Vince doesn't have any pithy, Instagram-ready one-liners for us this week, but he does have some pastoral encouragements for the summer before he's off on Sabbatical.
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Hayley and Vince tell stories about the value of being rooted in an open community and the power of rituals in everyday life. (Image from @scotthepainter)
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What does it look like to have pictures of fathering that are rooted in tenderness instead of power and control? How can this tenderness then inform our view of God? Hayley reflects on what it means to call God Abba Father.
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The usual way Americans interpret Jesus' parables is surprisingly weird. Continuing our series "From Charity to Solidarity", Vince explains with a look at Jesus' Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard from Matthew 19-20. (Illustration by Lauren Rolwing for The Southeast Center For Cooperative Development)
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Does Christianity have to be the only game in town for it to be anything worthwhile? Or can Christianity be a distinct, important contribution to the world — worth giving your life to — AND other world religions also have truthful, ultimate things to offer the world too?
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The idea of "eternal conscious torment" disgusts, and even traumatizes, many. Unfortunately, it feels like it is synonymous with Christianity, even though it is (gasp!) not in the Bible! Hayley and Vince point us toward alternative Christian beliefs about eternity and morality.
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Our wider culture's good response to self-punishing versions of religion is to focus instead on self-care. Hayley highlights the helpfulness of that, and yet also wonders if it is incomplete, before suggesting an alternative aim we might make our goal, from deep in the Jesus tradition.
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We tie up various loose ends and respond to some outstanding questions after leaning into the discomfort of talking about suffering for the last month. (Art: "Sorrowing Old Man At Eternity's Gate" by Van Gogh)
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Vince & Hayley respond to a grab bag of questions about suffering and the tension of alleviating vs embracing. (Image from the Center for Action & Contemplation)
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For MLK Day weekend, we continue our look at the tension of alleviating suffering and embracing suffering for a good, full life, learning from some of Dr. King's 1967 speeches.
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