Tag: Revolution

Consider the Cost

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

American Evangelicalism and Western Christianity writ large, have done a huge disservice to Christianity broadly speaking. This morning I’m speaking not only as an observer of our socio-religio-political landscape, but as one who came to faith in it. It has been both my experience and observation that much of American Evangelicalism and Western Christianity conceives of the life of the disciple of Christ that is both comfortable, easy, and aligned to traditionalist conceptions promoted within society. The Jesus peddled therein reflects American Evangelicalism and its ideologies rather than the Jesus the gospel and epistle authors took pains to paint for us.

I remember—specifically—that my faith in and obedience to Jesus was going to make my life easier; that I would find myself in states of existential comfort and bliss. I’d be ushered into the spiritual realm, no longer afraid of where I’d end up in death while (intentionally) remaining indifferent (ignorant?) toward the issues of the world because why worry when Jesus is gonna come back and fix it all? Faith was to make me perpetually happy, nice, and too blessed to be stressed. My only two obligations were evangelism and obedience: I was to be a good Christian which meant telling people about Jesus and how great he’d made my life and obeying my authorities in all things which was God’s will. You might be burning in hell (temporally) or heading towards it (spiritually), and that was none of my business really because that was all your choice. My sins were forgiven and that’s all that really mattered, that was the goal of the gospel and of Jesus’s mission in the world. I was just lucky—blessed!!—enough to have decided to find Christ when I did!

But none of this was true. Like a sports car sold to someone suffering the malaise and banality of midlife, I was sold a saccharine Jesus, having little power and agency in the world because he was so conformed to it, embedded (buried?) in the ideas of yesteryear. Becoming Christian was going to solve all my problems; turns out, becoming Christian created more problems than it solved. Here’s why…

Luke 14:25-33

Luke tells us that Jesus addressed the many crowds that were coming together around him (these many crowds were composed of “neutral” people who may become disciples[2]), and he turned and said to them, “If someone comes to me and hates not their father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yet even their own soul, they are not able to be my disciple (v26). Luke’s emphasis here is implied: those following Jesus must know the cost of following.[3] The “cost of discipleship” is not only the burden of the disciples; it’s the burden of any/all someone/s coming to Jesus.[4] There is no way around the reality: to follow Jesus is to also participate in the mission of God in the world as Jesus does; obedience to God by faith and following Jesus necessarily means that they will be confronted with performing intentional acts of disobedience within their private.[5] In other words, it aint easy being Christian.[6] Not even family ties—a vital component of ancient Palestinian life—can get in the way; the follower of Christ must not even let family loyalty hinder them from pursuing God and God’s mission in the world.[7] (This is what the “hate” means in this verse; it is not about having a feeling of ill will or malevolence.) Not even loyalty to one’s own life/livelihood can get in the way of following Christ.[8]

Luke then tells us that Jesus said, Whoever does not carry the cross and comes after me that one is not able to be my disciple (v27). While we may think of this statement through the lens of Good Friday, it isn’t actually about “suffering”; it’s an equivalent thought to hating the family and oneself and broadens the scope of disobedience: it won’t be just private, it will be public and against the established authorities (ecclesiastical and political) who have power to punish you and take your life because of your disobedience.[9] In other words, the whole life of the follower of Christ will be exposed to the potential ramifications of following this man who is God. Everything is up for grabs.

Luke then tells us that Jesus provides a moment of reflection for those listening,[10] For who of you, willing to build a tower, does not (at all) after sitting down estimate the cost whether he has [enough] to complete [it]? So that, lest while he has laid his foundation and is not having power to finish, all those who gaze at it will begin to mock him, saying, `This person began to build and had not the power to finish.’ Or what king, going to come together in war against another king, will not (at all) after sitting down deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand troops to encounter the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? Now if he cannot, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation asking for the terms of peace (vv28-32). The follower of Christ is not headed toward some sort of comfortable and pleasant and easy life; they must think about the cost, likely conflict and confrontation, and what the end will look like.[11] it’s not going to be easy, in fact, it will be hard; and “hard” may be the lightest way to say it. For those who follow Jesus—according to Luke—they will feel the anguish of the decision deep in their bones as their choice begins—at times—to feel unbearable, lonely, and profoundly demanding in terms of forgoing material glory and honor and forsaking the creature comforts of fitting in and following along, including family and friends.[12] According to Luke and Luke’s Jesus, the Christian will be the one who stands out and not because they are so righteous but because they are so hated by the kingdom of humanity. “Authentic discipleship”[13] will force the follower of Christ into a spotlight and will paint a target on their back not because of their obedience to traditionalist conceptions of society and religion but specifically because of their disobedience born from their new life in Christ[14] marked by new ways of being in the world[15] that grate against the status-quo.[16] Participating in God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation will do that; never forget that Good Friday was more than a spiritual event.[17]

Therefore, Luke tells us, that Jesus concluded this discourse with,Therefore, in this way, all of you who do not take leave of all the things that are at hand are not able to be my disciple (v33). This last bit isn’t a new command to sell things but, rather, to loosen one’s grip on all that they have. The disciple of Christ, the follower of the Way, the participant in God’s mission and divine revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world cannot have loyalties placed anywhere else; their only allegiance is to the reign of God, forfeiting their status and position in the kingdom of humanity.[18] For the disciple of Christ, this is not about being intentionally poor, friendless, and rejecting one’s family. Rather, it’s about holding on loose enough that when conformity to the status quo of the kingdom of humanity is demanded—publicly or privately—the disciple of Christ can let go and proceed on the way of the reign of God, to glory of God and the well-being of the neighbor.

Conclusion

The Christian life is hard; this has been the consistent theme of Luke’s presentation of Jesus these many weeks. It’s not easy. It’s not comfortable. It’s not the sure-fire way to be “successful,” popular, or famous. It will not allow you always to be nice to others, always fun to be around, or always good-vibes-only. It will not be the fool proof way toward material blessings in this world or to acquiring favor of the rich and powerful. To follow Christ means to be intractable when it comes to the kingdom of humanity’s tendency toward not only rejecting but violently attacking God’s reign in the world. Christians, according to Luke’s Jesus, cannot side with nation over Christ, cannot side with the status-quo over the laboring of God to bear something new into the world (stress on new, not a retreat to something old), cannot participate in the captivity of our neighbors over fighting for their liberation, cannot become familiar with indifference over feeling the risk and demand of love, and cannot advocate for death over life.

