Posts from 2015

Assumed and Healed by Brian Volck (1/7/2015)
...lf to a wading John, but we get some sense that Jesus’ arrival is both anticipated and in need of explanation. Why does he undergo baptism of repentance? Have we’ve heard the story too often to grasp its strangeness? Jesus, like us in all things but sin (see Hebrews 2:17 and 4:15), joins the sinners’ ritual of publicly displaying need of forgiveness.  Even picturing the flesh an...
In the Dark by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (1/14/2015)
...d time with/in it when it knocks. I don’t think I’m alone in that. We as individuals and communities typically want to bring light (flash, night, or flood) and all it represents - understanding, goodness, clarity, often God - into both physical and metaphorical darkness. Depending on circumstances, the absence of light can be uncomfortable or disorienting at best, and at worst isolating, des...
Only by Ekklesia Project (1/20/2015)
...do massacre and resultant reactions. With security guards sprinkled throughout the Chapel, Dean Luke Powery began worship by reading a pastoral letter regarding the recent week’s drama to the congregation. He promised that “the Chapel would seek opportunities for constructive dialogue about these complex and important subjects as we all strive for deeper understanding and greater faithfulness ...
What is Power For? by Joel Shuman (1/29/2015)
...all from my relatively scant reading in those fields is that power is an ineliminable aspect of all human associations, from the most intimate interpersonal relationships to the most impersonal institutional arrangements. Those who possess power are reluctant to surrender it, for it confers upon them the kinds of advantages that come from the capacity to control others in the service of more or (o...
Contemplatives in Action by Stephen Fowl (2/3/2015)
...y” go to the synagogue. There, Jesus teaches “with authority.” Though we don’t learn what he says, we do learn that he casts out a demon. This activity certainly serves to buttress Jesus’ authority. Moreover, we learn that “immediately” the news about him spread throughout Galilee (1:21-28). This is all before lunch. Our reading for this Sunday begins on the same Sabbath day with...
Transfigured in Him by Shannon Schaefer (2/11/2015)
...cation for how to live in light of the disciples’ witness. Instead, the transfiguration account is fluent in mystery, begging us to place ourselves in the narrative and walk around inside of it - climb the mountain, see the glory, fumble out our own dumbstruck words laced with terror, and in the end, be brought back to the resurrection. Carver’s Gap on Roan Mountain, straddling the T...
Descent Into Life by Jessie Larkins (2/17/2015)
... serves as tender, hauling you to port. What’s most apparent in the dark is how the heart’s embrace, if manifestly intermittent, is really quite reliable, and very nearly bides as if another sought to join you there. -Scott Cairns, from Philokalia I’ve often wondered what thoughts ran through Noah’s head as he stood at the door of the ark and prepared to disembar...
Turning the Soil by Grace G. Hackney (2/24/2015)
...of Lent is no less messy yet necessary than the work of a farmer in early spring, muck boots stuck in the mire of a melted grey snow, calloused hands reaching low to pull aside the mulch that blanketed the garden beds, spades and shovels and yes, even hands, turning the soil, loosening it after a winter freeze, not unlike the turning of Lent, the turning, turning, re-turning to the God we had cove...
Words by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (3/4/2015)
...ckled recounting it, but also because she has learned that she can evoke a similar response in other people. She looks for her audience to understand and react to what she says, and she delights in it. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of her conversation. Although she can’t put words to the concept yet, Azalea is quickly learning that language is power. Words shape reality and emotion. Deployed w...
Loving the World by Kyle Childress (3/11/2015)
...ing to Jesus during the night and being told earlier in the conversation that he must be born again, this was our canon within the canon and it interpreted everything else. To this day in most Baptist churches in my part of the world I can stand up in the pulpit and say, “For God so loved” and the entire congregation will respond reciting the rest of the verse from memory. Unfortunately, for mo...
It Can't Come Soon Enough by Joel Shuman (3/18/2015)
...ny strands of Christian tradition; sin is self-destructive, in that it separates us from our true ultimate end and therefore from the possibility of genuine flourishing as women and men made in the image and likeness of the Triune God. Insofar as it is self-destructive, moreover, sin is by and large its own punishment, for it entails forever restlessly seeking happiness in places it doesn’t exist,...
