Today is the 500th anniversary of a group of radicals who defied the Zürich city council by baptizing each other as adults the night of January 21, 1525. This fanned the embers of the Radical Reformation and Anabaptist movements.
The fact that Trump’s inauguration will take place on Jan 20th—the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday—is a clear indicator of how confused and conflicted this country is (see a concise commentary by the Boggs Center’s Shea Howell here). So on this January 15th (the actual birthday of our country’s greatest prophet), I’ll offer a few thoughts on the problem of plutocracy in this Second Gilded Age.
We are back on the trail of weekly posts on Luke and Year C. Tuesday began the season of Epiphany (see this piece on Epiphany under Empire). The first Sunday (1/12) is traditionally celebrated as the Feast of Jesus Baptism. Here are some (edited) notes from Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy:
The episode of the young Jesus in the Temple is Luke’s “epilogue” to his nativity story, and unique to the Third Gospel. While there are many later apocryphal tales that speculated on Jesus’ childhood (most of them quite fanciful; see here), this is our only biblical testimony.
Luke’s Nativity Story. I call Luke 1–2 a prelude instead of a prologue because of how the Nativity drama is composed around three canticles: Mary’s “Magnificat” (1:46–55); Zechariah’s “Benedictus” (1:68–79); and Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis” (2:29–32). The long tradition of singing carols during Advent and Christmas is rooted singularly in Luke’s narrative.
This is the second of a series of commentaries on Lukan Gospel readings that lie at the intersection of the Year C Revised Common Lectionary and texts I’ve explored in Healing Affluenza and Resisting Patriarchy: Luke’s Jesus and Sabbath Economics.
Friends: Today in this space I’m beginning a year-long series of comments on Lukan gospel Year C lections. Context: Advent marks the beginning of the Year C Revised Common Lectionary’s journey through Luke for the Sunday Gospel reading. Tomorrow’s 2nd Sunday of Advent brings the first of the readings that lie at the intersection…
Myers brings a well-honed interpretive eye to a thematic study of Luke’s Gospel. He reads synoptically the crisis of socioeconomic disparity in Jesus’s world and ours, and proposes powerful analogies that can build social imagination and animate personal and political practices for systemic change and justice among communities of faith today.
The lectionary Gospel reading for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost (Oct 27) was Mark 10:45-52: the tale of Bartimaeus. The following meditation celebrates the triennial “Feast of Bartimaeus,” and includes parts that Ched shared on the Oct 24th Sabeel Wave of Prayer
Last week we watched a zoom conversation with Deb Haaland (left), U.S. Secretary of the Interior, entitled “Telling the American Story on Our Public Lands” (see the recording of this hour-long program here). The first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. Her comments outlined…