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The Social Jesus Podcast

A Shepherd Restoring Paradise EPISODE 19

John 10:22-30 The good shepherd imagery in the synoptic gospels is referencing verses like these in Ezekiel where the leaders were censured for becoming an oligarchy that fed themselves off of the sheep rather than caring for them. In Mark, Matthew, and Luke, likening Jesus to a shepherd meant he would gather those who had been scattered by the injustice of the Temple rulers who were complicit with Rome?s exploitation of the masses. The early Jesus community held this imagery dear. Jesus, to them, was a shepherd who would restore the flock ?with justice.? The shepherd imagery wasn?t used to describe whisking people away to a distant heaven but to describe restoring justice here ?on earth as it is in heaven.? It was about restoring paradise, with Earth as an abundant pastureland tended over by a caring and just shepherd. Today, we are to do the same work the Shepherd worked at: restoring paradise. Though this is ancient imagery, today it points to the holy work of seeking distributive justice for everyone, a justice that ensures each of us has what we all need to thrive and that all, regardless of our differences, would have ?life and have it to the full.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

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All Episodes

Wisdom and Understanding Give Birth to Social Justice

Wisdom and Understanding Give Birth to Social Justice

Luke 2:41-52 ?Any Christian teaching, action, or movement that disparages, discourages or prevents adherents from caring about social justice rejects Jesus? central wisdom and teachings on loving one?s neighbors. Any form of Christianity that inhibits your pursuit and practice of social justice denies the central tenet of the gospel that the Jesus of the stories taught, for the work of social justice is merely the act of applying the ethic of loving one?s neighbor. Social justice is the practical fruit of loving one?s neighbor. Therefore, to say that Christianity is rooted in love of neighbor is to also state that genuine Christianity bears the fruit of social justice out of love for our neighbor. Whatever form of Christianity we subscribe to, our faith should not disconnect us from our world, from our community, from our society. It should propel us to lean into and be more deeply connected to our world, community and larger society.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Resurrection as Injustice Undone

Resurrection as Injustice Undone

Luke 24:36-48 Whatever we make of the resurrection stories today, reading them through much more scientific lenses, we cannot ignore the fact that nowhere in these passages is Jesus? death lifted up. The good news is that Jesus? death had been undone! Whatever else we make of these stories today, their truth is that oppression and power don?t have to have the last words in our stories either. We can choose to keep going. The opposition doesn?t have to have the last word. Love can conquer injustice. Our stories aren?t over yet. For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Spirit, Love, Justice and Truth

Spirit, Love, Justice and Truth

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 ?Establishing justice on Earth is the result of the Spirit. In our reading, that Spirit descends in the bodily form of a dove, which many today take as the symbol of peace arrived at because universal distributive justice has been established. At the core of Jesus? message, the heart of Christianity, is the call to love our neighbor. And loving one?s neighbor is what we call today social justice: making sure we and all of our neighbors have what they need to thrive, not just barely survive. Social justice is rooted in love, specifically love of one?s neighbor. It calls us to engage our civic responsibility toward one another. It calls us to take inventory of how we are sharing space with others we live alongside with on our planet. Justice is also deeply tied to truth-telling. It is difficult to practice justice as a society when we don?t share the same reality, and when some have been misinformed and convinced through appeals to their own bigotries and fears that the reality is different from what is genuinely happening.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Good Shepherd and a Socially Just World

The Good Shepherd and a Socially Just World

https://renewedheartministries.com For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Water, Wine and Human Beings Fully Alive

Water, Wine and Human Beings Fully Alive

John 2:1-11 ?I like the image of turning water into wine. It reminds me of the saying in the womanist tradition of making a way out of no way. The story asks us to focus on the present, to do all we can in the moments we have before us. What had transpired in the story was a crisis: running out of wine at a wedding feast. And what ended up happening was better: wine being drank better than any that had been drunk previously. We are about to face crises of our own this coming year, crises of injustice rooted in marginalization and bigotry bearing the fruit of violence and oppression. In the midst of crisis, we too can be about turning water into wine. We won?t know exactly how till we are in the moment, but each moment will provide opportunities for us to make choices and build on them. The wine may be about to run out, and all we may have at our disposal is water. But don?t give up. Look for the water pots.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Different Kinds of Christianity Produce Different Kinds of Fruit

Different Kinds of Christianity Produce Different Kinds of Fruit

John 15:1-8 ?Today, it is no secret that many kinds of Christianity are failing to produce the kind of fruit that makes this world a better place. We can, if we choose, be a part of shaping a world that is just and safe for everyone. It will require change for some types of Christianity. And this change, difficult as it may be, in the end, will be worth all the effort it takes.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

A Gospel of Economic Justice

A Gospel of Economic Justice

Luke 4:14-21 ?Poverty is an indictment of the system it exists in, because that system creates and allows for poverty. A system of winners and losers will always have those who lose. But in Jesus? new social order, everyone has enough to thrive. In our reading, Jesus? gospel doesn?t just end with the poor. It also includes freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord?s favor when slaves would be set free, debts cancelled, and lost or sold land returned back to ancestral families. Today, in addition to econimic justice, we could extend this list of system failures even further. Participating in Jesus? justice work today is to combat white supremacy and anti-Blackness. It means combating misogyny and patriarchal norms. It means standing for the safety and well-being of our LGBTQ family and friends, and even more.? For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Loving One Another and Social Justice

Loving One Another and Social Justice

John 15:9-17 ?Whatever we say about love, the Jesus of the gospels, and the Divine, these beliefs about love must transform us into more loving human beings. We can teach, preach, and believe in love, and still not let those beliefs become anything more than mental assent to ideas. We must choose to apply our beliefs about love not just to how we imagine God relates to us, but also to how we relate to one another! And we can?t love one another and not care about the things each of us suffers as a result of the way our society is shaped.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present

Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present

Luke 4:22-30 ?Today we need to pay close attention to responses that answer justice and reparations movements with rage and responses that define these movements as good news. This week?s story reminds me that if at times I feel like throwing the Jesus of the synoptic gospels off a cliff, I?m in the right story! I?m being confronted with the discomforting truth of why we too often respond to calls for justice in our time with the same resistance and rage. What our story whispers to us is that this rage against justice today is the same rage that placed our Jesus in our gospel stories on a Roman cross. And it calls us to reject that rage and instead embrace a future where we live in a world that is a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Sent to be Socially Life-Giving

Sent to be Socially Life-Giving

John 17:6-19 ?Although we may be different, we belong to each other. What affects one affects us all. We either thrive together or decline and wither together. Humanity is far from homogeneous, but we are all still part of each other. Like it or not, our shared humanity connects us all.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Fishing for People and Speaking Truth to Power

Fishing for People and Speaking Truth to Power

Luke 5:1-11 ?Fishing never works out well for the fish! and fishing for people instead doesn?t fix that. The examples in Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel, give Jesus? call to the disciples a very different social and political context of justice. In this story, Jesus is inviting these working class folk take up the justice work spoken of by the Hebrew prophets, to take up fishing for people as Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel would have defined it. Fishing for people was about hooking or catching a powerful and unjust person, and removing them from the position of power from where they were wielding harm.This wasn?t about saving souls so they could enjoy post mortem bliss, but about changing systemic injustice in the here and now.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Pentecost as Connectedness and Distributive Justice

Pentecost as Connectedness and Distributive Justice

John 15:26-27; 16:4-15; Acts 2:1-4 ?In the synoptic Gospels and the book of Acts, we see a fruit of the Spirit included the restoration of social justice. In these stories, whether the Spirit is poured out on Jesus or his followers, it is evident in their profound concern for the suffering caused by societal structures.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Blessing and Cursing of the Gospel

The Blessing and Cursing of the Gospel

Luke 6:17-26 ?Rather than the gospel being universal good news, the first shall be last and the last shall be first sounds quite the opposite. The equity that the sermon on the plain envisions is a world where there are no more losers and survival comes through our working together. Luke's gospel is for the underprivileged, longing for things to be put right, those present power structures are being weaponized against.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Reuniting the Material and the Spiritual

Reuniting the Material and the Spiritual

John 3:1-17 ?This division between the flesh and the spirit, between the physical, material world and the spiritual has born seriously destructive fruit throughout Christianity. The Jesus in the synoptic gospels did not separate the spiritual from the fleshly or material. He taught his followers how to navigate their material world by righting injustice, ending oppression, and offering healing alternatives to violence. That Jewish Jesus did not separate the spiritual and material to offer a path of escape from the material world. Rather he taught his followers how to lean into their material world in life-giving ways.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Insights on Turning the Other Cheek, Enemy Love, and Judging Others

Insights on Turning the Other Cheek, Enemy Love, and Judging Others

Luke 6:27-38 ?Pam McAllister expressed the tension well as she explain the teachings of Barbara Deming: ?Barbara wrote about the two hands of nonviolence... With one hand we say to one who is angry, or to an oppressor, or to an unjust system, ?Stop what you are doing. I refuse to honor the role you are choosing to play. I refuse to obey you. I refuse to cooperate with your demands. I refuse to build the walls and the bombs. I refuse to pay for the guns. With this hand I will even interfere with the wrong you are doing. I want to disrupt the easy pattern of your life.? But then the advocate of nonviolence raises the other hand. It is raised out-stretched?maybe with love and sympathy, maybe not?but always outstretched. With this hand we say, ?I won?t let go of you or cast you out of the human race. I have faith that you can make a better choice than you are making now, and I?ll be here when you are ready. Like it or not, we are part of one another.? Active nonviolence is a process that holds these two realities?of noncooperation with violence but open to the humanity of the violator?in tension. It is like saying to our opponent: On the one hand (symbolized by a hand firmly stretched out and signaling, ?Stop!?) ?I will not cooperate with your violence or injustice; I will resist it with every fiber of my being?. And, on the other hand (symbolized by the hand with its palm turned open and stretched toward the other), ?I am open to you as a human being.??For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Sabbath and Social Justice

The Sabbath and Social Justice

Mark 2:23-3:6 ?Are there times when we have interpreted our own Jesus following in ways that have become death dealing for our society? Is our practice of Christianity socially life-giving? Are we obstacles to those around us working toward a more just, safer, compassionate society with room for everyone or are we, like Mark?s Jesus, standing up to those obstacles and being conduits of love, life, and healing? Where are we in the way? How can we get out of the way and come alongside, choosing to recognize those working to make our world a safer place for everyone, and adding our energy and effort to their work??For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Lessons of Justice from the Transfiguration

