Advent — December 1-24, 2023

Holy Days

Bible connection

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. — Titus 2:11-14

All about Advent

Advent begins the liturgical year, which got  full head of steam going after Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) basically took over the remnants of Roman Empire power and organized life around the church. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The word means “a coming,” specifically the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It looks to the prophets who saw the Messiah coming, to John the Baptist, the last of those heralds, who witnessed to his coming, to the witnesses of the birth of Jesus, and to the hope of the Lord’s return on the last day. It develops our hope and our capacity to wait. It also helps us see all the ways the Lord has come to us day by day and the transformation Jesus brings moment by moment.

Protestants have issues with empty rituals, like Advent has become for many. By the 1500’s a lot of Jesus followers were fed up with Catholic and Orthodox folks bickering about the right way to fold an altar cloth or some such nonsense. Actually, they objected to the “altar” itself, since it had become a replica of the Old Testament temple and Jesus fulfilled and transcended the Temple. The Lord’s presence makes the church, the people, the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul says. So empty rituals are a problem. Many abandoned disciplines like Advent.

Nevertheless, a ritual season, like Advent has a lot of great things going for it. If those things become empty, coercive, or corrupted, then it is not so good. But during Advent, let’s not throw the baby Jesus out with the dirty bathwater of church history.

Rituals are not inherently wrong. Empty ritual is wrong, as is any ritual that replaces, obscures, or detracts from having a vibrant, Spirit to spirit relationship with Jesus. Are rituals commanded in the church? No, not really. Baptism and communion, certainly come close. But God is not looking to see if we have completed the right observances; God sees the heart. She seeks those who worship Him “in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Rituals can be beneficial, but externalized, intellectualized, rote rites should never replace inner devotion and receptive discernment.

Northern Hemisphere: the winter moving from darkness into light.

Sacred spaces created by ritual

All that being said, Advent has hundreds of years of history, prayer and practice that makes it a special time of the Christian year. It is one of those “sacred spaces” that are created by repetition.

Francis Weller writes:

“We are creatures of ritual. We have been using rituals for tens of thousands of years. Ancient burial sites include careful placement of artifacts with the dead, such as bones carved and covered with ochre, pieces of flint for the hunt in the next world, food, and ornamented beads. In fact, grief for the loss of a loved one may have elicited our first ritual actions. There is something about ritual that resonates deep in the bone. It is a ‘language older than word,’ relying not so much on speech as on gestures, rhythms, movements and emotion. In this sense, ritual addresses something far more primal than language.”

Rituals (like spiritual disciplines, worship events, and seasons of fasting or prayer) are acts done with emotion and intention which help an individual or group connect with the Spirit in the context of faith, hope and love for the purposes of healing and transformation. Ritual is a means for our personal and collective voices to express our longing and creatively explore the unseen dimensions of life. They lead us beyond our conscious, everyday experiences into the realms of spiritual awareness and connection with the image of God in each of us and in all creation. Rituals create “thin places” where heaven and earth kiss.

During Advent meetings and on Christmas Eve, we create sacred places where we are enabled to release our unspoken hope and unacknowledged sorrow. The whole season of waiting for the blessed hope with the prophets, with John the Baptist, with Mary and Joseph, with the shepherds and magi, and with everyone in the story is a safe place for our deeper selves to feel our sorrows, hope, and see ourselves being seen and loved by God-with-us.

Peter Shaffer, author of the 1973 play Equus, says, “Can you think of anything worse one can do to anybody than take away their worship? … without worship you shrink, it’s as brutal as that.” 

Participating in an alive Advent might be one of the most alternative things we can do.

More

Resources from the Ignatians

A perky website that tells you everything: calendars, readings, family rituals, wreaths, you name it.

Why is everything red and green for the season? It is not because of the liturgical colors, but mainly because if you-know-who.

The Advent pilgrimage: Five things to try (by Rod).

These four movements will help you “let love in” during Advent (by Rod).

Instructions from the Lutherans:

Another Video about the origins and history of Advent.

Advent begins the liturgical year. Here are some guides to the schedule: 1) Roman Catholic, 2) Anglican 3) TextWeek is full of resources.

What do we do with this?

Today, in the absence of communal rituals that hold and sustain our psychic lives, we often unconsciously fall into ritualized behaviors (nightly TV, Friday night at the bar, Eagles/Phillies games, videogame obsessions, etc.). These patterns, however, do not carry what is required to make them soul-nourishing practices. In the end we will either participate in ritual deliberately, which binds us to soul, community, nature and what is sacred, or we will be reduced to repetitive patterns of addiction, compulsion, or routines lacking in artistry and renewal. 

Check to see if you have an Advent replacement going. The resistance you feel to the discipline season may be more about how locked up you are than about how stupid the season is.

Mother Jones — November 30

North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Jeremiah 22

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
    his upper rooms by injustice,
making his own people work for nothing,
    not paying them for their labor.
He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace
    with spacious upper rooms.’
So he makes large windows in it,
    panels it with cedar
    and decorates it in red.

“Does it make you a king
    to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
    He did what was right and just,
    so all went well with him.
He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
    and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?”
    declares the Lord.
“But your eyes and your heart
    are set only on dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood
    and on oppression and extortion.”

All about Mother Jones (1837-1930)

As a social reformer, Mary “Mother” Jones exposed disturbing truths about child and adult factory workers and miners and about perpetual poverty in the United States through numerous marches, demonstrations, strikes, and speeches.

