The Politics of Christmas in the Age of Trump

On December 3, 2019November 20, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

By Will O’Brien

For several years, the Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia has offered an annual Advent program called “Peace on Earth and The Politics of Christmas” Alternative Seminary coordinator and frequent contributor to the Radical Discipleship blog Will O’Brien leads the discussion on how we reclaim the domesticated biblical narrative of Jesus’ birth with their powerful message of challenge to worldly powers. Folks in the Philadelphia area are encouraged to join this year’s program on Saturday, December 7. You can also spread the word via the Facebook page.

Can we liberate Christmas from its cultural captivity and rediscover the truly prophetic story that speaks to the crises of our world today? Continue reading “The Politics of Christmas in the Age of Trump” →

Pull Out The Root

On December 2, 2019November 24, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

Ruby From the front porch of Ruby Sales.

A movement for racial justice does not require White people to save Black and Brown people(s). Rather a movement for racial justice requires White Americans to save them selves from the strangulation of the spiritual malformation and social perversity of a culture of Whiteness. This means that they must begin the work in their communities to pull out the root that gets to the source of the plague. History shows that Black people can handle our business. It is time for White people to handle their business without trying to manage and supervise our business. If White people carry out this mission, we will have a radical new birth as a nation.

Contemplation Turned Outward

On November 29, 2019November 17, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Mark Van Steenwyk, the executive director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination

Part of what makes contemplation important, both as a a regular practice and an overall posture of life is noticing inner thoughts, images, ideas, and stories that lead us away from deep connection to the Spirit, each other, and the rest of creation.

However, in a society where we have learned to disconnect mind from body and spirit from politics, there is a danger in contemplative practice. I’ve begun to increasingly suspect that many engage in spiritual practice in a way that is disassociative—they use spirituality to disconnect from anxiety and pain, rather than to allow them to give attention to suffering. Continue reading “Contemplation Turned Outward” →

Wild Lectionary: Hope in the Anthropocene

On November 28, 2019November 10, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

12419111_234260210253917_6519242895821413984_o Advent 1A

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:1-3)

By Laurel Dykstra

It is hard to be hopeful in the Anthropocene, in the days when the destructive human impact on climate, individuals and communities, creatures, waterways and ecosystems is unprecedented. The lectionary passages this week have a fierce and compelling urgency but they seem far from the Advent theme of hope and further still from this lectionary project’s focus on Creation. Just what should we be awake to? Why the urban emphasis the focus on judgment?

Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Hope in the Anthropocene” →

Sermon: St. Peter’s is Not for Sale

On November 26, 2019November 21, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Sabbath Economics, Uncategorized1 Comment

Sermon by Denise Griebler,
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, November 17, 2019

Isaiah 65:17-25
Malachi 4:1-2a
Luke 21:5-19

May we see like God sees and hope like God hopes. And may we not be afraid to live by that sight and that love in the meantime. Amen.

These scripture passages each get us thinking about the end. Nothing like beginning with the end. But since we are dealing with these readings so rooted in apocalypse, maybe we are on the right track.

Imagine this community, this city, this country, this world that is going to pieces in so many places – whether by poverty or war or climate reckoning – and hear the words of Isaiah again: “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the holy city as a joy and a place where I will rejoice in my people the way they take care of each other – no more inconsolable weeping, no body in distress, babies get to live and old people get to live our their days. People enjoy the fruits of their labor, have homes to live in, food to eat. Predators will cease terrorizing of the vulnerable and they will eat side by side. Healing and peace will come to the whole community. Continue reading “Sermon: St. Peter’s is Not for Sale” →

Where Does It Hurt?

On November 25, 2019November 18, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

By Nathan Holst, a sermon

O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, O Spirit guide us now, in your way, guide us; Spirit guide all of us today as we listen for where you are moving. Amen.

That song by Sara Thomsen is one I used quite a bit at a gathering in Washington DC just last month where 20 white Christian men came together with Ruby Sales, a Black civil rights and freedom movement leader, to talk about a theology of redemption for white men in this time. My friend and colleague, Tommy Airey, invited me to come and be a part of the group that he and Ruby Sales had put together, and partly because Mother Ruby is one of my heroes and because I was drawn to the work, I said yes. When I shared about it with Pastor Kathy, she asked me to preach and share about my experience, so that’s what I intend to do this morning. And as I share, I want to put up a picture of Mother Ruby to honor her and bring her into this space because she was our spiritual guide in this work. Continue reading “Where Does It Hurt?” →

Celebrating The Resurrection – Pittsburgh Style

On November 22, 2019November 9, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology1 Comment

By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary

My wife Marian, my oldest boy Bill, three friends from my first parish (George and Julie MacLeod and their daughter Stacy) and,I chose to celebrate Christ’s resurrection at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This congregation shares with East Liberty Presbyterian  Church the distinction of being the church of the prominent, wealthy and respectable. At Shadyside Presbyterian worship some of Pittsburgh’s leading banking and steel magnates representing such corporate heavyweights as Mellon Bank, United States Steel and Dravo Corporation. There is an Alice in Wonderland quality to this neighborhood and church. The lawns are manicured and spacious, the houses made of stone and surrounded by trees and shrubbery which bear the mark of the finest in professional gardeners. And the church? It too has the stamp of breeding – large, reddish brown stone, an usher in tuxedo waiting to lead the stylish worshippers to their pews. Continue reading “Celebrating The Resurrection – Pittsburgh Style” →

Looking for our Advent store?

On November 21, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Dear RadicalDiscipleship readers,

For the last several years, we have been putting out a RadicalDiscipleship store in November full of advent reflection books, kids’ calendars, greeting cards, and books. We have loved putting it together and the ways it felt like we were physically in touch with communities who read and contribute to this space.

This year we do not have a store up through RadicalDiscipleship, however that energy and creativity of making resources for radical Christian communities has not stopped, we are simply turning it over to Geez magazine’s website where there is much better capacity and technology to accommodate such things. Continue reading “Looking for our Advent store?” →

Wild Lectionary: We Live in Relation

On November 21, 2019November 10, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

MFA_22-589-large — Landscape with Shepherd and Sheep; Anton Mauve, Vanderbilt lectionary project for art

Proper 29(34)

Jeremiah 23: 1-6

By Reverend Kelly Giese

Jeremiah’s oracles of a future king, a messiah, indicate that the sheep, the pasture, the people, the flock, never leave the watchful eye of the Lord. All are referred to as “mine” belonging to Yahweh. There is a close association of the Lord the God of Israel to those who shepherd and know the sheep; and to the land, its fecundity, and even to the spiritual lives of the sheep and shepherds: God dispels fear, corrects those who are in error, and even finds the missing. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: We Live in Relation” →

The Zeitgeist of Grief

On November 19, 2019October 23, 2019 By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Uncategorized1 Comment

By Lane Patriquin, originally printed in Geez 54: Climate Justice

The_Zeitgeist_of_Grief_by_Lane_Patriquin_800_1025_90 — Grief Rituals Credit: Molly Costello (link below)

Tolstoy believed that every generation has a zeitgeist – an emotion that acts as the unspoken guiding force of a time in history.

^Lane Patriquin reads their piece as part of Geez Out Loud. The audio is an exact reading of the written article.

For those of us coming of age in the climate-changed world of late-capitalism, it could be said that the predominant guiding force of our generation is grief.

With the news media surrounding us every day, we are steeped in images of grief. Whales washing up on shores with stomachs full of plastic. Pollinators dying off. Climate change records surpassed decades before predicted, and neo-fascist governments suppressing environmental conservation efforts around the world. Continue reading “The Zeitgeist of Grief” →