Image by Helen Filatova. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

Covetous crystals cover my pane,
needling out like evergreen branches,
longing to be what their brothers cover.
Melting heat of inward flame:
anything but this,
anywhere but here.
Not realizing,
to lose longing,
they would not be happy
(they will never be happy),
but they would be.
Yet, this they are.
Otherwise is no option.
Anything is everything.
Anywhere is everywhere.
With heat comes light:
essence of flame in crystal.
Melt.
Evaporate.
Begin again.

Reblog from the Christian Century:

Original article by Carol Howard Merritt

[I] realized there was something missing in our church’s ministry, and the answer was so clear when I looked at Jesus’ ministry…

We’ve read the gospels so many times that we can forget how amazing it was for Jesus to be walking from town to town, village to village, ministering to people. While people went to the synagogue to read Scriptures and pray, Jesus took the message out into the dusty roads. In the streets there were few barriers to the Gentiles, women, “unclean,” or poor, so Jesus was able to touch the skin of the leper or heal the woman with the issue of blood, because he was outside of the walls for so much of his ministry. Going out was a liberating act…

[I]t’s important that we keep walking in the footsteps of Jesus, focusing our attention on people who won’t, can’t, or never imagined themselves in church. How do we do this?

Walk once a day…

Work outside the church one day a week…

Use outward-focused technology…

Assess the needs of your community…

Start a community garden…

This is just an excerpt

Click here to read the full article

Image by Roberto Stuckert Filho. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

This article highlights Pope Francis’ connections to liberation theology.  Well worth the read.  If you don’t know what liberation theology is, educate thyself.

Reblogged from NPR:

“For [Pope Francis], social justice is not a sort of service of the church, an external relations department oriented to those who are victims of injustice… But it is part of the very essence of the church.”

Click here to read the full article

Nothing can undo or outweigh the horrible weight of what happened yesterday in Oklahoma. Please send prayers, good thoughts, and material assistance as you are able. Even so, may you find some hope as you watch this video and remember, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is a highly worthy organization to give to, even if you’re not Presbyterian, even if you’re not religious.  they have one of the best reputations worldwide for long-term disaster relief.  They keep working long after the cameras have stopped rolling.  For example, we still have teams assisting in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Click here to donate to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Click here for the PDA Situation Report on the OK, Tornado

“Poverty has grown everywhere in the U.S. in recent years, but mostly in the suburbs. During the 2000s, it grew twice as fast in suburban areas as in cities, with more than 16 million poor people now living in the nation’s suburbs — more than in urban or rural areas.”

Click here to read the full article

Astounded onlookers chalk it up to drunkenness, forgetting that alcohol tends to make one less intelligible, not more.  Besides, if drunkenness produced multi-lingual fluency, a good many college graduates today would be eligible for a job at the U.N. Likewise, Peter dismisses the charge and says “It’s a God thing,” exactly what the prophet Joel meant when he said, “In those days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh: old people, young people, folk from every place and every walk of life!”

Click here to read the full article

I’m becoming more and more convinced that mainline Protestant denominations are neither conservative/evangelical nor liberal/progressive in their theological orientation (much to the chagrin of conspiracy theorists on both sides), but are trying to hold both perspectives together under the umbrella of their true agenda: maintaining the survival of the institution.

Theologically, this means trying to occupy the Barthian-Niebuhrian middle ground that dissatisfies evangelicals and liberals alike.  Evangelicals fear that the denomination is pandering to political correctness at the expense of gospel truth.  Liberals fear that the denomination’s appeasement of cantankerous reactionaries is blunting the edge of prophetic witness.

My experience of the process left me with the sense that my committee and examiners just wanted to know that I was able to articulate that middle-ground perspective using the language of our denomination’s polity and historical confessions.

I think the main thrust of this article is true, but it could equally apply to our sisters and brothers on the evangelical end of the spectrum.

Reblogged from Crystal St. Marie Lewis:

“Many denominations require candidates to obtain a graduate degree involving work in the areas of theology and philosophy. In those graduate programs, professors spend countless hours training students to think outside the theological box, only for their ordination committees to demand that they put God (and their capacity for exploration) back inside the box. Seminaries are often free and open spaces where people are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about sacred matters. Yet, students endure rejection after the academic stage of their ordination processes–ironically for drawing unapproved conclusions.”

Click here to read the full article

Reblogged from Old Love:

We kept carrying her around, but like upside down, every which way—over your shoulder and under your arm, carrying her like luggage. And that went on for more than an hour—maybe an hour and a half—just carrying her around and saying, “She’s leaving! This could be it! Now come on, this could be the last time we see her. Gilda’s leaving, and remember that she was very sick—hello?”

Click here to read the full article

From the article by J. Herbert Nelson:

“Our mission is not to make the poor become rich; nor is it to demonize the rich. Our mission is to ensure that the playing field is leveled. Every human being deserves to have enough.”

Click here to read the full article

The icing on the proverbial cake was the arrogant note Pastor Bell scrawled on the paper before signing it with her name and title: “I give God 10% why do you get 18″.

Why?  I tell you why.  First of all, because it’s company policy for parties that large.  If you don’t like it, don’t eat there.  Second, and far more important, is because your server is a fellow human being, made in the image of God, worthy of respect and dignity for that fact alone. 

The role of server is one that Jesus blessed and took upon himself when he washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.  Jesus, of all people, had the right to lord his status over others, but he didn’t.  He came to give and serve.  After voluntarily completing this act of degrading service, he commanded his followers to do the same, saying, “Just as I have loved you, so you also must love one another.”  Who are we to then treat our servers as anything less than the very presence of Christ in our midst?  Jesus also said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Finally, professional clergy who act in this way absolutely ruin our collective witness to the power of the gospel.  Like it or not, people see us as representatives of the tradition we follow.  If we want to encourage others to love and follow Jesus, we must demonstrate that same love in our words and deeds.

Pastors, priests, ministers, and other clergy, hear me loud and clear: The way we conduct ourselves in public and the tips we leave our servers preach more than a thousand sermons ever could.  And don’t stop with your dollars either.  Make an effort to remember their names, especially if you are a frequent customer.  These people are treated like machines all day long, imagine the effect it will have on them when you make an effort to build community, nurture relationships, and love like Jesus!

As an act of collective repentance for what Alois Bell did in the name of pastors, I would like to share the following photo from a recent visit to Applebee’s in Rome, NY, where many of the staff members, including Alison, Lester, Matt, Amanda, Heather, Michelle, Natalie, Liz, Destiny, and Tristan, have become precious friends to our family, even though we only see each other in this one context.

Many thanks to our beloved server, Alison, for posting this photo and helping us redeem the world a little from the stain of hypocrisy left by Pastor Bell.

Alison posted the photo to Facebook with this comment: