Posts tagged with: violence

Pentecost 20

Late again! Where does the time go. I assure you, if I were preaching every week, I would be more faithful. These passages deal with retribution and cycles of violence. Like many international and interpersonal conflicts, the present violence can only be understood in light of the historic violence but sometimes there is no shared...... Read More

Lament for Jerusalem and Genocidal Violence

Luke 13:31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Go! And get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘See here, I am casting out demons and restoring health today and tomorrow, and on the third I...... Read More

How Long Shall Justice Be Aborted?

Dr. Wil Gafney at Christ The King Posted by Traci Blackmon on Sunday, October 7, 2018 Violence. A single word of scripture begets a thousand words. The prophet cried violence, screamed violence; hurled it at the skies and the God veiled within. Violence. Violence all around. Habakkuk’s people were under siege. He doesn’t tell us...... Read More

The Forehead of a Whore

#MeToo. I am one of the many, many women who have been targeted, touched, sexually harassed or assaulted and lived to tell the tale. But all of us did not survive our attackers. We were exposed to that which we did not want to see or touch, forced to experience that to which we did...... Read More

When Scripture is Violent

  I love the Hebrew Scriptures and their stories but I understand why some folk have a hard time with them, particularly as scripture. Many of these epic stories include epic episodes of violence, sometimes at the bequest of God, sometimes enacted by God. It is easy to treat these stories like novels, movies, or...... Read More

A Lament for Violence

Holy Wednesday Sermon In the Name of God who hears our cries, bear our tears on her wings and empowers us to dry each other’s tears. Amen. Today is a day for lament, even though we will celebrate the Eucharist. The lessons call for lament. The state of the world calls for lament. The state...... Read More

Are You There God? It’s Me & Habakkuk

With the prophet I say: Habakkuk 1:2 How long, Holy One, shall I howl for help, and you will not hear? Cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity and compel me to look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; litigation and contention arise....... Read More