International Day for Conscientious Objectors

Today is the International Day for Conscientious Objectors.

Let us give thanks for the witness of conscientious objectors to war and military participation. In my own life I am blessed and inspired by the witness of my wife, Marcia, who refused to cooperate with the standard process for gaining United States citizenship.

Because of her deep convictions, Marcia refused to say the US oath of allegiance in her citizenship ceremony and she became a conscientious objector to U.S. military service. She is a witness to the peace of Christ in the world.

Liturgy as play

Play is meaningful action that does not need to seek its meaning in some achievement exterior to itself. It is what we do because we do not have to. It is action to which the future opens as gift rather than as burden. The life of the Trinity is sheer play. As play with the Trinity, liturgy is anticipation of life in the Fulfillment–the closest we get to freedom. It must be admitted that liturgy-as-play is a rather rare occurrence in America’s recognized churches.

Robert W. Jenson, Story and Promise: A Brief Theology of the Gospel about Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973) 184.