The Christian—the one who follows and is to be as Christ` in the world—is the one who finds themselves at the intersection and epicenter of the temporal and spiritual realms, with a will conformed to God’s will, hands and feet ready to bring God glory by bringing wellbeing to their neighbor, and an eye keen on spotting and a voice ready to call out the violence and destruction of the kingdom of humanity. It’s not about self-righteous, holier-than-thou, clean and pure, self-imposed glory and boasting; it’s about the radical love of God that is the revolutionary love of neighbor. And while I want to comfort you by reminding you that God is with you—for surely God is with you, Beloved—I can’t solely tell you that in good faith and with a good conscience because the Christian walk is hard and I must tell you that. The world would have me sooth you to sleep (back to sleep?), telling you sweet nothings that let you off the hook. But it’s my job to participate in the prophetic calling of God to wake you up. Luke’s Jesus doesn’t want sleepers, but those who can stay awake, call out the discrepancies between what is and could be, and who dare to step disobediently into the void to protect the love, life, and liberation of the neighbor from the aggressive overreach of authority (ecclesial and political). Beloved, this is what it looks like to follow God; consider wisely the cost of such discipleship.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] Green, Luke, 564. “Often in the Lukan account, crowds are presented as pools of neutral person from whom Jesus might draw disciples, and this is clearly the case here.”

[3] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 183. “…[Jesus] warns those who would follow him of the cost of discipleship.”

[4] Green, Luke, 565. “‘Disciples’ does not refer narrowly in this instance to a select group of Jesus’ followers but…to all who, following him, identify with his missions. Such persons are characterized, first, by their distancing themselves form the high cultural value placed on the family network, otherwise paramount in the world of Luke.”

[5] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Discipleship requires radical obedience. Love of family must not stand in the way.”

[6] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Now he turns to the crowds around him. It is not only Jerusalem and all it represents that should take heed of the danger of disobedience; it is also this entire crowd that travels with him. If Jerusalem must be disabused of the notion that it will be easy to be the people of God, now this crowd of followers is also disabused of the notion that it will be easy to be a disciple of Jesus.”

[7] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “…to ‘hate’ the family does not mean to have evil sentiments for them, but rather to forsake them for the sake of the kingdom. A disciple of Jesus will not use supposed family responsibility to avoid obedience.”

[8] Green, Luke, 565. “…in this context, ‘hate’ is not primarily an affective quality but a disavowal of primary allegiance to one’s kind…Jesus underscores how discipleship relativizes one’s normal and highly valued loyalties to normal family and other social ties.”

[9] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “And this is then paralleled by the saying about carrying the cross. Taken in context, this not just a call to sacrifice, as we often think. The cross is an instrument of legal punishment and torture. So to take up the cross is parallel to ‘hating’ the family. A disciple of Jesus must be ready to carry the burden not only of tensions in the family, but even of civil disobedience to the point of legal punishment.”

[10] Gonzalez, Luke, 183. “Pointing to this idea, Jesus uses two brief parables about counting the cost.”

[11] Gonzalez, Luke, 184. “Likewise, one should not become a follower of Jesus without considering the cost, the opposition, and the final outcome.”

[12] Green, Luke, 566. “What outcomes are proposed if resources prove to be deficient? In both cases, the repercussions are tragic—the one resulting in mockery, the other in surrender; hence, a premium is placed on the inadequacy of one’s resources. By extrapolation, then, Jesus insists that such assets as one’s network of kin, so important in Greco-Roman antiquity, are an insufficient foundation for assuring one’s status before God. Dependence on the resources available to a person apart from ‘hating’ family and ‘carrying the cross’ cannot but lead to a tragic outcome. What is required is thoroughgoing fidelity to God’s salvific aim, manifest in one’s identity as a disciple of Jesus.”

[13] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 564. “As Jesus turns to address the crowds traveling with him, he lists allegiance to one’s family network and the shackles that constitute one’s possessions as impediments to authentic discipleship.”

[14] Green, Luke, 565. “As in 9:23, so here Jesus is calling for the reconstruction of one’s identity, not along ancestral lines or on the basis of sone’s social status, but within the new community oriented toward God’s purpose and characterized by faithfulness to the message of Jesus.”

[15] Green, Luke, 567. “This ‘leaving behind’ is cast in the present tense, demarcating this condition not simply as a potential for which disciples must be constantly ready, but as a characteristic feature of the disciples.”

[16] Green, Luke, 564. Luke “…reminds us that the new practices counseled by Jesus in vv 7-14 are not isolated behaviors but, from Luke’s perspective, must flow out of a transformed disposition, reflecting new commitments, attitudes, and allegiances. That is, the conversion that characterizes genuine disciples is itself generative, giving rise to new forms of behavior.”

[17] Green, Luke, 565-566. “…bearing the cross is used as a metaphor of discipleship—indeed, as a requirement for one’s identity as a disciple. Such persons would live as though they were condemned to death by crucifixion, oblivious to the pursuit of noble status, finding no interest in securing one’s future via securing obligations form others or by stockpiling possessions, free to identify with Jesus in his dishonorable suffering.”

[18] Green, Luke, 567. “As is generally the case in Luke, one’s basic commitments are manifest or symbolized in the disposition of ‘all one has.’ Accordingly, the distinctive property of disciples is the abandonment with which they put aside all competing securities in order that they might refashion their lives and identity according to eh norms of the kingdom of God.”

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Come Into the Courts of God

Psalm 25:3-4 Show me your ways, Abba God, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.

Introduction

Welcome to Advent. Some of us enter excited, filled with joy, ready to embrace the Christmas season with gusto. It’s that time of year again. Lights fill the night sky from the stars in the celestial realms to the twinkling of little tiny incandescent lights decorating any surface we can apply them; parties and events populate our calendars, shuttling us from one day to the next with little time to rest; gifts begin to appear under trees and in stockings; and food take on an increase making up for the slim trimmings all year long. This morning, some of us enter this space with unparalleled excitement, embracing the Advent season, ready for a fresh dose of hope to brighten our step and give us that steady gait into tomorrow.

But some of us enter this space beat up, tired, confused, angry, and doubtful. Some of us carry in here the weight of the world on our shoulders, dragging us down, curving us over, and holding us captive within its mammoth size. Some of us enter this moment scared of what the future brings. The beginning of Advent ushers in a sense of doom, maybe, that this upcoming year is so unknown while this one that’s ending is quite familiar. And we like familiar, even if it’s a bad familiar; at least we know what to expect. Some of us come into this space riddle with anxiety over relationships with family members and friends; so many areas of our lives are impacted by the radical socio-political polarization swirling around us. And some of us are strapped with the burden of sadness and grief, feeling the existential pain of the world, the reality of loss, the deep longing to those loved ones again who have ceased darkening our doorways. All of these show up here, too, humbly looking for hope as a buoy to make it through one more week, one more day, one more hour…one more…anything

Psalm 25:1-9

Remember, Abba God, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting. Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, Abba God.