Lessons of Justice from the Transfiguration

Luke 9:28-36 We are living in a time when systemic protections for the vulnerable among us are being dismantled. Collective sustaining aid is being slashed or terminated every day. All of this channels more money away from the common wealth of the people into the pockets of privileged, propertied, and powerful wealthy billionaires. What does it mean for us as we leave the Christian season of Epiphany, to remember Jesus standing not alongside Herod, Caiaphas, or Pilate but alongside Moses and Elijah, in solidarity with those whose society was being dismantled. Who are the Moseses of our day? Where are our Elijahs? Who are the ones standing alongside the Jesus of the oppressed (whether they would describe it in those terms or not) on our mountain top moment right now? In the liberation and justice wakes of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, who are the ones working alongside those marginalized and made vulnerable in our day, and how can we align our stories, our energy, and our efforts with theirs?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Labelling Social Justice as Dangerous

Labelling Social Justice as Dangerous

Mark 3:20-24 ?The Beelzebul controversy makes me think of how certain Christians have feared the women?s liberation movement, opposed the abolition of slavery, or are still opposed to making our world a safer place for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer/questioning. I think of how certain Christians are opposed to political movements attempting to make our world safer for children by passing background checks for firearms. The number one cause of death of school age children in the U.S. is not library books or drag queens, but mass shootings. Certain Christian leaders seek to inspire fear among middle class people about programs to have the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes to fund more programs for the poor and disenfranchised. This story serves as a warning and helps us consider whether we are genuinely using the wisdom of Jesus? teachings as we assess the work and progress of those presently shaping our world into a safer, compassionate, just home for everyone.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Temptations and the Rise of Authoritarianism in America

The Temptations and the Rise of Authoritarianism in America

Luke 4:1-13 The current political environment in the U.S. has given us a different lens to read Jesus? temptations in the wilderness through as this text, once again, rolls by in the lectionary. Presently we are witnessing the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and the weakening of and some feel the fall of democracy in our own society. The politics of the gospel call us to say no to a politics of exclusion, exploitation, and enrichment of the elites at the expense of the masses. The temptations story calls for a willingness from Christians who bear responsibility for the mess we find ourselves in to embrace deep repentance and to become reacquainted with the Jesus of the gospels. These stories also serve as encouragement to Christians who wisely saw the direction our society was headed and did all they could within their spheres of influence to divert our society?s course. Regardless, of where we find ourselves presently, the stories of the temptations are a source of encouragement, conviction, and, to those for whom it applies, repentance as we enter this year?s Lenten season. For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Hope Despite Appearances

Hope Despite Appearances

Mark 4:26-34 Just as we don?t have to understand how seeds work in order to plant the seeds, we don?t always have to understand how our world is going to be put right to take the first steps in reshaping it. Many times, the road to justice is made as we travel it. How justice is achieved from the modest beginnings of grassroots movements is often a path with twist and turns that surprise us and could not have been predicted. There is mystery in how our combined justice efforts combine with others? justice efforts to create something that is often greater and more beautiful than the sum of all its parts.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Courage to Stand Up to Harm

The Courage to Stand Up to Harm

Season 2 Episode 11: The Courage to Stand Up to Harm Luke 13:31-35 All of this causes me to consider those today with the courage to speak out against harsh decisions and brutal acts being perpetrated in the name of government efficiency today. A chainsaw is quite metaphorically being taken to our system, all to grant benefits to wealthy elites who verbalize allegiance to our present administration in the U.S. At what cost? The dismantling of a system, and undeserving people harmed in its wake. And those who speak out now are also being targeted for doing so. In our story, Jesus knew where his solidarity would lead. He knew that if he continued to speak out against the harm being perpetrated by the powerful, if he continued to stand in solidarity with the marginalized, the vulnerable, those most harmfully impacted by the decisions the powerful in his society were making, and if he called the entire populace back to fidelity to the God of the Torah with its economic justice (including the Torah?s periodic wealth redistribution and debt cancellation), he well knew that taking up the prophet?s role could garner him a prophet?s end. And this is why the Jesus story remains relevant for me in times like we are living through today. Jesus, knowing where his choices would lead, still had the courage to make those decisions and stand up for what was right for the people. Today, many Christians (not all) are directly responsible for the political, social, and economic horizon we are looking out on in this nation. How would the Jesus of our reading this week respond to Christians who carry his name today being the very agents who have let a fox in the hen house to wreak havoc, chaos, and long lasting harm to so many? May those of us endeavoring to follow Jesus in our present moment be encouraged by the prophet we find in this week?s reading. A Jesus who named Herod for what he was. A Jesus who boldly refused to stop speaking truth about what was right. A Jesus who, setting his face toward Jerusalem, determined to go to the heart of the system in his commitment to God?s just future and making our world a safe, compassionate, just home for all. In the face of so many who are being harmed now, and for those for whom the next few years will bring untold harm, may we, too, find the same courage the Jesus of this week?s story showed.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

