His Kingdom Here | Reflection by Claire Stemann '20
The past four years have opened my eyes to the brokenness of this world, but have also formed in me a new understanding of the call to bring God’s Kingdom to this world. Because of my experience interning at International Justice Mission and studying public policy, I’ve wept about broken criminal justice systems abroad as well as punitive policies in the States. I’ve prayed for the end of impunity, while also praying for mercy. It is challenging for me to hold these things together, but not for Jesus.
The call to bring God’s Kingdom to earth was unfamiliar to me before my time at UVA. Here, I have learned that Jesus is making all things new, and we are given the privilege to participate in this work with other followers of Jesus. People have taught me how justice and human dignity were originally championed by the church. Since first encountering these ideas, my time here has allowed me to grow to better understand the call to bring God’s Kingdom to this earth that He loves.
Before a recent Fellows gathering, we read about how lament “allows for the crying out against injustices.” Our hope of triumph over injustice “rests not on human strength to fix the problems of the world but on the power of a sovereign God.” This reading and another recent conversation are teaching me to be cautious to avoid seeking the Kingdom apart from the King. As my friends and I prepare to pursue justice in countless fields through endeavors that are pleasing to God, this reading reminds us not to rely on our strength, but rather on God’s power, as we work to bring the good things of His Kingdom to our world.
The concept of justice being central to the Christian life is something that I will carry with me as I leave this school that I love. Encountering God’s Word through learning about Amos in an Old Testament course, the faithful teaching of my campus minister, truth spoken at the church I attend in Charlottesville, and discussions with a small group of fourth years that meet on Thursday evenings (my fellow Fellows!) has better prepared me to seek the things of the Kingdom, such as justice, with the King.
A tribute to John M. Perkins by Lawson Wijesooriya '02
A boy in black skin born into God’s story in rural Mississippi in 1930. His young life too full of loss, injustice, racism, and violence. A girl in white skin born into God’s story in suburban New Jersey in 1980. Her young life too full of privilege, access, and greed. God has each of their names written in His book, and in 1999, He wrote their stories together for His kairos moment of my salvation.
The Bible says “give honor to whom honor is due.” Thank you to Theological Horizons for giving me the gift of an opportunity to publicly honor this hero in the faith, Dr. John Perkins. I hope to honor Dr. Perkins today by giving testimony to how God used Dr. Perkins’ humanity in the saving of mine. My pastor, Don Coleman, often prays “Lord, take advantage of my humanity for your divine purposes.”
These are stories of answering that type of prayer as Dr. Perkins has been both an evangelist and a prophet in my life.
I came to the University of Virginia as a first year student from a culturally catholic, white, wealthy family. I was open and curious about things of faith and was raised with a strong moral compass, but when some friends invited me to go to Mississippi for our spring break to participate in racial reconciliation of the body of Christ, I had no idea what I was in for. I actually did not even know what any of those words meant, but because our God is a gracious God, I said yes and hopped on a bus heading south.
There are many stories to tell from my first week at Voice of Calvary, but suffice it is to say I have been forever grateful that I did not instead go party at Myrtle Beach that week, because I met Dr. Perkins, I met my best friends, I met my husband, I met my future, and I met Jesus. We worshipped together, we painted health clinics, we cleared brush, we had bible studies with local ministry leaders, and we were welcomed by Dr. Perkins and his team into a life of seeing and connecting with the oppressed, the down and out, and the poor. About half way through our week, we loaded onto a bus and were taken on a tour of Jackson to see directly the legacy of chattel slavery, failed reconstruction, Jim Crow, and red lining. Dr. Perkins has called this bus tour my moment of repentance, because as I experienced deep anger at the oblivious, self absorbed white perpetuators of this unjust system, God turned the camera onto me and gently, compassionately helped me to see myself and the chains that my privilege had me in. Later that night, two days before my 19th birthday, I was born again as I admitted my morality was not strong enough to save me and received the gift of grace. Jesus had found me and I had found Jesus inside of Dr. Perkins, inside of this reconciling community, inside of this movement and struggle for justice and once we found each other there, I wanted to be where He was at any cost.
The life of pursuing the beloved community was the full life, and if there was sacrifice, I have only experienced it as the giving up of worthless things for the real treasure. Dr. Perkins, in both his words and his actions, invited me into a WHOLE gospel, a lived theology, and a life where my liberation was bound up with the liberation of the widows, the orphans, the oppressed, the imprisoned.
So fast forward in the story, I left the Jackson trip, headed straight to a bookstore the next day, bought this Bible, and started to read it. I signed up for classes with this wonderful new professor named Charles Marsh, listened to MLK sermons, went back to Jackson for all my spring breaks, wrote my thesis paper on Dr. Perkins, and I fell in love with Romesh who had unwavering commitment to this whole gospel living. As a young married couple we formed an intentional committed community with three other couples and relocated to the East End of Richmond at the invitation of Don Coleman, pastor and God’s appointed indigenous reconciler of the community.