The influence of Christianity was evident throughout her life. She received a Catholic education as a girl and became a teacher in a convent as a young adult. Letters and speeches by her, and those about her, were filled with the imagery of Christian beliefs.

Jones worked as a teacher and dressmaker, but after her husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867, and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. In 1903, upset about the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a Children’s March from Kensington, in Philadelphia, to the home of then president Theodore Roosevelt in New York.

Mother Jones surrounded by striking child mill workers. Source: Library of Congress

She wailed about the unjust experiences of the poor like an Old Testament prophet, often dressed in old‐fashioned black dresses that seemed similar to the black habits worn by the Catholic sisters that taught and mentored her during her early years. She was described by others as the “incarnation of labor’s struggles” decrying injustice and calling to account its perpetrators.

Hall of Honor Inductee: Mary Harris "Mother" Jones | U.S. Department of Labor
Hall of Honor Inductee: Mary Harris “Mother” Jones | U.S. Department of Labor

She was even introduced by the author Upton Sinclair one day as “Mother Mary” — an allusion to the New Testament Mary who gave birth to Jesus and intercedes for the poor. Sinclair, author of the exposé of the meat packing industry, The Jungle, used her as a character in one of his books and described her as “wrinkled and old, dressed in black, looking like somebody’s grandmother; she was, in truth, the grandmother of hundreds of thousands of miners. Hearing her speak, you discovered the secret of her influence over these polyglot hordes. She had force, she had wit, above all she had the fire of indignation—she was the walking wrath of God.” Attorney Clarence Darrow said of his old friend, “Her deep convictions and fearless soul always drew her to the spot where the fight was hottest and the danger greatest.”​

Her use of the word “hell” is notable. Once she was introduced as a humanitarian and quickly bellowed “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell‐raiser.”  Two noteworthy quotes that peppered her speeches on behalf of factory workers and miners were “fight like hell until you go to heaven” and “pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” In 1902, a West Virginia district attorney named Reese Blizzard called her “the most dangerous woman in America” at her trial for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. The title stuck.

As a passionate public speaker, some people thought she was “unchristian‐like,” mainly because she used name‐calling, profanity, and dramatic stunts for effect, such as parading children who lost body limbs as a result of accidents in factories and mines. She was compared to John Brown, the abolitionist who believed armed rebellion was the only way to defeat the institution of slavery in the United States. Whether she actually believed like Brown is doubtful, but the association made her seem disreputable. When confronted with the issue of violence in the labor movement she encouraged it at times as a necessary evil. She believed that martyrs died to overcome injustices and the causes she fought for were no exception.

Just a few months after her death, the singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded the song “The Death of Mother Jones.” The writer of the lyrics is unknown.

The world today’s in mourning
For death of Mother Jones
Gloom and sorrow hover
Around the miners’ homes

This grand old champion of labor
Was known in every land
She fought for right and justice
She took a noble stand

Through the hills and over the valleys
In every mining town
Mother Jones was ready to help them
She never turned them down

On front with the striking miners
She always could be found
And received a hearty welcome
In every mining town

She was fearless of every danger
She hated that which was wrong
And she never gave up fighting
Until her breath was gone

This noble leader of labor
Has gone to a better land
While the hard working miners
They miss a guiding hand

May the miners all work together
And carry out her plan
And bring back better conditions
For every laboring man.

More

AFL-CIO bio [link]

“Wail of the Children” speech, July 28, 1903 — Coney Island, New York City

Mother Jones Magazine bio [link]

What do we do with this?

Jesus was probably considered the most dangerous man in Palestine by the leaders who eventually killed him. Jeremiah was decidedly unpopular with the kings he exposed for their greed and oppression. If we, as Jesus followers, are not at odds with the powers-that-be, or even a threat to the corrupt ones, we might not be too serious about being seeds of redemption planted in the soil of a fallen world. Consider who God wants you to stand with and stand up for.

Dorothy Day — November 29

North America, This century (1937-2024)

Bible Connection

Read Psalm 42:1-4

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

All about Dorothy Day (1897-1980)

Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn Heights to stable, middle class, and marginally Christian parents. After her family experienced several major relocations, Day was raised mostly in San Francisco and Chicago. After two years of college, she dropped out of school in Illinois and moved back to New York City. During these younger years, Day’s interest in adventure grew to include alternative social organizations, particularly socialist anarchism. She began working with several socialist publications around 1916.

Although she had been baptized in the Episcopal Church as a child, at this point she identified as agnostic. The next few years were full of adventure and rocky relationships including heartbreak, abortion, a short marriage, and then an unexpected pregnancy and birth of her daughter, Tamar in 1926. She wished to baptize her child, which caused more tension in her relationship with Tamar’s father. A year later, Tamar was baptized and so was Dorothy, now part of the Catholic church.

In 1932 she met French immigrant Peter Maurin with whom a year later she would found the Catholic Worker movement. The publication of The Catholic Worker (almost named the Catholic Radical) began in 1933 and continues to be published. It’s goals were to promote Catholic social teaching in the depths of the Great Depression and to stake out a neutral, pacifist position in the war-torn 1930s.  The vision grew to include “establishing houses of hospitality to care for the destitute, establishing rural farming communities to teach city dwellers agrarianism and encourage a movement back to the land, and setting up roundtable discussions in community centers in order to clarify thought and initiate action.”