The Psalms is the first book of the “Writings” (Kethuvim) that became authoritative within the “Writings.”[1] It is comprised of collections of poetic prayers geared toward the community’s communal worship[2] uttered through words of “songs of praise.” [3] The psalms are not only an invitation to sing, but to pray; they summon us to pray to God and this God is a good God, one who loves us dearly and with whom we are in a deep and profound (personal and intimate) relationship.[4] The psalms also give us, from the balcony of 2024, a look back at ancient Israel’s liturgy (in both first and second temple eras).[5] The psalms—the Greek iteration, psalmos, of the Hebrew, mizmor—also give us insight that many of these songs of praise, prayers in poesy form, were accompanied by a string instrument.[6] One question, who wrote the psalms, remains rather ambiguous (not all Psalms were actually penned by David), [7] though we could break it down like this, according to the JPS study bible, “1, chapters 1-41 (most of the ‘Psalms of David’ are in this collection); II, 42-72 (containing some Psalms of Korah and Asaph); III, 73-89 (almost exclusively the psalms of Korah and Asaph); IV, 90-106 (mostly untitled psalms); V, 107-150 (mostly liturgical psalms for pilgrimages to the Temple and for festivals).”[8] At the end of the day, the psalms not only inspire and invite us in to pray to God, but they also suggest that God is faithful and will do what God says God will do; the psalms often expect God to hear the pleas and cries and praise of the people and to respond.[9]

So, if you came here this morning looking for a way to speak with God, to praise God, to commune with God with your voice and body, the psalm for today, Psalm 25, invites you to do all of that. Those of us desiring to keep what hope we have and those looking to inflate a hope that’s been deflated, can feel comforted by these ancient words, in (a near perfect[10]) acrostic form.[11] Psalm 25 opens with a plea for help from God, v.1 “To you, Abba God, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; let me not be humiliated, nor let my enemies triumph over me.” And the next verse commends trust in God, v.2 “Let none who look to you be put to shame; let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.” This cycling through plea and trust is woven through the psalm; a need for God is expressed followed by God showing up and delivering from distress.[12] The psalmist begins by asking for protection (“lift up…”[13]) and then follows by asking that shame belong to those who do not turn to God for protection in dependence and responsibility. To shift the shame from the follower of God to those who do not follow God is a common theme in the parts of the psalms.[14]

The next coupling, vv. 3-4, draw out that the psalmist longs for God’s wisdom, “Show me your ways, Abba God, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.” The psalmist’s trust and verbalized dependence on God for salvation instigates a desire to know more about God’s ways which should be the ways of the one who follows God, i.e., the psalmist.[15] Yet, there’s some caution here, to be shown the ways and paths of God is then to earn the obligation to do them; it is not enough that the ways are known and contemplated, but to know the right way of God brings with it a demand: one must also do the right things of God. Then vv. 5-6 make a bit more sense; to pray to be shown God’s ways and paths, to declare one’s trust and dependence on God should solicit confession that too often the very one praying thusly is also the one who falls short of the goal and becoming skewed and ushering the psalmist toward missing the mark (“sin”). Thus, the psalmist prays, “Remember, Abba God, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting. Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, Abba God.” In other words, remember not any of my sins and missing the mark from my earliest days unto this very day.[16] Rather, remember your love and mercy, because it is on these divine characteristic that I am truly dependent and that will bolster my weak and feeble spirit and body barely clinging to whatever malnourished hope I have.[17]

The psalmist then returns to praising God in vv. 7-8, “Gracious and upright is Abba God; therefore Abba God teaches sinners in his way. God guides the humble in doing right and teaches God’s way to the lowly.” Recalling God’s mercy and forgiveness bring the psalmist back into the realm of praising God and remembering God teaches those who follow God and God’s ways; those who are humble, those who know their dependency on this good and gracious, merciful and forgiving, are those who do the good and right that makes up the ways and teaching and paths of God. And at the end, the psalmist confesses their knowledge of God and of God’s ways, “All the paths of Abba God are love and faithfulness to those who keep God’s covenant and God’s testimonies.” Thus, to be fully dependent on God, to trust God, to be shown and taught the ways and paths of God is to become like God in the world, walking and working in the ways of divine truth with responsibility, participating in the divine mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world to the glory of God and the wellbeing of the neighbor. This is to keep God’s covenant and God’s testimonies; here is the foundation of the hope of the people of God.

Conclusion

When we find ourselves coveting the hope we have or desperate to find anything to produce hope, we must come into the courts of God. We must come and hear something new, something different, something radical about what could be because anything is possible with God and we need a really good interruption. It is through our prayers, our songs of praise, our proclamation of God that our hope is fueled and bolstered; it is our faith in this God who not only says God loves us but will show it. It is this divine showing that will always be the foundation and source of our hope. God will show God’s self as merciful and forgiving, loving and kind, and God will do this by being born in a manger to a single woman of color, in poor and meager conditions and to live as one of God’s beloved with the goal to rescue them from the plight and damage of the kingdom of humanity.

[1] Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, “Psalms,” The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 1280. “The book of Psalms is the first book of the Kethuvim, or Writings—probably because of its size and significance and also perhaps because it was the first book in the Kethuvim to become authoritative.”

[2] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1280. “Psalms is a collection, actually a collection of collections, of poetic prayers. (Prose prayers are also found through the Bible, but they are ad hoc, private prayers of individuals.”

[3] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1280. “The Hebrew name of the book, Tehilim, ‘songs of praise,’ is found often in rabbinic literature and is also attested in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls…” and which credits David as the author of 3,600.

[4] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1284. “According to the outlook of Psalms, the main religious function of human being is to offer praise to God, to proclaim His greatness throughout the world. Thus, the psalms enjoin others to praise God, and they envision a world in which everyone and everything will praise God. This implies a relationship between God and humans, another important dimension of Psalms.”

[5] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1280. “The origin of most of these poetic prayers is lost in obscurity, but they were preserved because they were likely used liturgically in ancient Israel, certainly in the Second Temple and in some cases perhaps in the First Templet.”

[6] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1280. “The English title ‘Psalms’ derives from the Grek psalmos, a translation of Hebrew mizmor, ‘a song with the accompaniment of a stringed instrument.’”

[7] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1281. “Davidic authorship, however, on the basis of linguistic and contextual evidence, is not accepted as historical fact by modern scholars, but is viewed as a way the ancients linked biblical writing with the appropriate inspired well-known biblical figure, thereby confirming the divine inspiration and the authority of those writing (as is the case in the ascription of Proverbs to Solomon, Lamentations to Jeremiah, and so forth).”

[8] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1280.

[9] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms:Introduction,” 1284. “God is called upon to hear prayers and to respond; this one of His attributes. Worst of all is when He ‘hides His face’ and refuses to pay attention to the psalmist, because this puts into question the efficacy of prayer. If there is one primary underlying assumption of the book of Psalms, it is the potential efficacy of prayer.”