From 2004 to 2007 we were living the life we felt called to and trying to pursue those three R’s faithfully. In November of 2007, I had another fateful bus tour with Dr. Perkins. He was brought to Richmond by the Navigators to tour the CCDA work around our city. After the bus tour, Dr. Perkins sat on my best friends’ couch with an eager group of young followers hoping to absorb more wisdom and desiring this spiritual father to look upon us and say, “well done, my good and faithful servants.” As he shared his perspective on Richmond, he celebrated the work of the Christ-centered tutoring, job training, and health clinics that he has visited. And then he took a pause, and said, “but you all need to be worshipping together.” As a prophet, God spoke through him to our community to remind us that all this work to uplift the poor is in vain if not from the foundation of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. We received this good medicine with conviction and clarity. Our monthly gatherings called East End Fellowship grew into a local church expression with a weekly public worship service within three months of Perkins visit. God was on the move.
Thank you Dr. Perkins, for responding to your own call to follow Jesus back to the place from which you came and for your life-changing invitation to me and so many others to join you in Beloved Community. Inside of Beloved Community we are a rich people, with a good God, and the eternal grace to see us through.
Words on Ash Wednesday
Holy Spirit, giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, you are our true life, luminous, wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep. Amen (Hildegard von Bingen)
Lent is not just a time for squaring conscious accounts: It’s a time for opening our eyes to what we had, perhaps, not seen before. Lent is given to us as season of light-- to help us see what is true. And so We begin this morning – in this dim daybreak. On this Ash Wednesday. Let us dare to see.
Psalm 51 opens with the words, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.”
The liturgy of Ash Wednesday is focused not on the sinfulness of the penitent But on the mercy of God. Yes, this is a day for sinners. The just do not need a savior. The reminder of sinfulness is raised to remind us that this is a day of mercy. . It's difficult to experience the mercy of God. It's hard to feel forgiven. And other Christians don’t help much with this. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Life Together, in the church "we are not allowed to be sinners": He says,
The pious community permits no one to be a sinner. Hence all have to conceal their sins from themselves and from the community. We are not allowed to be sinners. Many Christians would be unimaginably horrified if a real sinner were suddenly to turn up among the pious. So we remain alone with our sin, trapped in lies and hypocrisy, for we are in fact sinners.
The poet Joyce Rupp sees with us the pain of hiding our sin, The hiding, even as we long for God.. She writes this “Prayer of One Who Feels Lost”:
Dear God, why do I keep fighting you off? One part of me wants you desperately, another part of me unknowingly pushes you back and runs away. What is there in me that so contradicts my desire for you? These transition days, these passage ways, are calling me to let go of old securities, to give myself over into your hands. Like Jesus who struggled with the pain I, too, fight the “let it all be done.” Loneliness, lostness, non-belonging, all these hurts strike out at me, leaving me pained with this present goodbye. I want to be more but I fight the growing. I want to be new but I hang onto the old. I want to live but I won’t face the dying. I want to be whole but cannot bear to gather up the pieces into one. Is it that I refuse to be out of control, to let the tears take their humbling journey, to allow my spirit to feel its depression, to stay with the insecurity of “no home”? Now is the time. You call to me, begging me to let you have my life, inviting me to taste the darkness so I can be filled with the light, allowing me to lose my direction so that I will find my way home to you.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, too, helps us to see that even in our conflict, under the merciful gaze of God you and I are allowed to be sinners. Bonhoeffer writes:
The grace of the gospel, which is so hard for the pious to comprehend, confronts us with the truth. It says to us, you are a sinner, a great, unholy sinner. Now come, as the sinner that you are, to your God who loves you. For God wants you as you are, not desiring anything from you – a sacrifice, a good deed – but rather desiring you alone. God has come to you to make the sinner blessed. Rejoice! This message is liberation through truth. You cannot hide from God. The mask you wear in the presence of other people won’t get you anywhere in the presence of God. God wants to see you as you are, wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and to other Christians as if you were without sin. You are allowed to be a sinner...
The prophet Joel invites us too, saying:
But now, now, it is Yahweh who speaks: Come back to me with all your heart Fasting, weeping and mourning Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn Turn to Yahweh again For Yahweh is all tenderness and compassion Slow to anger Rich in graciousness And ready to relent. (Joel 2:12-13)
Jessica Powers gives us an image of this kind of returning in her poem, “The Garments of God”:
God sits on a chair of darkness in my soul. He is God alone, supreme in His majesty. I sit at his feet, a child in the dark beside Him; my joy is aware of His glance and my sorrow is tempted to nest on the thought that His face is turned from me. He is clothed in the robes of His mercy, voluminous garments not velvet or silk and affable to the touch, but fabric strong for a frantic hand to clutch, and I hold to it fast with the fingers of my will. Here is my cry of faith, my deep avowal to the Divinity that I am dust. Advertisement Here is the loud profession of my trust. I will not go abroad to the hills of speech or the hinterlands of music for a crier to walk in my soul where all is still. I have this potent prayer through good or ill: here in the dark I clutch the garments of God.