She became famous for saying

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”

By 1941 over 30 independent yet affiliated Catholic Worker communities had formed in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. While the Catholic leaders told her to change the name of the publication because it did not represent the Church, they refused. By the 1960’s, Day became popular with Catholics, organizers, and counterculture leaders. While maintaining radical social ideas and practice, she opposed the sexual revolution of the decade, describing the ill effects she had suffered years before. She continued to be critical of transnational companies like United Fruit and violent governmental policies, and praised aspects of Communist movements in Russia, China, and Cuba.

Dorothy-Day-Lamont-UFW-1973.jpg
Dorothy Day before her last arrest at a farm workers picket line in Lamont, California, in 1973. Credit: http://rosemarieberger.com. All rights reserved.

Day was a prolific writer and joined movements for justice. At 75, she spent a week in jail helping Cesar Chavez working for justice for farm workers in California. Dorothy Day died on this day in 1980, three weeks after her 83rd birthday.

More

The Catholic Worker Movement homepage [link]

Writings  [link]

Day teaching on TV [link]

Nice, brief biography from Maryland Public TV 

Dorothy Day: A Rebel In Paradise [nice biography and teaching from community members]

NCEA webinar: Revolution of the Heart.

Lecture on The Long Loneliness and why it matters:

What do we do with this?

Dorothy Day’s radical views and uncompromising attitude caused her grief and trouble. But her long loneliness, as she called it, made her faith deep and her influence wide. What is it that you must do?

Thanksgiving Day — November 28, 2024

Holy Days

15 Thank You Prayers to Give Thanks to God and the Lord Jesus Christ

Bible connection

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

Say also,

“Save us, O God of our salvation,
    and gather and rescue us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise. — 1 Chronicles 16:34-5

All about Thanksgiving Day

Without gratitude, we would not get very far along our spiritual journey, would we? It is one of the nicest things the U.S. government does for its citizens when it offers a federal holiday in the Fall to pause, give thanks, and celebrate what we have been given.

George Washington made the first proclamation of Thanksgiving Day in 1789. It was celebrated on various dates from state to state until Abraham Lincoln synced them in 1863. In 1942 Congress took the timing out of the president’s hands and permanently parked Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November.

Canada, as well as several other nations, have a holiday to give thanks around the traditional time of the harvest on different days. All around the world, people celebrate with the U.S. on America’s day, including Zimbabwe and Indonesia.

The United States’ version of the holiday includes a unique mythology providing the central imagery for the festivities which include parades and feasts of traditional foods, usually shared among relatives. The central narrative is a re-telling of a poorly-documented account from 1621 of a treaty between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony that included a feast of thanksgiving, friendship, and some food the Pilgrims needed.

The development of Black Friday (invented in Philadelphia!) and expansion of it to the whole weekend has also moved backward to encompass Thanksgiving. So now we are subjected to a four-day extravaganza of consumerism (and don’t forget football, its violent twin) rather than a day of thanks. Many churches observe buy-nothing day as a protest to the overshadowing.

So on Thanksgiving, we look back to a sordid history of relations between Europeans and the natives of New England and we can look forward to an onslaught of consumerism.  Plus we have a state-sanctioned, semi-religious holiday to ponder. Because of all this, the day becomes even more important. We must rest. We must be grateful. We must celebrate the many “feastworthy” things we have experienced this year. God is good. Let’s be grateful for the good that is given.

More

An article from Indian Country Today Media Network “What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale” [link]

U.S. Congress’ Thanksgiving legislative process [link]

A history of the movements surrounding the Puritans and Separatists [link]

Conservative talk show host Michael Medved tries to do some reconstruction of the myth:

What do we do with all this?

You can do it. See beyond the traditions, good and bad, and give thanks. Let whatever-distresses-you go for a few minutes and list the things for which you are grateful. Dwell on them as slowly as possible. Smile.

Kil Sŏn-chu  — November 26

Asia, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its brand on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years. – Revelation 20:1-6 (NRSVUE)

All about Kil Sŏn-chu (1869-1935)

Kil Sŏn-chu [in Korean: 길선주; in Hanja (Korean in Chinese characters): 吉善宙;  RR: Gil Seon-ju; MR: Kil Sŏn-ju*] is considered by many to be the father of Korean Christianity. He was a Presbyterian minister who was among the first generation of indigenous Protestant Christian leaders in Korea.

Prior to his conversion in 1897, Kil had been a follower of Zen Buddhism — some would say that is Mahayana Buddhism with a Taoist bent. He trained rigorously for 8 years. In a site devoted to Korean Nationalists it says during his training, “Gil Seon-ju obtained superhuman strength, such as skipping most streams, breaking a wooden stick with his fists, and floating in the air while sitting upright, and was able to communicate with the spirits of the sky.”  When he came back from seclusion, he found, to his dismay, his best friend had become a Jesuit. He rejected his friend’s claims. But gradually Christianity moved him. Finally, as he told a European missionary,

I began to let go of the ropes I was holding so firmly on, and one by one the ropes loosened, and my soul hung in the air above the abyss. Then I fell into the swamp of loss, and the anguish was indescribable. On the seventh day, exhausted and desperate, I was in a semi-comatose state. I don’t know how much time has passed. However, in the darkness, I was suddenly awakened by a loud voice calling my name, “Guild Seonju!” and it rang repeatedly. I was sitting up, bewildered, when I saw something mysterious in front of me. What would you call it? The room itself was transformed and a glorious light shone around me. Rest, forgiveness, and affection settled in my soul, and the unending flow of tears proved this. Looking back now, I can say this. “Oh, what a joy! All my prayers are answered, and I have finally found the God I have been searching for for years.” I felt at ease in my father’s house where my sins were forgiven and I became a forgiven person.