Becoming Human by Brian Volck (3/25/2015)
...e, have read Mark’s gospel in anything but a superficial or tendentious way. Mark’s Jesus dies horribly, nailed to an imperial torture device, abandoned by his male disciples (though not by some of the women) and even, his words imply, by the Father. He’s buried hurriedly, and if the original text ends, as in the earliest complete manuscripts, at chapter 16, verse 8, with the women trembling, ...
Death Defeated by Stephen Fowl (4/1/2015)
...s go, we would call it a good death. Nevertheless, as I found out at Christmas, and I expect I will find out at Easter, her death has upset me more than I first knew. Without question, there are various reasons for this. It is a normal part of the grieving process. I probably have some unfinished business with my mother. I feel guilty I was not there when she died. As we approach Easter, howev...
Easter People by Jessie Larkins (4/7/2015)
...s a ‘Easter people’?” That was the question that a 4-year old child in my congregation asked me on the way out the door on Easter Sunday just a few days ago. We had just sung one of my favorite Easter hymns and the unfamiliar expression in the song caught his attention. Kneeling down beside him I told him that “Easter people” are people who lived their lives as if the story we just told about ...
Creatures Who Eat by Grace G. Hackney (4/15/2015)
...reated us as creatures who eat. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about how Christians eat. After twelve years in local rural churches (and more potlucks and Harvest Festivals than I can possibly count), last year I was appointed to what the United Methodist Church calls “extension ministry”, a way of saying that the ministry to which I am appointed extends beyond the loca...
No Weapon But Grace by Brian Volck (4/20/2015)
...erious demand. Even today, when I think of my now nineteen year-old daughter, I hear Helena, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, saying, “though she be but little, she is fierce.” I stepped to the threshold of her room and peeked in to reassure myself that my daughter wasn’t in distress, but that was too much for her. She sat bolt upright from her pillow, glared at me with what I recognize...
Abiding Fruit by Jim McCoy (4/29/2015)
... down arrows of destruction. The great sun, so hospitably full of light, kind, friendly, was feeding, like a mother-nurse, the living tree, and was killing with pitiless fire the sundered branch.</blockquote> “As is the double effect of light,” Parker says, “so is the double effect of truth” (Apostolic Life, vol. 1, p. 167). Parker burns away any sentimentality in what is...
What Is Love? by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (5/6/2015)
...at the kind of love Christians are called to embody takes a particular, cruciform shape. Robin Maas offers insight, “Few, if any of us, will be called to martyrdom; but all of us are called to a series of little deaths in the form of invitations to restrain or deny self….The sending of God by God was the sending of Love - a crucified Love willing to lay down its life for friends and...
Two Christianities by Kyle Childress (5/13/2015)
....” Trying to avoid public criticism of another preacher I said, “Where in the Bible does he get this?” She shot back, “Well, I don’t know where he gets it. All I know is that he says we’d better get our guns ready because zombies are real.” “Where do you go to church?” I asked. “I go to the Cowboy Church outside the loop. You know, you can see the rodeo arena out back.” “How many ...
The Advocacy of the Spirit by Stephen Fowl (5/19/2015)
... In 1Kings 19 Elijah has just accomplished the most powerful act of his prophetic ministry. On behalf of the one true God, Elijah has challenged the prophets of Baal, who enjoyed the favor of the king and queen. God vindicates Elijah’s bold fidelity and Elijah purges the prophets of Baal. Ahaz and Jezebel vow revenge; Elijah flees. He is now a fugitive from royal justice. This is an incredible...
The Economy of God's Redemption by Joel Shuman (5/27/2015)
...g us a lot about the former. What God is up to, I suggest, is some variation of the same thing he’s been up to since he approached Abram somewhere around 4,000 years ago: a work of healing, cosmic in its scope, in which (as some of the Ekklesia Project’s own literature points out), God’s called and gathered people are both recipients and partners. This is the fundamental economy of God’s ongoin...