We hear again echoes of the Psalmist: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.”
Today we are invited to begin to see anew. our sinfulness, yes, but blazing forth, the light of the mercy of God. Today you and I are asked to rend our hearts.
Hear Jan Richardson’s “Blessing for Ash Wednesday”:
To receive this blessing, all you have to do is let your heart break. Let it crack open. Let it fall apart so that you can see its secret chambers, the hidden spaces where you have hesitated to go. Your entire life is here, inscribed whole upon your heart’s walls: every path taken or left behind, every face you turned toward or turned away, every word spoken in love or in rage, every line of your life you would prefer to leave in shadow, every story that shimmers with treasures known and those you have yet to find. It could take you days to wander these rooms. Forty, at least. And so let this be a season for wandering, for trusting the breaking, for tracing the rupture that will return you to the One who waits, who watches, who works within the rending to make your heart whole.
Emotionally Healthy Activism workshop with Jonathan Walton | Watch here!
How do we pursue social justice in ways that are physically and emotionally sustainable? What is the relationship between activism and rest? What does emotionally healthy activism look like after August 12th? To explore these questions, Abundant Life and First United Methodist Church recently hosted InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Area Director Jonathan Walton for an interactive workshop titled “Emotionally Healthy Activism: Turning Moments into Sustainable Movements.” The author of Twelve Lies that Hold America Captive and the Truth that Sets Us Free drew on his experience as an activist and his expertise in Experiential Discipleship and Spiritual Formation to lead the workshop.
Jonathan invited attendees to probe the relationship between our inner lives and our outward social engagement. Too often we can commit ourselves to serving our communities, but then experience burnout or discouragement if we haven’t attended to how we are doing internally. After establishing that we are all called to the work of activism as people who stand against the patterns of the world that oppose God’s kingdom, Jonathan helped us to reflect on how we can engage in that work sustainably.
THE 4 ‘R’S
Next, Jonathan outlined a framework called the “4 Rs”: Rest, Restore, Resist, Repeat. “Rest” refers to the rhythms of our lives when we resist the cultural idol of busyness and instead engage in practices of rest and sabbath. “Restore” refers to taking advantage of opportunities to do things that give us joy and life, and foster intimacy with God. “Resist” denotes the ways that we should actively oppose the social forces and structures that stand against God’s kingdom. Finally, “Repeating” these rhythms can position us to do impactful community work for the long haul.
For the full workshop, check out the video below. In addition to Charlottesville First United Methodist Church, Abundant Life would like to thank Charlottesville Vineyard Church, Faith Christian Center International, Christ Episcopal Church, Olivet Presbyterian Church, and Project on Lived Theology for partnering with us in putting on this event!
This post was written by Nathan Walton and shared with permission from Abundant Life Ministry.
Watch the video of the John Perkins Dome Room Lecture HERE!
Click HERE to Livestream the John Perkins Dome Room Capps Lecture at the University of Virginia.
Long time friend of Theological Horizons and nationally revered civil rights activist from Jackson, MS, Dr. John M. Perkins was our Capps Lecture speaker on Feb 22, 2020 in the UVa Rotunda. His lecture, "Parting Thoughts on Race and Love" was sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology at UVa, the Department of Religious Studies, and Theological Horizons. Perkins was joined by Dr. Nathan Walton, a UVa PhD and Executive Director of Charlottesville's Abundant Life Ministries, who will moderate the discussion. Watch the LIVESTREAM here.
What I Love About Vintage Lunch - Kat
Fourth-year Katie Cantone is a regular at Theological Horizon’s Vintage Lunch this school year, and wanted to share why she loves Vintage Lunch and why she keeps coming back!
Vintage has changed my spiritual, social, and emotional life in ways I never could have anticipated; while I wish I hadn’t waited until my fourth year to give it a chance, I know that things happening this way was part of my faith journey. Vintage is the first space I have experienced at UVA that has offered completely open doors—without expectations for who I should or should not be, without limitations on which friends I can bring, without conditions on the extension of hospitality. Vintage is peace embodied. It is life-giving community in action, through all and for all.
-Katie Cantone
What I Love About Vintage Lunch
Isabelle Andrews is a fourth year graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in English, media studies, and drama, and is also a Horizons Fellow ‘20. Since her first year at UVA, Isabelle has attended Theological Horizons’ Vintage Lunch and wanted to share the impact the program and the community have had on her life and faith-journey.