Kil’s personal change paralleled the movement for Korean independence. The dire state of his people was personally expressed in his own dire state. The same year Kil became a Christian, King Gojong declared Korea to be an empire independent of China. This lasted until the Japanese annexation in 1910.

Jangdaehyun Church

After becoming a Jesus-follower, Kil Sŏn-chu  served as a lay leader while he took a course of study led by missionaries intended for native local preachers. In 1907 Kil was one of the first graduates of the Presbyterian Seminary in Pyongyang. He was ordained as a pastor and installed in the Jangdaehyun Church, the oldest in Pyongyang.

No sooner did he enter this pastorate than revival broke out, the effects of which lasted for decades. Many see Kil as the most effective evangelist to emerge during this period. There was something stirring worldwide in the early 1900’s. In 1903, due to famine in the center of Korea, two local revivals were experienced in a Presbyterian church near Seoul and in a Methodist church in Wonsan. The Azusa Street revival started in 1905. In the fall of 1906, Korean Christians began hearing reports about the Welsh revival (1904–1905) and the Kassia Hills revival in India (1905–1906). They desired a similar experience.

In January 1907, across two weeks, the Presbyterian seminary in Pyongyang held a Bible conference of about 1500 Korean men. On Sunday, January 6, 1907, foreign and Korean Christians gathered at Jangdaehyun for an evening meeting during which the Holy Spirit moved through the congregation and a chain reaction of public repentance followed, beginning with Kil Sŏn-chu. At the conference, through his dynamic preaching and his personal confession, hundreds of others followed his example. This movement continued in meetings in Pyongyang and other nearby cities for months.

The Pyongyang revival resulted in an increase in the number of new Protestant converts and the growing establishment of Korean Christianity led by Korean Protestants. It also introduced key aspects of Korean Protestant Christian spirituality, such as early morning prayer and all-night prayer, which were also a feature of Kil’s Zen disciplines .

One of Kil’s significant contributions to the ongoing outbreak of faith in Korea was his role in establishing the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Korea. The YMCA played a significant role in the Korean independence movement by providing a space for Koreans to gather, organize, and exchange ideas. The organization promoted education, social reform, and Christian values, which resonated with many Koreans who were looking for ways to challenge Japanese colonial rule and assert their national identity. Through his work with the YMCA, Kil helped to create a network of Christian leaders who would play a key role in shaping the future of Korea.

1919 protest march in Seoul

Kil’s strong faith and zeal often took him beyond the immediate confines of the church. He was one of the first to sign Korea’s Declaration of Independence in 1919. March 1st is a national holiday in Korea known as Samiljeol (March First Movement) which commemorates the protests which began in Seoul on March 1, 1919, when millions of Koreans peacefully demonstrated for independence from Japanese colonial rule. Some of their fervor was inspired by the “right to self-determination” enshrined in President Woodrow Wilson’s post-WW1 “Fourteen Points.” The protests were one of the first and most significant nonviolent demonstrations against Japanese rule and encouraged similar movements elsewhere in the world. The Japanese jailed Kil for his participation.

During his 2 ½ years in prison Kil developed his own concept of eschatology and propagated the gospel of Jesus’ coming being followed by the millennial and eternal world. His views reflected the popularity of dispensational theology, especially in the United States, but with a distinctly Korean and Chinese twist. His teaching also resembled that of Joachim de Fiore. Upon his return to Jungdaehyun church, he began to preach fervently about the second coming of Christ.

Nearly blind by that time, Kil Sŏn-chu led Bible studies across the country. His preaching contributed to the trouble brewing in his home church. In 1926 young people imbued with socialist ideas (paralleling the rise of Mao Tse-tung)  distributed leaflets criticizing Kil for not accurately announcing the ballot count during an elders election. Afterwards, a dispute arose between the old faction supporting Kil Son-chu and the new faction. In the end, the Pyongyang presbytery forced Kil to resign in October 1931, and he built a new church in downtown Pyongyang.

More

The essential writings of Kil Sŏn-chu on Internet Archive 

Video: When Korea Turned Christian

The following video, The 1907 Pyongyang Revival, begins with a picture in which Kil Sŏn-chu is at the center:

Here is a link to a video about Declaration of Independence in 1919 by Arirang News, an international TV network based in Seoul. It provides English-language information on Korean current events, culture, and history to regions in South Korea and around the world [link].

* There are multiple romanization systems for Korean in common use. The two most prominent systems are McCune–Reischauer(MR) and Revised Romanization (RR). MR is almost universally used in academic Korean studies, and a variant of it has been the official system of North Korea since 1992. RR is the official system of South Korea, and has been in use since 2000.

What do we do with this?

