Affirming Clergy

The Top 11/80 Books Grant Read in 2024

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1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

2. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk

3. God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life by Catherine Mowry Lacugna

4. After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology by Hanna Reichel

5. The Development of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Yoruba (African) Indigenous Christian Movement by Caleb Oluremi Oladipo

6. On First Principles by Origen

7. The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology by Amos Yong

8. So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis by Sarah Augustine

9. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

10. Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity by Joerg Rieger

11. The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men by Vine Deloria Jr.

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night scene milky way background

Merry Christmas! Tis
the season of love and hope –
mindful of the trials
and tribulations of now –
and those yet to come –
but joyful that we are not
alone – God with us!

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Love-Rooted Faith and Hope: A Message for Resisting Despair

“And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

I hear much about faith and hope these days from Christians to celebrate Trump’s victory, or to silence those despairing the results. But what is meant by faith and hope in these messages? One message a proclamation of salvific victory in a deeply flawed human being, and one a bludgeon to silence those who disagree. For me, the answer is found in “the greatest of these:” Love. How must we center love to resist cheap hope and false faith? 

“We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 8-10).

As we explore what faith and hope rooted in love means, it is first important to note that God commands us away from despair. This is the current struggle of my own heart-faith work. However, it is clear to me that I can be perplexed and mournful, but not giving into despair.

Faith and hope are critical to resisting despair.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

After washing his disciples’ feet, a non-hierarchical and countercultural activity of humility and service, and also sharing a meal with his disciples, Jesus gives the commandment to love one another. This love is an action, a lifestyle, a way of being, that is observable and has a communal impact.

Washing feet as humble service; Eating together as fellowship and community building. These are the actions of love that Jesus is calling us into. And this active/communal love is the root of hope and faith.

Hope and face are not excuses to be passive and to ignore the suffering of humans and creation around us. Hope and faith that bare such fruits are cheap and fake. Hope and faith that bare fruits of harm and domination are evil and anti-Christ.

Love-rooted-Faith is the belief in God’s promise of peace and well-being for all creation.

Love-rooted-Hope is the state of being that washes over us from faith.

And Love, the very Being of God, is the source of divine strength that urges us into communal action based on faith and hope. Communal action that co-creates with God the promise of peace and well-being for all creation. God’s one day fully realized Kin-dom.

This day has not yet come. The dominating, violent, exclusionary, deceitful, and blasphemous promises of Trump will make the realization of that day harder.

But I refuse to despair. Love-rooted-Faith and Love-rooted-Hope, I must. For “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

I am not alone. We are not alone. God is with us. And we are called into action based on this love-rooted faith and hope to fight for the well-being of all people and creation.

May we make it so.

Amen.

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Grant’s 10 Favorite Books of 70 Read in 2023!

1. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, edited by Joy Harjo, with LeAnne Howe and Jennifer Elise Foerster

2. Poet, the Warrior, the Prophet, by Rubem Alves

3. Decolonial Christianities: Latinx and Latin American Perspectives, edited by Raimundo Barreto and Roberto Sirvent

4. Reading and Writing the Lakota Language, by Albert White Hat Sr.

5. Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, by Elaine Enns and Ched Myers

6. Galatians: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, by Nancy Elizabeth Bedford

7. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, by Linda Tuhiwai Smith

8. Complaint!, by Sara Ahmed

9. Faith and Freedom in Galatia and Senegal: The Apostle Paul, Colonists and Sending Gods, by Aliou Cissé Niang

10. Trading Futures: A Theological Critique of Financialized Capitalism, by Filipe Maia

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Psalm 42 Lectio Divina Response Poem

Pour out humility on the mighty

and convict them of the evil

in superiority and domination,

oh Lord.

My heart is disquieted within

the real-word examples of suffering

caused by pride and greed.

My mind is heavy with the knowledge

of dissension, based on arguments

over the worthiness and belovedness

of those on the margins.

My soul longs for unity

based on the constant striving

to tangibly center

the imago dei

within all Creation.

Unity does not mean assimilation

but just-filled redistribution

of the resources and experiences

necessary to thrive.

May we tirelessly pursue

the unity of all creation

that translates into the

tangible flourishing

and holistic well-being

of all people

and all created things.

Amen.

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Happy Fourth of July

Be grateful for what you have,

they say.

Okay.

I’m grateful for my marriage

with my husband.

But many folks across the country,

emboldened with power,

want to rip our marriage apart,

calling our love unconstitutional,

along with many other nasty

words, phrases, and threats.

Seeking the goal of allowing

states to make our union illegal,

or perhaps a full-fledged federal ban.