When the Wind and Waves Threaten Justice

When the Wind and Waves Threaten Justice

Mark 4:35-41 It seems like, no matter what area of justice we are working for, whenever we take three steps forward the winds and waves push us two steps back. Working from of a place of love to make our world a more equitable place continues to mean facing winds and waves from those who benefit from an inequitable world. This week?s reading is for those presently facing winds and waves. It reminds us that there will be storms, there will be winds, there will be waves that threaten to sink us. This passage doesn?t promise that these won?t be part of our story. In fact, they remind us that they most certainly will. Yet the disciples weren?t alone in the boat. And neither are we. You?re in the right story.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Social Repentance Not Private Piety

Social Repentance Not Private Piety

Luke 13:1-9 Here in the U.S., we are witnessing the gutting of programs that help our society?s most vulnerable. All of this is so that, under the guise of concern for the national deficit, those in power can grant tax cuts to the billionaire class who are already wealthy beyond their ability to use their wealth in one lifetime. This is compounded by the fact that all of these new budget proposals will still increase the national deficit by trillions of dollars. For the common person in our communities, prices on daily needs continue to rise, wages remain low, and thousands upon thousands of people are losing their jobs through massive firings and layoffs, with new firings being announced almost every day. Where will our breaking point be? Our reading this week calls us to pause during our season of repentance in this year?s Lent. Lenten repentance can be superficial and temporary or long-lasting, deep, and life-giving. For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Mark 5:21-43 It initially looks like this story will affirm the social assumption that if we take care of those considered less than in our society then there won?t be enough for everyone else, assuming life is a zero-sum game. But then this story takes a sharp turn. This story ends up teaching us how to practice a preferential option for the marginalized of our society. Placing the synagogue leader next to the woman in this week?s reading affirms practicing a preferential option of the marginalized in general. Then, by placing the woman alongside this little girl too, the story calls us to reject specifically preferences practiced within patriarchy.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

We Won?t Be Great Until Everyone Is Great

We Won?t Be Great Until Everyone Is Great

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Today Christians pick something that triggers our own bigotry and attach moral value to it, describing it as sinful when intrinsically there really is nothing harmful or ?wrong? involved and we are simply triggered by someone being different than ourselves. A example today would be certain denominations that still refuse to acknowledge women as equals to men in ministry though women are by no means less qualified or less righteous than men. But somehow they are defined as less than. Certain Christian communities continue to label members of the LGBTQ community as ?sinners? when in all actuality they are simply different than cisgender, straight Christians. Different is not synonymous with sinful. Differences simply reveal the rich and beautiful diversity of our human family. In our story this week, "sinner" simply meant a person living in poverty that could not afford a more expensive interpretation of "righteousness."For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Embracing our Dependency

Embracing our Dependency

Mark 6:1-13 ?Is our Christianity all about getting to heaven and saving our own individual soul? Or does following Jesus call us at the very first to be concerned with someone?s present material need? The very first test for someone who encountered one of these original twelve was not how they responded to a gospel presentation on Jesus? death, heaven or hell, or whatever gospel topic is too often the soundbite version of sharing Christianity today. The very first test was how would this person respond to someone on their door step with no bread, no money, and no extra clothing.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Mary, Christian Patriachy and the Existence of Poverty

Mary, Christian Patriachy and the Existence of Poverty

John 12:1-8 Our story this week involving "Mary" was used to historically disparage women leaders within Christianity toward a purely patriarchal form. Characterizing Mary Magdalene as a prostitute advanced the patriarchal goals of disparaging women as somehow "morally inferior" to men, and therefore unfit as leaders in the Western Christian church. This argument is hinges on incorrectly conflating the stories of three women in the Gospels. Women were leaders in the egalitarian sectors of the early Jesus movement and there is no reason why the shouldn't be allowed to be so, today. Lastly, the latter portion or our reading this week is used to perpetuate the myth that poverty is an inevitable part of society and there is nothing we can do to erradicate it. But the Torah and prophets taught differently, and the early church interpreted these words in John differently. Today, we understand that Poverty is a by-product of the system in which we live. And we are responsible for whatever system exists. Poverty is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings. In the words of Gustavo Gutierrez, ?The poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Jesus Following and Social Justice

Jesus Following and Social Justice

Mark 6:14-29 ?Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes states, ?When you start with an understanding that God loves everyone, justice isn?t very far behind.? For those endeavoring to follow Jesus? teachings, not being concerned with matters of social justice is a failure. It?s a failure to love. It?s a failure in our Jesus-following. It may derided by those who have something to lose from making our world a more just home for everyone. That?s okay. To believe in a gospel of love means to be about justice because justice is what love looks like in public.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Peace Through Justice Doesn?t Need A War Horse

Peace Through Justice Doesn?t Need A War Horse

Luke 19:28-40 What would our local communities look like if each person simply had enough to thrive and we all were committed to making sure we were taking care of each other? Today, as in the time of Jesus, there are two philosophies of peace in our world. One says, ?If you want peace, prepare for war.? The other says, ?If you want peace, work for justice.? As MLK and so many other justice workers have rightly reminded us, true peace is not just the absence of conflict, but also the pursuit of fairness and equality for all.?It is with peace through justice that the gospel authors align the work and ministry of Jesus. This is why I believe Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time to protest in the Temple for economic justice on the back of a young donkey. Because peace through justice doesn?t need a war horse. For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Transcending and Escaping or Engaging and Transforming

