Advent Song
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”
Merry Christmas
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”
Wild Lectionary: Mary, Hildegard and the anawim
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”
An Alternative Seminary Experience
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”
Learning from Laughter and the Trees: The Gift in Their Voices
By 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”
Sermon: Dwelling in the Dark
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”
Cradles Unsuppressed
By Bill Ramsey
December’s first day dawns,
presenting an unexpected sketch
between my beaten path’s margin
and a recently resurgent river’s bank.
A patch of park is neatly etched
beneath a tree’s elongated umbra.
The tall rusty cypress unknowingly
casts a silhouette of a Christmas tree. Continue reading “Cradles Unsuppressed”
Prayer: There is a moment between sleep and awakening
There is a moment between sleep and awakening
When the dream world makes itself available
For us to deeply remember
What it is we need to know
Original instructions
On how to be human
On how to be in creation
On how to risk
On how to care for one another
On how to find joy
Continue reading “Prayer: There is a moment between sleep and awakening”
Third Sunday of Advent