Vintage is an open, inviting space with free lunch and no pressure. We hear Karen (a wonderful steward of conversation) share about a Christian person (maybe a Roman priest, Coretta Scott King, or a French mystic girl). The people are always surprising, inspiring, flawed, full, and somehow accessible even when from long ago / far away. They struggle and write openly about being atheist or finding god or losing and gaining faith. They’re often socially involved as activists or outspoken women. Then Karen invites us to reflect on the readings and we have a conversation about things that stick out to us. People come from all perspectives and she does not assume everyone in the room is Christian. I find it a rare space because religious organizations can often seem intimidating. Ginger (the dog) wanders around, we have a couple minutes of silent reflection before we start, and we often get up in the middle of discussion for leftovers. It’s wonderful.
Vintage fills me with a hopeful, intellectual, and socially involved space to talk about the interaction of faith with our lives as we lead them now. We get inspired by the commonalities we have with Christians from all over in all times, and then Karen often includes resources or tips for how to incorporate lessons into our current UVA lives (ex: breath prayer from an eastern orthodox tradition, the importance of sleep backed up by scripture, New York Times article for the importance of sunlight for mental health, exercises for listening and being a good friend, videos on racial reconciliation within Charlottesville). It’s a very rich experience. I always leave somehow rested and energized - calm and centered.
I really appreciate this as a weekly practice. We can all get busy and prioritize other things, but it is such a grounding weekly routine: communing together, speaking, reflecting silently, eating together, asking questions, or just listening - all in an hour. Very easy and simple and different each time so a good thing for anyone. All of that earlier stuff-plus the community aspect of it. I get to see friends I may not otherwise see since we have different classes/schedules. There are also people from a bunch of faith groups - so our dialogue is LIVELY. I appreciate that. On Fridays I know I have a home cooked meal and a group of people I’ll learn from and a handout I can take home and reread to learn about Henri Nouwen or the importance of humor in Christian life or activism or meditation. It’s great.
-Isabelle Andrews, Horizons Fellow ‘20
The Capacity to Care | Michelle Abban '20
Being at UVA, I realize how easy it is to block ourselves from caring about the outside world. Or it feels like we can only care in comfortable ways for short periods of time. Over the last four years, I have wrestled with what it means to truly care and to allow someone else’s life to affect my own. There is something powerful about caring because before anything can be addressed, we have to understand how people are feeling or ways our actions are affecting people. It involves wrestling with uncomfortable truths and recognizing how we benefit from other people’s pain.
This is a call to all UVA students to stop for a moment and to care. Think about how big the world is and how many bad things are happening. Take time to pray, cry, read, research the things that affect the world. Dig into the deepest part of yourself and try to connect to people who seem completely different from you. Think about how any potential actions you take can affect people you want to help. Listen to people’s stories. Actually check your privilege often. Repeat.
Then let see how our actions change. If we take this time to care we will be more intentional with our steps and will learn to listen first. We can learn to lead by listening and not by control. Because we are not the center of the world. And if we want to really help people we better get used to being on the periphery.
Limited edition print of John M. Perkins portrait
Available the end of February, this limited edition giclee print of an original oil painting by Christen Yates will be hand signed by the artist as well as John M. Perkins. They will be professionally printed in a series of 24 color and 24 black & white - 11 x 14 inches each.
Proceeds will go toward our Perkins Fellows programming.
John M. Perkins Documentary by Greg Fromholz
Prepare for our weekend with John M. Perkins!
Watch: Redemption - The John M. Perkins Story, a documentary of civil rights, justice, family & forgiveness.
Produced and Directed by Greg Fromholz
With Special Thanks to John and Grandma (Vera Mae) Perkins, Priscilla Perkins, Elizabeth Perkins and The John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation.
For more information on Dr. John M. Perkins see his books: One Blood, Dream With Me or Let Justice Roll Down or visit www.jvmpf.org/ www.gregfromholz.com
Weekend with John M. Perkins - Dream with Me
Please save the date, Feb 22-23, 2020 for a Charlottesville Weekend of Conversation and Inspiration with John M. Perkins. How do we make justice and love a reality in our lives and our communities? With wisdom born of 60 years of activism and Christian ministry, visionary leader and civil rights pioneer Dr. John M. Perkins guides the way. Sponsored by Theological Horizons and the Project on Lived Theology.
Sat, Feb 22 - A morning workshop on Community Development TBD
Sat, Feb 22, 7:30pm in the Dome Room "Parting Words on Race & Love" (ticketed & livestreamed through www.theologicalhorizons.org)
Sun, Feb 23, 3pm at the MLK PAC, "Dream with me: An Afternoon of Storytelling, Music & Worship" with the Charlottesville Worship Collective. Free and open to the public.For more information & live streaming, visit www.theologicalhorizons.org