[10] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “Two letters are missing and two are doubled, likely reflecting changes that the psalm has undergone in its transmission.”

[11] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “An individual’s petition in acrostic form: the first line begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the first word of the second line with the second letter of the alphabet, and so on to the final letter.”

[12] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “The psalm is made up of alternating petitions and expressions of trust. It resembles wisdom literature in its concern with learning and finding the right path, but has the religious concerns of Psalms in its hope for forgiveness and for deliverance from distress.”

[13] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “…lit. ‘lift my soul to You’…i.e., ‘turn to You for protection.’”

[14] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “The plea for the ‘shaming’ of one’s enemies is frequent in complaints…”

[15] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “Prayer for moral guidance with a wisdom cast…”

[16] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “Youthful sins: Since God’s mercy dates from the beginning of time, the psalmist mentions sins that date form the beginning of his life.”

[17] Berlin and Brettler, “Psalms,” 1309. “Prayer for divine mercy and forgiveness of sins. A key word is ‘z-k-r,’ ‘remember,’ translated as be mindful and consider. God should remember that He is merciful and not remember (take into account) the psalmist’s sins.”

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Another Year

I chuckle when I get reminders like this.

But maybe this year I need the reminder. Not the one telling me it’s my birthday, but the imperative: enjoy this special day.

I’m a big fan of birthdays. I love them; more than I love Easter and Christmas. Birthdays mark special moments where someone became something out of nothing. What wasn’t now is, type stuff. Existence doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. Not existing makes sense, but being born and living as we do in ourselves as we are, in all of our uniqueness and oddness and packed full with idiosyncrasies? Think about it. It doesn’t make sense. Existence is really incredible; the impossible made possible.

But lately existence feels hard, heavy, like wading through molasses. Enjoying a day that marks the anniversary of your non-existence turned existence, feels existentially cacophonous right now.

But maybe that’s part of the point of existing out of non-existence: the perpetual threat of not existing highlights the marvel that is existence. And maybe there in I can locate my enjoyment of the day: dare to celebrate in the face of reasons to give in to the gentle downward pull of the existential molasses I find myself caught. To enjoy even now, to celebrate even now cuts through the fabric of suffering with the revolution of life and love.

In this I am reminded (and encouraged) by some words from The Rev. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz,

La lucha and not suffering is central to Hispanic women’s self-understanding. I have gotten the best clues for understating how Latina understand and deal with suffering by looking at Latinas’ capacity to celebrate, at our ability to organize a fiesta in the midst of the most difficult circumstances and in spite of deep pain. The fiestas are, of course, not celebrations of suffering but the struggle against suffering. The fiestas are, very often, a way of encouraging each other not to let the difficulties that are part of Hispanic women’s daily life overcome us. They are opportunities to distance ourselves from the rough and arduous reality of everyday life, at times mere escapism, but often a way of getting different perspective on how to carry on la lucha. Listening to the conversations that go on at the fiestas and participating in them makes this evident. What one hears is talk about the harshness of life. Of course at times it is a mattery of simply complaining. But often it is a matter of sharing with others in order to convince oneself of what one knows: that one is not alone; that what each Hispanic woman is going through is not necessarily, or at least mainly, her fault but is due to oppressive structure…Fiestas are a very important way for Latinas of not allowing only the suffering in our lives to determine how we perceive life, how we know, how we understand and deal with reality.

Mujerista Theology p. 130

So, let’s have cake and dare to celebrate.

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Revolution Beautiful

Sancta Colloquia Episode 402 ft. Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

I had the pleasure of talking a new friend in the revolution for a better world: Lydia Wylie-Kellermann (@lydiaiwk). We talk about her work at Geez Magazine, her upbringing and local activism in Detroit, MI, and her newest book project released into the world: The Sandbox Revolution. Lydia brings profound experience and insight to the normal discussion about what revolution is and what it looks like to live revolutionarily. She doesn’t confound her audience by over complicating things; rather, she takes very complicated things and makes them easy and hands them in digestible portions to everyone who has is eager for something more. Lydia brings home to us a deep desire for something more than what we have: a world where love and life and liberty are the trademark characteristics of all people and the creation itself. Using her own life, she shares her stories and invites us in to participate with her in this revolution for something more beautiful.

For a more detailed engagement with the text, please go see my review of The Sandbox Revolution over on Dr. W. Travis McMaken’s blog DET; click here for the post. It was an honor to be able to publish something over on DET, and I’m grateful to Dr. McMaken for the opportunity. If you aren’t following DET’s posts, you should. It’s one of the places I recommend visiting on the “Recommend Reading” page of this cite.

Excited? You should be. Listen here:

Interview with Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann is a writer, editor, activist, and mother. She lives with her partner and two boys in the neighborhood where she grew up in southwest Detroit. She is the managing editor of Geez magazine, a quarterly, non-profit, ad-free, print magazine at the intersection of art, activism, and faith.

Further Reading:

  • Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jen Harvey
  • Revolutionary mothering: Love on the Front Lines, edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
  • Parenting Forward: How to Raise Children with Justice, Mercy, and Kindness by Cindy Wang Brandt
  • It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood by Frida Berrigan

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Divine Paracletic Revolution

Sermon on John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Psalm 104:34-37 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will praise my God while I have my being. May these words of mine please him; I will rejoice in the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah! (43)

Introduction

Today’s the celebration of Pentecost. According to the book of Acts, this is the day the Holy Spirit of God arrives, fueling tongues of flames hovering above the heads of the disciples who have been left by the one they followed and loved. Amid spontaneous tongues of fire, the disciples begin speaking and all there were able to hear them—like, listen and hear them. Whether the disciples were spontaneously speaking in different languages or those present were able to hear the message in their own language isn’t the point. The point is that there was proclamation and there was proclamation being heard. The Gospel gospelled the Gospel.[1] All of it due to the presence of the Holy Spirit, very God sent into the world to move in hearts and minds of people, to usher people and the world into life out of death from the kingdom of humanity into the reign of God.

The arrival of the Spirit among the humble followers of the way confirmed these had the divine power to preach and proclaim the gospel, the witness of Jesus the Christ died and raised and ascended. Never again would the presence of God be isolated to material structures protected by very specific people. In Pentecost, everything is blown wide open: all are the worthy vessels of the Spirit of God (no in group, no privileged few, no elite clique). From hovering over the face of the deep in Gen 1, the Spirit of God moves through time and space perpetuating God’s love at every twist and turn of the manifold pathways of the cosmos and bringing that love straight to you in a personal and intimate way through encounter with God in the event of faith. The long promised new spirit and new hearts for all of God’s people is fulfilled in the arrival of God’s Spirit among the disciples.

