By Ric Hudgens
Walking round my neighborhood
this autumn morning
I recognized a hundred homes
in my sight and on my mind
where if I knocked on the door
there would be welcome and a meal
shared from the heart of their hospitality. Continue reading “Giving Thanks 2017”
By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
I was terrified for Isaac’s first day of school. Terrified he wouldn’t go. That we would see his tremendous stubbornness arise. Somehow, we made it. The thrill of the newness got him there. I woke up on Day 2 even more worried. The newness had passed. The daily reality would start setting in and the idea of staying home all day to play with me and Cedar would be hard to leave. Erinn had gotten an attachment to her bike so that they could ride the 3 miles to school each day. We hoped that the excitement of biking would help and that the exercise would help him with the long days of sitting and focus. But by Day 2, the excitement of the bike wasn’t enough. We started hearing “I won’t go.” I kept a smile on my face and a calm, upbeat attitude as my heart raced. I had been on the opposite side of his stubbornness and there had been times I had lost. It is a powerful force that only joy seems to be able to crack. We went downstairs with him kicking and screaming, stepped outside, and there…..was Grandpa. On his bike, helmet on, ready for a race. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter and the Trees: Loved by the Generations”
By Marcia Lee
As we walk during las posadas, we remember the journey of Mary and Joseph and their arrival to the manager in Bethlehem. The image of the manger was first brought to the Christmas celebration by St. Francis of Assisi. He said, “I want to do something that will recall the memory of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, to see with bodily eyes the inconveniences of his infancy, how he lay in the manger, and how the ox and ass stood by.” (From the accounts of St. Bonaventure).
St. Francis set up an empty manger in a cave. It is said that as St. Francis preached, a vision of the baby Jesus came into the manger. Prior to St. Francis, people did not include a manger scene in their Christmas celebration, but now we see them in churches and on the side of the road. Continue reading “The Manger”
By Kim Redigan
this advent i need a woman’s space.
a dark space.
a silent space.
somehow i’ve got to find my way
back to the womb of my own life.
this advent i need shawls and songs.
the sacramentals of ceramic mugs
and solitary candles
standing like sentries
throwing shadows on the darkened walls
of my winter heart. Continue reading “Advent Song”
By Langston Hughes (1930)
Merry Christmas, China
From the gun-boats in the river,
Ten-inch shells for Christmas gifts,
And peace on earth forever.
Merry Christmas, India,
To Gandhi in his cell,
From righteous Christian England,
Ring out, bright Christmas bell!
Ring Merry Christmas, Africa,
From Cairo to the Cape!
Ring Hallehuiah! Praise the Lord!
(For murder and rape.)
Ring Merry Christmas, Haiti!
(And drown the voodoo drums –
We’ll rob you to the Christian hymns
Until the next Christ comes.) Continue reading “Merry Christmas”
Advent 4B
Luke 1:26-38, 46b-55
You have deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places. Luke 1:52
By The Reverend Marilyn Zehr
I met her this afternoon when I went for a walk. She was throwing the ash from her woodstove onto the snowy road just outside her front door.
“Helps the cars get traction,” she said. “You’re the new minister aren’t you? Want to come in and see my Christmas decorations?” Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Mary, Hildegard and the anawim”
By Laura Newby of Twin-Cities-based Underground Seminary
*NOTE: Underground Seminary is now accepting applications for their 3rd cohort starting Fall 2018.
Christian leadership requires radical revisioning in the twenty-first century. The patriarchal, white, Western, capitalist framework that has dominated the globe the last few hundred years has lost credibility. Whiteness was birthed in conquest and theft, and has led to a global neoliberal system where everything is a commodity to be devoured for profit. The earth cries out on the brink of eco-systemic collapse.
This is an age for prophets and healers. Yet we are heirs of a religious tradition that is deeply complicit in our apocalyptic moment. What does it mean to serve as Christian leaders when Christianity has been the primary ideological center of this destructive colonial worldview? Do we realize the extent to which our ideas about leadership continue to be shaped by the chimera of whiteness? Continue reading “An Alternative Seminary Experience”
My mom died New Year’s Eve when I was 19. We knew it was coming so that Advent as we sang “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” each night before dinner, I paid attention to the voices. I knew them so intimately- the tones and harmonies that our four voices made together. It was the sound of home and I ached to imagine how our singing would change with just three voices. So each night I zeroed in on the sound of my mom’s voice- desperate to not let it be forgotten. Memorizing deep within, in hopes that whenever I sang “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” that I would always hear her voice within it.
Continue reading “Learning from Laughter and the Trees: The Gift in Their Voices”
By Brittany Caine-Conley (Rev. Smash)
Mark 13: 24-37
Blessing When the World is Ending by Jan Richardson
Look, the world is always ending, somewhere.
Somewhere the sun has come crashing down.
Somewhere it has gone, completely dark. Continue reading “Sermon: Dwelling in the Dark”
By 
Radical Discipleship 