The Theological

A collection of 72 posts

The Theological

Old Quaker Discipline on the Poor

While I was researching for a recent sermon I came across some great quotes on poverty from 18th Century Quakers. One thing I loved was that the section on plainness and living an unfettered life is right next to the section about caring for the poor. These two things, how

The Theological

An Old Mennonite Rendering of The Disciple’s Prayer

I came across this old Mennonite rendering of the Disciple’s  Prayer  and love it. Abba Father God, Bless your holy name. Let your reign come now, Let your desires be carried out. Bring your peace to birth, As in heav’n, so on Earth Give us bread, daily; Free

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(Untitled)

This is an extended version of what I preached on Sunday morning November 1, 2009 Last week we began a new set of conversations, where we are exploring what I’m referring to as, in keeping with other Quakers and Anabaptists, the Disciple’s prayer. This stresses the point that

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Mission and the Disciple’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

Here is the text from my sermon this morning. How many of you have prayed this prayer before (at least once)? How many of you pray it often? What has been your experience with the prayer? My hope is that we can renew our interest, gain an interest or learn

The Theological

Simone Weil: Gravity and Grace

I’m still (slowly) reading through Simone Weil’s book “Gravity and Grace” for part of my daily time of reflection. Here are a couple great quotes I’ve recently come across dealing with obedience and caring for others. We should do only those righteous actions which we cannot stop

The Cultural

Bob Dylan and the BLACK CROSS (HEZEKIAH JONES)

I was listening to some Bob Dylan the other day when I ran across his version of Black Cross, a poem by Joseph Newman in 1948. I jumped out at me most likely because I’m currently reflecting on the Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. This poem/song is

The Theological

Community of the Holy Spirit: Repentance as a Way of (Dis)believing

This past Sunday we looked at Peter’s Sermon in Acts 2. I struggled over this text for a while. How do I preach a sermon on a sermon and keep it interesting? Actually, I’m trying to avoid using words like “preach” and “sermon” because they feel less participatory

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We Too Need an “I’m Sorry Day”: Concerning the Recent Abortion Murder

Jarrod McKenna’s posted on the God’s Politics Blog about the “I’m Sorry Day” Australian’s celebrate every year as a remind that “there is no future without confessing and seeking to heal the pain of the genocide of Aboriginal peoples and the evils that created the ‘stolen

Green

GiL Video: Resistance and Simplicity: Reflections On Swimming Upstream

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4468240&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Resistance and Simplicity from wess on Vimeo. In this video I discuss some of the questions I have around using

Church in Mission

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls: The Church in 25 years

Scott McClellan emailed me a couple weeks back and asked me to imagine what The church might be like in 25 years and write it in 150-300 words: It’s for an upcoming article for Collide Magazine (a magazine largely dealing with church and new media, an emphasis you will

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The Kingdom Call and Practice of Resistance

I have been thinking a lot about “practices of resistance” lately, not just the theology and philosophy behind this but also how to incorporate them into my routines more. So over the next few posts I want to try and develop some thoughts around this as well as explain a

The Theological

Discussions on Plurality 2.0

Adam Walker Cleveland, the author of Pomomusings.com, is conducting a series of guest posts on his site around the subject of pluralism called Plurality 2.0 and I have a guest piece on the subject today. Here’s what he writes about the series: I think issues of pluralism,

The Theological

Barclay Press Post: Repetition and A Non-Liturgical Liturgy

Here’s my latest installment at Barclay Press. As you’ll notice I worked at weaving a number of ideas I’ve had together and tried to initiate a forward step in a Quaker understanding of “liturgy.” More on this to come. What Quakers were against wasn’t forms but

The Cultural

Virtual Desire and a New York Police Officer

There’s a really interesting article in the New York Times today about a police office who was being charged with brutality in a criminal case. The suspect was caught carrying a gun and was purportedly punched by the officer while he was in cuffs. The Times reports that, “Officer

Church in Mission

The Ironic Gesture of the Church

Ryan Bell, the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Hollywood, invited philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins to do a two day conference called “Beyond Evandelism” at their church building (You can read Bell’s recent post on Rollins talk last night). In his talk Peter Rollins discussed a number

Church in Mission

Three Features of Everett Cattell’s Mission Theology

In preparation for the convergent Friends retreat this weekend I have been putting together some discussion notes on Everett Cattell. I will be presenting him as a “convergent Friend of the past” on Saturday evening. Because of this I was reminded that I wanted to post some summary remarks about

The Theological

A More Authentic Fundamentalism (Peter Rollins)

This quote is from Peter Rollins who will be in Hollywood speaking on his Evandalism tour March 1 and 2. In the post he discusses the subjective violence of Fundamentalism, which covertly seeks to cover up a maintenance of the status quo: The main gist of the argument lies in

The Theological

Plan B: The Church (John Caputo)

In preparing for a sermon the other day I came across one of my favorite quotes from John Caputo’s book, “What Would Jesus Deconstruct?” (see also here): “The name of ‘Jesus’ is too often a mirror in which we behold our own image, and it has always been easy

Church in Mission

A 21st Century Good Samaritan: Deidox’s Story of “Robert”

Last week I heard about the new project Brent Gudgel, Dan Portnoy and clan have been working on called “Deidox” from twitter. I’ve posted about some of Brent’s work before: The New Chronicle Project. The Imagination of the Kingdom at Work Think of Deidox, pronouced “day-docs,” as short

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What is a Quaker? Reflections on What We Might Become

A few weeks back I was invited to talk with some college-age Friends during a weekend retreat. It was my first visit to Plainfield, Indiana and I had a nice time meeting these students and their adult leaders from Western Yearly Meeting. I was invited to sit on a panel

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On Disciples: Forgiving George Bush And/Or the Church

I ran across a website yesterday via Good Magazine called “Forgive George.” It’s not really surprising to see something like this, with the inauguration only a few weeks away, the end of Bush’s presidency is on every one’s mind (there are a number of “tribute” sites to

Church in Mission

Finishing Two Quarters with Everett Cattell

Image by Midnight-digital via Flickr This past Friday I dropped my paper in an envelope, paid the $2.63 postage and sent it off to Elkhart, IN at 4 pm, an hour before the deadline. Leaving the post-office, I felt much lighter. Not only was a six-month weight off my

Church in Mission

“Dear Woman, why do you involve me?” Mission Without Guarantees

In the fourth of his missiology lectures (see more on his third here) Steuernagel reflected on a few passages where we see Mary interacting with her son, Jesus. In John 2:3-5 it says: “When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.

Church in Mission

There’s Something About Mary(‘s Theology)

This past week Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies hosted its annual Missiology Lectures. This year they invited Missiologist Valdir Steuernagel, of World Vision to discuss, “Missiology and Mary in Latin America: The Southern Church and a Fresh Mission Movement.”  This is an overview and reflection on his third lecture.

Church in Mission

The McCain-Palin Taste for The Secret

We live in a culture of increasing secrecy. Despite claims of being the ‘age of information,’ one might goes so far as to say we live in a culture of ‘the secret.’ Not only has there been a flood of recent secular books all pointing to new secrets being discovered