A very brief note

I am writing days ahead of when I normally do as I gear up for a retreat in the land of 10,000 lakes. My little online faith community gathers together in person once per year, and this is that wonderful time!

So this week I’m just going to tell you some of what you can find in the email below:

• A double feature from Danielle Tumminio Hansen, and I love both of these essays. One is a moving reflection about a time Hansen officiated the wedding of a dying friend, and the other explores harmful patriarchal theology that enables sexual abusers.
• An interview with theologian Kimberley Belcher about the Feast of Creation in Christ, the church’s first ever attempt to adopt a liturgical feast ecumenically.
• A new column from Melissa Florer-Bixler about the (at times troubling) nature of citizenship, a concept and status that always exists at the whim of governments.
• A video interview with Ben Dueholm about two common patterns of failure he sees in clergy—which he calls black holes and supernovas.

Jon Mathieu

My dying best friend’s wedding

“They understood what I didn’t back then: that marriage isn’t only about committing to buy a home and birth children and build a nest egg together; it’s also about accepting, from the start, that death is always a moment away.”

Douglas Wilson’s theology of victim blaming

“The patriarchal society Wilson envisions as a God-designed utopia strikes me as Sartre’s No Exit, hell turned into other people. It turns discernment into a sin and molds God into a convenient male idol instead of letting God mold us.”

both by Danielle Tumminio Hansen

A feast day for the whole church

“This is the first time in history that Christians have tried to adopt a feast ecumenically.”

Steve Thorngate interviews Kimberly Belcher

Two ways pastors fail as leaders

Ben Dueholm chats with Jon about two modes of leadership failure—which he calls black holes and supernovas—that are common among clergy.

In the Lectionary (Ordinary 21A)

I wish Paul also exhorted us not to think too poorly of ourselves.

by Melissa Earley

Citizenship by fiat

“The civic instability I experienced this year offered me a new perspective on Paul’s admonishment to the Philippians to recognize their citizenship in heaven as members of a polis comprised of different tribes, ethnicities, and languages.”

by Melissa Florer-Bixler

The philosophers vs. the mystics?

“The core of Make Your Home in this Luminous Dark is its faith in the value of mysticism, rooted in Jamie Smith’s own life story.”

review by Lilia Ellis