jesus goes to church

Jesus tries to go to church and, instead, gets directions to the least of these. How perfect is that!

jesus' early math education

Ever hear a sermon about Jesus doing math? Probably not. Here a rabbi gives the young Jesus a key lesson:

[see me: picturing new york's homeless youth]

"For the Reciprocity Foundation’s 10-year anniversary, Tagore [co-founder of Reciprocity] teamed up with award-winning photographer Alex Fradkin to challenge common perceptions of homeless youth — by giving these young people the power to portray themselves on their own terms."

The result is an exhibition and a full colour book See Me: Picturing New York City’s Homeless Youth.


Check out more portraits at the See Me book website.

Read the buzzfeed article.

[stop using the words of MLK as a weapon...]

I need folks to stop using the words of MLK as a weapon to police the behavior of black folks, knowing you've never read one of his books.

— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) April 29, 2015

Austin Channing, responding to people who are using Martin Luther King's words about non-violence, to speak against the rioting in places like Baltimore, and who in the process miss the bigger picture and the reality of the lives of black people:

homeless =

I was looking for alternative words for "homeless person" the other day, and one of the top Google results brought me directly to this:

How's that for bias and for perpetuating negative views of people who do not have permanent housing?

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness / the Homeless Hub has a much more helpful typology of homelessness which understands the range of what homelessness can look like.


If you're interested, here's a link to the page at thesaurus.com.

[an example of the eucharist as the great leveler]

Even when people line up for the Eucharist instead of it taking place around a table, the Eucharist can expand our moral circles.

Here's an example where what was happening up front, impacted one of the parishioners still in the pew:




Read Rachel Held Evans' commentary related to the Eucharist and this video.

the eucharist as the great leveler

When was the last time you heard that from the pulpit? And what kind of response do you think such a statement would get?


In his book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck says:

...the Last Supper is a profoundly deep and powerful psychological intervention.
...
The Last Supper becomes a profoundly subversive political event in the lives of the participants. The sacrament brings real people - divided in the larger world - into a sweaty, intimate, flesh-and-blood embrace where "there shall be no difference between them and the rest."

(p. 114)

Beck also talks about the Eucharist as the great leveler.

subvert the moral circle!

If you have not seen my previous post about moral circles, read this first and then this.

The concept of the moral circle makes for a great diagram, and can be thought of as "going around me and my family," kind of like a fence around your backyard with you and your family happily inside it, and those who are "not family" (like strangers and stray dogs) kept outside. Kind of like the walls that used to encircle towns and cities in medieval times.

Jesus subverts the boundary-oriented moral circle...

on the 7,665,716,806th day...

Do you think that the last time God looked at what he made and said it was "very good" was the sixth day of creation?

Not a chance. When he created you, he said, "Very good!" "Beautiful!" "Wow, will you look at that!"

[if this is an issue for anyone...]

An aboriginal person and their daughter are looking to rent a room, and this phrase in their kijiji ad caught my eye.

We ARE OF aboriginal descent if this is an issue for anyone...

It suggests that the following scenario has previously taken place, and too many times:

They posted an ad which did not mention that they are aboriginal.
Someone responded positively by telephone.
They went to look at the room.
When the landlord saw them, the room was suddenly no longer available.

And so now, they give a heads up in their ad so that their time isn't wasted.


How many other people do the same? How many others have gotten used to "giving warning", or simply avoiding places where they expect to be rejected?

And what can those of us who follow Jesus, do to make it obvious that everyone truly is welcome and wanted?

[you'd struggle to sleep at night if ...]

Now read the other side to the story...

will there be chocolate in heaven?

And for some, a more important question: will there be sex in heaven?

As always, Jesus has an answer:

p.s.
They say there's nothing new under the sun, but if you google the word "acopulyptic", you won't get any results except from this post once Google indexes it. That's my word, folks!

[Dear White Christians... ]

Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation:
"Outlines a new paradigm for American race relations and for achieving racial justice

In this provocative book Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift in how justice-committed white Christians think about race. She calls for moving away from the reconciliation paradigm that currently dominates interracial relations and embracing instead a reparations paradigm.

Harvey presents an insightful historical analysis of the painful fissures that emerged among activist Christians toward the end of the Civil Rights movement, and she shows the necessity of bringing "white" racial identity into clear view in order to counter today's oppressive social structures.

A deeply constructive, hopeful work, Dear White Christians will help readers envision new racial possibilities, including concrete examples of contemporary reparations initiatives. This book is for any who care about the gospel call to justice but feel stuck trying to get there, given the ongoing prevalence of deep racial divisions in the church and society at large.:

(from the publishers' page)

Catch Jennifer Harvey, the author, talking about the book in this video. Comparison of reconciliation and reparation starts around the 5 minute mark.





Read more about the book, including reviews, at the publisher's page.

god's tired of the same old thing...

God, contrary to what one might expect from observing some of God's followers, is very much into thinking. And having thought more about the upcoming bus ad campaign by the Edmonton Atheists Society, God has issued another statement:

Check out God's previous response 1 and previous response 2.

god has more thoughts about being erased

After a good night's sleep, God has further thoughts on being erased by the Edmonton Atheist Society:

Check out God's previous response.