“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“More than 140 global Christian leaders call for Gaza cease-fire in Holy Week letter” – Religion News Service: “More than 140 global Christian leaders, including a Guatemalan Catholic cardinal and the presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and for an end to foreign military support for Israel in a Tuesday (March 26) letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and other politicians. ‘We, as global Christian leaders, stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Palestine and around the world and say the killing must stop, and the violence must be brought to an end,’ they wrote. ‘The horrific actions Hamas committed on October 7th in no way justify the massive deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military.’ In separate text specifically addressed to Biden, Churches for Middle East Peace, the organization who organized the effort, wrote, ‘We implore you to have the moral courage to end U.S. complicity in the ongoing violence and, instead, do everything in your power to prevent the potential genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.'”
“Metaphors Have a Power That’s More Than Metaphorical” – Raed Gilliam reviews Joy Clarkson’s You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, and Prayer in Christianity Today: “‘I’m afraid these men would only slow me down,’ says a cocksure Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of the godfather of computer science, Alan Turing. A 2014 biopic, The Imitation Game, portrays Turing as a lonely, world-changing genius who reluctantly takes on help from less intelligent colleagues who’d only threaten his efficiency and from whom he has to hide secrets that threaten his clearance, career, and life. As it turns out, he will need his friends’ help to keep his job, and together, they crack the Nazis’ Enigma code and create the prototypical model for a computer, the Turing machine (this is history, not a spoiler!). One of Turing’s many contributions to the development of computing intelligence was the Turing test—a method designed to probe a machine’s ability to display intelligent behavior a human observer might confuse for human behavior. Needless to say, we’ve come a long way in that department. In (successfully) designing computers to match and exceed many aspects of our own cognitive faculties, we find ourselves in a chaotic battlefield where grim doomsday jeremiads about AI and utopian techno-optimist manifestos vie for the soul of humankind. Guiding these rapid-fire developments is a powerful metaphor: the human mind as computer. And the more we use this metaphor, the more readily we come to believe it. And yet, as this mindset has infused itself into our collective unconscious, it’s been met with more and more resistance.”
“Anthony and Examen” – Excerpt from Athanasius’ The Life of Antony and the Letter To Marcellinus at the Renovaré blog: “So after certain days he went in again to the mountain. And henceforth many resorted to him, and others who were suffering ventured to go in. To all the monks therefore who came to him, he continually gave this precept: ’Believe in the Lord and love Him; keep yourselves from filthy thoughts and fleshly pleasures, and as it is written in the Proverbs, be not deceived by the fullness of the belly. Pray continually; avoid vainglory; sing psalms before sleep and on awaking; hold in your heart the commandments of Scripture; be mindful of the works of the saints that your souls being put in remembrance of the commandments may be brought into harmony with the zeal of the saints.’ And especially he counseled them to meditate continually on the apostle’s word, ’Let not the sun go down upon your wrath’ (Ephesians 4:26). And he considered this was spoken of all commandments in common, and that not on wrath alone, but not on any other sin of ours, ought the sun to go down. For it was good and needful that neither the sun should condemn us for an evil by day nor the moon for a sin by night, or even for an evil thought. That this state may be preserved in us it is good to hear the apostle and keep his words, for he says, ’Try your own selves and prove your own selves’ (2 Corinthians 13:5).”
“The Witness of Women Is Written on the Walls” – Lanta Davis in Christianity Today: “I grew up believing women could do it all. In rural South Dakota, I was surrounded by farm women, who are some of the toughest, most resilient people I have ever met. My mom could bake delicious chicken and also slaughter them. South Dakota also frequently leads the nation in the percentage of women and mothers who work outside the home. So as a young girl, I never doubted that women could do whatever they wanted, that they were as equally capable as men. I could become president. I could be an astronaut. I could do whatever I set my mind on doing. But as I prepared to do so, I discovered a gap between what I had always been told and what I now saw—and that gap was distinctly female-shaped. Despite the many women visible in the workforce in South Dakota, women felt largely invisible when it came to the work of theology. My home church had never had a female preacher. During seminary, I had one female professor. In my doctoral studies, I had two, but none in my religion classes. I was confident that Scripture supported women in teaching and leading the church: Women were the first to proclaim the gospel (Luke 24:5–12), and Paul names women like Junia and Phoebe, who acted as apostles and deacons (Rom. 16:1, 7). But compared to the pages and pages dedicated to Peter and Paul, Augustine and Aquinas, Calvin and Luther, women often felt like names merely mentioned in the margins. I wanted more than names. I wanted to see women leading. I wanted to see women teaching. I wanted to see their faces and hear their stories. I wanted exemplars I could imitate: women who, with Paul, could say, ‘Imitate me, just as I imitate Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1, NLT). I wanted heroes.”
“Meeting Dallas Willard: Where to begin your reading of the gentle giant” – A. J. Swoboda The Low-Level Theologian: “The theology and thought of a quaint Christian named Dallas Willard—an academic who faithfully taught analytical philosophy at the University of Southern California for over forty years—has posthumously emerged as one of the church’s most vital theological resources for the current cultural moment. Willard (1935-2013) was a rarity. A Southern Baptist minister, Willard’s work carefully navigated the oft-contentious space between church life and academic rigor. Most certainly, Willard’s philosophical career at one of America’s foremost research institutions brought him accolades and attention from around the globe.1 Though his work was widely engaged during his lifetime, it was after succumbing to pancreatic cancer in 2013 that Willard’s thinking in the field of Christian and spiritual formation became more read on a popular level. Willard’s writings have become foundational for a new generation of Christ followers who seek to be formed into the image of Christ.”
“Holy Saturday: entering Jesus’ stillness in the tomb” – Here is a reflection on Holy Saturday that we put together in 2021 at Eastbrook as part of our Holy Week journey. It is a reflection guided around the stillness of Jesus in the tomb after His crucifixion and before the resurrection.
Music: UPPERROOM – “Tend“
Discover more from Matthew Erickson
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Matthew Erickson 
Thank you for sharing the article about Christian leaders attempts to engage the world’s political leaders regarding the tragic situation in Gaza.
Sadly, these efforts confirm the Church’s lack of lament over the current circumstances our Jewish brothers and sisters. This is also tragic.
So many of our Jewish friends and neighbors feel threatened and unsafe in the US. The US is home to almost half of the world’s Jews as we know. Many lament that their Christian friends have not reached out to them, checked on their well being, or listened to their stories in this time of their very personal crisis.
Many of these Jews attend our church services. They serve together with us in our communities by staffing our free clinics, working with believers in food pantries, helping the ministries uplifting the downtrodden, etc. Yet few seem to care about them.
When our Jewish friends call and ask what is your church’s stand on the war, what do we say? Our denominational leaders are writing letters to political leaders advocating an end to the war? The Jewish people know better, that these Christian leaders are laying the full blame for the war on Israel.
Even more troublesome are the proclamations of several prominent Christian leaders advocating a cease fire during Ramadan. Do they fail to recall the unspeakable atrocities committed in October occurred on a Jewish religious holiday? How insensitive and hurtful.
There is so much more to say. But in this hour, need to continue to pray for the Lord’s intervention to bring peace in the Mideast overall and specifically for the peace of Jerusalem.
The above comment is from Tim Tesch. Afraid I neglected to sign in….