Kil Sŏn-chu  has a fascinating personal history which reflects the tumultuous time in which he lived. He is Chinese, Japanese, American, fully Korean and fully Christian. When the Spirit moves, he moves. When he leads, he does so with fervor.  Although blind, oppressed by foreign powers and imprisoned, he does not give up. How would someone tell your story of living in troubled times?

Kil has been criticized for being less than revolutionary politically. His emphasis on the end times has been seen as somewhat reactionary and narrow theologically. But his influence on the church in Korea is indisputable.  The foundations he laid resulted in several generations of church expansion in what became South Korea. Each of us may not get it all right, but, as Kil learned, the Spirit of God blows in unexpected ways and uses people in spite of their weaknesses.

 

Sojourner Truth — November 26

North America, The Modern Era (1227-1936), ,

Image result for sojourner truth"

Bible connection

Read Joel 2:28-31

“In those days, I will also pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves.”

All about Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797-1883)

Today we celebrate the prophetess Sojourner Truth, who died on November 26th, 1883 at the age of 86. She is remembered for her relentless, Spirit-filled work as an abolitionist, women’s suffragist, and evangelist.

She was sold as a child into slavery in New York. She worked on a farm and often retreated into the woods nearby where she prayed to God by a “temple of brush” that she had made. In her twenties, she obeyed a vision from the Lord to take her baby, Sophia, and walk away from the family that enslaved her. It was a frightening experience for her to live out on her own, and she considered going back to work on the farm, but Jesus appeared to her in a vision and prayed for her, giving her the strength to continue.

After these and other experiences with God, she saw her life and ministry as uniquely situated to be a leader involved in two movements in the United States: the abolition of slavery, and the right of women to vote. As a woman leader and a former slave, she saw her gifts of leadership and freedom from slavery as something that God wanted for all women and all people who were enslaved. She used her life story and experiences with God as the basis for her political and theological views.

She is also remembered fondly for her straight-gazed challenges to live by faith. When some other notable abolitionists were advocating for violent uprisings to end slavery, Truth asked them the question: “Is God gone?”

Quotes

  • If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.
  • That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
  • Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
  • You have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better when it closes up again.
  • And what is that religion that sanctions, even by its silence, all that is embraced in the “Peculiar Institution?” If there can be any thing more diametrically opposed to the religion of Jesus, than the working of this soul-killing system – which is as truly sanctioned by the religion of America as are her minsters and churches – we wish to be shown where it can be found.

More

Nice resources from her home town memorial association in Battle Creek: [link]

The story of Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza in Akron, Ohio.

Sojourner Truth’s famous speech of 1851, “Ain’t I a Woman” Re-enactment

What do we do with this?

Look racism and sexism straight in the face and expect the same Spirit of Jesus, who inspired Sojourner Truth, to say something through you, too.

Encouragement from Dru Hart to take a stand: [blog post]

C.S. Lewis — November 22

Europe, This century (1937-2024)

Bible Connection

And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. — Mark 4:11 (KJV)

All about C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898. His mother, Flora, was the daughter of a Anglican priest (Church of Ireland). His father, Richard, immigrated from Wales and worked as a lawyer (solicitor). He and his brother Warren had a dog named Jacksie, who was killed by a car when Lewis was four years old. He decided that he would take the dog’s name in his mourning, eventually allowing his family to call him Jack—the name friends would refer to him by for the rest of his life.

He was privately tutored and sent to the notoriously abusive Wynyard School in England for two years with his brother after his mother died. He came back home to Belfast and attended Campbell College (for boys 11-18) only to drop out because of respiratory problems. He was sent to a health-resort town back in England where he attended preparatory school. It was there, while he was 15 that he decided he was an atheist. Later in life he would reflect that this decision was largely based on being mad at God for not existing.

His interest in mythology, beast fables, and legends developed—especially Norse, Greek, and Irish mythologies. In them, he sensed what he later named “joy.” He was bound for Oxford to study when he volunteered to fight for the British Army in the trenches of France during World War I. The trauma and horrors during the war confirmed his atheism. Lewis was injured during an accidental friendly fire explosion that killed two of his comrades. He had a pact with a close friend that if either died the survivor would take care of the other’s family, and after “Paddy” Moore died Lewis took care of Jane Moore until her death in the 1940s. The two had a close relationship, during both Lewis’ recovery and the period before Moore’s eventual death. Lewis often referred to her as his “mother.”

He resumed studies at Oxford in 1918. He excelled academically and began getting published. In 1929, largely because of the influence of friends and colleagues: J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, Lewis decided to “admit God was God,” kneel, pray, and admit he was a Theist. Two years later he had a conversion experience with the two friends playing a huge role in his shift to becoming a Christian. He would later recall in Surprised By Joy, “When we set out [on a motorcycle trip to the zoo] I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”

Two years later, the three friends along with some others began a group they called “The Inklings” which would meet up once or twice per week for sixteen years. For most of 1941, Lewis published 31 weekly Screwtape Letters, donating the proceeds for them to charity. He began giving radio talks on the BBC that developed from “Right and Wrong” to a later series about “What Christians Believe” and then “Christian Behavior”—these later became his enduring classic Mere Christianity. He published The Great Divorce in weekly installments. In all, he wrote about 60 books, most of which are non-fiction, often apologetics of the faith. It was perhaps in his fiction, like the Space Trilogy, where he did his heaviest theological lifting.