This is a remarkable claim. A most profound and revolutionary claim rivaling the claim of life out of death in resurrection. The presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer eliminates any possibility of exile from God; there’s no where you can run and hide where God isn’t because by faith you are yoked into God because God by the presence of the Spirit lives in you. God transcended God’s self to be born of a woman and to take the regular name, Yeshua/Jesus. Even more profound is God continues to transcend God’s self by taking up residence in our hearts and minds. We are, to quote St. Paul, the vessels of the holy spirit. We are clay, and we crack and fracture, and we are very much good but not perfect, yet we’re the beloved and worthy by our simple existence to be in and with God and God to be in and with us.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Whenever the Paraclete comes, whom I, I will send to you from beside the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, that one will witness concerning me. And now you, you are witnesses, that from the beginning you are with me. [2]

John 15:26-27

The above is certainly good news, yet John the elder has more to say about the Spirit of God, the Paraclete: The Paraclete continues the revolution of God started by Christ. The work Jesus started on earth isn’t over. The Paraclete will come and will continue the divine witness[3] of love embodied and manifested by Christ.[4] Thus, John affirms Jesus’s ministry was not a singular and isolated historical event relegated perpetually to what was. What Jesus did in the world materially by his presence and activity remains in the present even when he leaves (“you, you are witnesses”) and surges into the future when the Paraclete arrives (“that one will witness concerning me”). God’s revelation of God’s revolutionary and liberating love set everything in motion and continues world without end.

In other words, with the arrival of the Paraclete God clearly isn’t done with the cosmos; nothing and no one is too far gone, without hope and possibility, or too sick, dirty, anxious, and other to be beyond God’s revolutionary and liberating love. In Christ the disciples witnessed God go to the fringes of their society, liberating and rescuing those who were isolated and shut out by the local rulers and religious authorities. The divine pursuit of the beloved was an intentional confrontation with human made systems of the day. It’s these systems causing death and captivity for the children of God from which Jesus called forth life and liberty in material and spiritual forms. Jesus’s work and activity while alive is as much a part of the divine witness as is his death and resurrection and ascension. So, it is this entire witness the disciples are witnessing to and which the Paraclete will continue to witness into the ages. The Paraclete comes so there will always be witness to the divine revolution of love and liberty in the world in the hearts and minds of disciples who’ll participate in witnessing in their time, culture, and context.[5]

But I spoke these things to you because the grief in your hearts is made full. But I, I say the truth to you, it is profitable to you that I, I go away. For if I do not depart then the Paraclete will not come to you. Now, if I go, I will send [the Paraclete] to you.

John 16:5-7

According to what Jesus says here, without the arrival of the Paraclete there will be no assuaging of the disciples’ grief—his presence may cease their grief but only temporarily. If Jesus doesn’t ascend, then the witness and revolution of divine love will last only while Jesus lives on earth. Due to Jesus’s resurrection being bodily, this is a finite time conditioned on human health and protection from danger—both being rather tenuous for Jesus. By ascending and sending the noncorporeal Paraclete who can live in and among the believers and followers, the divine witness of love begun by Jesus never ends.[6] No matter the threat of death, the passing of time, or variance of cultural context, the Paraclete goes and exposes systems and liberates captives in ways Jesus wouldn’t be able to do[7]—he would’ve been restricted by his body to his time and context. With the presence of the Paraclete all who grieve are consoled, all who are stripped of the power to speak have an advocate, all who are anxious and burdened are comforted, all who need help have a helper, all who find themselves without words have an intercessor, and the Paraclete comes to all who callout and need aid—in any culture, from any context, in every age. This is certainly the divine revolution of love.

Conclusion

Still I have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them just now. But when that one comes, the Spirit of truth, [they] will guide you into all truth. For [the Paraclete] will not speak from [themselves]but will speak as much as [they] hear and will report back to you the things that come.

John 16:12-13

The Paraclete isn’t stuck in the context and culture of Acts 2; the Paraclete isn’t bound by time or era. The Paraclete informs us as we are to be informed and then will inform the next generation of Christians as they need to be informed, which won’t be as we’ve been informed. The way we are being informed today is not the way our foremothers and forefathers in the faith were informed. Jesus withheld information from his disciples because they couldn’t hear it; the Paraclete was given the privilege of revealing and witnessing to God into different cultures and contexts, among different peoples. Today can never be yesterday and tomorrow will never be today; God cannot be captured and caught by time or people. Why do we confuse the consistency of God’s love with God being stuck in some romanticized version of history?

The questions we have today need answers that haven’t been given before. No matter how great the bible is, how brilliant philosophers of yesterday were, or how insightful theologians have been, they can’t directly address our questions in 2021. Thus, we’re reliant on the presence of the Paraclete to guide us into truth through exposure and comfort that leads to the revolution of the witness of God. First, we ourselves are guided by love into exposure because we must always be in the truth of who we are and where we are and find ourselves therein received and accepted. Second, we’re guided by love and truth to participate in exposing archaic, static, and septic traditions and rituals, systems and ideologies. Last, we’re guided by love to work in the world as beloved radical midwives of comfort, love, and liberty participating in the revolution of bringing forth the reality of God manifested in Christ by the power Spirit of truth, the Paraclete.[8]

Let us live and liberate, let us laugh and love like those profoundly impacted in heart and mind by the life, liberation, laughter, and love of God made known in the witness of Christ in the world by the presence and power of the Paraclete.

[1] Rudolf Bultmann The Gospel of John: A Commentary Trans. GR Beasley-Murray, RWN Hoare, JK Riches. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster 1971. Original: Das Evangelium des Johannes Göttigen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964). 554 “Their witness is not, therefore, a historical account of that which was, but—however much it is based on that which was—it is ‘repetition,’ ‘a calling to mind,’ in the light of their present relationship with him. In that case it is perfectly clear that their witness and that of the Spirit are identical. The Gospel is itself evidence of the kind of witness this is, and of how that which was is taken up again…”

[2] Translation mine unless otherwise noted.

[3] Bultmann John 553 “This two-fold designation makes the reference to the idea of revelation certain; even after Jesus’ departure, God’s revelation will be mediated through him: he it is, who sends the Spirit (sic, without additional description), who bears witness to him; but he does so in his unity with the Father, who has made him Revealer; he sends the Spirit from the Father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father, just as it is said in 14:16 that the Father sends the Spirit at the Son’s request, or in 14.26 that he sends him ‘in the name’ of the Son.”

[4] Bultmann John 552 “After Jesus’ departure, the situation on earth will remain unchanged inasmuch as the offence which Jesus’ work offered the world will not disappear. The witness, which till now he had borne to himself, will be taken over by the Paraclete, the Helper, whom he will send from the Father.”

