Dave Buerstetta on striving to do justice and love others while walking humbly with God
Yeah, ok, I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that title either. Maybe, if you take in my sermon from Sunday, you can help me figure it out? See, "what had happened was"...with our office schedule greatly reduced due to Thanksgiving week, I had to choose my sermon title four days earlier than normal. …
The short answer?Because I joined 99 other clergy -- two from each state -- in signing an open letter to Congress. That letter ran in Thursday's (October 17th) Washington Post. The more complete answer?I know there are hundreds (at least) of incidents of injustice in our communities, our states, our country, and our world. I …
Well, the photo in question isn't really famous. And it's about the only photo of me that's published somewhere other than on my own sites, so that "most" modifier isn't really necessary. Oh, and it's a picture of me but not by me. Other than those minor quibbles, the title of this post is totally …
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Global Food Security Act yesterday (Thursday). Our friends at Bread for the World, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, and 65 other organizations endorse this bill. Why? More than 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger. The Global Food Security Act makes into law: …
Interconnected. Mutual. "What affects one directly, affects us all indirectly." Issues overlap. We've talked about this a number of times at my church. For instance, I've been known to say something like this, "If we want to talk about ending homelessness, we have to talk about the lack of affordable housing. If we want to …
Continue reading ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…’
Here's a little something that got sucked into my black hole of non-blogging during the last [gulp] half of 2015: That is a picture of the results of the Offering of Letters we collected in October. Apparently, it wasn't as memorable as I would have liked. When I asked our church's Administrative Council what the …
The Midterm Elections are now just a few days away (on Tuesday, November 4). Last week, I pledged to vote in a way that seeks to end hunger and encouraged you to do the same. Which you can still do, by the way. But it occurred to me that it might not be exactly obvious …
There was a lot to like about last weekend's Confirmation retreat. No, not everything was peachy. You can't throw 16 people who aren't used to spending that much time together into a fairly small space for 26 hours and expect nothing but sunshine and roses 🙂 We played a lot, and we snacked a lot, …
Well, that happened fast. I guess sometimes it all comes together. Lately I've used this space, as I often do, to write about the Christian duty to engage in justice advocacy to alleviate hunger, poverty and oppression. Then Bread for the World picked up a little of what I wrote and asked if they could …
If so, all you have to do is read a little and add your name to a letter. Sometimes advocacy is just that simple. Illinois residents (along with those of Alaska, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia) have an opportunity - I would even say a duty - to influence legislation …
Continue reading Wanna feed 2 million people – or even 9 million – in less than 10 minutes?
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 