Links
As we dive into each monthly case study, I offer connecting points to put each story in the context of our current day (resources), scripture (lectionary), wise thinkers (worth reading), and your personal story (reflection questions).
When the monthly case study reflects a person whose life has been very different from your own, these connecting links will offer further understanding that can nurture compassion and empathy. When the monthly case study mirrors your experience, I hope the links will help you reflect and imagine what moving forward looks like for you.
Resources
We wonder in Luke’s Step Three how our spiritual lives might continue, even when “faith” is something we’re no longer interested in because of seeing how poorly some have lived it out. Anne Lammott’s voice in her speaking and writing helps expand our notion of discussing spirituality and theology. Rather than feeling constrained by the ideas and images of God from childhood, Anne brings close all the faith talk so that it is relatable and relevant to our real lives.
Music plays such a central role in Luke’s Step Two. The power of making music and sharing it with others carries Luke through challenging seasons, sustaining his spirit when he is unsure how to move forward. Maria Popova’s exploration of John Berger’s writing points us toward the magic and mystery of music.
We read in Luke’s background how the actions and attitudes of the church leaders left him confused and ready to exit the church whenever he could manage to do so. David French explores this irony that there is always a debate within Christianity between orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right conduct). Why is there even the notion that they could be distinct? Frank explores the church's future should Christians continue to act in ways that contradict their beliefs.
Article from Faith & Leadership: A learning resource for Christian leaders and their institutions from Duke Divinity
Lectionary
Mary and Elizabeth represent women who swim along with the tide of a system while privately growing a future that allows love to dismantle oppressive systems and topple toxic religious institutions. Change doesn’t always happen in grand, sweeping moments; sometimes, it grows slowly, day by day, before others see it in our lives (Luke 1:46b-55)
Repentance is not about conforming to some prescribed norm; instead, it is about turning away from religious leaders’ attempts to control or quiet our questions. John is inviting people to turn toward a God of mystery and transcendence—the kind of God you can’t understand. (Luke 3:7-18)
As kids, swimming with the tide feels required since doing anything else could result in rejection from the adults in your life. Zechariah’s questioning of the angel about Elizabeth bearing a son was his own form of protection. He couldn’t imagine that kind of swimming against the tide, whether physically (Elizabeth getting on in years) or realistically (they’d never been able to conceive before, why now?) (Luke 1:68-79).
The account boasts not of David’s accomplishments, though he could have given a highlight reel as an unlikely hero. Instead, he sings with gratitude and praise of a God who hears the call of distress and comes through the mighty waters to rescue him from the grip of his abusers (2 Samuel 23:1-7)
Hannah weeps not at home but at the doorstep of the temple, adamant that God will hear her cry and see her pain. Sure enough, Eli sees her. He blesses her, and she returns home smiling, for she feels seen in her grief. She is on her way to being remembered. (1 Samuel 1:4-20)
Ruth and Naomi have moved forward together, creating a home for one another and making life, stability, and rest possible for generations to come—something that seemed impossible as the story unfolded in chapter one (Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Ruth believes that the mother-daughter relationship is not just a safety net for trouble or a tool for stability. This unique relationship is about care-taking and accompaniment born from love and covenant, whether through biology, marriage, or friendship (Ruth 1:1-18)
Worth Reading
Luke’s Step Three leads us to wonder how faith might look like mystery and all that can’t be understood without the dissonance of hypocrisy. Thomas Merton’s words about faith here show us that the greatest problem with Christianity is not those who “no longer believe” but those who “believe” but have warped the faith and tradition until it is everything Jesus came to dismantle.
As we see in Luke’s story, music has transformative powers for those who make it and those who receive it. John O’Donohue once said, “Music is what language would love to be if it could.” Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has multiple blogs sharing how music in church is its most radical offering.
Luke’s story reveals how much cognitive dissonance weighed on him until he eventually had to walk away from all religion so he could find some peace. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson’s writing highlights all that we do to reduce cognitive dissonance and the effects when we can’t.
Luke’s Step One shows us how he worked hard to swim with the tide for all those years, yet it proved more and more difficult as the years passed. On her journey leaving church, Barbara Brown Taylor describes this same gnawing, persistent intuition that kept raising its voice within her, demanding some attention.
As we watch Frances lean into her authority in Step Three, we lean on others who explore this challenge of finding your authority after years spent looking to others for approval, purpose, and belonging. Sue Monk Kidd’s spiritual memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, shows us what it looks like to move forward in faith.
I’ve always loved how Carlyle Marney describes the spiritual life. Our task is to uncover our true self, which is already true (and always has been). Frances leans into her healing because she believes God loves her and knows her beyond her trauma.
Howard Thurman’s classic, Jesus and the Disinherited, casts Jesus as one whose ministry is for all whose backs are against the wall. Published in 1949, Thurman’s book addressed Jesus’ ministry in light of African Americans’ suffering under racial oppression and became a favorite of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reflection Questions
Reflecting on times the journey has been more significant than the destination