Category: Love (Page 1 of 3)

a conspiracy of love

a conspiracy of love

July 9, 2025 / / 0 Comments

at the heart of the Gospel

At the heart of Jesus’ gospel is the kingdom of God. This phrase sums up Jesus’ entire ministry and life’s work. The “kingdom of God” points to God’s active rule over human social relationships.

When we read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that every thought and saying of Jesus was directed toward one thing: the realization of God’s reign—marked by love, compassion, justice, and peace—within human society.

a vision of transformation

The kingdom of God, as Jesus preached it, envisions a profound transformation of both human beings and human institutions—social, political, economic, and religious—so that they express the character of a God of love. It brings together personal and social transformation in both spiritual and political realms.

Through metaphors and stories, Jesus described the kingdom as the work of a social and political movement inspired by divine love, restoring what he believed to be God’s intention for humanity from the beginning. Rather than longing for a divine restoration of political and religious power, Jesus painted a vision of God changing the world from within—by creating a new community bonded by egalitarian relationships.

Jesus took the long-awaited dream of a just and compassionate society and made it a living vision that could transform the world.

a vision is like a seed

A vision is like a seed planted in the hearts and minds of people. When it takes root and is nurtured, it can grow to produce astounding results. Jesus used this imagery for the kingdom of God.

He asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? It is like a mustard seed”—the smallest and seemingly most insignificant of seeds—“that someone took and tossed in the garden.”[1]

Some scholars note that in first-century Judaism, a mustard plant—really just a common weed—was forbidden in household vegetable gardens because it spread rapidly and disrupted order. In Jewish thought, order symbolized holiness, while disorder symbolized uncleanness. Rabbinical law forbade mixing certain plants in the same garden. So, when Jesus said someone threw a mustard seed into a garden, his audience understood he was sowing disorder and subverting rule-based holiness.

Like an invasive mustard plant in a tidy garden, the kingdom of God takes root in the world’s domination systems, spreading its subversive message even today.

the enduring domination system

Throughout history, nearly every society has favored an elite minority at the expense of the majority. For thousands of years, economic elites have rigged systems for their own prosperity and control. They extracted wealth from the sweat of slaves, peasants, and laborers, while contributing little to the common good. Social control was maintained through violence and military might, often with religious support. Such societies were patriarchal, with men dominating the lives of women and children, and they often favored one race, tribe, or ethnicity over others.

Biblical scholar Walter Wink (1935–2012) called these societies manifestations of an enduring “domination system” that has shaped human history since civilization arose in the ancient Near East. Wink described it this way:

It is characterized by unjust economic relations, oppressive political relations, biased race relations, patriarchal gender relations, hierarchical power relations, and the use of violence to maintain them all. No matter what shape the dominating system of the moment might take (from the ancient Near Eastern states to the Pax Romana to feudal Europe to communist state capitalism to modern market capitalism), the basic structure has persisted now for at least five thousand years, since the rise of the great conquest states of Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE.[2]

We see the domination system in kingdoms, empires, and dictatorships. Patriarchy has been enforced through customs and religion. Even democratic societies, when controlled by the wealthy and powerful, reproduce the same injustice: massive tax cuts for the rich, bloated military budgets, corporate welfare, vast prison systems, and cuts to social services for the poor are all signs of a corrupt system.

overcoming the domination system

Walter Wink argued that Jesus’ teachings were a prescription for dismantling the domination system of his time. The kingdom of God is an antidote to its injustices—a vision that turns the domination system upside down.

In God’s reign, domination values are reversed: the first shall be last and the last shall be first; the greatest will be servants; the powerful will be brought low and the lowly lifted up; the hungry will be fed and the rich sent away empty.

The kingdom belongs especially to the poor, the hungry, and the grieving because they long for its arrival. The rich, entrenched in the domination system, find it nearly impossible to enter.

Every act of resistance against unjust laws, every effort to transform oppressive structures for the common good, is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.

a people and a task

The kingdom of God is more than a vision—it calls forth a people inspired to transform society through small daily actions. “Kingdom people” lead radically different lives that challenge injustice and disturb the status quo. Their actions form a conspiracy that persistently prods the powers and principalities toward social transformation.