Transcending and Escaping or Engaging and Transforming

John 6:1-21 ?A focus on transcending this world comes from John?s gospel. But as Jesus followers, we must allow ourselves to be confronted by the fact that that focus has not always produced good fruit. The synoptic gospels admonish us as Jesus followers to engage our world, to transform it, to work alongside others working to shape our world into a home for everyone, a home where everyone has their needs met, a home that is safe, rooted in distributive justice, and founded on compassion and the recognition that each of us bears the image of the Divine and is part of one another.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Original Good News of Easter

The Original Good News of Easter

Luke 24:1-12 ?The cross has been the symbol of salvation in Christian history for two millennia. The apostle Paul was among the first to define the good news as being about Jesus? death. Before Paul, there are signals in our sacred texts that the good news was not originally that Jesus was crucified but that the Jesus whom the Romans had crucified was alive! The original good news was not the cross. It was the resurrection. Christian theologians from multiple marginalized communities have spent years critiquing a theology that centers the good news on Jesus? suffering rather than God?s triumph over suffering by undoing, overturning, and reversing that death. The earliest form of the good news, good news that we still need today, is not that death brings life. But that Empire doesn?t have the last word. There is a larger universe than that created by oppressors. As powerful as death is, life is even more powerful. This present moment doesn?t last forever. Injustice doesn?t have to win. Justice will continue to strive even in the face of of the deepest obstruction. The universe can be bent toward justice. Hope is a discipline that is worth it.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Not Spiritualizing the Material

Not Spiritualizing the Material

John 6:24-35 ?There is no reason to pit the saving of souls against social justice work. Saving bodies is just as much a part of the Jesus tradition as savings souls is. In fact, in the synoptic gospels, social justice engagement is a requirement for genuinely following Jesus.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

John 20:19-31 ?The reality is that those who bear Jesus? name in the world often represent him to those around them whether they want this burden or not. Over the last four decades so many evangelicals have embraced a politic of harm rather than one of diversity and inclusion and a politic of retribution rather than a politic of compassion in the public sphere. (I know it goes back much much further but I?ve only been cognizant of it for that long.) Today some people can?t stomach even hearing the name Jesus, and it?s not because of the Jesus in the story was so horrible. The Jesus in the story was awesome. He was all about diversity, equity, and inclusion in his time and culture. He was about justice and standing up for the marginalized, outcast, and oppressed. People recoil even at the sound of Jesus because of the meanings Christians have associated with Jesus, today. As Jesus was sent into our world, so we Christians have been sent too. But our sending hasn?t born the same fruit. Rather than standing up to the injustices of the elite and powerful in solidarity with the marginalized, we have too often allowed our religion, like others, to be coopted by those standing behind the wheels of injustice and abuse of rights. How any Christian could support the things we are witnessing transpiring every day around us here in the U.S., I will never understand. And yet, this is our reality. This Easter season, let?s take a moment to reflect, to take some personal inventory. As the Father has sent Jesus, Jesus said, ?So send I you.? What is the fruit our presence bears in our world? Is our presence life giving or death dealing? Are we part of the movement in our time toward a safer, more compassionate, just society or away from it? Are we working to ensure our world is a safe home for everyone, or just those who are like ourselves? We may have been sent by Jesus as he was sent. But it?s up to us to make sure we are following Jesus? example in the kind of impact we have in our world.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Bread of Life

The Bread of Life

John 6:35, 41-51 ?The kind of Jesus following that is only about managing fear of death is also convenient for those in positions of power who benefit and are privileged by unjust systems and ways of shaping our societies. Death-management-only Christianity leaves unjust systems unchallenged, unchanged, and thus untouched. This is why a heaven-focused version of Christianity is often promoted by people in power. They know that a Christianity that is other-world-focused leaves this world, their world, unchanged. Faith that has become mere death management is, ironically, death-dealing. Faith should first do no harm. It should call us to consider how we show up in our world while we are alive and inspire us to shape our shared world into a compassionate, safe home for everyone.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Justice Work is Holy Work

Justice Work is Holy Work

John 21:1-19 The needs of the people are holy. Their needs were holy for Jesus, and they must be holy for Jesus followers today, too. Working for people?s material, physical, concrete daily needs (like bread and fish) is sacred, holy work. Others may call it a social gospel, but it is the same work Jesus engages in the gospel stories and the same work he calls each of his followers to engage. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Letters and Papers from Prison, ?There remains an experience of incomparable value... to see the great events of world history from below; from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled ? in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.? The needs of the people are holy. Feeding the people is sacred work. Justice work is holy work.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Evolution of the Eucharist

The Evolution of the Eucharist

John 6:51-58 ?The early Jesus community?s shared meal evolved away from a meal of real bread and fish among a hungry crowd of Jewish Jesus followers where open mutuality and sharing resulted in baskets of food left over. It became a ritualized meal appropriating the Greco-Roman 'bread and wine' and symbolizing Jesus? death among Christians. This evolution happened as Jesus followers? social locations changed. What had begun as a Jewish peasant movement became more affluent by the time the gospels were written down. And as the church?s social location continued to transition toward prosperity, privilege, and power there would be many other changes in the Jesus movement as well.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Right Now Matters

