Sunday Quote šŸ•ŠļøšŸ“

Call to Worship&10;Left: What burden do we bear? Is it the yoke of empire, heavy as cast iron, shackling our lives to the machinery of power?&10;Right: Let us bind ourselves to the plowshare of Christ.&10;Its crossbeam is light. Its harness rings with bells.&10;Left: We do not wish to harden the earth with our weight or trample&10;the oppressed with our force.&10;Right: We yearn to turn over the ground and sow the seed of peace&10;and compassion!&10;All:&10;Gracious God, we relinquish the burden of empire. We long to shoulder all those who mourn.&10;Prayer of Invocation&10;Welcome

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote:

ā€œKatrina was an extreme version of what goes on in many disasters, wherein how you behave depends on whether you think your neighbors or fellow citizens are a greater threat than the havoc wrought by a disaster or a greater good than the property in houses and stores around you.ā€

Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote

"In fact, thereā€™s absolutely no reason a modern state should fund itself primarily by appropriating a proportion of each citizenā€™s earnings. There are plenty of other ways to go about it. Manyā€”such as land, wealth, commercial, or consumer taxes (any of which can be made more or less progressive)ā€”are considerably more efficient, since creating a bureaucratic apparatus capable of monitoring citizensā€™ personal affairs to the degree required by an income tax system is itself enormously expensive. But this misses the real point: income tax is supposed to be intrusive and exasperating. It is meant to feel at least a little bit unfair. Like so much of classical liberalism (and contemporary neoliberalism), it is an ingenious political sleight of handā€”an expansion of the bureaucratic state that also allows its leaders to pretend to advocate for small government." (David Graeber, Against Economics)

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote

ā€œWe are quite literally a people that morally live off our wars because they give us the necessary basis for self-sacrifice so that a people who have been taught to pursue only their own interest can at times be mobilized to die for one another.ā€

Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens

"We are quite literally a people that morally live off our wars because they give us the necessary basis for self-sacrifice so that a people who have been taught to pursue only their own interest can at times be mobilized to die for one another." (Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens)

šŸ“‘ Quote

"But we cannot find liberating joy in the cross by spiritualizing it, by taking away its message of justice in the midst of powerlessness, suffering, and death. The cross, as a locus of divine revelation, is not good news for the powerful, for those who are comfortable with the way things are, or for anyone whose understanding of religion is aligned with power. The religious authorities of Jesusā€™ time were threatened by his teachings about the reign of Godā€™s justice and love, and the state authorities executed him as an insurrectionistā€”one who ā€œperverts the nationā€ and ā€œstirs up the peopleā€" (James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree)

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote

"Hospitality isnā€™t just about welcoming sinners; itā€™s also about welcoming people we think are idiots." (Richard Beck, Stranger God)

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote:

"ā€¢ To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. Itā€™s astounding how powerful this ownership is." (KEVIN KELLY, 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice)

šŸ“ššŸ“‘ Another goodie from Death to Deconstruction.

"The story of Jesus speaks to me because, in one scene, Jesus is lovingly blessing little kids, and in another, heā€™s calling religious leaders a bunch of snakes. Jesusā€™s paradigm for God is of a gracious, loving Father who kisses the faces of his sinful, rebellious children, but the seriousness with which he regards evil is so intense that he says itā€™s better to gouge your own eye out than to objectify women. One thing makes me gush. The other makes me nervous. Iā€™m suspicious of voices that only tell me what I want to hear. &10; &10;Were it me, I might emphasize one thing, but not the other. Iā€™d conceive of a God who is either never angry or never not angry. A soft, enabling God who doesnā€™t care enough to stop me from destroying myself, or a God so appalled at my relentless failure that he canā€™t bear to look at me without retching. But in Jesus, our soul-longings to be known and loved, for an end to evil and injustice are realized in the unfathomable beauty of truly self-sacrificial love." (Joshua S. Porter, Death to Deconstruction)

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote

ā€œWhich path do you intend to take, Nell?ā€ said the Constable, sounding very interested. ā€œConformity or rebellion?ā€ ā€œNeither one. Both ways are simple-mindedā€”they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.ā€

šŸ“‘ Sunday Quote

I keep thinking about this.

From @benwerd.

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