This week the Jewish world is observing the holiday of Purim. The story of this holiday is told in the Biblical book of Esther. On the surface, it’s a story of the Jewish People being threatened with annihilation by Haman, a royal official who seems to hate Jews because one Jew, Mordecai, won’t bow down […]
A few weeks ago, I came across an interview of a spiritual teacher named Matt Kahn who was talking about something called “sacred activism.” He defines sacred activism as “external empowered decision making that affects the greater good of all.” He says sacred activism is made up by “decisions and choices based on what we […]
The wisdom of the Torah sometimes reveals itself in the close examination of wording of the text. This time of the year, Jews are reading the story of the Exodus, relearning the path of justice and liberation. When God instructs Moses to confront Pharaoh, God says “Lech” (Ex. 7:15), meaning “go”. Later, God says to […]
We often find ourselves quickly embracing a Cause that seems just and righteous, that we can easily justify and support through a lens of our Faith’s holy scriptures. Even more so if we personally have been touched in some way by the injustice targeted by that Cause. And as we organize around one righteous social […]
Faith Voices: Continuing the Work In this season of snow and darkness, of dazzling light and cozy warmth, we are reminded of the beauty of opposites, the ebb and flow of time, and the transformative power of community. Winter, like so much of life’s difficulties, can be beautiful and life affirming when you have the […]
Faith Voices: We Wait Advent We wait. As smoke filled wind makes its way east, As cold nights infiltrate cars that double as homes, As news from the warfronts fade into tragic regularity. We wait. We wait. As our hearts yearn for a world we thought would be here by now, As our minds struggle […]
Everywhere we look today there is fear. Fear of the other, fear of economic inequality, fear of the hate and violence that permeates our communities, fear for the hardships of those who mass migrate. Fear of an environment that looks like creation in reverse. Yet, all our faith traditions tell us not to fear. The […]
Ecclesiastes 9:11 11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. If you google journey and destination […]
In his “Daily Meditation” recently, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote: “God and the entire cosmos are about two things: differentiation (people and things becoming themselves) and communion (living in supportive coexistence).”
I’m one who finds great meaning in stories that ground us as faith leaders and give rise to our work for social justice. One story for me comes from the early days of the Mennonites, found in a 17th century tome called “The Martyr’s Mirror.” The story is told of Dirk Willems, a 16th century […]
