Hi! I hope you’re enjoying a gorgeous Friday. I’d like to get in the habit of sharing a few extremely curated links and quotes for weekend reading and thinking. It’ll likely change up every week until we hit a groove. Thanks so much for your kind words about Tuesday’s essay and the project generally. If you haven’t subscribed yet, do that (with your first name and last initial) via any green button on this page. I have the world’s best friends and am so grateful for you.

Table inspiration

Feasting “is a radical action, proclaiming that even in the midst of suffering God restores creation, and it’s worth celebrating the pleasure of the world even now.”
(Kendall Vanderslice in We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God)

Who's doing it well?

If you're in Pittsburgh, make sure you know the story of Bethel AME, the venerable Black church that was involved in the Underground Railroad, taught generations of people to read and write, opened a seminary, became a community pillar, and topped out at around 3000 members...before being demolished in the late 50s, with the rest of the Hill District, to make way for the Civic Arena. The white church sitting 400 feet from Bethel was spared.

Today, I attended a press conference officially announcing the Pittsburgh Penguins' agreement to return a small plot of land to Bethel. It was the only press conference I've attended that ended with an altar call, complete with a keyboard playing Amazing Grace. Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Kurt Kusserow and United Methodist Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi both gave brief, barnburner homilies that had me right at our table. Please give them a watch! (Start at 46:25, with Bethel's Rev. Dr. Dale Snyder.)

Comment highlight

From the brilliant Rosie: "The already-but-not-yet nature of the kingdom of God feels emblematic of a lot of the tensions I am holding in everyday life.  Like, I have a gut understanding of how it is both here and not yet arrived, and also it doesn’t really make sense to me.  I feel like I am constantly holding things that seem to be in conflict but also seem to both be true.  I am particularly interested in your question about who is doing this well because it is really challenging to live with any sort nuance when we are so inundated with soundbites and slogans and memes that push us towards embracing an oversimplified, more convenient semi-truth."

And finally, if you want to feel PERSONALLY ATTACKED...

This TikTok, hahahaHAHAHAha! The PLANT! The only thing missing: 2 - 5 trips back into the house.

Love you; have a great weekend; see you back here Tuesday!