RoboPreacher

you’ll take it because you don’t know what you want suddenly I had this uneasy feeling: “It seems like everything is changing and it is never good for the people.” My mom said that. I was talking to her while running to catch the metro. I had a final that night and I was running a little behind. I had been pretty caught up in my own little world of balancing school, work, and trying to get out to OWS stuff (and my computer quasi-crashing in the midst of it all). With some news from my mom I was suddenly ripped from all that nonsense, and I just felt… uneasy. I was feeling uneasy because my mom had just told me the company she works for had just been bought by another larger company. She wasn’t going to be laid off or anything, but the compensation was going to change. All this within two months of the same thing happening with the company my father works for, too. oh yeah, my parents aren’t hedge fund managers. My family is thoroughly blue-collar. My...

still my fear keeps my moving but my heartbeats are slow. i was sitting on the metro. I had just left an OWS rally in DC. I was reading an issue of Newsweek, but I wasn’t really reading. Instead I was thinking about who was at the rally, and I was bumming about who wasn’t. Specifically, my classmates. In general, churches. i guess i just don’t understand. To me the OWS movement seems like an explicit movement with many tendrils follows of Jesus can get on board with. This movement is about solidarity among a disenfranchised populace. This movement is incredibly horizontal or democratic. This movement is strikingly non-partisan. This movement also has its own integrity. I am not interested in OWS being co-opted by institutional Christianity. I am, however, quite interested in how followers of Jesus can support this movement, stand in solidarity with these folks. Basically, I am interested in how followers of Jesus can give a damn. i want to, though. ...

because they refused to be their servant On December 12 I will be leading Chapel at the Church of the Abiding Presence. The Gospel for the Monday of the third week of Advent is Luke 3:7-18 . At this point I’ve only done cursory research, but the dynamics of this story have already piqued my interest. Here we have an itinerant preacher addressing the need for justice and repentance (this is John after all). In their culture of oppression and corruption the crowds are immediately drawn to this message. In fact, some are so infatuated with John they begin to wonder if, indeed, he is the insurgent to overthrow the powers and principalities and become the new, just ruler. Quickly John points to one greater than he. This dynamic can be seen in many places, but one contemporary example is the OWS movement. Many have criticized this movement as lacking leadership and direction. While many of these critiques are well-intentioned and well-made ( great New Yorker article analyzing the...