[5] Bultmann John 554 “But when…the Spirit’s witness and the witness of the community are spoken of as two factors distinct from one another, this shows first that the working of the spirit is not unhistorical or magical, but rather requires the disciples’’ independent action, and secondly that the disciples cannot accomplish on their own what they are in fact able to do. They may not rely on the Spirit, as if they had no responsibility or need for decision; but they may and should trust the Spirit. Thus the peculiar duality, which exists in the work of Jesus himself, repeats itself in the Church’s preaching: he bears witness, and the Father bears witness. But the community’s preaching is to be none other than witness to Jesus…”

[6] Bultmann John 558 “…the historical Jesus must depart, so that his significance, the significance of being the Revealer, can be grasped purely by itself. He is only the Revealer, if he remains such. But he remains it only by sending the Spirit; and he can only send the Spirit when he has himself gone. In context the statement means the same as the others, that Jesus must be exalted or glorified in order to be the one who he really is.”

[7] Bultmann John 562-3 “The judgment consists in the world’s sinful nature being exposed by the revelation that continues to take place in the community. This is brought out by relating the ελεγχειν of the Paraclete to the three dimensions αμαρτια, δικαιοσυνη, and χρισις. The absence of the article proves that it is the three ideas that are called in question, and not three cases of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It would therefore be wrong to supplement the three substantives with three subjective genitives…The judgment that takes place in the revelation consists in disclosing the true meaning of the standards and values current in the word. But this means at the same time disclosing who is the sinner, who the victor, and who it is that is judged.”

[8] Thought influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Christ, Reality, and the Good” of his Ethics

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Sex and Revolution II: Eros, Theology, Revolution

Sancta Colloquia Episode 307 ft. Mason Mennenga

In this episode Mason Mennenga (@masonmennenga) joins me and we talk about the need for a new theology of sex. As I mention in my introductory thoughts, there’s a need to reevaluate the current and negatively pervasive theology of sex. It’s notable and not farfetched to say that our conceptions of sex and marriage coming in from both media and the church are inherently flawed and warped by historic misconceptions and fear of eros. In simpler words: there’s a rampant fear of desire that is woven through the Church’s doctrine of sex and in the culture/media. Both church and culture are bound in the extremes. We need to take seriously that as whole human beings we are wholly spiritual and wholly material and do not divide well. What we think about capital and production will impact our intimacy will impact our spirituality will impact our existence. The sad thing is that, as Mason said, we don’t reimagine constructs but just try to fit new things into old paradigms. Mason makes a really good point: we must go beyond merely speaking of revising or recreating a sex-ethic, we need an actual theology of sex that undergirds this new sex-ethic. One of the ways in which we can go about doing such a necessary revision is to actually…get ready for this…think of Jesus as a sexual being. According to Mason, in making space for thinking of the sexuality of Jesus’s context and Jesus as a sexual being, we allow ourselves or open ourselves to being confronted. Referencing Marcella Althaus Reed, Mason drives home the need for us to be confronted, interrogated and provoked by radical images that draw theology and sex in tighter alignment. Mason also brings up the need for revisiting liturgy…we both agreed, liturgy has plenty of erotic imagery embedded in it. The church may stress (too much, in my opinion) the agapic love of God, but both the scripture and our liturgies scream erotic love. So, why not begin with re-understanding eros and going back into a theology of eros, and, wedded to this need is this one: letting the voices of the oppressed speak and determine for themselves what sex is and what sex is for. It’s time for a regime change. It’s an excellent episode, if I don’t say so myself.

Excited? You Should be. Listen here:

Interview with Mason Mennenga

Mason is a youth worker at Solomon’s Porch, Master of Divinity student, aspiring theologian, podcaster [A People’s Theology], and writer. He enjoys conversation over a drink, being a music snob, stand-up comedy, scrolling through Twitter, and a good read.

Further reading/learning:

Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics by Linn Marie Tonstad

The Queer God by Marcella Althaus Reid

Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics by Marcella Althaus Reid

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Revolution of the Light

Sermon on John 1:1-5

Psalm 147:5: Great is our Lord and mighty in power; there is no limit to his wisdom. The Lord lifts up the lowly, but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God upon the harp.

Introduction

I’ve never met someone who meets opportunity for exposure with open and eager embrace. Exposure can harm our body. Even the small forms of exposure provide enough discomfort to warrant avoidance. Anyone here like it when that wool blanket and down comforter are yanked back suddenly exposing your warm skin to chilly air? What about that cruel adjustment moment when eyes accustomed to dark are exposed to brightness? What about that little trip while you’re walking exposing the reality that you’re not as graceful as you thought you were? All I have to say is, “Hospital Dressing Gown,” and you all know what I’m talking about.

Exposure hurts and ushers in self-death when it reveals bigger problems. That thing keeping you stuck or that thing haunting your peace rears its head again and exposes your lack of control. Maybe it’s the fights that won’t go away; maybe it’s the threat of failure; maybe it’s the persistent sickness; maybe it’s the lie that was found out…these are exposures soliciting a death to self: I need help.

Exposure hurts. But exposure and its pain and death aren’t antithetical to life but the basis of it.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the word was in the company with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning in the company with God. Everything was made through him, and not one thing having existed was made separately (from) him. In him there was life, and the life was the light of humanity. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot lay hold of it.

Jn 1:1-5, translation mine

The first part of the reading should sound familiar. Genesis 1:1 starts off identically (εν αρχη). The allusion in John 1 to the start of the Hebrew Scriptures is intentional. The Word is to be equated with God and the creative speaking power of God. The Word was God. The word spoken in Genesis 1:1 is the word piercing the silence of the cosmos, disrupting the darkness by tearing from it the light. The point is not creationism, but that God’s word and God’s deed are one and the same thing: God speaks and it happens; not a word falls to the ground void of substance of completed action.[1] For John, this word spoken at the beginning of creation is the Word that has come into the world in the baby born to Mary (Jn 1:14)—and not only to Israel, but to the whole world.[2]

With one hand John grabs the tip of the Hebrew scriptures and pulls them into view. With the other hand he drags the Greek philosophical tradition into view—signified by the word λογος. John uses the birth of Christ Jesus as the focal point to articulate the light that was called forth in Genesis 1 will expose the world and humanity unto life, unto glory and truth. For John the world is not its own Lord or “Law” but is created and sustained by the very Word of God; [3] it is not chaotic matter (the Greeks) but creation out of nothing. [4] In 5 words (εν αρχη ην ο λογος), John indicts humanity and its thought structures and assumptions. And we—those who listen in from here—also are indicted and confronted with John’s statements about the Word who was with God and is God. We are asked to reexamine everything we thought we knew, the terms and concepts we have grown (all too) familiar with and think we’ve defined rightly.[5] Here we’ve been exposed by the confrontation of the divine answer that is the Word made flesh and is the light of life of humanity.

