Congratulations to Imani Perry who just won the National Book Award for nonfiction for her brilliant book South to America. These are comments from her acceptance speech.
Bearing Witness at the End of the World
By Ched Myers, a commentary on last Sunday’s Gospel
Today’s gospel text for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost culminates Year C’s journey through Luke (next week’s “Reign of Christ Sunday” is a special feast day to close the liturgical year). It narrates the first half of the third gospel’s version of the “Synoptic Apocalypse” (Lk 21), which begins by portraying Jesus’ disciples, many of whom were up-country Galileans, as dazzled pilgrims encountering the grandeur of the “Holy” metropolis of Jerusalem for the first time (21:5).
Like rural folk visiting Washington DC for the first time, they were impressed (or perhaps just overwhelmed) by the imposing monuments and edifices of their nation, which conjured a visceral patriotism they assumed Jesus shared. We, too, inevitably experience moments of existential awe by our civilization, especially as powerfully represented by its built environment—whether civic, religious, industrial or military. We all dwell under the shadow cast by the self-congratulatory narrative of empire; it is so heroic and compelling that we become enamored with (or paralyzed by) the systems that rule over us, despite ourselves. “Wow!” they/we intone, “God bless America!”—then turn to Jesus to add plaintively, “right??”
Continue reading “Bearing Witness at the End of the World”Five Books: Nick Peterson
In a new Radical Discipleship exclusive series, we are asking radical Christian leaders one question. What are the five books or authors that have seriously shaped your spiritual life? This is how Rev. Dr. Nick Peterson answered.
- Belonging by bell hooks
- Black Poets Lean South ed. by Nikki Finney
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
Rev. Dr. Nick Peterson is an AME pastor and professor at Emory University in Atlanta. He lives with his partner NaKisha, twin five-year-olds, his nieces, his mother-in-law Tutz and a couple precocious house cats.
On Winter’s Wings: An Advent resource
In this season, when our hearts are heavy
and we oscillate between rage and despair,
we pause and look close.
We are washed over by the wind in the white pine,
startled by the stars in the night sky,
and saved by the cardinal standing in the snow.
These are the days to nestle in
when we need to remember
how gloriously small we are
in the ecosystem of creation.
Let us fall in love with the wisdom and beauty
of creatures who could not help
but turn us all into poets.
- Introduction “On Winter’s Wings: Poets Heed the Advent Call,” by Lydia Wylie Kellermann
Dear Radical Discipleship community,
It has been one of our great delights to have stumbled upon making daily Advent books with Geez magazine. This tradition has roots with the Radical Discipleship community since we made a version or two with this beautiful circle. We have loved feeling the hunger and resonance in our community for such a resource. It has been good for our souls and we feel connected knowing that hundreds of folks far and wide have been reading them together.
Continue reading “On Winter’s Wings: An Advent resource”Mobilizing White People in Georgia
This is a compelling opportunity organized by Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) for white people of conscience to throw in with the Warnock campaign in the Georgia Senate run-off scheduled for December 6. See below for details about signing-up.
Once again, all eyes are in Georgia. After a near-tie between Senator Warnock and Herschel Walker in the General Election, SURJ is mobilizing for a win in the Georgia Runoff. SURJ members showed up to do our part in defeating Trump in Georgia in 2020 AND electing Senator Warnock in the 2021 runoff. With our growing movement, we can continue to defeat the MAGA Right in Georgia!
Continue reading “Mobilizing White People in Georgia”Expecting Emmanuel
Advent is coming up in two weeks. If you are looking for a devotional brimming with hope and meaning in these darkening days, check out Expecting Emmanuel from Joanna Harader, a progressive pastor in Lawrence, Kansas. She animates eight women from the family tree of Jesus. Their stories are far from perfect. Good news for us! Lindsay and I got know Joanna a dozen years ago during a summer internship with her. I am thrilled that she is putting stuff like this into the world. I am going to post some reflections here and on social media during the Season, as I spend some time reading this book and summoning up some of the women in my own family tree. If you are interested in joining this journey during this Season, send me an email. – Tommy Airey (tommyairey@gmail.com)
Niceness
A wise word from Your Friendly Butch Anarchist.
It’s Tempting to Just Let it Burn
A perfect poem for today, from Kyle Tran Myhre
Mitakuyapi
By Lenore Three Stars, excerpted from her essay “Mitakuyapi (My Relatives), What is Your Worldview?”
When I call you mitakuyapi, “my relatives,” I am representing a Lakota worldview of kinship. Everything in creation is connected.
[Euro-]Western Christianity has a history of imposing a euro-cultural template for civilizing and Christianizing Indigenous peoples. I trusted that Jesus is Creator, Son, and Healer, but I was not an authentic fit in white church culture. I prayed for a way to follow Jesus from a faith of wholeness, rather than one of assimilation. The door opened for me to attend a seminary that included theology from an Indigenous perspective, taught by Indigenous instructors. It was liberating for me to understand that I was not having a faith crisis—I was experiencing a clash of worldviews.
I found differences between an Indigenous worldview and a euro-western culture worldview. For instance, western Christianity is shaped by a western European worldview with Hellenistic influences. One’s mind and beliefs became more important than physical experience or what one does. It confirmed my experience that theology is generally what you think or believe, not necessarily how you live every day.
Continue reading “Mitakuyapi”Resurrection: The Hope That Vindicates God’s Justice
By Wes Howard-Brook & Sue Ferguson Johnson, a commentary on this weekend’s Gospel text, re-posted from November 2016
There is nothing more radical than resurrection.
From the time Daniel 12 apocalyptically announced that God raises the dead, the intellectual elite in Judea rejected it. Sophisticated skeptics have always scoffed at the notion that life extends beyond the bounds of death, because such a belief threatens to undermine the status quo from which they benefit. Consider, for example, this from Ecclesiastes, a text likely written before Daniel:
The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun. (Eccles 9.5-6)
Continue reading “Resurrection: The Hope That Vindicates God’s Justice”
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