“The Camino comes for us all.”
I keep hearing these words when someone encounters injury; loses something; breaks a tooth; experiences delay, misfortune, or discouragement.
It was Passover Week. The final bread was reduced to crumbs beneath the table. The linen was smudged and damp from the washing of feet.
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Crossroads
It often feels as though I am on a diving board
Up above the clouds
Teetering on the edge
One foot on the board
And the other foot off
In 1964 Robert W. Wilson and Arno A. Penzias were fiddling with a new antenna, all shiny and bright out of the box. And they couldn’t get it to work.
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The first lie told in the book of Genesis is, “You will not surely die.”
It’s also the lie we tell ourselves most often.
Living is easiest when we can push our mortality aside.
One of the most unique images in the Gospels is that of Jesus giving his final instructions to his disciples in the form of a prayer. He’s not preaching, so much as praying out loud, allowing his followers to eavesdrop.
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Let the same mind be in us
But what did Christ
Understand
And plan
When he surveyed
The land
-scape
Of humanity
Around him?
It feels as though our ancestors
Took our beloved Earth
Placed it on top of a mountain
And pushed it over an edge
Imagine a table with a certain number of chairs.
What type of embodiments are envisioned here? Beyond the door frames being accessible, beyond a ramp situation being available, does the table allow a diversity of embodiments to approach and find welcome? Are there hurdles and obstacles for alternative embodiments to cross/scale/overcome?
As a woman who is often distracted by many tasks, I have felt belittled—almost shamed—by this story. If there is “only need of one thing,” then what are we going to do when the clean clothes run out and the fridge is empty and the ring in the toilet is getting so aggressive that the kids are nervous?
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Have you ever heard of the “gay agenda?” That phrase has been used as a threat and attempt to discredit queer folx and imply some sort of sinister intention behind our actions and behavior. However, if you ever ask an LGBTQIA+ person what their gay agenda is, you would find it rather boring. There is no secret. No vile intent. Our agendas consist of chores, dating, bills, binging on Gentleman Jack on HBO.
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At the same table
Jesus sits and dines
Takes bread and wine
With one(s)
He knows,
betray(s) him.
Dismayed,
And yet
He stays
And prays
lets the road ahead,
like this dinner with broken bread,
Unfold.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This quote from Lord Acton often is used as a warning when someone gains a position of authority or as an explanation when someone in power behaves badly. Power, it seems, is like fire—play with it, and you’ll likely get burned.
“Who does God love?”
“A cheerful giver!”
The congregation’s vigorous response echoes around me as I sit terrified and transfixed. I watch people walk to the front to drop money into the offering plate held by my friend Angel.
I must admit I feel like the least qualified person to discuss Missional Inclusion through the lens of Ethnicity. Who am I to think, as a white cis-gendered straight man, that I have anything to say? Do we need another white guy talking about inclusion? My prayer is that the audacity that is the gospel of Christ might give me something to say.
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In a world of absolutes, where our beliefs, thoughts, and statements are distilled down to 280 characters it can be a daunting task to wade into the murky waters of dialogue and conversation.
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A self-cropped mop of curls hung around her face which was as red as anger and hurt can make it. The toe of her one-inch heel was missing a few of the plastic jewels that crusted the surface. When she stamped it onto the long-ago polished wooden floor, her fingers, still a little chubby with babyhood, were fisted, tight.
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God gave us brains, and I am convinced that God intends for us to use them. From one perspective, humanity was blessed with reason to be able to carry God’s task of creation forward. Just as God calls us to be God’s hands and feet in service to others, God calls us to use our reason to co-create solutions and blessings for all those around us.
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About fifteen years ago, I first heard about sustainable agriculture. Now, I come from a good, composting family. We had reusable shopping bags way before they were cool. But we never used the compost. We just didn’t throw food scraps in the trash. We threw them in the backyard. But in the world of sustainable agriculture, there are ways of doing things. There is tilth to consider. And biome—or was it biomass? And runoff.
Are you ready for a little grammar lesson? In the sentence "I am a lay theologian," there is a subject, I, and a predicate, am a lay theologian. The adjective lay modifies the predicate noun theologian not the subject I. And this feels important enough to risk your eyes glazing over with terrifying flashbacks of diagramming sentences.
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