John writes, “In him there was life, and the life was the light of humanity. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot lay hold of it.” The distinction between light and dark is one we move over quickly. We’re used to the idea that light happens at the flick of switch. In swift motion, the dark room is now illumined. It wasn’t, but now it is. But is it a simple change? The articulation of light into a room means that darkness must be converted. Darkness doesn’t run to other side of the room. What was dark is not anymore; it is light. It must cease being dark and become light.

When the light shines in the dark, the darkness in the path of the light is changed and transformed into not dark. Zooming in on the event you might see that which is light and not light, that which is darkness and not darkness. You might see particles in process of transition of giving themselves over to the light. There’d be a point where time would cease to matter as everything grinds to a halt as the activity of darkness changing into light gives over to the stillness of dark and light and not dark and not light—like a ball thrown into the air comes to a full stop before descent, there would be a cessation of darkness before there is lightness. There is a point in the conversion of darkness into lightness where it seems action seems to stop, where movement stops, where time becomes timelessness. There’s death—a cessation of everything. [6]

In the Christian Apocryphal work, Protoevangelium of James, the author tells of the moment Jesus is born, from Joseph’s perspective.[7] Listen,

“And I, Joseph, was walking, and yet I was not walking. And I looked up to the vault of heaven and saw it standing still, and in the air, I saw the air seized in amazement, and the birds of heaven were at rest. And I looked down to the earth and I saw a bowl laid there and workers lying around it, with their hands in the bowl. But the ones chewing were not chewing; and the ones lifting up something to eat were not liftin it up; and the ones putting food in their mouths were not putting food into their mouths. But all their faces were looking upward. And I saw sheep being driven along, but the sheep stood still. And the shepherd raised his hand to strike them, but his hand was still raised. And I looked down upon the winter-flowing river and I saw some goat-kids with their mouths over the water but they were not drinking. Then all at once everything return to its course.”[8]

Protoevangelium of James trans Lily C. Vuong

This is what happens to the world when divine exposure is born into it. The moment Jesus is born of Mary, time stops to make room for the light to enter the world that is trapped by darkness. Mary births the babe who is the light of humanity[9] that will convert darkness into lightness and death into life.[10] Everything comes to a standstill as God enters our timeline and completely overhauls it, flipping it on its head, moving space like the water of the red sea during the exodus, and thrusting the cosmos into divine truth. When God shows up, everything grinds to a halt and the world goes through a death as life motions to revolt against death.[11]

Conclusion

In the advent and nativity of the Christ child, we’re exposed by the light of life and shown we’ve been complicit with and held captive by systems and kingdoms of darkness of death. I mentioned before that 2020 is a year of exposure. This exposure hurts and will continue to hurt because none of us is done wrestling against the powers and principalities of this human world. It’s not easy to see how deeply embedded we are in the narrative of white supremacy. It’s painful to see greed and selfishness run rampant and realize those are our feet running and keeping pace with those we’re criticizing. It’s horrifying to realize our silence participates in propping up vile and malicious institutions, practices, ideologies when we’d rather not #saytheirnames or say #blacklivesmatter because it’s…more comfortable not to.

In the exposure inaugurated by the birth of the Christ in the encounter with God in the event of faith, we are brought out of the old humanity through death into new humanity.

To be exposed is to endure the transition of darkness into light—being reduced to the moment you are and you are not. To be exposed is to come to a full cessation and be changed from darkness into lightness through death. To be exposed is to see things as they are in the stillness of time and ask the questions so many are afraid to ask: is this all there is? Is this really the good and true and the beautiful? Is anything else possible? The exposure of the encounter with God in the event of faith brings life out of death through resurrection—it’s new life and you are a new creation, with new eyes to see and ears to hear. And you’re given a new mission in the world: joining in the revolt against the dark with the army of the light who is the oppressed, the marginalized, the suffering, the hurting, the dying. This is the mission of God in the world; this is the thrust of the nativity. Everything we think we know as right, and good, and true is in the line of fire of the great divine revolution of life against death humbly started by God born a baby boy to a young unwedded mother, wrapped in rags and laid in a humble manger surrounded by dirty shepherds.

[1] Rudolf Bultmann The Gospel of John: A Commentary Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1971. P. 20 “In the O.T. the Word of God is his Word of power, which, in being uttered, is active as event. God’s word is God’s deed, and his deed is his word; that is, he acts through his word, and he speaks in his action, and it is man whom he addresses.”

[2] Bultmann John 21. “The Prologue does not speak of the relation of the chosen people to the Word of God, but of the relation of the world to the ‘Word’.”

[3] Bultmann John p. 39. “The radical nature of the idea of creation is evident at this point: in the beginning the world did not, so to speak, receive as its own that which it then maintains by itself; both its beginning and its continuing existence are attributed to the Logos. Precisely this is the meaning of v. 4a: ο γενονεν, εν αυτω ζωη ην: the vitality of the whole creation has its origin in the Logos; he is the power which creates life.”

[4] Bultmann John p. 38. “The Greek view, that wants to understand the world as a correlation of form and matter, is also excluded: the creation is not the arrangement of a chaotic stuff, but is the καταβολη κοσμου (17.24), creation ex nihilo.”

[5] Bultmann John 13. “The concepts ζωη and φως, δοξα and αληθεια are the kind of motifs for which the reader brings with him a certain prior understanding; but he still has to learn how to understand them authentically.”

[6] Bultmann John p.32. “…in the person and word of Jesus one does not encounter anything that has its origin in the world or in time; the encounter is with the reality that lies beyond the world and time. Jesus and his word not only bring release from the world and from time, they are also the means whereby the world and time are judged: the first words of the Prologue at once prepare us for this.”

[7] For an excellent engagement with this text, please see Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel’s work located here: https://hcommons.org/members/evandeneykel/deposits/ It was his paper—”Then Suddenly, Everything Resumed Its Course”: The Suspension of Time in the Protevangelium of James Reconsidered—that I heard at SBLAAR 2017 and was profoundly impacted by. If you are interested in further pursuing apocryphal engagement, I highly recommend engaging with Dr. Vanden Eykel.

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[8][8] The Protoevangelium of James 18: 2-11 Trans Lily C Vuong (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1532656173/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_uk52Fb7QPGNMN)

[9] Bultmann John p. 43, “…φως comes to mean revelation. And where one speaks of a Revealer, one can describe him as the ‘Light’ or as the Giver of light.”

[10] Bultmann John p. 41. “In its original sense light is not an apparatus for illumination, that makes things perceptible, but is the brightness itself in which I find myself here and now; in it I can find my way about, I feel myself at home, and have no anxiety. Brightness itself is not therefore an outward phenomenon, but is the illumined condition of existence, of my own existence. Such brightness is necessary for life; so that from the first, and throughout the ancient world, light and life, darkness and death are seen as belonging together.”

