It isn't 2024; Jesus wasn't born in 1 A.D.; and the world won't end in 2024.- or any time soon. A.D. comes from the Latin “Anno Domini” means “the year It isn't 2024, Jesus wasn’t born in the year 1 A.D., the end of the world won't happen in 2024 - or any time soon.
“there’s “nothing more American than baseball, apple pie, and mom.” They of course refer to a particular nostalgic vision of America; i.e., a largely white/Anglo, Norman Rockwellian ideal of what the U.S.A. is all about. That said, close to half of the professional major league baseball players in the U.S. are people of color; most everyone enjoys baked good infused with fruit; and most of us were born and raised by mothers.
May God bless us as we become evangelical in spreading the good news of Creation Care, “Green Church,” and calling for people to repent from our addictions to behaviors that harm the planet.
"Can you imagine - a Christian pastor saying these things?! Amazing! Cool! Who knew?!" Yet, for many of the people in the circles I run in - the circles of organized religion and Christianity - what I have written will ruffle at least as many feathers as it smooths. One swath of Church and society will receive it with cordial welcome, while another swath will feel it to be too provocative, "too outside the bounds," with some seeing it as threatening. Some will attack and reject both the book and me as the one who wrote it. Alas, I truly felt called to write this book and I could do no other. Not writing it simply wasn't an option.
One can employ a Lectio approach to most anything, not just “holy scriptures.” One can do it with a passage from a novel, a portion of a divorce decree, a part of a poem, or even with a piece of art, a YouTube clip, a podcast, a news-story, or with experiencing an animal out in nature, or a person sitting across from you on the bus or airplane - though it might be a bit weird if you stare at them too much. Use discretion. The basic questions remain, however, “how might God be showing up in whatever I’m encountering and what divine gift or insight might there be for me in this encounter if consciously I take the time to notice?”