Celebration (National Catholic Reporter). 5 pp.
IN 21ST CENTURY NORTH AMERICA, the Bible lingers at the margins of our consciousness, both overexposed and misunderstood, fetishized by some and maligned by others, invoked in the culture wars and ignored in everyday life. Nevertheless, these old stories have survived every attempt to dismiss, banish, deconstruct or enshrine them. More importantly, they continue to demonstrate the power to comfort the afflicted, to afflict the comfortable, and to fire the imaginations of people around the world.
Bible stories have the power to challenge and transform hearts and minds within and outside of the church, but only if we reclaim them as a people’s tradition. For too long the scriptures have been overly captive to the interpretive authority of a clerical/academic/dogmatic elite. I would like to propose preaching as an animating art that always seeks the connections between biblical stories and the compelling issues and experiences and struggles of our lives, in the conviction that all of these stories shape character, community and (God willing) history. In this spirit I offer some homiletic reflections on the gospel for June 17th, Luke 9:11-17, Jesus’ “wilderness feeding.”
Full Article: A Transforming Circle of Story: Recovering Economic Justice in Luke’s “Wilderness Feeding” SKU: 01-4-Pa
Ched Myers 