In 1956, Lewis and his intellectual companion, Joy Davidman, entered into a civil marriage so she and her two sons could stay in the U.K. She was separated from her abusive husband. Later that year, after discovering her advanced-stage bone cancer, the two had a Christian marriage ceremony. Joy died in 1957 while on a family holiday. Jack raised her sons as his own. Four years later, Lewis had kidney issues that developed shortly into renal failure. He died on November 22, 1963 a week before he would have turned 65 (the same day as John F. Kennedy — book by Peter Kreeft).

Quotes

  • I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. — “Is Theology Poetry?”
  •  I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. — Mere Christianity
  • There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’ — The Great Divorce
  • It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.– Mere Christianity
  • If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning. – Mere Christianity
  • A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word “darkness” on the walls of his cell. — The Problem of Pain
  • Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained. — “God in the Dock”
  • God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. — Mere Christianity
  • Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. — The Joyful Christian
  • Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. — Mere Christianity

  • It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. — “The Weight of Glory”

More

Christian History biography

BBC biography

C.S Lewis’s surviving BBC radio address

C.S. Lewis – from atheism to theism

Mere Christianity — Internet Archive,  The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses — Internet Archive

The Great Divorce — audio book on YouTube, PDF online

Till We Have Faces — PDF online

The Silver Chair (BBC dramtization) — Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Illustrations of Lewis’ books. Some by Lewis himself. [link]

The works of C.S. Lewis at C.C. Lewis.com [link]

The Most Reluctant Convert (Movie – 2022). Buy or rent on YouTube

What do we do with this?

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant apologist for Jesus in the mid-20th Century. Some of what he wrote is beginning to sound dated. Most of it is timeless. Some of it has been perverted by marketing and profit-taking. If you have never read one of his adult books, try one: Mere Christianity is a compilation of his radio productions. Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce are allegorical tales about life and death. Till We Have Faces is his last work that makes a Christian story out of a Greek tale.

Consider the time it takes to think deep thoughts. Lewis learned about Jesus before there was TV. After TV, our information started coming to us in ever-decreasing bites. Plan for a few hours to read, pray and think. Plan some time when there is no plan. Those are good times to be freed from your “silver chair.”

Eberhard Arnold — November 22

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” — Matthew 5:43-45

All about Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935)

Eberhard Arnold was born in 1883 to a middle class family in Königsberg, Germany (now Kalinigrad of the Russian Federation). After a rambunctious childhood, he experienced an inner change at the age of 16. He felt accepted and forgiven by God, and felt a calling him to “go and witness to my truth.” He became active in evangelism and acted with  compassion for the poor.

When he was 26 Arnold married Emmy von Hollander. They had five children. Both grew increasingly discontent with the new movements of urbanization and industrialization in Germany. They criticized the state church of Germany for various reasons. He became a sought-after speaker in his region. In 1915 he became editor of Die Furche (The Furrow), the periodical of the Student Christian Movement, and editor of the Das Neue Werk (New Venture) Publishing House in Schlüchtern, Germany in 1919.

Arnold supported Germany during the first World War at first, even enlisting for a few weeks before being discharged for medical reasons. He sent copies of The Furrow to young people at the front lines. The returning soldiers had a profound influence on Eberhard, and he had an increasingly difficult time reconciling the gospel with war.

During the war, the Germans sustained incredible losses. Afterwards, hunger protests and strikes were common responses to the political upheaval and national shame. Among groups working for change, the Youth Movement inspired Arnold with their love of nature, rejection of materialism, and aspirations towards joy and love.  Eberhard and Emmy began meeting with Youth Movement people once or twice a week in homes.

At age 37, Arnold and Emmy abandoned middle-class life. In 1920, the couple, along with Emmy’s sister Else, moved to the village of Sannerz to found the Bruderhof (place of brothers) community with seven adults and five children. Their community was founded on the Sermon on the Mount and the witness of the early church. The community grew and needed a bigger farm. Eberhard’s writing continued and he became well-known. He began corresponding with the Hutterite Brethren, an Anabaptist group that had fled to and flourished in the United States and found common cause. The Bruderhof’s values now also included a common purse as well as pacifism.

The rise of the Nazi party was a catalyst for the Bruderhof to send their children (school age and draft age) out of the country. The rest of the community eventually also fled. During the travel Arnold sustained a leg injury that led to his death on this day in 1935. The Bruderhof groups re-assembled in England before being forced out of the country. The Mennonite Central Committee helped them relocate to Paraguay, the only country that would accept a pacifist community with mixed nationalities. The Bruderhof Communities are now in four states in the US as well as Germany, Paraguay, and Australia.

Quotes:

Love sees the good Spirit at work within each person and delights in it. Even if we have just been annoyed with someone, we will feel new joy in them as soon as love rules in us again. We will overcome our personal disagreements and joyfully acknowledge the working of the good Spirit in each other. — Writings 

Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder.

Truth without love kills, but love without truth lies.