Right Now Matters

John 6:56-69 ?These things may or may not have meaning in the future, but they all still have meaning right now. In the present, we are alive, and what we are experiencing right now means much to each of us. It betrays a deep lack of compassion to say someone?s experience of hunger, for example, right now doesn?t matter because it may or may not matter in the future. What we are encountering in John is simply a Christianized version of this way of looking at our material existence. The future will come. But right now, we are alive. We live in this moment. Our material existence does matter. Injustice, oppression, violence, and suffering matter. Love for those who are experiencing these realities demands that they matter.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Morality, Culture Wars, and Consent

Morality, Culture Wars, and Consent

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 ?Where we get into culture wars today is in how to define sexual immorality in our list. I find it ironic that those who are quick to accusing others of sexual immorality are most often guilty themselves of the immorality of arrogance on this list. And however we land on what we define to be sexually immoral, our own sexual ethic should at least include the golden rule, consent and the practice of doing no harm. Too often what certain sectors of Christianity define as sexually immoral is between two consenting adults and hurts no one. We must ground discussion on what is and isn?t sexually immoral on a definition of morality that looks at the intrinsic results of the behaviors in question, not just imposed dogma. Is something intrinsically death-dealing or is it life-giving and mislabelled? We too often turn our gaze and pretend not to notice things that are intrinsically death-dealing while we scrutinize and forbid behaviors that intrinsically do no harm. So, while holding in our hands the golden rule, let?s begin a discussion on consent. Consent is an egalitarian discussion. It doesn?t privilege any gender above another, or penalize one while ignoring others. Beginning the discussion of what is sexually moral and what is sexually immoral with discussion of consent includes us all.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Jesus, a Greek Woman and a Magical Cure

Jesus, a Greek Woman and a Magical Cure

Mark 7:24-36 ?Intersectionality is such a rich lens through which to relate to this Jesus story as we consider how it may inform our justice work today. We each occupy intersecting social positions within our own society?s systems, where we can simultaneously be both oppressor and oppressed. Our privilege or disadvantage intersects depending on different aspects of our identities in relation to society. This story illustrates how, in the areas where we hold privilege, we can learn to listen with compassion to those who are marginalized or excluded in those same areas. At the same time, in aspects of our identity where we are deemed "less than" by others, the story encourages us to stand up and hold accountable those who diminish us?no matter who they are, even if it's Jesus.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Refusing to Passively Endure Injustice

Refusing to Passively Endure Injustice

Mark 8:27-38 ?Too often Christians in power have used ?bearing one?s cross? to teach that to follow Jesus means to passively and patiently endure whatever abuse, injustice, or oppression one is experiencing with the hope that in the afterlife your suffering will be rewarded. Nothing could be further from the way Jesus describes taking up one?s cross in our reading this week. The cross is not passively enduring injustice. The cross is the threat abusers and oppressors make against us for our refusal to passively endure injustice. The cross is the threat intended to make us passive. When Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross, he?s telling them to keep refusing to be passive, even if you?re threatened with a cross for doing so. Jesus? call is a call to courageously refuse to let go of your hope for justice, for change, for liberation, and freedom to thrive. Don?t passively endure suffering. Don?t give in when those who have privileges to lose seek to persuade us to patiently ?endure pain, humiliation, and violation of our sacred rights to self-determination, wholeness, and freedom? rather than speaking out?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Servants of the Most Vulnerable

Servants of the Most Vulnerable

Mark 9:30-37 ?Some may consider this to be a subtle difference, but it makes a huge difference. One way to tell the difference is to ask yourself who is being addressed: those in power and being corrected for how they lord their authority over others, or those being lorded over and encouraged to passively accept their experience? How we shape our faith communities matters. And these words offer wisdom in our justice work in our faith communities and in the wider society. When we vote for leaders, are we voting for leaders who have at heart the well being of even the most vulnerable among us? Do they care about the actual needs of the community they are seeking to serve or are they primarily concerned about themselves and what they want from whatever leadership role or office they are seeking? As I consider the political season we are presently in here in the Unites States, I hear wisdom calling to each of us from these words in Mark?s gospel. Consider the record of those seeking office from our local communities all the way to the Office of the President. Do they really care about others or do they only want your vote? Ask yourself, how do those asking for your support treat those who most vulnerable to injustice, subjugation, and exploitation in our society? Character matters! Is their character such that seeks to serve themself or to genuinely serve the people? ?Anyone who wants to be first, must be servant of all.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Inclusivity and Taking Care of the Vulnerable

Inclusivity and Taking Care of the Vulnerable

Mark 9:38-50 "Love, inclusivity, justice, and liberation don?t impose extra conditions, nor do they require everyone to be alike in every detail. Jesus embodies an openness to diversity. In this passage, He speaks about our responsibility toward the most vulnerable among us?are we truly caring for them? We must be intentional in our rejection of being so 'heavenly minded' that we are indifferent to the needs of our world. Our mission is not just to save souls but to care for bodies and our material world. We must address the injustices and suffering of the present, rather than focusing solely on the afterlife. Otherwise, we lose our essence, our 'salt.' In Mark?s gospel, Jesus calls us to transform the world into a safe, compassionate, and just home for everyone, especially the most vulnerable."For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Divorce Just Ain?t What It Used To Be

