Empire Cracking: Reflection from Sarah Thompson
This interview was taken by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann as part of a writing project for Geez Magazine entitled “She is Breathing: Listening for Another World and an End to Empire.” It was published in the Winter Issue.
Lydia Wylie-Kellermann: Where are the moments for you where you are beginning to see a crack in the empire? Where is resurrection alive and being practiced? What is the story that lingers on your heart and keeps you moving forward? Is this the moment we’ve been waiting for? Is another world being birthed before our eyes?
Sarah Thompson: Two words: Compost toilets!
I love food justice, and I think I’m called to work on the “backside” of it. What I mean is, think it is the epitome of western hubris to crap in our most precious resource, potable water. Finding ways to help people deal with their own shit (both literally and metaphorically) is a liberating process. A lot can come up when we are faced with the “mess” we create daily. What we have learned to call “waste” can actually be returned to the ecosystem where the nutrients came from. Through a process it can become humanure and nourish the area where the local food came from.
The Prophetic Script
By Ched Myers, for the 2nd Sunday of Lent (Luke 13: 31-35
Note: This is part of a series of Ched’s occasional comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2016.
More than any other gospel writer, Luke portrays Jesus as using Israel’s prophets for his own interpretive lens. This theme stretches across the whole arc of Luke’s story, from its beginning where the coming promise of redemption comes “through the mouth of God’s holy prophets from of old” (1:70) to the Emmaus road epilogue, which stresses this traditions as a hermeneutic key to the problem of suffering: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them the scriptures” (24:25-7; 44f). Continue reading “The Prophetic Script”
What “Empire” Adds
By Berry Friesen, originally posted to his blog on February 1, 2016
Does the word “empire” enter your conversations with friends, colleagues and family members? Is it used in your place of worship? Do you see it in the articles and books you read, the videos you watch?
When “empire” is part of your lexicon, here’s what also becomes part of your analytical framework. Continue reading “What “Empire” Adds”
Harboring Hope
By Joyce Hollyday
Amid our usual array of alternative-Christian-chic denim and earth-tone fleece, 4-year-old Angelita sparkles like a gem. Her hair is braided with colorful ribbons, and she’s wearing what I presume is her Christmas outfit: a bright sweater patterned with bold red flowers, a black velvet skirt, and shiny patent leather shoes.
A couple that is part of Circle of Mercy, my faith community, has agreed to care for Angelita and her older brothers if her parents are forcibly sent back to Guatemala. As we hear the details of the legal arrangement, Angelita sits in her father’s lap, snuggling against his chest. It’s a bittersweet gift, I think, as Angelita’s mother tearfully expresses her gratitude. Continue reading “Harboring Hope”
Weeds as a Model of Healing Broken Places
By Kyle Mitchell
Having worked on an urban vegetable farm for the past 3 years, I’ve had the chance to encounter lots of things we affectionately call weeds. They mostly get a bad rap for stealing water, nutrients, and sunlight from the cultivated plants. They can certainly do this.
However, being a metaphor person, I’m constantly thinking about what things mean in my life. I first encountered weeds with an almost militant mindset. Continue reading “Weeds as a Model of Healing Broken Places”
The Suicide of the Liberal Church
Some highlights from Chris Hedges’ recent piece on the liberal church in America:
The self-identified religious institutions that thrive preach the perverted “prosperity gospel,” the message that magic Jesus will make you rich, respected and powerful if you believe in him. Jesus, they claim, is an American capitalist, bigot and ardent imperialist. These sects selectively lift passages from the Bible to justify the unjustifiable, including homophobia, war, racism against Muslims, and the death penalty. Yet there are more students—2,067—at the evangelical Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary alone than at the divinity schools and seminaries of Yale, Harvard, Union, Vanderbilt and Chicago, whose combined enrollment is 1,537. Continue reading “The Suicide of the Liberal Church”
Empire Cracking: Reflection from Joanna Shenk
This interview was taken by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann as part of a writing project for Geez Magazine entitled “She is Breathing: Listening for Another World and an End to Empire.” It was published in the Winter Issue.
Lydia Wylie-Kellermann: Where are the moments for you where you are beginning to see a crack in the empire? Where is resurrection alive and being practiced? What is the story that lingers on your heart and keeps you moving forward? Is this the moment we’ve been waiting for? Is another world being birthed before our eyes?
Joanna Shenk: This spring and fall our congregation is engaging in a two-part learning process. In the spring we took a couple months on the theme of Recognizing Structural Sin/Injustice. Continue reading “Empire Cracking: Reflection from Joanna Shenk”
Jesus on a Wilderness Vision Quest
By Ched Myers, 1st Sunday in Lent (Luke 4:1-13)
Note: This is part of a series of Ched’s occasional comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2016. For a longer version of this reflection and a close look at each of the temptations, see http://www.chedmyers.org/sites/default/files/02-4-Pb%2C%20Jesus%20Wilderness%20Temptations%20as%20Vision%20Quest.pdf.
The church traditionally inaugurates Lent by reflecting on the “wilderness temptations” of Jesus. In preparation for his mission, Jesus follows a mysterious yet compelling calling to radical wilderness solitude. He fasts. He lives in the wild. He wrestles with spirits. (Above: Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, “Christ in the Wilderness,” 1873.) Continue reading “Jesus on a Wilderness Vision Quest”
Radical Discipleship 