Sarah Perkins

In a flurry of anxiety over how to introduce “This Little Light of Mine” to our congregation in a non-offensive/appropriating way, I recently did a deep dive into the history of the song. One the pages of Google and Wikipedia, I met Rutha Mae Harris. Rutha Mae was a member of The Freedom Singers, a quartet formed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee tasked with using music to educate, organize, and raise funds for the Civil Rights Movement across the U.S. Rutha Mae was the...

Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

I read recently that the word used in the Greek Bible for compassion correlates to the gut. Translated, it describes a movement in the heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys. Thus, when Jesus is moved with compassion towards the multitude, it’s a bodily movement, welling up from the deepest parts of him. I don’t mean to parse vocabulary, but I think that is also an accurate description of the experience of charity. Charity is more than warm feelings. It is more than good thoughts. It is...