The kingdom of God thus involves a VISION, a PEOPLE, and a TASK. Continue reading

Windswept and Woke: a sermon by Rev. David Felten

June 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

David Felten is the pastor at The Fountains United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, AZ. I originally became aware of him when he emailed and then phoned me in late 2020 to say that he wanted to preach a sermon series based on my book “A Conspiracy of Love.” I was flattered by the gesture. That series grew to 19 sermons from January through June in 2021. I eagerly watched each Sunday when the church “studio” service appeared of their YouTube channel. Then in 2024, he preached another 12 sermons based on my book “People of the Way” from January to May. (You can see them all at www.followingjesus.org/videos.)

I have come to regard David as my pastor and my friend because he speaks to me about what it means to be a progressive follower of Jesus in our contemporary situation. He is passionate about justice, equality, and human dignity. I regularly follow his sermons on YouTube (www.youtube.com/@FountainsUMC).

On June 8, 2025, Pentecost Sunday, David titled his sermon “Windswept and Woke” in which he compared the Jesus followers in Jerusalem on Pentecost to the current situation in the United States. It is a powerful sermon and deserves to be more widely heard.

In it, he paraphrases John F. Kennedy’s “I’m proud to be a liberal” statement with this comment:

“Stay Woke”

“If by ‘woke’ they mean someone who
chooses to stay awake rather than
sleepwalk through injustice . . . someone who
listens to new voices instead of cling to
old prejudices . . . someone who believes that
health care, housing, education, jobs, civil
rights, and human dignity matter —
then I’m proud to say I’m woke.”

David’s preaching style is warm, casual, conversational, and frequently humorous. Enjoy and be inspired.

prayer to the God of Love

October 6, 2024 / / 1 Comment

God of love,
you are the ground of our being.

You are the source of all life,
you are the breath that fills us,
you are the pulse that animates us.

Your love flows within us,
your compassion connects us,
your presence surrounds us.

You are light and love and life itself.

You dwell within each of us,
yet the world doesn’t know you.

Everywhere, people live in darkness.

They struggle for safety and security,
through power and prestige,
wealth and possessions,
control and domination –
of one person over another,
of one race over another,
of one country over another.
and violence, not love, is their redemption.

Fill us with your power,
the spirit of compassion.

Give us the courage and strength
to love our neighbors,
to reconcile with enemies,
to break down barriers,
to unite in community,
to share our bread,
to speak the truth,
and to offer our lives.

Use us as seeds, as leaven, as salt, as light,
to transform the world,
to reflect your vision for all of life,
and to joyfully welcome your reign of justice and peace.

Amen.

 

© 2012 Kurt Struckmeyer

 

God

December 3, 2023 / / 1 Comment

God is a verb, not a noun.

—R. Buckminster Fuller

Let me begin by saying what God is not. God has no preferred pronouns. God is not a he, she, they, or it. God is not a transcendent, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, interventionist, supernatural being who can intercede in history, answer prayers, or perform miracles. There is no observable evidence for any of these claims. The continual presence of war, widespread gun violence, an epidemic of drug overdoses, the existence of massive poverty—all these put a lie to an interventionist, supernatural being acting for the good.

It appears that everything I learned in catechism classes about God was wrong. It reflected a God of the Old Testament as influenced by Greek philosophers and then interpreted by Medieval theologians.

Instead, according to the First Letter of John, “God is Love.”

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them. (1 John 4:16)

In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the phrase “God is Love” is “theos ein agapē” (THEH-ohs ayn ag-AH-pay). Agapē (ag-AH-pay) implies a selfless love, a self-giving love, often an unconditional love. It is a love directed toward others, putting the needs of others ahead of oneself. This is the kind of love people saw in Jesus. And for the early Christian writers, it described the love of God.

When the Bible declares that God is Love, it means that these two language symbols—God and Love—are identical. If God is Love, then the converse is also true: Love is God. God is not a loving being. God is Love itself.

