“Pain brought to speech turns to energy. Pain not brought to speech turns to violence.” — Walter Brueggemann
In the Exodus narrative, we hear the people crying out for God to intervene in their collective pain under the burden of the Empire. And if we look closely, we can see that the way God responds is to empower the people to stand up and move.
According to author and biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman, that’s the way God seems to work. “Their cry summoned God into the narrative,” say Brueggeman and author/activist Peter Block in our discussion video for this week, Pain and Marching. “Grief is an action step.”
This week at New Wineskins we’ll continue our Lenten journey “From Pain to Possibility” with a conversation about how giving voice to our suffering brings it alive and empowers us to take action. We’ll talk about the way empires encourage us to internalize pain and how the church has largely failed to help people articulate pain and join each other in solidarity around our shared suffering.
Please join us this Sunday, March 23, in the Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for a dynamic dialogue about the ways giving voice to our pain leads to action by creating a basis for forming community and creating an alternative to the narrative of empire.
6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin
Check out this week’s discussion video!
Click here to view this week’s discussion video on The Work of the People (email address required, no subscription necessary)
Lent 2025: From Pain to Possibility
This year for Lent, our community is tracing our collective journey from pain to possibility through a video series from The Work of the People featuring the voices of a diverse collection of leaders and theologians.
All five discussion videos are available for viewing until April 20 through TWOTP’s stream share feature. To access the videos you will need to provide your email address when prompted. No subscription is necessary.
Simply click the links or images below to view each week’s video.
March 16: Infinitely Trustworthy with James Finley
March 23: Pain & Marching with Peter Block & Walter Brueggeman
March 30: Subversion from Within with James Alison
April 6: Pain to Possibility with Marlon Hall
April 13: Healing Justice with Dr. Roberto Henderson-Espinoza, Jennifer Bailey, and Mickey ScottBey
Coalfield Assistance Remains Critical
On February 15, 2025, destructive flooding struck many of the coalfield counties of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western Virginia. Cleanup and the road to recovery will be long. If you’d like to help financially, please give to any of the entities listed in the graphic above, or donate through West Virginia United Methodist Disaster Response at this link: https://wvumc.brtapp.com/page/donate/disaster-response-ministries (image courtesy From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice)
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