We participate in Sleep Out Saturday to raise awareness about homelessness in DuPage County - and to raise funds to help end it. As I wrote recently (here and here), SOS is a way to be in solidarity with our homeless population. SOS creates visceral evidence that those who are homeless are included in that …
Category: Christianity
Sleep Out (in solidarity) Saturday
"Everybody belongs," I said on Sunday. That phrase comes from a teaching by Father Richard Rohr, but also, once again, calls to mind MLK's brilliant, under-valued recapitulation of the gospel: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality... Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Lots of ways to express that thought: We are …
Setting out on an SOS
Frequently of late I've been talking and writing how striving to follow God in the Way of Jesus compels me to try to end hunger and poverty. And I will continue to do so. For instance, I'm with Bread for the World: Now that the shutdown is over, it is time to end sequestration. But with our …
Striving to have eyes that see
My September 29th sermon was, at heart, an attempt to humanize people who receive SNAP benefits - people who are all too often demonized, blamed for needing help, called names like "lazy" or "grifters." I was trying to demonstrate that the people who receive SNAP benefits are simply that: people. It just happens they are people who need …
The power of 1000 days
The church. Christians. Followers of God in the Way of Jesus. Living the life of faith. Being the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in the world. If you've spent any time around me (or, you know, this blog or my other blog or my twitter feed or my facebook timeline), I would hope it is clear that I believe …
Mourning, and yet…
It has been rough week. It's been a week of mourning. It has been a week of mourning with Miriam, all the Cabanas family and friends, and our congregation over Ernie's sudden death. Just a few days ago Miriam and Ernie hugged me on their way out of church after our worship service, all smiles …
Making US food aid more Methodist?
When we collected an Offering o f Letters (OL) at Woodridge United Methodist Church on April 28th, I shared that writing to support food aid reform put us on the cutting edge; that we were helping Bread for the World try out a new focus for OLs. Food aid reforms in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 …
Record-breaking OL not done yet
Last Sunday, my congregation, Woodridge United Methodist Church, partnered with Bread for the World in taking an Offering of Letters. Rosie's story (see above video) was a key component of our presentation and perhaps part of the reason the OL produced 110 names on the petition to the President and 120 letters to our Senators. The …
Experiencing “Good” Friday and Holy Saturday
It seems to me that our words sometimes (often?) get in the way. Here then is a fantastic video about Good Friday that uses no words. Created by SparkHouse for their line of Sunday School curriculum called Holy Moly. It is meant to be shown to and with children. But I think you'll find it speaks powerfully to …
Continue reading Experiencing “Good” Friday and Holy Saturday
Watch, read, and give for #WorldWaterDay
Today, March 22, is World Water Day. So what? Water changes everything: I first learned of World Water Day two years ago. Some of what I wrote then still applies: I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t even notice just how available water is to me. Among the kitchen sink, the water dispenser in our …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 