I Remember, I Believe performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock

 

A Prayer For Freedom---From The Midnight Mom Devotional

Tonight we pray for the momma who wants more freedom. Lord, she might want more freedom in her schedule. She might need more freedom in her finances. She might be desperate for freedom from past hurts or regret. She might just want more freedom to be herself or to do what she really wants to do. Tonight, Lord, we pray that this momma would find fresh hope, opportunity, and freedom as 2022 comes to a close. We pray that freedom would flood into every trapped and frustrated place in her heart and life. Give her an anticipation of hope to replace every anxiety. We ask in Jesus’s name, Amen.

Coopers Rocks, God and Freedom, The New River Valley, And Ola Belle Reed

This photo was taken at Cooper's Rocks State Forest in West Virginia by a young couple identified as Chuck and Cherie on the All Things West Virginia Facebook page. I want to thank them for a series of well-taken photos that touched me. Cooper's Rocks was a special place for me when I lived near there, and the photo above catches some of the beauty of the place. I used to the spot where this photo was taken every News Years Day, sometimes hiking through ten feet of snow to get there. Once there I would have a few shots of plum brandy to mark the moment and then be still with the cold and silence. I can remember it being -7 degrees there without wind-chill, and something like -22 below with wind-chill. I also remember sitting there with one of my hounds and seeing a hawk rise from the valley below and my hound jumping behind me because it frightened him. I think that I learned something about God and freedom there.

I could never go there or to the New River Valley in Virginia without thinking about this song from Ola Belle Reed:
 

Bishop Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II preaching, "God Given Freedom Is A Wonderful Thing"

 

Understanding John 14:5-7 with Jim Palmer

The following comes from Jim Palmer's Facebook page and has been lifted without permission. I hope that readers will find Jim Palmer's Facebook page and engage with him.

Question: Jim, there's the verse where Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me." I don't believe that verse anymore, but I don't know what to do with it.

Response: The entire statement attributed to Jesus in the Book of John reads, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The message of Jesus to the world was that there is no separation between ourselves and the ultimate reality that is at the heart of all things, which we most experience as love, peace, happiness and belonging.

When Jesus said, "I AM the truth", he was saying that he was a human expression of this ultimate truth and reality. Jesus wanted humankind to know that we are not separated, divided, or in conflict with this transcendent reality we touch and feel deep within our hearts.

When Jesus said "no one comes to the Father except through me," Jesus was saying that the entire paradigm of separation - separation from love, separation from belonging, separation from worth, separation from hope, separation from wholeness - is a farce. We will never know these realities fully in that paradigm of separation, which requires striving to achieve them. The only way of knowing them is through the truth that Jesus demonstrated, namely that these realities are knit into the very nature and essence of our being.

The Christian religion often makes it difficult to understand verses like these because it built a religion based upon the separation paradigm, which was largely constructed by the teachings of Paul, who shoehorned Jesus into it.

The way the Christian religion interprets John 14:6 typically comes off sounding like this: "Listen up everyone! You know all those other religions and religious leaders and their teachings about God? Well, guess what? They are all deluded and wrong! It's me and my way or the highway to hell. You can only be right with God if [insert Paul's elaborate theology or denominational requirements for salvation]." That interpretation couldn't be any further from the truth of what was meant by these words of Jesus.
Jesus was basically saying, "You strive to be right with God, yet I have shown you that you and God are not separated but one. There is no other truth to invent or scheme up. Even if you tried, you could not ever come up with anything better than the way it already is."

Jesus said, “I AM the truth.”

He didn’t say “I KNOW the truth,” as if truth is a piece of knowledge held by the mind. Neither did he say, “I HAVE the truth,” as if truth is a possession you can pass along to another. Jesus said, “I AM the truth.”

Truth is a reality at the level of being.

Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is an actuality inside to be realized. What is this actuality? Oneness with God. This is your true Self.

Jesus is the Truth that God and humankind are one. This is the Truth that sets you free.

Hope that helps.
Jim

P.S.: The relevant verses from are here:

5 Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.

12 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.