Divorce Just Ain?t What It Used To Be

Mark 10:2-16 ?Our practice of marriage and divorce in our culture today should be based on the ethics and values of the golden rule, the well being of all parties involved, whether abuse is taking place, and an egalitarian concern for justice for everyone. This is the spirit of the gospels? teachings. People matter above institutions. Institutions were made for people not people for institutions. Even the institution of marriage. Justice and that which was life-giving were Jesus? concerns in Mark. And that which is just and life-giving should be our concern today, too. Marriage and divorce are two sides of the same coin. We are not infallible. And when marriage becomes death-dealing, divorce as a life-giving option should be among the choices available to those seeking to turn things around. Whether people believe that they can work on and change their marriage or that their marriage should be undone, that is strictly up to them. It is not our place to shame or look down on them. It?s our job to life-givingly support them during such difficult choices. People who have been divorced or are going through divorce don?t need our judgement. They need our encouragement and our care.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Mark 10:17-31 ?Will Jesus followers today as a community ever return to these practices and teachings? We live in a very individualistic culture. The first step may be to create communities that make our hyper-self reliance obsolete. We have people in all classes in our communities. Some have nothing to give because their needs aren?t even being met. Others are living month-to-month and just barely getting by. Their needs are met, but they have no extra. Some in our communities have a little extra that they are saving for a future emergency. And others have so much extra they couldn?t possibly spend it all in multiple lifetimes, much less their own. So today as we read Jesus? call to share our possessions with others, certain questions arise.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Participation Not Substitution

Participation Not Substitution

Mark 10:35-45 ?I too know something of what it means to stand up for justice and love. I know something of pushback from those who are benefitting from an unjust system, pushback that threatens your own livelihood and ministry. These days, I?m thankful for resurrecting life. My life looks nothing today like I thought it would twenty years ago. But that?s okay. I wouldn?t change the stances I?ve taken or the people being harmed that I?ve stood in solidarity with. I know it?s the same for many of you too. Standing up for love and justice sometimes involves drinking the same cup Jesus drank and being baptized with the same baptism he was baptized with. In those moments we are participating with Jesus in standing up rather than choosing to be silent. We are in the right story. We must remember, this story doesn?t end in death, dying, or a cross. This story, and our story, ends in resurrection. Love wins.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege

Bartimaeus and Christians of Privilege

Mark 10:46-52 ?We create so many lines based on social differences that we must learn to step across. Whether these lines are gender, social class, education, race or culture, or sexuality, when we choose to enter into relationship with those who are different from us, we experience that proximity which has the power to change the way we perceive and act. Proximity doesn?t guarantee change. But it does provide the opportunity for change. Crossing lines that we have created and defined by our differences is the doorway to relationship. Our relationships have the potential, if we allow them, to help us understand more of the experiences of others who are different from us. As these relationships grow, we learn how others live in our society and have experiences different from our own. If we choose to respond to this awareness with empathy, we begin to discern, perceive, and understand broader realities. We begin to look at our world differently.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Two Greatest Commandments and Social Justice

Two Greatest Commandments and Social Justice

Mark 12:28-34 ?Next week is election week here in the U.S. Next week, many of us will be taking our civic (love of neighbor) responsibilities very seriously. You can?t say you love your neighbor and vote to put someone in office that will harm those you claim to love. So I?m thinking of my LGBTQ neighbors. I?m thinking all the women neighbors in my life and their rights to bodily autonomy and health care. I?m thinking of neighbors of a different race or culture than my own. I?m thinking of neighbors who have migrated here to survive and gain a better life for themselves. I can?t tell you how to vote. That?s not my place. But I can plead with you to engage your public life, your civic life, and not simply your private religious piety. This Tuesday, love your neighbor by getting out there and voting for love and justice. And no matter what the results turn out, that next morning when you wake, keep at it. Keep living love, keep taking action, keep choosing compassion as, together, we continue to follow Jesus in shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

When Faith Does Societal Harm

When Faith Does Societal Harm

Mark 12:38-44 ?Whenever I heard the story of the widow?s mites growing up in church, it was always held up as an example of the piety and fidelity we should follow. She gave so much with the little she had and we should sacrificially do the same. But nothing could be further from the point of why Mark?s gospel is actually telling this story. The widow?s mites story is not a story to applaud the widow?s dedication to giving but a story that critiques how the widow was being exploited. The widow is not an example for the poor to follow but the system that exploits her is an example for the wealthy and powerful not to follow. ?Devoted to God? meant devoted to the Temple-State, and it didn?t trickle down to the poor, but rather into the pockets of those in positions of power who already possessed so much. It gave them even more at the expense and harm of those from whom these resources were being taken, all while they piously said lengthy prayers in public to add religious influence to their economic exploitation. Standing in the Hebrew prophetic tradition, Jesus like the prophets of old who spoke truth to power, declared that these teachers of the law would be ?punished most severely.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Beginning of Birth Pains