Scholar Don Cupitt has written:

In the New Testament, in the First Letter of John, we are told that the words Love and God are convertible. You can’t slip a knife between them. If you love your fellow human being, you know God and are in God, whereas if you don’t love, you don’t know God . . . The word God doesn’t designate a distinct metaphysical being; it is simply Love’s name.

Therefore, the word “God” is a name we give to the spirit of selfless love found at the depths of our humanity and experienced in the relationship of human love toward one another.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer commented on our relationship to God:

Our relation to God is not a religious relationship to a supreme being, absolute in power and goodness, which is a spurious conception of transcendence, but a new life for others, through participation in the being of God.

The radical message of the New Testament is that God is no longer an external being who dwells in heaven. Instead of a transcendent God, God is immanent—within humanity. God has come to dwell among us, not just in the person of Jesus, but within the heart of every human being. Indeed, God has always—and only—been a part of humanity, located deep within human consciousness and projected as a divine actor in the human story.

God, in the form of compassionate love, is a latent presence within each of us, but this God remains hidden until humans outwardly express love toward others. Loving one another is the full expression of God on earth.

No one has seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is brought to full expression in us. (1 John 4:12)

God becomes an immanent reality within our hearts, within our minds, within our relationships, and in our actions. Selfless love is a divine reality that animates us, empowers us, and transforms us from self-centered and selfish individuals to self-giving people.

That means you cannot pray for divine intervention in life. Prayer cannot persuade God or change God’s mind. Instead, prayer is meant to focus our thoughts, to change us into more compassionate people, and to cause us to act on behalf of others.

God cannot act independently from humans. God has no power other than the relatively weak power of human love. Love represents the highest, deepest, and most powerful force in human life. It is the energy that fosters human growth and change. Love is the impulse behind empathy and concern, and the fuel that drives compassion and justice.

What we need is a much more powerful understanding and experience of a love that reorients our lives and transforms us into fully-human beings, fully-human agents of the selfless love we call God. If we allow it to be unleashed, the divine love within us will not let us remain the same. The radical love we see in Jesus pulls at us; it pushes and prods us out of our insular shells. It forces us to become more than we are, more than we are comfortable with, and ultimately all we are meant to be.

This means we have an enormous duty: to join with others in a conspiracy of love. Alone, we can do little. United, we have the power to change the world. The conspiracy of love is a small movement at the margins of society prodding the powers and principalities of an unjust world toward transformation. It is a network of people in our communities and around the globe who are connected by a common vision and mission. It begins small, working from the margins and from the bottom up, but the whole purpose is to effect great change over the lives of many people who are hurting and suffering under the way things are. It involves feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, caring for the sick, accepting the unacceptable, and ultimately transforming the politics of our day.

This is the conspiracy initiated by Jesus—people of compassion and good will engaged in the unending transformation of themselves, their families, their communities, their nations, and the world at large. The vision of Jesus can best be described in the words of philosopher Charles Eisenstein as “that more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” Not only does Jesus envision a more beautiful world, but it is more peaceful and just as well. It promises the poor of the world access to the fundamental means of life—food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education for a better tomorrow. And it allows us to address the powers of death: the devastation of war, repeated gun violence, increasing drug overdoses, and the massive poverty found everywhere around us. All in the name of Love.

 

O God of Peace and Love

December 24, 2021 / / 2 Comments

O God of peace, be with us now.
Stand here beside us; bring hope this day.
Transform this world of greed and strife,
From domination to your new way.
Teach us to make an end to war,
An end to bloodshed, an end to hate.
May hearts and hands in your new reign
End earth’s oppression and liberate.

Empower us so we can build
A world of justice where all can share.
Providing food to all in need
With your compassion and loving care.
The poor, the lame, the sick, the blind,
Are brothers, sisters, the whole world round.
You now invite them far and near
To your great banquet of love unbound.

You send us forth to find the lost,
Abandoned, lonely, and homeless ones.
You welcome all in your embrace
Forgiving freely as daughters, sons.
You set before our hungry eyes
A feast of plenty with wine and song.
We gather round as family,
A loving circle, where all belong.