Rejecting the God Who Is by Jessie Larkins (6/3/2015)
...ain strength through the tactics of non-violent resistance, the establishment grew increasingly uncomfortable. White pastors across the South, in an attempt to keep the peace, appealed to King to be patient. Those with less sympathy to the cause of Civil Rights were quick to vilify and attack the calling and character of the preacher-King. The great irony of all this was that it was taking pla...
Large Things in Small Parishes by Kyle Childress (6/10/2015)
...usand head. But they will attract no attention ... In the West a ranch will cover perhaps the same area as the thousand farms, and will have perhaps ten thousand head, roundups, rodeos, men on horseback, and all that goes with ranching. ... The East did a large business on a small scale; the West did a small business magnificently” (p. 227). I like Webb and I like what he says. The romantic not...
Storm of the Spirit by Shannon Schaefer (6/17/2015)
...ctions among those I know varied widely, from alarm, to those who met the findings with resignation and acceptance, or frankly as old news. As a divinity school student, preparing for perhaps a lifetime of full-time Christian service to the church, I have wondered at my curious position as someone apparently hoping against the odds. Am I tying myself to the bow of a sinking ship? ...
Classic posts by Ekklesia Project (6/23/2015)
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The World We've Made by Brian Volck (7/1/2015)
... not even past." -William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun Whatever your opinion of Barack Obama, you can’t deny the last full week of June was kind to him, climaxing on Friday as he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriage and delivered a moving eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, killed in the terrorist attack on Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. I’ll let...
Dancing Lessons by Grace G. Hackney (7/8/2015)
...ly reunion will take place, new friends will be made, and those unable to be physically present will be there through the power of the Spirit and the airwaves of technology. We pray that into the center of Chicago this week there will be an ascent of sorts to a holy mountain, ruled over by a King who is “strong and mighty”, the Lord who has proven to be “mighty in battle,” having defeated the ...
The LORD Will Make You (into) a House by Joel Shuman (7/15/2015)
...rk of the Covenant, the most conspicuous and immediate symbol of God’s presence with Israel, remains in a tent. The subtext here is pretty obvious; David has in mind the construction of a temple that will be a proper dwelling place for God, and Nathan assures him – at least initially – that he should proceed. Nathan’s assurance, however, is short-lived. That evening God speaks to him, telling ...
Dream or Deliverance? by Jessie Larkins (7/21/2015)
...hionable clothes, a beautiful family (with approximately 2.5 kids and a dog) who attend all the best schools. I was recently informed that in 2015, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/07/04/american-dream/11122015/">the American Dream costs $130,000 a year to attain.</a> If you’re feeling left out, you’re in good company. Seven of eight American households don’t m...
In the Shadow of Charleston by Ekklesia Project (7/23/2015)
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The Authority of Prisoners by Stephen Fowl (7/29/2015)
... life in Christ. One of the most striking things about the epistle reading for today is that it begins with a personal plea from one who is a “prisoner in the Lord.” In the NRSV Paul is said to “beg” the Ephesians to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. In this light, it appears that Paul the prisoner is begging the Ephesians. This certainly is an appropriate posture for one who is a ...
Truth Telling and Race in the “United” States by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (8/5/2015)
...a truth that is not new or of my own thought, but I believe it will continue to be a (perhaps, the) primary challenge for the church as it fleshes out this calling in this country at this time. The church abjectly fails to embody the beloved community as long as it recapitulates racial divisions inherent in the culture in which it’s situated. <blockquote>“American Christianity h...
Wasting Time in the Banquet Hall by Jana Bennett (8/12/2015)
...o much of the story to say that in this beautifully illustrated book set in medieval Italy, readers discover that yes, someone as silly-looking as a clown - even someone who "only" juggles for a living - is a follower of Christ. I mention my kids' book because I think this week's lectionary readings are about discovering what it takes to become a wise fool, a clown, for Christ. This week's firs...
Who Is This? by Shannon Schaefer (8/19/2015)
...ved this story long, we hear bread and think body, body and think bread – a mingling of symbols and referents that comes as a hard-won accomplishment of good formation. Add to our formations the distance most of us typically experience between our food and its source. The realities of eating the body of another being are somewhat muted by a food industry that does the hard work for us, and conv...