The Beginning of Birth Pains

Mark 13:1-8 ?I think of the economic stress so many are under presently. I think, too, of the political divisions that continue to grow here in the U.S. I think of the acknowledged and unacknowledged radical and misogynistic biases so many of us still have inside ourselves in the country. I think of the ecological damage we cannot continue to perpetuate. Add to all of this the recent gut punch of the recent election results and what those results reveal about who we are here in the U.S. and how far we still need to go toward a multicultural democracy. This is not the end. If we choose it, all of our present challenges now could be the beginning of us giving birth to something new. We don?t have to give up hope. We can look at the world around us and still imagine a world that is a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone. The current loss and anxiety, our energy and concerns, can be channeled into a renewed commitment to resistance giving birth to the kind of world we want to live in, a world where there is room enough for all of us thrive. Things will be different this time. But we are different this time, too. We are more organized, and we are ready. We are not alone. Our community of resistance is still here.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Give Us Barabbas

Give Us Barabbas

John 18:33-37 ?Again, this kind of language has led to some deeply problematic interpretations. Some Christians completely disregard the injustice, oppression, violence, and therefore concrete suffering people are experiencing now and focus solely on saving their ?souls? for postmortem heaven later. Honestly, I?m struggling a bit this week. In the wake of the recent election, I sincerely wish Christians were less involved here and now. If Christians? civic participation is going to result in harm for women, my LGBTQ and immigrant friends, and so many others, I would rather they do just focus on heaven. Please stay out of the affairs of our world! If Christians do engage this world, we must ensure our actions make our world a safe, more just, more compassionate place for everyone or we end up doing more harm than good. So much is here in this story for us to painfully unpack and explore. So many lessons for our present movement, and I?m not rushing to positivity and hope. Our work to shape our world into a safe, compassionate, just world for everyone just got a lot harder.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Luke 21:25-36 ?This Advent season I?m reminded that Advent is about something finally showing up. We are the ones, especially at this moment, who must show up. We are the ones we are mutually depending on right now. Jesus taught about the power of community to survive and transform the world around us even in the most difficult of times, shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone. Jesus taught us not to isolate and rely just on ourselves, but to come together. No matter what the future brought, we could get through it together, knowing we had each other?s back. And, once again, this is now the time to renew our commitment to making sure everyone is taken care of. I know from the last time that what is coming won?t be easy. But this Advent, I?m choosing to hold on to the hope that resistance and survival is possible as we renew our commitments to each other. We are the one?s we?ve been waiting for.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Salvation from the Margins

Salvation from the Margins

Luke 3:1-6 ?This is the theological and political point of the ?wilderness? in our narrative this week. Change, liberation, and social salvation has historically come from voices on the outside of unjust systems. It?s comes from the grassroots, the outside in and bottom up. Outside is where John shows up in our story. It?s where Jesus shows up in our story (cf. John 1:46). The wisdom for us as we rededicate our efforts to resistance and harm mitigation in the years to come is to look to the margins. Listen to the voices of those on the edges. Look for the good that is already happening in justice efforts on the margins and get with that! Throw your energy and solidarity alongside that! What work was taking place on the edges in this week?s story? Even in the face of deep harm and the social and economic devastation of vulnerable communities, a path for change was being prepared in the wilderness. The way was being smoothed out for justice?s arrival. In that first season of Advent, even when things looked most bleak, a way was being made out of no way on the margins. ?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Advent and Justice Toward One Another

Advent and Justice Toward One Another

Luke 3:7-18 ?Advent isn?t about escaping to somewhere else or about escaping inward either. Advent is about the arrival of justice where we are. And that?s what we want to be about. We may have deep anxiety over what the next four years is going to bring, still we can choose to focus on what we can do about it. Some of us can do precious little while others, closer to the powerbrokers of our society, can do a lot. Wherever we find ourselves on that spectrum we are called to do what we can. Advent is about establishing justice on Earth and shaping our world into a just, safe, compassionate home for everyone. Let?s be a part of that kind of advent community, the people who bring about the arrival of that kind of world. This year, during our Advent season, let?s stop looking for someone or something else to show up. Let?s rededicate our commitment to showing up in whatever ways possible for each of us for the sake of justice.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Mary?s Magnificat and the Intersection of Faith and Social Justice

Mary?s Magnificat and the Intersection of Faith and Social Justice

Luke 1:39-55 ?Few stories in the gospels? narratives of Jesus? birth demonstrate the intersection of faith and social justice as much as Mary?s Magnificat does. The social locations mentioned here matter. Pay attention to who is doing what. These stories aren?t about those whose character or personality exhibits humility. It is about those who are living in more humble situations and stations of life. They will be lifted up. This is a precursor to such phrases as mountains being brought low, and valleys being raised, the first being made last and the last being made first. And all of this is in accordance not with the hope of escaping one day to another world or retreating into inner peace. It answers the promise made to the ancestors. At the time of Jesus, the Jewish prophetic hope was not to one day become a disembodied soul in some far distant heaven, but that one day all injustice, violence and oppression in our world would be put right, here and now. For those with the awareness to notice these themes, where liberation and social salvation is emerging in these stories is inspiring for our context today.?For more go to renewedheartministries.com

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