Even the sun directs our gaze away from itself and to the life illumined by it. — Salt and Light: Talks and Writings on the Sermon on the Mount

We must have the love that exists among children, for with them love rules without any special purpose. — Salt and Light: Talks and Writings on the Sermon on the Mount

The whole world is shaking at its joints. We have the frightening impression that we stand before a great and catastrophic judgment. If this catastrophe does not take place, it is only because it has been averted by God’s direct intervention. And the church is called to move God—yes, God himself—to act. This does not mean that God will not or cannot act unless we ask him, but rather that he waits for people to believe in him and expect his intervention. For God acts among us only to the extent that we ask for his action and accept it with our hearts and lives. This is the secret of God’s intervention in history. — Salt and Light: Talks and Writings on the Sermon on the Mount

We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots and executions. We kill every time we close our eyes to poverty, suffering and shame. — Salt and Light: Talks and Writings on the Sermon on the Mount

We must live in community because we are stimulated by the same creative Spirit of unity who calls nature to unity and through whom work and culture shall become community in God. — Why We Live in Community: With Two Interpretive Talks by Thomas Merton

More

Biography and more: [EberhardArnold.com]

The Bruderhof website [link]. Bio from the Bruderhof [link]. History of the Bruderhof [link].

One of five interesting videos on Bruderhof history. Here’s one on Arnold:

What do we do with this?

Arnold was a deep thinker who was open to the movement of God’s Spirit. He did not just think, he acted. His life was an incarnation of his convictions. He formed communities that had an influence much greater than their size might justify. Let his example inspire you to express your own faith and devotion in your troubled day.

You can visit the Bruderhof https://www.bruderhof.com/connect

Escaping the Nazis proved fatal for Arnold. They were cast out of England and had to go to Paraguay. The trouble seems to have galvanized the Bruderhof’s convictions. What does the coming decade portend for us who love Jesus in troubled times?

Leo Tolstoy — November 20

Europe, The Modern Era (1227-1936)

Bible connection

Read Luke 17:20-37

“The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

All about Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was the fourth of five children born to a family of old Russian nobility in 1828. His mother died while he was young, so he and his siblings were in the care of his aunt. His father then died, followed by his aunt and caretaker. He and his siblings moved under the care of another relative.

Tolstoy struggled in school. He eventually became a farmer until his brother convinced him to join the military, where his writing began to develop. He grew into one of the most celebrated novelists of all time. His two greatest works War and Peace and Anna Karenina are considered masterpieces.

After he enjoyed some success, Tolstoy fell into a deep depression that ultimately led to his conversion to following Jesus. He tried joining the Russian Orthodox Church, which he found corrupt. His treatise on this corruption, The Mediator, got him kicked out of the Church in 1883 and put him under surveillance by the secret police.

Tolstoy’s spiritual struggle with his role as a wealthy landlord and his desire to live as an ascetic. He decided to give away all of his money and renounce his aristocratic titles. He rejected organized religion and adopted a revolutionary Christianity that emphasized austerity. He ultimately decided to divide his property among his family, as if he were dead.  His wife did not agree with his newfound beliefs, causing problems in their marriage. He took care of her by signing over to her the copyrights and proceeds from his writings pre-1881.

Tolstoy spent the rest of his life in a small cottage, helping the Russian working class and living simply. He inspired the creation of “Tolstoyan” communities, where property is held in common. It was during these last thirty years of his life when his richest spiritual work and international movement-building flowered.

In 1894 his magnum opus The Kingdom of God Is Within You inspired practitioners of non-violent resistance, as it continues to do. Gandhi cited the book as one of the three texts that most influenced him. The two developed a relationship in which Tolstoy strongly urged nonviolence as a means of social change.

Tolstoy’s beliefs and regular visits from disciples plagued his wife. He finally fled with his daughter and began an incognito pilgrimage that he was never able to complete. He died on this day in 1910.

Quotes:

On revolution: There can be only one permanent revolution—a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.

On progress : People usually think that progress consists in the increase of knowledge, in the improvement of life, but that isn’t so. Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life. The truth is always accessible to a man. It can’t be otherwise, because a man’s soul is a divine spark, the truth itself. It’s only a matter of removing from this divine spark (the truth) everything that obscures it. Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn’t gold.

On passions: The whole world knows that virtue consists in the subjugation of one’s passions, or in self-renunciation. It is not just the Christian world, against whom Nietzsche howls, that knows this, but it is an eternal supreme law towards which all humanity has developed, including Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and the ancient Persian religion. And suddenly a man appears who declares that he is convinced that self-renunciation, meekness, submissiveness and love are all vices that destroy humanity (he has in mind Christianity, ignoring all the others religions).

On Nietzsche: One can understand why such a declaration baffled people at first. But after giving it a little thought and failing to find any proof of the strange propositions, any rational person ought to throw the books aside and wonder if there is any kind of rubbish that would not find a publisher today. But this has not happened with Nietzsche’s books. The majority of pseudo-enlightened people seriously look into the theory of the Übermensch, and acknowledge its author to be a great philosopher, a descendant of Descartes, Leibniz and Kant. And all this has come about because the majority of pseudo-enlightened men of today object to any reminder of virtue, or to its chief premise: self-renunciation and love — virtues that restrain and condemn the animal side of their life. They gladly welcome a doctrine, however incoherently and disjointedly expressed, of egotism and cruelty, sanctioning the idea of personal happiness and superiority over the lives of others, by which they live.

More

The School of Life on Tolstoy:

A postmodern takedown if you feel like cancelling Tolstoy [2022 book review]

More bio from GradeSaver: [link]

Movies adapting his fiction masterpieces: Anna Karenina (2012), War and Peace (2016)

The Tolstoyan Movement uses his philosophy as a lifestyle guide [Wiki]

Tolstoy and Gandhi [link]

What do we do with this?

