Tabernacle United Church - Philadelphia Progressive Presbyterian UCC

Hi Tab Family, 

This week, Sana preached:”Whether we like it or not, neoliberal capitalist ideology like white supremacy culture is the air we breathe. It determines our thoughts and the very act of thinking otherwise becomes more difficult without a counter narrative and disruptive beliefs that challenge the status quo – or the capitalist empire’s power and narrative. I know of such a narrative. 

It is the liberating message of Jesus. The good news of the gospel. Jesus shared with us, through his life, the truth that God is always with us when God chose to be made flesh. Through the incarnation, we are reminded that we are connected to God and that we are never alone. Moreover, our lives are not defined by our productivity or how the market values our worth. We know that in God and through Jesus we are worthy and loved. But this love that is given to us by grace requires much of us. The love and freedom given by God is meant to worship God by serving others. Accordingly it’s a love that finds its fullness in taking responsibility for justice and disrupting systems of oppression. Here is where Peloton and other forms of corporate spirituality fall short of the glory of God. Peloton and other corporate spiritual organizations aren’t trying to remake the world or dismantle unjust systems. Like Audre Lourde stated, the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house.” 

It’s not easy to find a sustainable source of worth in a world that, as Sana mentioned, is dead-set on selling you products to “help” you cultivate that worth. And since we live under global capitalism, those products are actually designed and produced to break and to be ineffective, so that you’ll return and buy it again. And again. And again. I could go on forever about anti-aging skin care products that instead of buying, you might as well just put your money in a paper shredder. Y’all do not want me to start about the diet industrial complex and pseudoscientific wellness— I’m confident I’ll preach on that myself sometime in the future, so, stay tuned.

At the end of the day, in a global capitalist hellscape, the rush you get after purchasing a product that promises wholeness and worth will quickly turn to dust and you’ll feel emptier than you did before you bought it because you are emptier. Well, at least your bank account is emptier. 

But as Sana said— we have offered to us a counter narrative to this and that is the liberating message of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The message that God is with us and love is for us. The message that we all receive grace regardless of our deservedness or worthiness. 

What a relief. 

If you want to go deeper into the book Sana referenced this Sunday, take a look here!

Blessings on the end of your week,

Taylor 

Hi Tab Family,

This past Sunday, Sana preached:

“Practicing and embodying this love-centric Christianity will change how we see and engage with the rest of the world. We will come to expect to see this love-spirit in everything – not just in our churches or in our practice of religion, but in society at large, in work, in school, in family, and in all aspects of human existence. Our role, then, will be to continuously and intentionally offer our lives and ourselves as dynamic embodiments of Christ-like love in the world. In the brief time we spend on earth, we must use it to fill and overflow with love, joining together to create an ever-expanding tide of radical, transformative love.”

This has been my affirmation all week. I’ve written it out on paper each day to help it really sink in. And I have a LOT of questions for myself:

-How exactly am I going to change the way I engage with the world?
-How exactly am I going to be an embodiment of this love?
-What am I going to have to de-prioritize so that I can even be capable of offering myself up to be an agent of this love?
-Is this something I really want to do?
-Can I trust that if I do this, I won’t be alone in my efforts?

Then I come back down to earth and ground myself in this community we are creating at Tab. I feel like I can trust that I won’t actually be alone in my efforts. In fact I’m really excited to move closer to Tab at the end of this month, so I can be in greater community with Tab’s neighbors at our Community Meals, and pass peace with you all face to face.

Peace upon the end of your week,
Taylor

Hi Tab Family, 

This week Sana challenged us to wrestle with the complexities of the Bible, and I really love the places it took me internally. 

Oftentimes, certainty is what I crave, and as someone who is constantly making and refining plans, I feel like I’m in a place now where I’d like to let that go a little — if not a lot. The pandemic has certainly thwarted many of our plans for these past couple years, but in thinking of my own trajectory, I’m realizing that the uncertainty actually was the biggest motivator to finally start answering my call to ministry, in the formal sense. After spending the first few years of my adult life constantly making plans and revising them, only to lead me to closed doors, I was finally in a space where I no longer craved certainty, because it simply was no longer sustainable. 

And as it turns out — uncertainty is sort of liberating, at least for me! In the context of the Bible being a complex, uncertain, unclear, living text, this uncertainty is also liberating. So why not take the pressure off? Why try to find The Answer when we can see there are actually Many Answers and sometimes no answers? 

How would your life change if you let go of certainty, and clarity, and instead basked in the liberation of the mystery? Is there anything you’d do differently? 

Blessings on the end of your week,

Taylor