Zombie Theology Podcast

Heya,

Tom Ryberg and I recorded the pilot episode for our new Geek Theology Podcast, and now we found a way to put it up on the internet. Our first episode, "Take and Eat" is about zombies.
It's available at:

geektheology.podbean.com.

David Weasley

Invocation from Nate's Ordination

My beloved colleague Nate Dannison asked me to write an invocation for his ordination service, which happened earlier today. He said I could say whatever I wanted. Here's what I wrote:

Triune God, we call you to this place and moment-
knowing that you were herre before us,
and that you will be after we are gone-
but knowing that our hearts find strength
when we call out to you:

By the name of God the Mother and Father
who brings us to birth and to rebirth
who remembers every child,
who feeds every spark of liberation
and mourns every tear of oppression

By the Holy Spirit
who hovers over our lives
pulling us through distraction and despair
pulling us over the even-now-crumbling walls of empire
dismantling our sinful hierarchies

And by our brother the Risen Lord Jesus
who danced with us, even unto death,
who walks to the margins of the crowd
and snaps open his plastic case,
and takes out the world's rattiest
two dollar fiddle
and begins to play:
And when we hear his song
it is so familiar, so new; so bold and humble
so warm and troubling and romantic
that what can we do but
join his foolish dance eternal?

In the name of these three, and in the name
of the Beloved Communion of Saints,
who watch with us in joyful anticipation,
and in laughing certainty:

Come, Triune God,
and be present in this place and moment.

Amen.

here's Beth!

Here's a link to an article I recently wrote for the MCC Great Lakes Regional Newsletter:

¡Seño, ya tenemos hambre!

-Beth

“see acts 16: a couple of stanzas for the 2010 seminary graduates that I know and love aka give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing...

“see acts 16: a couple of stanzas for the 2010 seminary graduates that I know and love aka give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God and I will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of god on earth- at least a dozen more this year”

Look:

the demons knew first.

The demons knew first like they always do, and so they became dedicated to stopping you.

The demons knew first and they spread rumors about who you were and what you can do. But maybe not even you knew it first, so Racism conspired with Patriarchy, and they both got together with Despair to keep you firmly out of the proclaiming life.

And as the three of them made the blood sacrifices to Empire, you began to hear some whisperings from other folks. From your family, or from people whose vote outweighed your family's vote, sometime outweighed your own vote and eventually and finally outweighed the demon's vote.

And here you are. And we cheer for you as you graduate, and the drum line plays riotous applause and deep thumping dancing base drums that shake the gates of hell, and make the demons prepare to face you in trembling armor: because now we all know.

And pretty soon, my friends and siblings, pretty soon: everybody will know.

And look: the demons knew first, and they were scared, but now they are terrified.

And it's no wonder we feel like singing.

what if

What if there was a movement,
in every town and city,
(some successful and some not)
a movement whose founder aimed
for the destruction of empire
whose chapters struggled
(some successfully and some not)
for radical justice-loving,
and love-justice radicalism?

What if this movement has hovered
around the periphery of Western culture
for a thousand years, or two,
and its greatest successes
were usually kept silent?

What if it was made up ordinary souls
with penchants for sin or poetry or manual labor,
who bring themselves to the struggle,
or drift along obliviously
(sometimes successfully and sometimes not)?

What if there was a movement,
of myth and macaroni, of bread and jokes and power?
And what if they were recruiting?

[insert your church name here,
and photocopy or scrawl on torn-up advertisements.]

amazing what you find when you clear out your camera's memory

 

I guess in the old days this is what you found when you developed that roll of film that's been in your camera for ages. Anyway, here's a blurry picture of me shaking hands with Jurgen Moltmann!!!

i feel like everyone should write one of these about themselves

I can walk as far as I need to.
I know a lot of stories.
I know a lot of songs.
I know that everyone can dance.
I can use words for magic. Which is to say to turn citizens into people, turn sitters into waiters, to pitch matches that are rhythms and slowly building metaphors. Ｉknow a half-dozen rituals that I can deploy at a moment's notice and can improvise more on a half-moment's notice.
I can turn bitching into planning.
I believe in enough things.
My name is David Weasley. And I fight demons.