on John 15:1-8 and Acts 8:26-40 preached last Sunday to the beloved community at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit

I begin by thanking four primary ancestors: my own Celtic, Nordic, Saxon, Frankish kin deep in the past before my people became sick with white supremacy; the African Eve of all of our origins whose black folk offspring of Detroit engaged survival efforts and justice demands and creation-in-spite-of that are nothing short of prophetic and wondrous; the Algonquian and Haudenosaunee communities of the Strait who lived by profound dignity and wisdom on the land and waters; and all the non-human denizens of this place themselves, whose continuous gift makes possible the breathing and loving and struggle of all of us sitting here. For all of them: gratitude. And indebtedness to live, worthy. Continue reading “God in a Grape; Spirit in a Sheep” →

It is a Word I Use Daily

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology2 Comments

bellFrom the opening paragraphs of bell hooks’ Understanding Patriarchy:

Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. Yet most men do not use the word “patriarchy” in everyday life. Most men never think about patriarchy—what it means, how it is created and sustained. Many men in our nation would not be able to spell the word or pronounce it correctly. The word “patriarchy” just is not a part of their normal everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences. I have been standing at podiums talking about patriarchy for more than thirty years. It is a word I use daily, and men who hear me use it often ask me what I mean by it. Continue reading “It is a Word I Use Daily” →

James Cone: The Scalpel & The Compress

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Cloud of Witnesses, RaceLeave a comment

James ConeThe reflections on Dr. James Cone’s life and teaching keep on pouring in from his former students.  This one is from Ken Sehested the curator of Prayer & Politiks.

I was traveling when the news of Dr. James Cone’s death was reported on Saturday. The first thought that came to mind was what seems to be a providential concurrence: His passing came two days after the opening of the National Peace and Justice Memorial, solemnizing the lynching in the US of some 4,400 black people, in 800 counties, between 1877 and 1950. Cone’s last book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, was recipient of this year’s Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Continue reading “James Cone: The Scalpel & The Compress” →

Wild Lectionary: Hermit Thrush Joy

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment
IMG_0466
Mature beech trees succumb to Beech Bark Disease

Easter 6(B)
John 15:9-17, Psalm 98

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

By The Reverend Marilyn Zehr

I stood on the crest of the hill today in that moment of barometric stillness between four days of spring sunshine and an impending afternoon rainstorm. And in the distance I heard the magical flute call of the hermit thrush. Its Mozart-rivaling melodic line threads its way through the forest now and on summer evenings. That wee bird, hard to spot but thrilling to hear, expresses creation’s joy.

Joy can be like that. It can be hard to spot in the midst of the world, as we know it. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Hermit Thrush Joy” →

He Once Told Me

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Race, UncategorizedLeave a comment

James ConeBy Marc Mullinax

James H. Cone, my professor at Union Seminary (NYC), died Saturday. He once told me something I think about every day. In September of 1987 he said: “Marc, you are too white and privileged ever to be a follower of Jesus. You’ll never ‘get‘ Jesus. You’ll use your privilege always to live apart from and out-of-earshot from the voices of the poor and underside of history. You’ll never be a Christian.” Of course, I immediately got reactive, and so missed his spot-on point.

He’s right, of course. And this one conversation and my internal dialogues ever since (”Is Cone right? Is Cone wrong?”) have done more for me than anything, in helping me to live into the kind of Christianity that might actually be worth something: less white, less privileged, less other-worldly.

Rest in peace, my life-long quarrel partner.

Marc Mullinax is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Faculty at Mars Hill University in western North Carolina. He is a member ofwww.circleofmercy.org. He is now at work on a project now called “The Tao of Justice: A New Interpretation of the Dao de Ching.”

Sermon: When You Find Yourself in Azotas

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized1 Comment

imagesBy Ric Hudgens
Easter 5, April 29, 2018
North Suburban Mennonite, Libertyville, Illinois

Acts 4:26-40

“But Philip found himself at Azotus.” (Acts 8:40a)

Philip was on the edge of the edge. What I mean is he was a Greek-speaking Jew in an Aramaic-speaking community that (because of their devotion to Jesus) was on the edge of a Jewish culture that existed as a despised, oppressed minority on the periphery of the Roman Empire. It might be more accurate to say that Philip was on the edge of the edge of the edge – of the edge.

Then the Spirit sent Philip into the wilderness. Far out. Over the edge. Continue reading “Sermon: When You Find Yourself in Azotas” →

Prayer from Prison

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Just Peacemaking, Subverting Empire, UncategorizedLeave a comment

marthaReflection by Martha Hennessy
Camden County Jail, Woodbine, Georgia Jail
Kings Bay Plowshares

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against the Lord’s anointed one. (Acts 4: 23-26)

We walked in the dark, stars overhead, with Orion at our shoulder and the waning moon rising late. Praise to you Dear God, for this gift of Eden. There were fire flies and croaking frogs to keep us company. And to think the logic of Trident is the obliteration of Creation. What did God whisper to my ancestors and then to me? Swords into Plowshares! We don’t mean to make everyone furious, but why turn our blood and hammers into spray paint and bolt cutters?* Why continue to set the desecrated altar to the false idols of war? We walked onto a military base that harbors the ultimate destruction, and we prayed for the power of a message, of a witness that could reach many ears; conversion of free will towards life- giving work and away from death dealing false constructs.

We strung up crime scene tape over the model missiles and over the door to the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic (SWFLANT), a place where war plans promise to take all we love. We wish to indict this war machine for what it is: immoral, illegal, and monstrous. Our foolish plans desire to see a world in which the suffering is lessened, our leaders begin to know what it means if they pull the nuclear trigger. Our action is an invitation to all for a change of heart that will bring us to true revolution.

*Editor’s note: the charging documents and the Magistrate referred to their possession of bolt cutters and spray paint, but ignored mention of the symbols of blood and hammers, which were used by the seven in their symbolic action.

A Disgraceful Race to the Bottom

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

GAORe-Posted from Marian Wright Edelman’s CHILD WATCH® COLUMN on the Children’s Defense Fund site.  For further reading, see the archive of her weekly writings.  

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last month, “K-12 Education: Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities,” reminds us once again that suspensions and expulsions continue at high rates and offer grave risks to students. The report by this federal monitoring agency reviews data from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection on school discipline trends across the country, provides a more in-depth look at discipline approaches and challenges faced in five states, and reviews past efforts by the Departments of Education and Justice to identify and address disparities and discrimination. Continue reading “A Disgraceful Race to the Bottom” →

James Cone: ¡Presente!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of Witnesses, Race1 Comment

James ConeLiberation theologian James Cone of Union Theological Seminary crossed over yesterday.  He was 81.  This is from his ground-breaking A Black Theology of Liberation (1970):

The Christological significance of Jesus is not an abstract question to be solved by intellectual debates among seminary professors. The meaning of Jesus is an existential question. We know who he is when our own lives are placed in a situation of oppression, and we thus have to make a decision for or against our condition.