Miroslav Volf on economics, purpose and achieving systemic change in the face of the free market.
Resurrection and the City
22 04 2012by Brian Walsh
(We’ve sat in Easter Saturday for three weeks now. Not a bad thing to do considering how quickly we want to get past the horror of Good Friday. Maybe it is time for us to now proclaim the resurrection. Because without the resurrection, there is no remixing of the empire. This is my Wine Before Breakfast meditation on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24.13-35)
It wasn’t surprising that they had decided to leave the city.
Jerusalem had again failed to live up to its name.
Bloodshed, not peace, had been raining in this city for years,
and the last couple of days had been just more of the same.
Another round of arrests,
more beatings and corrupt trials,
another group of crucifixions,
more violence in the police state,
yet another repression of anything that could be a threat to the city
and its religious, political and economic elite.
This city that had held their hopes and dreams,
this city that had been the bearer of the promises,
this city where they had hoped to see the redemption of Israel,
this city where they had longed to see streets for dwelling,
justice in the gates,
jubilee in the land,
the protection of orphans, widows and strangers,
refuge for the vulnerable;
this city that they had hoped would be the capitol for the Kingdom of God,
… this city had failed them again. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: City, Emmaus, Resurrection
Categories : Brian Walsh, Sermon, Uncategorized, Wine Before Breakfast
Two Parades, One City and Holy Saturday
7 04 2012Brian Walsh
(On March 31 I spoke to the Southwestern Ontario regional conference of StreetLevel. I took the opportunity to lead these wonderful frontline street ministers into Holy Week from the perspective of someone who was there. Someone who was passionate for his city. I think that maybe this can function well as a reflection for Holy Saturday. This day of disappointment. This day of such profound loss.)
I was passionate about my city.
I so longed that it would live up to its name,
that Jerusalem would indeed be a place
where shalom rained down like a Spring shower.
In this city, however, what we knew more violence than shalom.
Instead of the rains of peace, our streets knew more about the flow of blood.
Whether it was the forced labour to build this city under Solomon of old,
the oppression of the poor by the rich under one regime after another,
the child sacrifice during those times of idolatry,
the violent cruelty of the Babylonian invasion,
the bloody machinations of Herod the Great,
the hard boot and sharp swords of Roman occupiers,
or the Temple hierarchy with its sacrifices and extortionist taxation,
the result was the same.
Bloodshed, oppression, and a city of violence that begets violence.
But that’s not what a city named shalom is supposed to look like. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Brian Walsh, Holy Saturday, StreetLevel
Categories : Uncategorized
The Hunger Games and the Gospel: an endorsement
20 03 2012by Brian Walsh
Just this week, as the Hunger Games movie premiers around the world, a fine little ebook has been published by Patheos Press called The Hunger Games and the Gospel. The author, Julie Clawson might be known to some readers because of her fine blog onehandclapping or because her very helpful book Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of our Daily Choices.
Julie asked me to read the new book and consider writing an endorsement. I liked the book so much that I wrote two endorsements. My daughter Madeleine liked the second one better, but the publisher went with the first. So, without further ado, here is the second endorsement that I wrote:
Julie Clawson writes out of a breadth of biblical understanding, serious commitment to Christian discipleship, love of a good story and with all the passion and day to day wisdom of a mom. That’s right. A mom. There is so much to commend this creative engagement with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy. The way that Clawson plays with the resonances between the trilogy and biblical faith.
The way that she interprets the main character in terms of the virtues of the Jesus. The way that her interpretation honors the integrity of Collins’ work precisely by bringing it into play with her own faith perspective and in relation to contemporary life. But at the heart of it all, Clawson writes as a mom. Her kids and family life keep on popping up in the book. And so they should.
After all, what is it that the empire always wants from us – whether Panem in The Hunger Games, Babylon and Rome in biblical times, or our own imperial world of our own global consumerism? The empire always wants our children! And Julie Clawson is saying that her children are not up for grabs!