So I’ll be grateful for what I have,

as I’ve been told,

before it all gets legislated away.

Happy Fourth of July

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Preparation Prayer

Lord,

prepare my ears to hear the suffering

shield my heart to not take on that pain

warm my soul toward genuine empathy

enliven my mind to interpret and translate

and sharpen my tongue to speak the wisdom

of Your Holy Spirit

Amen.

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My Top 16 Books of 2021

As an avid lover of reading, I have enjoyed finding time to read throughout the year of 2021. This year has been a particularly robust year of reading, completing my 65/65 book reading challenge AND reading more nonfiction than fiction books (this is a rarity for me)!

I intended to chose only 10 books for my top books of the year list, but I just couldn’t narrow it down past 16. As a result, you will find a comprehensive list of my top 16 favorite books of the year.

Some of these books made me laugh, while others made me cry. Some were highly informational, and some educated me toward righteous rage and justice-action. Many of these books fed my soul and spiritual practices. Others were highly creative in imagined worlds, while some envisioned something different in our own world. Some of these books are classics, and some are brand new. A few books are written by friends and colleagues while others are written by people I’ll never know. This list crosses the scope of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

I hope that this list inspires you to add a few books to your 2022 reading list AND encourages you to reach out and connect with me about them! Please know that I’m always happy to chat about any of the listed books. I’m passionate about each and every one of them!

Please enjoy my ‘Top 16 Books of 2021’ list: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2021/25536404

1. ‘Sister Outsider’ by Audre Lorde: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/730745
2. ‘The Interior Castle’ by Teresa of Ávila: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162512
3. ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ by Ursula K. Le Guin: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13356675
4. ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’ by Isabel Wilkerson: ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ by Ursula K. Le Guin: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51152447
5. ‘The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery’ by Sarah Augustine: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55404509
6. ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11989
7. ‘Teaching to transgress’ by bell hooks: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27091
8. ‘The Naked Now: Learning to See As the Mystics See’ by Richard Rohr: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6522506
9. ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52892857
10. ‘The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America’ by Richard Rothstein: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32191706
11. ‘Advancing the Mission: The Order of Deacon in the United Methodist Church’ by Margaret Ann Crain: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58800816
12. ‘Gideon the Ninth’ by Tamsyn Muir: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42036538
13. ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’ by Timothy D. Snyder: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33917107
14. ‘Nature Poem’ by Tommy Pico: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32311036
15. ‘The Prophets’ by Robert Jones Jr.: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52576333
16. ‘Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him?’ by Nancy Elizabeth Bedford: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54851903
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‘Nature Poem’ by Tommy Pico Review

www.goodreads.com/book/show/32311036

“NDN teens have the highest rate of suicide of any population group in America. A white man can massacre 9 black ppl in a church and be fed Burger King by the cops afterward. A presidential candidate gains a platform by saying Mexican immigrants are murdered and rapists

It’s hard for me to imagine curiosity [in America] as anything more than a pretext for colonialism” (Tommy Pico, ‘Nature Poem,’ 40).

“Look, I’m sure you really do just want to wear those dream catcher earrings. They’re beautiful. I’m sure you don’t mean any harm, I’m sure you don’t really think abt us at all. I’m sure you don’t understand the concept of off-limits. But what if by not wearing a headdress in yr music video or changing yr damn mascot and perhaps adding .05% of personal annoyance to yr life for the twenty minutes it lasts, the 103 young ppl who tried to kill themselves on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation over the past four months wanted to live 50% more” (Tommy Pico, ‘Nature Poem,’ 56).

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‘Advancing the Mission: The Order of Deacon in the United Methodist Church Book’ by Margaret Ann Crain

www.goodreads.com/review/show/4327901192

As a United Methodist Deacon, I am in awe and Thanksgiving of Margaret Ann Crain for putting together this comprehensive and highly enjoyable historical overview of how the current Deacon order came to be: through persistence, obedience to the Holy Spirit, and strategic planning! This book is a gem and I recommend it to every person who is curious about diaconate ministry!

Also, this quote was one of the most succinct and helpful descriptions of the call to Deacon ministry I have seen to date:

“What is a deacon? A deacon is an extension of the mission of the church, and extension of the Eucharistic table of Grace, wherever she or he is appointed. A deacon is also accountable to the UMC, accountable to uphold the highest standard of ethics to bring the needs of the world to the local church. Deacons are entrepreneurs, seeking out places to respond to the calling that God has placed on their hearts. Deacons are enfleshed representatives of Christ, seeking to contribute to the transformation of the world. Deacons are embodied mission” (Margaret Ann Crain, ‘Advancing the Mission,’ 132).

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