You bless all those who work for peace
And cry for justice across the land.
You give us strength to speak your word.
Against all powers, you help us stand.
You teach us how to turn the cheek,
Resisting evil, with peaceful force.
You teach us love for enemies.
Gracious, forgiving, you are love’s source.

O God of love, be with us now.
Stir up your power, transform the earth.
Renew our minds, refresh our hearts,
Send peace and justice, give hope new birth.
Establish your reign here and now,
And help us live a more loving way,
That peace may flourish in our world
And streams of justice cascade today.

 

Music: “Wexford Carol” (Carul Loch Garman) — Traditional

© 2002 Kurt Struckmeyer

Joined with Love: a wedding hymn

December 22, 2020 / / 1 Comment

In community we gather,
Off’ring blessings on this day.
Friends and fam’ly joined together,
Raising voices now to pray.
May your journey from this moment
Be in God’s embracing care –
Like a mother, like a father,
Giving freely, always there.

May your days be filled with wonder,
May your nights be safe from fear.
May you learn to love each other
Ever more from year to year.
May you give to one another
Gifts of gentleness and grace;
Partners in a life together,
Hand in hand through time and space.

May your light shine in the darkness,
May your words be strong and bold.
May your love and your compassion,
Be a sign to young and old.
May your hearts accept all others,
Strangers, friends, and enemies.
May your lives reflect God’s kingdom,
Breaking down all boundaries.

May you build on strong foundations
A creation of your own,
Structured to withstand the ages,
Stronger still than brick or stone.
Joined with love, and care, and patience,
Built with tenderness and tears,
Crafted with a joyful spirit,
That endures throughout the years.

 

Music: “Hymn of Joy” by Ludwig van Beethoven

© 1999 Kurt Struckmeyer

(For the wedding of Amy Struckmeyer and Jim Skalla)

 

For Life and Love: a wedding hymn

December 22, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Like potter’s clay on spinning wheel,
Grasped by strong hands that push and pull,
Our lives take shape in height and breadth,
In form and grace most wonderful.

Our vision shaped by hands of love,
What we have known is what we see.
We look at life as through a lens.
The eyes of love see differently.

As hatred blooms around the world,
As evil reigns and has its way,
The eyes of love are filled with hope.
Hate cannot last, love comes to stay.

So come now friends and family
In celebration, share in song.
That these two lives conceived in love
Will now be joined, their whole life long.

And may our prayers be offered here
That each may grow as husband, wife;
That love may bloom and bring new joy,
Transcending death, transforming life.

We raise our thanks and praise to God
With flute and pipe, with strings and voice;
We lift our hearts in gratitude
For life and love. Let all rejoice!

 

Music: “The Water Is Wide” – Traditional

© 2002 Kurt Struckmeyer

(For the wedding of Sara Struckmeyer and Chris Masson)

The Common Good

the common good

August 31, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Early in the book of Acts, we are given a glimpse of the Jesus movement in the city of Jerusalem in the weeks and months after his execution. Their life together reflected the contours of the ministry Jesus proclaimed among the peasants of Galilee: love one another, care for one another, support one another, and share generously with one another.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at one house after another and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.[1]

Later, we read this similar account:

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the possessions belonging to him was his own, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.[2]

It appears from these texts that community members were not required to sell everything and become homeless. They met and ate in one another’s homes, indicating that they still maintained private home ownership and their furnishings, but sold other land and income property beyond what was needed for their own shelter. The message of Jesus was that the accumulation of personal wealth for one’s future was a spiritual problem. It can lead to self-concern and selfishness. Sufficiency for the day was the goal. Everything beyond that was dedicated to a common purse to help clothe, feed, and house the less fortunate in the community and those who fell on hard times.

