By Ched Myers The Living Pulpit. 5 pp. Mark’s gospel portrays Jesus interacting with children in two vignettes that appear close to each other (Mk 9:36-37 and 10:13-16) in a sequence of teaching episodes I call the “discipleship catechism” (1988:235ff). Both episodes begin with almost identical stage directions (Jesus “takes them in his arms,” using…
By Ched Myers Mennonite Conciliation Quarterly, Winter. 4 pp. Elaine: Ched and I met at a peacemaking conference in 1997 where both of us were speaking. We sat in on each other’s sessions, appreciated each other’s work and began an interesting dialogue concerning how best to mitigate violence in our society. What we discovered was…
By Ched Myers Chapter in: Prophecy and Passion: Essays in Honour of Athol Gill, edited by David Neville. Adelaide: Australian Theological Forum, pp. 273-299. 18 pp. I am among the many who are indebted to Athol Gill’s faithful advocacy for the fullness of the biblical good news. I remain deeply grateful for his theological mentoring…
By Ched Myers Catholic Agitator. 7 pp. On Good Friday 2002, while in Lubbock, TX caretaking his 93 year old father, our dear friend Ladon Sheats discovered that he had become strangely jaundiced. On April 15th, after exploratory surgery, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I immediately left the Word and World School that was…
By Ched Myers A chapter in: The New Testament: Introducing the Way of Discipleship, edited by Sharon Ringe and Wes Howard Brook. Orbis Books. 19 pp. The great Hebrew prophet Isaiah envisioned a day in which Israel’s God would “destroy on this mountain the net that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is…
By Ched Myers Talk given to the Episcopal Urban Caucus, spring 2002. Published by The Witness online. 12 pp. Not too far from where we sit today, hidden at the heart of post-modern Los Angeles, surrounded by gleaming skyscrapers built by and for Big Capital, lies the placita, once the center of the old Mexican…
By Ched Myers Priests & People (UK). 8 pp. “LOOK, WHAT MAGNIFICENT STRUCTURES!” (Mk 13:1). Jesus’ disciples cower fascinated, before the Jerusalem Temple edifice. It is indeed a magnificent structurebigger than life, architectural symbol of their social project. But Mark’s Jesus refuses to be impressed, for he understands what they do not. This House must…
By Ched Myers Reflections on and study material prepared for a mission program on Aboriginal justice hosted by The Uniting Church of Australia, 2002. 14 pp. Sunrise in a caravan park in Deniliquin in northeast Victoria, Australia. I awaken to a cacophony of screaming cockatoos and galahs, a manic morning-song chant of praise. Outside the…
Inward/Outward, Winter, pp 1ff. 5 pp. KM: Ched, what do you mean when you say “Sabbath Economics?” Aren’t those two words contradictory? Isn’t “Sabbath” about letting go and receiving and “economics” about attaining and possessing? How do they fit together? CM: You are certainly correct in your impression that these two terms, when viewed from…
By Simon Barrow. British Journal of Theological Education (12:2) pp 95ff. 13 pp. Ched Myers is not a well-known figure in European church or academic circles. He is a forty-something fifth-generation Californian white male. Los Angeles, a city ‘oppressed by the hucksters of over-development and quick profit’ (his words) is the place he calls home….