[11] Bultmann John p. 47. “Yet the ζωη of the Logos does not cease to be the φως of men just because men have chosen the possibility of darkness. Rather it is only because the Logos is constantly present as the light of men that the world of men can be σκοτια at all. For darkness is neither a substance nor the sheer power of fate; it is nothing other than the revolt against the light.” I made revolution the work of the light because revolutionary violence is in response to oppression and suffering. Darkness’s response would be counter revolution. It is not light who responds to hold the status-quo, but darkness. It is darkness and death to uphold the status-quo and systems bent on destruction to keep your power.

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Meditation, Anti-Racism and Revolution

In this video I discuss two books I recently read and am impacted by. The first book is, “This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on how to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work” by Tiffany Jewell. And the second book is, “Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us” by Justin Michael Williams. These two excellent books intersect and work concurrently with each other as it pertains to our presence in a world in need of awake and alert people fighting for a better world for all people. I highly recommend both books to your shopping cart and minds and lives.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sJ-Zu6UuBWA

Here are the two episodes of Layla Saad’s podcast, The Good Ancestor Podcast, where she interviews both Tiffany Jewell and Justin Michael Williams.

http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast/ep030-tiffany-jewell

http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast/ep024-justin-michael-williams

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Redeeming Radical Rhetoric

Sancta Colloquia episode 110 ft. Garrett Gore

In this episode of Sancta Colloquia, I was able to (finally) talk with (in voice to voice) another one of my favorite Twitter Tweeps: Garrett Gore (@GarrettLacan4).  The conversation presented exactly as I hoped it would: Garrett produced intriguing material and authors and taught me a bunch of things. He’s a few years older than my students and part of that really remarkable generation rising. As I say in the introduction, I take the wisdom offered to me by those who could be my kids as seriously as I take the wisdom offered to me by those who could be my parents. This is something our world–or at least our particular western, American context—would do well to be a lot better at. And if you take the time to listen to Garrett you’ll learn an important lesson in language and leftist theory and revolution. Garrett did an excellent job explaining the necessity of “redeeming radical rhetoric”. This makes sense and it’s ironic. Don’t we adults accuse the youths of not taking language as seriously as we do? Yet here is one of those youths explaining the system of language as well as articulating the deep need for redeeming language and rhetoric and words. Garrett says, “Humans are subjects who are tortured by language.” And I think he’s right; this is the back bone to the entire conversation. Whether how we use words, how words impact us, what we think about words we think we understand, there’s an awful amount of torture. We need to reclaim language, Garrett explains in various ways, so we can cause a hard break with the many abusive systems in play (Religious, Social, and Political etc.) that are employing language to sustain the abuse and oppression. The status quo is sustained through the use of language that causes numbness and blindness and deafness; Garrett issues a call to wake up and see the power of language used rightly and powerfully and critically. It was such an honor and privilege to have Garrett on the show; I’m grateful for his wisdom and ability to communicate these very important concepts. I hope you enjoy listen to his words as much as I did.

Intrigued? You should be. Listen here via Screaming Pods (https://www.screamingpods.com/)

A huge THANK YOU to my friend and producer Sean Duregger (Twitter: @seanCduregger) and Screaming Pods (Twitter: @ScreamingPods) for hosting Sancta Colloquia (Twitter: @SanctaColloquia).

Garrett says: Hey all. I’m Garrett and I come from Texas on the DFW area. I am a former Evangelical and now I am a Post-Theist Quaker. Currently, I am doing undergrad studies, majoring in Philosophy, and hope to go to Grad school to study Political-Theology and other thinkers I’m interested in such as Zizek, Lacan, Fredric Jameson, among others. An issue that is a particular interest of mine that also forms a good deal of my background in philosophy, theology, and theory studies is Anti-Capitalist critique as I am unapologetically Communist, and shamelessly endorse Jameson’s Universal Army model to move beyond Capitalism and toward a Communist society.

Recommended and Mentioned reading:

Fredric Jameson:
The Political Unconscious
Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capital
An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army

Lacan:
God is Unconscious: Psychoanalysis and Theology by Tad DeLay
How to Read Lacan by Zizek

Zizek:
Zizek and Politics: A Critical Introduction by Matthew Sharpe and Geoff Boucher
Violence
The Monstrosity of Christ
The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto
The Idea of Communism
The Sublime Object of Ideology

Thomas Altizer:
The New Apocalypse
The Gospel of Christian Atheism
Satan and Apocalypse

Misc:
The Communist Horizon by Jodi Dean
Ethics of the Real by Alenka Zupancic
Towards a New Socialism by Paul Cockshott

 

 

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An Intersection of Marx and Jesus

A (very) brief examination of the two through the book of James [by William Brien]

The following was written by a student of mine, William Brien, and I found the content quite insightful. As a caveat, Brien writes “I submit this piece with only a limited understanding of Marxism, therefore if I am panned for misconstruing it I yield my position to the experts.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Also, I’d like to add that these insights are merely those: insights. He is, “giving credit where credit is due.” He’s a true intellectual who does not have to profess allegiance to something in order to see what value it may offer. None of the following determines his religious or political inclinations.

Never in the history of humankind has a doctrine been so viciously contorted as that of Christianity. It has been used as justification for atrocities ranging from the Holocaust, to Apartheid, and even Jim Crow. The symbiotic relationship between Russia’s Orthodox Church and the Tsarist regime served as a bulwark of aristocratic rule amid the mass killing and famines of the early 20th century empire. Yet the egalitarianism promoted in the Christian scripture itself directly contradicts the oppressive status quo it has been used to preserve. The Epistle of James condemns the hypocrisy of elitism, saying,

If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please,’ while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there,’ or, ‘Sit at my feet,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?… Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? (2:2-6).

Perhaps the radical Marx could have found a friend in James. Indeed, the apostle’s contrast between the “dishonored” poor and the “rich who oppress” and “drag [the poor] into court” is very much reminiscent of The Communist Manifesto’s elite bourgeoisie guarding the means of production and subjugating the proletariat. The perpetuation of injustice, in accordance with this passage, is not the fulfillment of God’s plan, but a crude imitation designed to protect tyrannical authorities. Though these distortions led Marx to adopt a vehement opposition towards religion, ironically enough, the greed-filled class struggle which he proves to be the driver of socio-economic development towards socialism runs parallel to the greed and sin which drive the actions and thoughts of human beings as they work to become good Christians. It is the death of self-serving pursuit and the preservation of equality, whether through political and economic revolution or through compassion blind of class, which both doctrines wish to bring about.

Posted on by laurenlarkin 0