This Sunday in Lancaster (PA). Stand with the Sisters!
Wild Lectionary: Seeking at the Essence
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 9 (14)
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
By Judith Doll
Water – the essence of life. It is absolutely necessary for all living things to survive and has been since the beginning of time.
Water – Where does it come from? From the rain, falling from the heavens; from the streams, the rivers, the lakes, the ocean, and the rivers under the earth accessible by wells. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Seeking at the Essence”
White Supremacy (Overt & Covert)
A helpful visual on race floating around social media (Source: Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005) “Building a Multi-Ethnic, Inclusive & Antiracist Organization-Tools for Liberation Packet for Anti-Racist Activists, Allies, & Critical Thinkers”):
Wild Lectionary: Reintegrating God in Everything
By Naim Edwards
(This post is a Bonus Wild Lectionary Reflection from the readings a month ago)
The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. Acts 17:24-25
Clifton and Vanessa named me Naim Kenyatta. We are the descendants of Black West Africans (and an Irishmen or two) taken from their homelands and transplanted to these so-called United States of America. Our lineage has been traced back twelve generations geographically all the way to Maryland and Virginia. Besides that, we understand that forced separation from our indigenous language and region has essentially vanquished all direct ties to Africa. My family has been here since before the U.S. was even the U.S. We are more American than America, yet most Black people continue to be treated like second class citizens. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Reintegrating God in Everything”
Happiness?
From Rebecca Solnit, excerpted from her essay “The Mother of All Questions” (Harper’s Magazine, October 2015):
Questions about happiness generally assume that we know what a happy life looks like. Happiness is understood to be a matter of having a great many ducks lined up in a row — spouse, offspring, private property, erotic experiences — even though a millisecond of reflection will bring to mind countless people who have all those things and are still miserable.
Continue reading “Happiness?”
A Value Worth Working For
An excerpt from an i-D.vice.com interview with author bell hooks:
What does the word ‘justice’ mean to you?
What we see in many cases is a white supremacy and what defines that as a political system is grave injustice. So justice has a value worth working for, worth sacrificing for. Dr Martin Luther King did talk a lot about justice, but I also think of a modern day activist like Bryan Stevenson, who is committed to trying to create justice for black children and black people who are unjustly imprisoned; he’s just amazing. Conversation is very connected to this, one of the books that we are looking at, at the institute, is called The Soul Making Room by Dee Dee Risher, who used to write for a Christian magazine called The Other Side. Her whole thesis is around the degree to which hospitality and willingness to engage the stranger aids us in efforts to end domination. I can’t think of a more appropriate moment to discuss this, as we going through such a rise in xenophobia and white supremacy at the moment. We need to talk about what it means to embrace people who are not like ourselves. Continue reading “A Value Worth Working For”
Pleasures of Children
The small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Men
Dear Little Men
By Laurel Dykstra, Salal and Cedar
Dear Little Men,
Thank you. I was completely baffled by the book that you sequel, Little Women. My mother loved it; she wanted me to love it. Girly classmates adored it and tried to enjoin me in their effusing in a “you like books and I like this one book so we totally have this thing in common right?” way. Continue reading “Dear Little Men”
Wild Lectionary: Our Mortal Bodies Are a Part of the Whole of Creation
Proper 8, Year A,
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Lectionary 13
Romans 6:12-23
By Carmen Retzlaff
Many readers and hearers over the centuries have struggled with, or at least wondered about, Paul’s apparent condescension toward the physical body. It comes into question again in this passage from the letter to the Christian community in Rome. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Our Mortal Bodies Are a Part of the Whole of Creation”
The Jesus Story is What I’m Living Out Of
By Tommy Airey, co-editor of RadicalDiscipleship.Net
The first half of a two-post interview with Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann.
Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a man who has reclaimed civil disobedience as a spiritual practice and a vital component of Christian ministry for the past four decades in Detroit. An ordained United Methodist minister, he only accepted part-time positions at churches in the city so that he could lavish time and energy into community organizing and direct action. Back in the early 80’s, while serving a short stint in federal prison for an action at the Pentagon, the pastor-parish committee at his church inquired if it would be counted as “vacation time.” His district supervisor countered, “Oh no. Bill’s doing ministry.” Continue reading “The Jesus Story is What I’m Living Out Of”
Radical Discipleship 