Depression led Tolstoy to faith. Often depression is not an enemy, it is our heart speaking to us about change, about redemption, about unknown possibilities. Consider your own depression. Some of us have chronic conditions that need the help of doctors. Others are self-medicating what needs to be heard.

After Tolstoy wrote his masterpieces, he found his deepest calling. While his literature remains influential, it could be argued that his influence for nonviolent resistance did more to change the world. What are you growing into? Do you dare consider what your legacy will be and who you might influence for good?

Odo of Cluny — November 18

Europe, Forerunners (33-1226)
Odo Cluny-11.jpg
11th Century miniature

Bible connection

The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness. Then it is peace-loving and courteous…It is wholehearted and straightforward and sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness.—James 3:17-18

All about Odo of Cluny (c. 880-942)

Odo  was the abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Cluny. That community started a huge program of monastic and clerical reform which deeply influenced Europe for centuries.

Odo began his religious life at nineteen as a “canon” (a church leader living with other leaders) of the Church of St. Martin, in Tours, to whom he always had a deep devotion.

When Odo read The Rule of St. Benedict for himself as part of his studies, he was stunned. Judging that his Christian life did not measure up to Benedict’s standard, he decided to become a monk. In 909, Odo went to Beaume, a monastery where the Benedictine rule was strictly observed (unlike many other communities). Abbot Berno received him into the brotherhood.

That same year, Berno started a new monastery at Cluny, about fifty miles south of Beaume, also in Burgundy. He established the new community on the pattern of Beaume, insisting on a rigorous application of the Benedictine Rule. In 927, Odo succeeded Berno as Cluny’s abbot and spread its influence to monasteries all over Europe.

Odo encouraged lax monasteries to return to the original pattern of the Benedictine rule of prayer, manual labor, and community life under the direction of a spiritual father. Under his influence, monasteries chose more worthy abbots, cultivated a more committed spiritual life in the monks, and restored the solemnity of daily worship. As a result, Odo helped lay the foundation for a renewal movement that in two centuries reformed more than a thousand monastic communities and transformed the religious and political life of Europe.

In the following passage, John of Salerno, Odo’s biographer, says he combined his power with wry humor to compel members of his entourage to behave charitably:

The blind and the lame, Odo said, would be the doorkeepers of heaven. Therefore no one ought to drive them away from his house, so that in the future they should not shut the doors of heaven against him. So if one of our servants, not being able to put up with their shameless begging, replied sharply to them or denied them access to the door of our tent, Odo at once rebuked him with threats. Then in the servant’s presence he used to call the poor man and command him, saying, “When this man comes to the gate of heaven, pay him back in the same way.” He said this to frighten the servants, so that they should not act in this way again, and that he might teach them to love charity.

When Odo arrived at Monte Cassino (the original Benedictine monastery) to institute his reforms there and enforce the rule, he was met by armed monks ready to resist the unwanted interference. John of Salerno writes that he gained entry anyway with the disarming words: “I come peacefully—to hurt no one, injure no one, but that I may correct those who are not living according to rule.” [More here]

Along with his other duties, Odo wrote a number of important works, which reveal an original mind attempting to make sense of 10th-century society.

  • The Collationes (Conferences) is both a commentary on the virtues and vices of men in society and a spiritual meditation modeled on a work of the same name by the monk and theologian John Cassian (360–435).
  • De vita sancti Gerardi  (Life of St. Gerald of Aurillac) presents an exemplary warrior who fights only for peace, refuses to shed blood, attends Mass regularly, and is a model of humility, sobriety, and other virtues. The life of Gerald is one of the first depictions of a saintly layman—rather than a bishop, monk, or king—in medieval literature.

The Dialogue on Music was attributed to Odo, although it is unlikely he wrote it. Yet the attribution indicates he had a lively interest in the music developing in his day. He may have been the first to use seven letters for pitches (do-re-mi…) and some attribute to him the first clear discussion and illustration of organum.

He was also a diplomat. At the pope’s request, Odo traveled to Rome three times to pacify relations between Hugh, king of Italy and Alberic, called the Patrician (or Dictator) of the Romans. On each of these trips Odo took the opportunity to introduce the Cluniac reform to monasteries enroute. On returning from Rome in 942, he became sick and stopped at the monastery of St. Julian in Tours for the celebration of the feast day of St. Martin. He took part in the celebrations on November 11 and after a lingering illness died on November 18. During his last illness, he composed a hymn in honor of Martin.

More

The Abbey of Cluny is ten minutes from the Taize Community. 

Brief history of the Abbey.

Poem by Odo. Hymn to St. Martin.

This prayer guide from Bangalore/Bengaluru, India is fascinating.

The Odo Ensemble, based at Cluny.

What do we do with this?

Admiration for a saint can lead to saintliness. Odo of Cluny was deeply devoted to St. Martin of Tours and as a young student imitated Martin in his love of beggars. He always kept the example of Martin as his guide. Who are your favorite guides?

Perhaps the poor we refuse to care for, or people we snub will be our greeters after death. Imagine the person meeting us at heaven’s gate will be the person we have offended most, now empowered to welcome or to reject us. That thought might make us hurry to be reconciled with anyone we have hurt.

The church in the United States has a “lax rule” and is embroiled in corrupt politics and many scandals. Will you desert Jesus as a result? Or will you refocus on a true “rule” and transform the society?