Wild Lectionary: Wild Vine

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

13-grist-vineEaster 5(B)
By Matthew Syrdal

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you… My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.                                     John 15:1-8

The invitation is clear, the summons real, in this mashal, this rabbinical parable today as it was then. May we let it sink deeply into the soil of the world in our hearts. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Wild Vine” →

Recovery from the Dominant Culture

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

OaklandFrom the work of Oakland’s Seminary of the Street, a school for the training of love warriors working toward the transformation of their communities by embodying God’s love in the world. From 2013-2015, they ran an experimental “Recovery from the Dominant Culture” 12-step group. 

 

RECOVERY FROM THE DOMINANT CULTURE
PREAMBLE TO THE TWELVE STEPS

We are a fellowship of people in life recovery who share our experience, strength, and hope in order to be liberated into full aliveness. We believe that our social ills are perpetuated through the manufactured but unspoken cooperation of each of us and that changing our own ways of being can catalyze change in our communities. We do this by working the twelve steps, which teach us the countercultural practices of humility and surrender; honest vulnerability and confession, verbal and living amends as well as forgiveness; and humble service. Because we believe that we cannot fully recover without contributing to the healing of the culture that made us sick, we have modified the twelfth step to include that work. Continue reading “Recovery from the Dominant Culture” →

How Do You Tell the Kids that Grandma Is in Jail for Resisting Nuclear Weapons?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Just Peacemaking, UncategorizedLeave a comment

H14_Ploughshare-activist-arrest-on-US-submarine-base3By Frida Berrigan. Re-posted from truth-out.org.

“Our grandma is in jail,” Madeline tells a woman wrestling a shopping cart at Target.

“She went over a war fence and tried to make peace,” Seamus adds helpfully. “They arrested her, and she is in jail now.”

“Where?” the woman asks, looking from them to me in disbelief and maybe pity.

“We don’t remember,” the kids say, suddenly done with their story and ready to make passionate pleas for the colorful items in the dollar section over the woman’s shoulder. Continue reading “How Do You Tell the Kids that Grandma Is in Jail for Resisting Nuclear Weapons?” →

Earth Day – The link between Easter and Pentecost

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Sabbath Economics, Theological Animation, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

VenturaBeachBy Ken Sehested

Pacem, pacem, pacem in terries

Easter’s focus is always sharper when allied with Earth Day. We sing, properly, of being wayfaring strangers. “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (Deuteronomy 26:5) is among the oldest testimonies of fate and faith. An alternate translation—“A Syrian ready to perish was my ancestor”—brings added poignancy to the text.

We are indeed strangers; but not foreigners. In common usage these two words seem similar. Biblically speaking, though, the theological difference could not be greater. Continue reading “Earth Day – The link between Easter and Pentecost” →

Act Together…By Moving Upstream

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

EcoFaithBy Robyn Hartwig, for EcoFaith Recovery’s Practices for Awakening Leadership

Community Dimension: We nurture relational cultures, identifying common interests and public issues affecting our communities, so that we are ready to act together to promote justice and healing for the whole community of creation.

From childhood through adulthood, the faith communities I have belonged to over the course of my life have been good at certain kinds of “acting together.” We are good at worship which is certainly a kind of public action. We are great at potlucks. Jello salads and hot dishes used to be some of the favorite offerings when I was growing up, but with well over a hundred people having participated in Simply in Season small groups within my current faith community, salads with locally grown vegetables are now much more common. We are also great at collecting socks, coats, care kits, blankets, discretionary funds, and food for those in need. We collected over 10,000 pounds of food during one Lenten food drive! Continue reading “Act Together…By Moving Upstream” →

Philly: More Than Just Sports Hype

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Holy FoolWe are fired up for what is coming to Philadelphia this summer, after the NBA playoffs leaves town.  Holy Fool Arts is organizing its 7th residency of the Carnival de Resistance from July 24th through August 5th. Weekend productions (which weave storytelling, dance theater, live music, and circus arts) will be taking place at Arch St. United Methodist Church. 

CdR is rooted in a prophetic Tradition of many compelling strands.  This is how these holy fools describe it on their website: 

The Carnival de Resistance is made up of a diverse group of people who’s political persuasion and theology covers a spectrum of beliefs. The following are not indicative of the overall “message” of the Carnival, but are simply some of the historical movements, artistic traditions, fields of study and teachers that have influenced us.
Continue reading “Philly: More Than Just Sports Hype” →

Wild Lectionary: Sheep are not sexy

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

10599554_10152591711770351_5785986799088242268_nFourth Sunday of Easter (B)
John 10: 1-18
By Matthew W. Humphrey

Sheep are not sexy.

Many biblical commentators struggle with language for this most archetypal figure, oftentimes casting them in unfortunate ways.  In a brief review of the 9 commentaries on the Gospel of John, which contains the reading this week, I counted no less than 6 which noted that sheep were “stupid,” “dumb,” or “dirty.”  (And, equally surprising, all noted how the role of Shepherd in the ancient world was one of ill repute.)  Perhaps that is correct, but if sheep are dumb it is in the same ways as you and I.  Namely: they seek out their own self-preservation, reacting to circumstances and perceived threats, often making rash decision based on incomplete knowledge.  Sheep lack depth perception, meaning they see shadows and pools of water as mysterious threats to be avoided.  (I don’t know about you, but I often lack vision too.)

Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Sheep are not sexy” →

Poor People’s Campaign: It’s Time to Resist and Rise Above

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

PPCSign up now for the Poor People’s Campaign, a forty-day moral revival starting the day after Mother’s Day.  Forty states are organizing.  Throw in with the movement today!

From the Poor People’s Campaign website–a look at the movement in historical context.

Why a Poor People’s Campaign?

Just a year before his assassination, at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff retreat in May 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

I think it is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights…[W]hen we see that there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power, then we see that for the last twelve years we have been in a reform movement…That after Selma and the Voting Rights Bill, we moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution…In short, we have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society.

Continue reading “Poor People’s Campaign: It’s Time to Resist and Rise Above” →

Telling my own story

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Race, Identity, and History, Uncategorized2 Comments

kateriBy Kateri Boucher

Last year for my Sociology senior thesis, I chose to research the interactions between two environmental justice (EJ) organizations in a majority-Black city with a rich and complicated history of EJ work. I had made connections with folks in the EJ movement when I had lived there for a few weeks the previous summer, and I figured that studying these two organizations would be a perfect way to both learn more and get involved in work that I was drawn to. I did some background research, and then traveled to the city for a week to do interviews with members of both organizations. After documenting my findings, I submitted the paper and got a near-perfect grade on the first draft. I was proud of my work, and I was rewarded and praised for it. Continue reading “Telling my own story” →