We Have Been Ambushed

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn RaceLeave a comment

mlkFrom Michael Eric Dyson in his book I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr:

At the heart of the conservative appropriation of King’s vision is the argument that King was an advocate of a color-blind society. Hence, any policy or position that promotes color consciousness runs counter to King’s philosophy…”I have a dream,” King eloquently yearned, “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Of the hundreds of thousands of words that King spoke, few others have had more impact than these thirty-four, uttered when he was thirty-four years old, couched in his most famous oration. Tragically, King’s American dream has been seized and distorted by a group of conservative citizens whose forebears and ideology have trampled King’s legacy. Continue reading “We Have Been Ambushed” →

Sanctuary Movement 2.0

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

sanctuary-2-0From an article by David Ferguson in Raw Story:

A network of 450 houses of worship across the country are stepping up to act as a kind of “underground railroad” for undocumented immigrants under the nascent Donald Trump administration.

The New York Times said that these churches, synagogues and mosques are all part of the Sanctuary Movement — an interfaith movement that began in the 1960s, but which has undergone a revival in recent years as the U.S. has stepped up deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The Sanctuary Movement has gained even more momentum since the election of Republican Donald Trump, who has pledged to deport 2 to 3 million unauthorized immigrants who he says are guilty of crimes. While not every church has the space and resources necessary to physically shelter immigrants, all 450 organizations have pledged to provide “money, legal aid, food, child care or transportation,” said the Times‘ Laurie Goldstein.  Click HERE to read more.

Tasting and Baking our Call to Discipleship

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment
ira2
Since writing this, my nephew Ira Cole was born on Christmas Eve.

By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

Over the last several weeks, I seem to have developed a chronic chocolate chip cookie baking problem. I would say that Isaac and I are baking a batch almost every other day. And it’s not just the baking that has become chronic, but the eating too. I think it is because I am waiting for my sister to give birth. It could really happen any second. It feels like all I know how to do in the waiting is bake these cookies. Continue reading “Tasting and Baking our Call to Discipleship” →

Wild Lectionary: Dove Descending

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

dsc_1465-lowresBy Ted Lyddon Hatten

John 1:29-42

John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.

Doves/pigeons (they are the same, like canine/dog) hold a central place in our most sacred stories. From Noah’s ark to burnt offerings, these birds are easy to see if you have eyes that see.

Pigeons are easy to see in most major cities and have a reputation for being unclean. But for the poor, the outcast, and women of the ancient world, doves were the only way to be made clean. Pigeons purchased for pocket change were beheaded and burned by the Temple priests. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Dove Descending” →

Sermon: Epiphany under Empire: Remembering Resistance

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

3-kingsBy Ched Myers

Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, behütet uns auch für dieses Jahr, vor Feuer und vor Wassergefahr. (“…protect us again this year from the dangers of fire and water.”)

— prayer uttered during the traditional German feast of the Three Kings

The origins of the Feast of the Epiphany are historically complicated and ecclesially disputed.  We might think of it as a kind of peace offering from the Western to the Eastern Church, given the latter’s (surely older) January 6th date for the Feast of the Nativity.  The Twelve Days of Christmas, in turn, represent a bridge between the two traditions, straddling exactly our celebration of the New Year.  Continue reading “Sermon: Epiphany under Empire: Remembering Resistance” →

This Should Be Our First Clue

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Cloud of WitnessesLeave a comment

jaymes-morganFrom late Fuller Seminary professor Dr. Jaymes Morgan, in a talk to college students at Southern California’s Forest Home on September 2, 1968:

We claim to represent someone who exhausted his life with publicans and sinners, healing the sick and feeding the hungry. Our churches attract the people Jesus alienated and alienate the people Jesus attracted. This should be our first clue that something is wrong. We must affirm ourselves as called of God to meet human need. To restore broken relationships with God. To restore broken relationships with people. To save men [sic] from hunger, disease and poverty and a thousand miscarriages of justice. We have attracted an awful lot of people into the church under false pretenses. No wonder they don’t look like Christians. They didn’t have the terms explained to them at the beginning.

They and Us

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Just PeacemakingLeave a comment

brother-davidReprinted from an interview Rex Weyler and Catherine Ingram did with Brother David Steindl-Rast in New Age, September 1983:

How can people learn to communicate effectively, without anger or aggression?

That is where we have to work with ourselves. Anger in itself is not really wrong, but we cannot allow our anger to carry us away and make us violent. This I find myself a most difficult task: to always think in terms of “we” and not “they and us.” The moment that you divide people with they and us, you’re always on the right side and they are always on the wrong side, and I find that makes communication very, very difficult. Continue reading “They and Us” →