From a heathen and a pagan...

From a heathen and a pagan on the side of the rebel Jesus:



h/t to Episcopal Cafe

Israeli Conscientious Objectors

Young Israelis refuse to serve in the army while it occupies Palestine:



From Jewish Voice for Peace

Dear Ann,

A year ago today, tens of thousands demanded the release of Israel's youngest prisoners of conscience, the Shministim.

These 12th graders courageously chose prison time over serving in the occupying Israeli army, and became heroes to us and the entire world.

Last Chanukah, just one day after Tamar Katz was released from solitary confinement, the young Shministim gathered to celebrate and to decide how to thank the 20,000 (and counting) Jewish Voice for Peace members who wrote letters, attended rallies, and wrote articles on their behalf.

This is the message they carefully wrote together. One year later, as Shministit Or Ben-David sits in prison in Israel, and as Jews around the world prepare to celebrate the last night of Chanukah, it seems appropriate to share it with you again. We can't imagine a more important message during this festival of lights.



Dear friends and supporters,

During Chanukah the festive of lights, we, the Shministim, would like to take a moment to thank you for all you've done for us and for our struggle.

While we sit down with our families and light the first candle of the holiday, symbolizing the rebellion against an occupying army, some of us are still behind bars, denied the freedom to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones, denied the right to freedom of thought and political consciousness.

During this dark period of consecutive jail terms, military trials and attempts to break our beliefs, you were our light.

Each and every one of you who helped with the campaign, who sent a supporting letter, who sent the link of the website to a friend. You've let our struggle be heard around the world, the letters, the postcards and posters, the demonstrations, all of those actions fulfilled our wildest dreams.

We would like to thank you once again and wish you all a happy and free holiday.

in solidarity,
The Shministim



The struggle for freedom continues.

Palestinian human rights activists like Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Mohammad Othman now sit in Israeli prisons with you as their most important global advocates.

Thank you to each one of you for being a part of this struggle.

Happy Holidays and Chag Sameach,

now I am ready for Christmas...

Once in Royal David's City:

Advent Calendars

A collection of Advent Calendars online - for your daily use to slow down for the season:

Diocese of Washington, DC Advent Calendar 2009

BBC Bach Calendar

Christmas around the world by Woodlands Junior School, UK

Church of England

The Adventures of Mary and Joseph from Paperless Christmas

Beliefnet Advent Calendar

Trinity Wall Street

And my Favorite: Tate the Cat

UPDATE:
And one more - from ECVA Grace: advent and art

And one from The Anglican Church of Canada

And this from OCICBW



Add yours in the comments.

At a peace gathering - Sölle

Thanks to Acts of Hope

At a peace gathering

We’re not only ten thousand I said
there are more of us here
the dead of both wars
are with us

A journalist came and asked
how could I know that
haven’t you seen them
i ask the clueless guy
haven’t you heard your grandmother
groaning when they started it up again
do you live all alone
without any dead who drop in
for a drink with you
do you really think
you are only yourself

Dorothee Sölle, The Mystery of Death

XXI Pentecost

Readings.

The man born blind:
The question this raises for me is "what do I have to cast off to be able to see?" How are things I have accumulated, the cultural baggage of my life, blinding me to seeing life? A priest who is blind says that this passage speaks to him - not because it offers him sight as sighted people would have it but because it leads him to "insight." His physical blindness allows him to hear the hearts of those who come to him with out being blinded by their appearance, clothing or attitude.

Earlier in Mark, we hear the story of the rich young man who does everything right but cannot follow Jesus because he can not rid himself of his possessions. It is hard work to let go of things - as I know from getting ready to move into a house 1/3 the size of our current home. It is even harder to get rid of years of cultural learnings about who is worthy of my attention, who can come to the table, who is a child of God - not as the world sees but as God sees. As the old musical South Pacific says "we have to be carefully taught" and we are.

I once took an anti-racism course where the teacher talked about the arrows that life throws at us about our worthiness - not measuring up - our minds, bodies and souls under attack - and we build up layers of self protection to make it through our days. The result is that each of us responds from under layers and layers of armor. We can't be open to one another as we hide from the risk of wounding.

Jesus invites us to take off our cloaks of protection and follow him - the one who is willing to be wounded for anyone and all. The blind man leaps at the chance - he knows the circumscribed life is no life. He flings off all that he has for the chance at LIFE.

Happy Halloween

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Mirrors of our lives

A good one for Sunday - mirrors and what they tell us:
Looking in the Mirror by Martha Sterne.

I remember the barber, Cecil Orr by name, who gave our three-year-old son his first real hair cut. And, oh my, it was a little trauma--the little boy lips trembling and huge crocodile tears swimming in his eyes--and his daddy and I were about to cry too--but the barber just started murmuring, "My boy, I believe you are a baseball player. I believe you are a fine baseball player. I bet you can hit that ball a mile, my man. You can hit that ball a mile, can't you Charlie?" And the little boy heard the words--you're a baseball player--and looked in the mirror and stopped seeing the scissors and hearing the whuuzzzz of the clippers and saw instead baseball player Charlie--we'd always called him Charles--and there with Cecil, he saw Charlie, the baseball player who could hit that ball a mile.

Then some years later, I went to Grady, who every time I walked in the door of the beauty parlor always screamed in mock horror, "Emergency, emergency!" But this time I walk in and I'm not in the mood for kidding around. I have been doing--often very naively and poorly--a jobs ministry in an Atlanta public housing neighborhood. And I have seen more than comfortable, middle-class people want to see or know how to understand about the grind and the pain in the prison of generations of poverty. I think the day I went to see Grady I had found out that a lovely very young woman that I'd helped to find a little crummy job had been leaving her five-year-old at home alone because she couldn't find child care and she didn't want to disappoint me. Can you imagine how I felt about that? Well, I don't talk about that to Grady, but I say, "Grady, I either need a totally new haircut or a totally new me and right now I don't care which." And without saying a word, he cut off every hair of my head--almost like shaving someone who is entering monastic orders. He did that with my back to the mirror, and I was thinking, "Oh, my Lord, what is he doing?" And then he swung the chair around. And I saw me. And he said, "Martha, you don't need a new you. You need to be you, and God knows that'll be enough." And you know what? He was right. The hair grew back and I grew up.

Read more here.

Kennedy on health care

In memory of Ted Kennedy -- I hope we pass legislation that gives health care to all within our country:

Pilgrimage

Click on the photo to see the video slide show:



My Montage 8/24/09

Danse Macabre

Fr. Matthew presents:

Mad as hell doctors for single payer