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Tags: Brian Walsh, Hunger Games, Julie Clawson, Suzanne Collins
Categories : Uncategorized
From Babylon to Jerusalem :: A New Urban Vision
30 09 2011by Brian Walsh
A meditation on Rev. 21.9-14; 21.22-22.5 delivered in the Wine Before Breakfast community on September 20, 2011
Grief is the doorway to hope,
tragic endings give birth to surprising beginnings,
lament gives way to praise,
and death is overturned in resurrection.
That’s the good news this morning.
That’s how the failed, painful reality of Babylon
meets the restored city of Jerusalem.
And it is all there in the very first line of our reading.
“Then one of the angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me….”
Man, by the time I’ve got to the end of the book of Revelation
…the last thing I want to see is one of those angels
…with their bowls of plagues.
The last thing I want to hear is any more bad news
…from one of those angelic messengers. Read the rest of this entry »
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Categories : Uncategorized
Film, Prophecy & Culture
30 06 2011
This fall, Brian Walsh will be teaching a new course at Trinity College in Toronto entitled Film, Prophecy & Culture. Registrations are limited, so if you’re interested, get on board soon!
Humans are story-telling animals. We find our identity, memory, vision and our meaning through the narratives of our lives. While the church has been a foundational story telling institution, it has clearly been eclipsed in the last half century by various forms of mass media, and most notably through cinema. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Cinema, Culture, International Film Festival, Theology, TIFF, Toronto, Trinity College, TST
Categories : Uncategorized
Practicing Resurrection 2010
6 05 2010
This August marks the return of Practicing Resurrection, an annual conference held at Brian and Sylvia’s Russet House Farm in Cameron, Ontario.
This year’s keynote speakers are Ched Myers and Elaine Enns. Their work with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries focuses on building capacity for biblical literacy, church renewal, and faith-based witness for justice. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Brian Walsh, Ched Myers, Elaine Enns, Russet House Farm
Categories : Empire Remixed, Uncategorized
Homemaking on the Road: Romans 15 and the Bigger Picture
3 03 2010by Brian Walsh
It has been about home from the beginning.
…The very beginning,
…the beginning of all beginnings,
…was about home.
……A good home,
……a rich home,
……a home of blessing,
……a creational home,
……home with God.
And when homebreaking raises its violent face,
…the homemaking God makes covenant.
The homemaking God embraces the homebreaker,
…with eyes wide open.
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What If?
30 12 2009Originally posted on Allan Reeve’s blog, he’s given us permission to repost it here at Empire Remixed in its entirety. Allan is the minister at Trinity United Church in Bobcaygeon, Ontario.
by Allan Reeve
What if Jesus were born in Canada today?
To be true to the story, he would most certainly be born an indigenous native Canadian. He would be of a tribe out on the fringe of the Empire. He’d live within a day’s travel of the capital – say within an Otter’s flight – putting him perhaps in a community in Northern Quebec?
It’s been seven generations since his people have drifted from their traditional ways. Slowly at first, they lost their trust in the land as the source of security. Slowly they began to depend upon the machines and tinned foods and coin of the realm that eventually invaded every aspect of their lives.
Mary and Joe remember the stories their grandparents told them. They remember trips stolen away from school where they were shown how to negotiate the waters, get what was needed from the land, use everything to good purpose, watch the stars, the birds, the tracks that would tell them where they were, when they were, who they were. Sometimes they can even remember parts of the songs their grandparents sang. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Aboriginal, Allan Reeve, Canada, Christmas, Nativity
Categories : Uncategorized
Justice and Creation
10 11 2009CRC Campus Ministries, University of Toronto and Crux Books present:
Justice and Creation:
a double book launch for
“The Justice Project” (Ed. Brian McLaren et. al.)
“The Gift of Creation” (Ed. Norman Wirzba)
with contributor Dr. Sylvia C. Keesmaat
Commentaries by:
Bruxy Cavey (The Meeting House)
Ron Kuipers (Institute for Christian Studies)
Music by Michael Iafrate, Alison Hari Singh, and Zoe Thiessen and The Hildegard Project (featuring Billy Gekas).
Facebook event info here.
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Categories : Uncategorized
