WATCH: "God, Migration and the Climate Crisis"

VOTING MATTERS: "Count Every Vote"

SPEAK OUT: "Our Neighbors, Ourselves"

BLESSING: "And It Was Good!"

 You, my furry friend, were made by love, and made for love!

DIALOGUE: "The Rev. Mariama with Pastor Dave"

This was one of the most exciting conversations I've had, in a long, long time. Mariama brings a wide open heart to her ministry and to the future. She's expecting God to "blow our minds"--and watching for the renewal of all creation! I'm told in Muslim tradition "Mariama" is a form of the name Mary. In some African cultures, it carries the meaning of a "gift of God." In just these ways, the Rev. Mariama White-Hammond opens our hearts to the world-flipping, life-healing energies of the gospel. Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God! Check out her church--which she founded, in Dorchester--the New Roots AME Church.

PODCAST: "The Courts and the Christian Right"

It's stunning, really, how complicit the Christian right is in the anti-democratic rigging of these past 40 years.  Their commitment to patriarchy trumps any kind of discipleship, any kind of cross-bearing ethic.  And they've fully and grimly embraced the ways of empire and oppression.  To be honest, Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham would be nowhere without the church.  Donald Trump and William Barr would be nowhere without the church.  And that should give every one of us pause.  

What's even more disturbing is the way these same bigots have claimed and fully colonized "religion"--as if to say that their controlling, fear-pedaling, race-baiting misogyny is the only real religion there is.  I can't stomach it: as if Jesus were a white supremacist misogynist--whose only real purpose was protecting male power and white privilege from erosion.  (Amy Barrett, welcome to the Supreme Court.  Thanks, Federalist Society.)  

My God, just about everything Jesus said and did suggests he intended to subvert and dethrone male power and racial privilege.  The crucifixion and resurrection--at least, in my reading--are all about the death of our perversions and the liberation of human kindness and communion.  Baptism is our surrender to that death, and our celebration of new life in Christ and new partnerships in human community.  Sign me up for THAT church.   

FILMS AND ARTS: "Boston Palestine Film Festival"

ACT NOW: "Stop Deportations"

BDS: "Prophetic Spirit, Human Rights"

DEEP BREATH: "For the Frenzied"

Friends, activists and kingdom-bearing saints:

I've had a day.  A busy day.  A full day.  Running from gig to gig.  Bouncing from Zoom to Zoom.  Bearing witness.  Putting out fires.  Starting others.  You know what I mean.  A day like that.  I'm privileged -- beyond belief -- to be spending my time like this.  It's a complete and total joy.

But it's frenzied.  I get frenzied.  Twenty-something days to November 3.  Deportations.  Court packing in DC.  

So I want to offer this: to all of you who -- like me -- are working long days, worrying about big issues, showing up for critical hearings, protesting huge injustices.  Hour after hour after hour.  Day by day by day.  You know who you are.

Breathe.  Don't stop caring.  But breathe.  Don't stop loving.  But breathe.  Don't stop making (good) trouble.  But breathe.

Remember that the Breath of God (the ruach stirring over the face of the deep) is always and forever at play in the world.  She's stirring in the winds of autumn.  She's stirring in the torrential rains.  She's stirring in the hearts of dreamers and resisters and lovers.  And she's stirring in your lungs, in your bodies, in your hearts, in your very particular lives.  The Breath of God.  You didn't make it happen.  You do nothing to make it happen.  She is -- and always has been -- the lifeforce shining in darkness, the vision breaking through unknowing, the liberating spirit fanning the flames of hope in the hopeless.

Today I've taken myself far too seriously.  Don't get me wrong.  What I'm doing --  what I've done -- is important, consequential.  It's discipleship.  And it means everything to me.  But I've taken myself too seriously today.  Because it's not about me.  I don't have to create this energy, or imagine this work, or keep it going.  It's the work and energy of God.  It's the Song of Creation.  It's the ruach -- finding you, finding me -- who will not stop until the whole Creation sings glory and feasts as one.  

Tomorrow, I'm going to laugh a little more, and wince less.  Tomorrow, I'm going to sing a little bit, and curse just a little less frequently.  Because I know where this going.  You do too.  And it ain't going to Mar a Lago or some golden tower in Manhattan.  It ain't going to wacky rallies and superspreaders and ranting old men.  It's all going to God.  It's already there.  She's got this.

Sleep well.