By Ric Hudgens
There was that moment
when all of us
wanted to give up
walk away
leave
without a forwarding number
until we remembered
the place we would run to
was the place
we’ve been working towards
that we only see
when all of us
dream together
so we turned around
climbing back down
into the mud
returning to work
building this bridge
that one day
some one
will be able to cross
to get there.
By Ric Hudgens
No beginning
is a fresh start.
Our undoing
is a concealed weapon.
Read the manual.
Expect to abandon
much you seek
to gather.
Shed your skins
along the way. Continue reading “The Gift”
Easter 7
Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. –1 Peter 5:8
by Ric Hudgens
We must not domesticate our understanding of the wild. I am not referring to domesticating wild places into civilized spaces. I am noting our tendency to romanticize the wild in a way that removes its sharp edges. In the rewilding of our theologies we must deconstruct docetic expressions that remove the divine and human from nature. Also, we must keep the divine and human embedded in real nature – not a romanticized Disneyland nature where animals sing and dance or time lapse photography makes change appear sudden.
The natural world which is filled with the divine and the contains the human is also “nature red in tooth and claw,” as Hobbes wrote. There are predators. There are prey. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: The Predator Within”
By Ric Hudgens, for Good Friday (art by Hovsep Mesropian)
Day 24 of our Lenten Journey through Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech.
Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. Meanwhile, meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.
As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation’s role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.
——————
From Ric Hudgens, pastor at North Suburban Mennonite Church in Lake County, Illinois:
In April 1967 at the time of Dr King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech the number of US troops in Vietnam was peaking at half a million with over a thousand casualties per month. Simultaneously the anti-war movement was also reaching its apex. In New York City 300,000 marched against the war. 50,000 marched at the Pentagon with hundreds arrested and jailed. Yet in 1967 the majority of churches, white AND black, remained silent. Continue reading “Every Creative Method of Protest Possible”
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 23:1-3
1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2God makes me lie down in green pastures; God leads me beside still waters;
3God restores my soul.
By Ric Hudgens
I live in a household with a seven-year old who has no trouble connecting with her animal identity. I often awaken in the morning to hear her downstairs growling, barking, howling, or singing. She may be imitating a dog, a monkey, a bear, a lion, or a bird. Like all young children she will eventually learn to separate her human identity from her animal identity. Mornings will grow quiet and my world will in one sense be a sadder place. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: We Are Animals”
By Ric Hudgens
I resent your condescending remarks
about my fetal position. I am not overly
sensitive, depressed, incapacitated, nor
escaping adult responsibilities. When
I curve my back, bow my head, pull both
knees to my chest it is not weakness
that bends me so. What you never
understand is that this is my haven
of health, my reservoir of renewal. If
womblike, it is some placenta of hope
that nourishes and sustains me. We
must all find strength where we can.
I will unfold a fiercer soul.
A poem for the Winter Solstice from Ric Hudgens.
When night comes early
darkness creeping in
before we sit at supper
an urge rises beneath
my throat for connection
with this earth and all
that is connected by it. Continue reading “Prayer of Intention”
By Ric Hudgens
I return
to an unreal world.
Nothing seems true here.
At Oceti Sakowin
we lived outside
in the cold air
under the warm sun
as humus beings
waking from a dream. Continue reading “OCETI SAKOWIN”
By Ric Hudgens
Chicago thirty years ago
Hot August night
Apartments stacked close
No air conditioning
Everyone’s windows up
Taverns close at 3 am
Patrons weave their way home
Sound slides through night air
“O happy day, O happy day”
One voice ascends in a boozy baritone
“When Jesus washed . . . “
A one man marching choir
“ . . . My sins away.”
Heat, sweat, volume keep everyone awake
“O happy day, O happy day.” Continue reading “Happy Day”
Radical Discipleship 