Inside and Out by Kyle Childress (8/25/2015)
...ies, was that they were ecumenical, even interfaith, so I never thought twice about whether our moderator was Unity or Baptist or Muslim. Apparently, not everyone agreed. Since the Unity minister’s election, most clergy in town had quit coming to the ministerial alliance and my own suspicion was that they were boycotting the alliance, (a suspicion later proven true). The Unity pastor was invit...
Stranded on Olympus by Jim McCoy (9/4/2015)
...s meant to provoke repentance and conversion. </blockquote> Luke Bretherton There are two kinds of people in the world, the saying goes – those who divide people into two kinds and those who don’t. The saying is, of course, tongue-in-cheek; a satire of, say, can...
Revolutionary Danger by Timothy W. Ross (9/9/2015)
...les began to learn that lesson at Caesarea Phillipi. Caesarea Philippi is a site of incomparable beauty and longstanding political turmoil. Known today as Banias, or Panias, this once Syrian, now Israeli-controlled site in the foothills of Mount Hermon is a major source of the Jordan River. Spring-fed streams tumble through the area, making it one of the most picturesque sites in all the Holy L...
Tough Guy by Todd Edmondson (9/15/2015)
...nce represented the apex of filmmaking—Rocky III. While it’s always fun to revisit a cultural experience from my childhood, in this case we found ourselves laughing at all the wrong moments. Particularly confounding to my kids was the character of Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T. For those of you who don’t remember Mr. T, he was a grumpy, mohawked celebrity in the early 1980’s, the star...
How Much is Enough? by Kyle Childress (9/24/2015)
... “Because of you I’m entangled in the affairs of countries that cause me headaches.” Next frame, while he is slumped in his seat in bumper-to-bumper traffic, “Because of you our central cities are empty and I waste half my life in traffic to the burbs.” Next frame, kids are getting in and out of the car, “Because of you my family is one big frantic snarl of hectic schedules.” Next frame, while hol...
Where Mercy and Justice Meet by Brian Volck (9/30/2015)
...om Job with a theologically problematic encounter between God and Satan and an unkind reference to women. You decide if that’s safer to preach on than God’s fashioning the woman from the man’s rib. Happy is the preacher observing World Communion Sunday this week. God knows – and we take as a matter of faith – that Scripture is meant to help and unite, not hinder and divide, but these selection...
Nightmares of the Rich by Timothy W. Ross (10/6/2015)
... that rich people don’t go to heaven!” “We’re not rich,” said her mother, “Go back to bed.” “But I knew better,” said the grown-up Stacey. “I knew I had all I needed plus plenty more…the little girl inside me knew that these words of Jesus were clear, and hard, and scary.” Jesus was on the move, Mark tells us, when an unnamed man came to Jesus, knelt down and asked: “G...
Helpless Before the Throne by Jessie Larkins (10/14/2015)
.... We're going to have such a strong military that nobody, nobody is going to mess with us. We're not going to have to use it." -Donald Trump, September 2015 "I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside by thee. Exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be f...
Keep Reading by Joel Shuman (10/20/2015)
...o whoever hopes to preach them is to keep reading (I’m sure there’s a proverb about this somewhere, but darned if I can come up with one). The lectionary I consulted began with the text from Job, followed by excerpts from the 34th Psalm, and the combination left me, quite honestly, flabbergasted. I know it’s just a story, and one with parallels in ancient Near Eastern pagan myths at t...
Feasting with the Saints by Stephen Fowl (10/26/2015)
...nal days for baptism, too. When this happens it provides a community with a chance to look both backward to remember departed members of the body and forward with those beginning their new lives in Christ. I am also partial to the hymns for this day. This Sunday is one of those occasions when All Saints Day lands on a Sunday. One way to focus our remembrance of the saints is to reflect on the ...
A Widow's Shame and Ours by Debra Dean Murphy (11/3/2015)
... <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Mark+12:38-44&vnum=yes&version=nrsv">Mark 12:38-44</a> For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. Mark 12:44 By the time we get to the familiar text in this week’s Gospel reading—sometimes referred...
Pope Francis in America by Ekklesia Project (11/4/2015)
...d he fall short or fail?” I would say not only did he indeed fall short, but that the way he failed was a good thing too. Well, maybe not a good thing, but not surprising either. There is little doubt that people of all faiths and of none intuitively sensed that in this one man there was an intrusion of the extraordinary into the workaday routine that enthralls most of us most of the time, an i...