13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

Remember their names and stand up against hatred

 

The Spirit That Is Moving In This Land: Bishop Barber & The Poor People's Campaign In North Carolina

 

The Imperatives Of Social Change & Social Justice (Illustrated)

 

Champagne for a few or...

 

A Splendid Lenten Reflection By Grace Okerson

It was a joy for me to read this brief Lenten Devotional written by Grace Okerson and sent on by the Methodist Federation for Social Action.

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 5

By Grace Okerson

“Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” – Audre Lorde

This quote by Audre Lorde always reminds me that liberation is intricately connected to the company we keep; we are all connected---for better or for worse.

So much of my personal and professional work over the past five years has been centered around being connected to those around me, especially those on the margins. I served as a missionary through the General Board of Global Ministries for two years in Detroit, MI with the NOAH Project tackling issues around homelessness. It was there that I developed a deep passion for social justice and mission. It was that work in Detroit and the glaring intersection between homelessness and mass incarceration that fed my passion and interest of prison abolition and led me to seminary which has informed my advocacy and work in ways I could not have imagined. Those that I worked alongside were different than I was, but it was those differences that fueled a beautiful relationship full of awe and wonder. It was those differences that made it clear that there was work to be done together if the liberation of all God’s people was to be achieved.

As Christians, we need to focus on liberation. Liberation and freedom are a part of God’s intention for humanity. When looking at creation and the imago Dei, we can see that God’s intention for humanity was mutuality, respect, and valuing of one another. God’s intention was for all humans to have dignity and worth. God created us to be bound up with one another. Adam and Eve were “bone of bone and flesh of flesh,” intricately connected to one another for better or for worse. Humanity was created to be free. Although we are radically free, there is responsibility in said freedom. The freedom we have is for something. It is for creation, for God, and for others. Freedom for is not power over something or someone. It is freedom that is oriented toward the flourishing of the earth, of one another, and for receiving God within our lives. To be made in the image of God is to participate in God’s freedom within what is given to us. The freedom for one another causes us to be dependent upon one another.

As a queer, Black woman, belonging is something that I have always craved. I have always strived to be “enough” and have tried to contort myself to fit into the boxes that society has made for me. Rather than try to find a box that can encompass my identity, I have found that I need to get rid of the boxes entirely. I was not created to fit into a box or conform to societal standards. I was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God tasked to bring Christ’s kin-dom here on earth. I am different. And my difference matters, and makes me unique. I am a person who values community above all else and strives to create inclusive and affirming communities where individual flourishing can be realized. When thinking about freedom and liberation, I often love to ask others the following question: “Who would you be if you were allowed to flourish in all the desires of your heart?”

The answer to that question is at the heart of liberation. The answer to that question is the gateway to figuring out how we all can become radically free. Let’s get free together.

You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.

A Florida native, Grace Okerson is a first year Master of Divinity Student studying at Candler School of Theology @ Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. She is pursuing a concentration in Chaplaincy with the hope of going into hospital and/or hospice chaplaincy. She wants to journey with people through their grief and in their points of crisis, putting her own gifts, talents, and lived experience of grief to use.

Equipped with a Master of Arts in Public Ministry from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Grace’s passions surround dismantling white supremacy and prison abolition. Grace graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science with minors in Diversity and Social Inequality, Women and Gender Studies, and Journalism Studies from the University of Central Florida.

From 2017-2019, Grace then served as Global Mission Fellow with the General Board of Global Ministries as the Lunch & Volunteer Coordinator at the NOAH Project, an agency tackling issues around homeless in downtown Detroit, MI.

Grace currently works with McCormick Theological Seminary’s Solidarity Building Initiative as the Special Projects Coordinator & Content Curator. Through a praxis of curious- learning, innovative-action, and active-reflection, Grace has imagined into existence life-giving solutions and collaborative partnerships towards justice-making and solidarity-building with those who have been marginalized by hyper incarceration.

Grace is a certified candidate for ordained ministry in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and plans to continue her ministry as a deacon. When she is not working or in school, you can find Grace exploring the city and traveling the globe. Grace enjoys walks, reading, writing, and taking naps on the beach.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Paul's Letter to American Christians