Ongoing Direct Encounter

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Jesus in TempleBy Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson, commentary on readings for the First Sunday after Christmas

Note: This is part of a series of Wes & Sue’s occasional comments on the Lukan gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary during year C, 2015-16.

Christmas carols continue to echo around and within us, but Sunday’s Gospel from Luke has Jesus already nearly grown. Only Luke provides any glimpse of Jesus’ childhood. This tantalizing scene, though, offers many hints for how the adult Jesus will subvert both the expectations of his Roman audience and of those hearers who, so far, may be expecting Jesus to become a warrior “messiah like David” (1.32, 69; 2.11).
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Christmas Midrash

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Philippe de Champaigne's The Dream of Saint Joseph painted around 1636.
Philippe de Champaigne’s The Dream of Saint Joseph painted around 1636.
By Ric Hudgens

Well, a mess indeed and Joseph
no fool to think twice before
saying yea. Thereafter,
in the early morning, hearing
a voice from yon olive grove
singing loud as a songbird
born of revolution: “God
hath scattered the proud
in the imagination of their
hearts. Hath put down the
mighty from their seats, and
exalted them of low degree.
Hath filled the hungry with
good things; and sent the rich
empty away” the carpenter
shook his head only once,
believing then the angel,
and declared (in the old style)
“She hath incited a riot in
my heart and I shall ne’er let
this maiden depart from my sight
as long as we both shall live –
or first comes the kingdom
upon this earth.” And so
it was. Thanks be to God.

Mary and Elizabeth

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Uncategorized2 Comments

mary and elizabeth.jpgBy Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

Reflection written up from a homily given at St. Peter’s Episcopal Detroit on December 20, 2015.

Luke 1: 39-56

I wonder about the beginning of this reading. “Mary went with haste….” It seems like there are three possibilities for this. First is that she was so excited and filled with anticipation that she fled to a friend she loved. I think this is our most common interpretation. But I think it more likely the second or third possibility. Either she was sent away out of shame and embarrassment for three months. Or as I did more reading, it seems likely that being pregnant and not married with her status was actually cause for being stoned to death. She may have been fleeing for her life. Continue reading “Mary and Elizabeth” →

Enough

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EliisaBy Eliisa Bojanic

Reflections on being a privileged white American in a starving world (real talk edition:)

“What exactly are you doing?” I ask myself often. Why is everything going so wrong around me? What am I doing here? Why do I have so much while others have so little? Why is it possible for me to walk down the street with an iPhone in my hand that costs enough (if bought in this country) to feed a family for a year, while I kneel down to give 100 pesos to the woman begging outside of my school. 100 pesos. 100 pesos. That’s $2.25 give or take. It will feed her all day. But the food will not be nutritious. It will be rice and meat cooked in oils and fats that could and will eventually destroy her body. Fresh food after all is for the rich. But then she was never even given an opportunity to know what coronary artery disease is, or how the poison of this world will kill so many.
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I AM Waiting

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lawrenceby Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone to really discover America and wail
and I am waiting for the American Eagle to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety to drop dead
and I am waiting for the war to be fought which will make the world safe for anarchy
and I am waiting for the final withering away of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder Continue reading “I AM Waiting” →

Magnificat: Poor Women’s Voices Liberated

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

MyersMagnificatBy Ched Myers, for the 4th Sunday in Advent (Luke 1:39-55)

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, 2015-16.

Luke 1 is the prolegomenon to the nativity story, and is structured around the stories of two women who, for radically different reasons, cannot conceive. In a nutshell, Elizabeth is too old, and Mary is too young. Their stories are narrated in staggered parallel:

  • Annunciation to Elizabeth (1:5-25) Annunciation to Mary (1:26-38)
  • Elizabeth’s Response (1:41-45) Mary’s Response (1:46-55)
  • John’s birth (1:57-66) Jesus’ birth (2:1-20)

Continue reading “Magnificat: Poor Women’s Voices Liberated” →

These Long Advent Nights

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By Tommy Airey, an Advent Communion Meditation from Detroit

And maybe this is what heroism looks like nowadays: occasionally high-profile heroism in public but mostly just painstaking mastery of arcane policy, stubborn perseverance year after year for a cause, empathy with those who remain unseen and outrage channeled into dedication.
Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark (2004)

About 40-50 years after the death of Jesus, Luke’s Gospel, the story of Jesus the suffering servant, was read in its entirety in small Christian communities all over the Roman Empire. Out loud. It would take about 90 minutes to two hours. About the length of one of our movies.
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Learning from Laughter: Sitting in Court- An Advent Story

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isaac homrich cait
Photo credit: Cait De Mott Grady

By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

“It’s not Christmas! It’s Advent!” declares my two-year old son loudly when strangers wish him a Merry Christmas. This kid carries his Grandma Jeanie’s spirit in his bold truth-telling with clear liturgical boundaries.

Advent is one of the things I have most looked forward to as a parent. It is a season of darkness, candles, slowing down, making Christmas gifts, wonder and joy, and learning the stories. Scriptures these days are filled with stories of our faith where the power dynamics are flipped on their head. Moments when after a long list of all those in power, God’s voice comes to John in the wilderness (Luke 3:1-6). Then of course, there is the story where amidst deportation and government counting, Jesus is born in a barn. The voice of God is not ringing from Kings or military warriors or presidents or bankers, it is in the poor, ordinary folk. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter: Sitting in Court- An Advent Story” →