All Will Be Thrown Down by Joel Shuman (11/10/2015)
...iestly class and leaders of the Temple who were deeply suspicious of the king (Herod had slaughtered a number of priests when he took power not that many years earlier), and on the other hand a narcissistic monument to Herod’s ambition to be regarded among the day’s great rulers, all of whom taxed their citizens mercilessly to fund extensive, self-aggrandizing building programs. Herod’s recons...
Reign of Christ by Ekklesia Project (11/18/2015)
...lawed, and the provisional as the way forward?</blockquote> You can read his post <a href="http://dev-ekklesiaproject-org:8080/blog/2009/11/ultimate-imagination/">here.</a>...
Strangers and Aliens by Ekklesia Project (11/19/2015)
...litics)">there is nothing new under the sun</a>. The Bible, however, is rather clear on the matter: <a href="http://welcomingthestranger.com/wp_welcoming/learn-and-discern/scripture-and-immigration">welcome the stranger, for you were once strangers yourself</a>. The second century <a href="http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010522_diogneto_en.html">Letter to Diog...
Living Out of Control by Kyle Childress (11/24/2015)
...equisite official sign posted on every entrance that firearms are not allowed). I know folks who are senior faculty at universities taking early retirement from the fear of being in the classroom with armed students. Some churches are divided over whether or not to post the legally required signs because they fear that the presence of the signs will act as a magnet for people wanting to make a...
A Dangerous Prayer by Ekklesia Project (11/27/2015)
...seven-reasons-to-ban-the-lord-s-prayer">why the powers and principalities have good reason take offense</a>. Perhaps it's a worthy reminder of <a href="http://clevertitlehere.blogspot.com/2014/12/subversive-joy-reflection-for-december.html">the subversiveness inherent in faithfully observing the season of Advent</a>. ...
Make Peace by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (12/1/2015)
.... In the second week of our liturgical season of preparation (Advent), Luke gives us opportunity to consider who we prepare for and the implications for Christians located in a consumer capitalist, xenophobic, racist, increasingly oligarchic 21st-century nation-state that glorifies violence (have you sung the National Anthem lately?). Zechariah, priest and prophet, proclaims that his son, Jo...
Am I Right or am I Wrong? by Ekklesia Project (12/2/2015)
... tired arguments that divide us along predictable political battle lines. If the world is to "know that we are Christians by our love," the church needs to discover better ways to live out the deep unity we share in Christ as we engage with politics and our world. In Oriented to Faith, Tim Otto tells the story of his struggle with being gay and what that taught him about the gospel. With an a...
Waiting in a Violent Time by Ekklesia Project (12/6/2015)
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Season of Anxiety by Todd Edmondson (12/8/2015)
...rlie Brown and all those gathered in the school gym “What Christmas is really all about,” might be the most rousing part of the short film, the opening scenes also speak in a pretty powerful way to the human condition. As the dulcet sounds of the children singing “Christmastime is Here” mix with Vince Guaraldi’s piano work, Charlie Brown and Linus move into the frame and Charlie B...
A Multitude of Ruptures by Ekklesia Project (12/18/2015)
...lesiaproject-org:8080/blog/2012/12/a-multitude-of-ruptures/">Read More...</a>...
Holy Family Values by Debra Dean Murphy (12/22/2015)
...unday after Christmas, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, the Commemoration of St. Stephen, and the Feast of the Holy Family. There is a wide array of readings and alternate readings, too. For churches using the text from St. Luke’s gospel, we’ll hear that the infant Jesus is now twelve years old and has gone missing in Jerusalem. Despite the decorous prose (“your father and I have been ...
The Power of Fear by Jessie Larkins (12/29/2015)
...d the boy looked like he was 20. They said they told him to stand down. He was a large black boy in a park and they were afraid. People do stupid and sometimes horrible things when they are afraid. As a country we’re being told that we should be afraid of a lot of things lately: immigrants, Muslims, crazy men with guns, black men (with or without guns), ISIS, the jobs report, tap water. We’re...