Continue reading

cmpassion in action: charity, service, and justice

compassion in action: charity, service, and justice

November 18, 2019 / / 3 Comments

This post is an excerpt from  A Conspiracy of Love: Following Jesus in a Postmodern World. © 2024 Kurt Struckmeyer (See Chapter 11: “Contemplation and Action”)

 

Compassion is a feeling of empathy with the suffering of others, the capacity to feel how others feel. The Latin root of the word compassion is a compound of com (with) and passio (suffer), which gives us the meaning to suffer with. Compassion is entering into the pain of another. It is feeling the suffering of someone else—experiencing it, sharing it, tasting it. It is identifying with the sufferer, being in solidarity with the sufferer.

True compassion is being so moved at a gut level that we are moved to the point of action. Jesus was moved by compassion for the poor. We are told that, “He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36) And in the parable of the Good Samaritan he demonstrated that the one who loves the neighbor is the one who shows compassion on the one who suffers, even if that person is culturally defined as the enemy.

Marcus Borg (1942–2015) has said that, “For Jesus, compassion was the central quality of God and the central moral quality of a life centered in God.” The Pharisees represented a theology of holiness, according to Borg, which was based on holiness as a defining characteristic of God: “Be holy for I, Yahweh, am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44) Jesus proclaimed a theology of compassion based on an alternative characterization of God’s essence: “Be compassionate as your Father in heaven is compassionate.” (Luke 6:36) These differing theologies led them to different ways of living.

compassionate action

Compassionate action usually takes three forms: charity, service, and justice. Although some would include service under the first category, charity more specifically involves gifts of money, clothing, food, or other material goods, but does not necessarily involve an investment of our time and talents. Charity is important, but writing a check to a worthy does not really change us in a fundamental way. Although charitable giving demonstrates a generous nature, we often remain distant from those we seek to help. Service, however, involves us face-to-face with those in need. It can be an immensely transformative experience that can change us from our natural state of self-centeredness into increasingly selfless people. Perhaps it is the only thing that will. Although generosity sometimes leads to self-satisfaction, service often becomes a very humbling experience.

Charity and service are both personal forms of compassionate action. Their objective is to alleviate the effects of suffering in the world. Justice, on the other hand, seeks to eliminate the root causes of suffering. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) said:

We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.

Justice is focused on transforming the social structures and systems that produce poverty and suffering. Justice is the social form of compassionate action. It is the political means of caring for the least of these. The difference between charity and service on the one hand and justice on the other is this: charity and service seek to heal wounds, while justice seeks to end the social structures that create wounded people in the first place. William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006) has said: “The bible is less concerned with alleviating the effects of injustice, than in eliminating the causes of it.” Still, all three of these are necessary components of what German martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) described as righteous action in the world. Together, righteous action and contemplative prayer would form the essence of a  “religionless Christianity” in our day.

Our being Christian today will be limited to two things: prayer and righteous action among [humanity]. All Christian thinking, speaking, and organizing must be born anew out of this prayer and action.

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the kingdom of God: an introduction

August 1, 2019 / / 7 Comments

The time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand. (Mark 1:15)

The kingdom of God has come upon you. (Luke 11:20)

The kingdom of God is among you. (Luke 17:21)

The kingdom of God is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it. (Gospel of Thomas 11)

At the heart of the gospel of Jesus is the kingdom of God. This one phrase sums up the entire ministry of Jesus and his whole life’s work. Jesus spoke in Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek. The expression kingdom of God—basileia tou theou (bas-il-EH-ah too THEH-oo) in Greek and malkutha d’elaha (mal-KOOTH-ah dehl-ah-HAH) in Aramaic—points to the ruling activity of God over human social relationships.

As we read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that every thought and saying of Jesus was directed and subordinated to one single thing: the realization of the reign of God’s love, compassion, justice, and peace within human society. Although Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God frequently, he never clearly defined it. Instead, he spoke of it in parables, comparing something familiar (mustard seed, leaven, lost coins, a man who sowed a field) with something unfamiliar.

Then he said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” (Luke 13:18)

a variety of interpretations

Therefore, we must always test any proposed definition or meaning of the kingdom against the parables. Over the centuries, a variety of interpretations of what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God have been put forth. We will briefly examine six of the most common explanations: the reign of God as 1) heaven, 2) an inner spiritual experience, 3) the church, 4) a separate society, 5) a new state, and 6) a new world. Continue reading

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