Ragan Sutterfield
You Are Who You Eat
We are what we eat…When we eat the bread and wine of communion—we are brought together into God’s new community—our lives become the life of Jesus, just as junk food diets make us into walking corn chips…
The Seed Bank of the Kingdom: A Sermon
We can’t predict when the conditions will be right for the seed to sprout. It could be fifty years. It could be a thousand. But what disciples are called to now—the sowing of seeds— is going to pay off one day. There will be a harvest…
From Farming to Wildlife Management
I still garden and I’m not sure how to fully embrace this vision of Wildlife Management, but I think it points to something closer to what might be our true vocation—not the growing of food in landscapes cleared of the wild given by God, but rather a careful management and cultivation of the abundance already there…
The Commonwealth of the Body
A woman’s body is not her own, a babies body is not her own…a man’s body is not his own—they are interconnected in a network of gifts—internal and external to the body. The human person is not private property…it is a commonwealth…
Occupy Babylon
We do not want a replacement for the current system of global capitalism, we want something altogether different, something that is hard to imagine in the midst of Empire…
A Love for Small Things
A deep love for small things forms and trains us to savor the world and to recognize the unsavory when it appears…While major protests and efforts against the forces of global extractive economies have their place, we have the opportunity daily to participate in a slower, more profound work…
All We Need is to Be Human
There was an evangelical environmental campaign several years ago that asked, What Would Jesus Drive?…meant to lead toward the idea that Jesus would be a low-carbon kind of guy who’d probably drive a Prius or maybe a grease bus…But what if Jesus wouldn’t drive anything?…
Front Porch Education
Set aside for a moment your own experiences with school and think about how, given ample time and resources, you would go about educating children. What contexts would you put them in? Who would you want them to learn with and how?…Who would be their companions on the learning journey?…
Life at a Human Pace in a Smaller Place
I set my bike up with a rack and saddle bags. I rode to the grocery store. I rode to work. I rode to friends’ houses for potlucks and parties. I rode the 6 miles to the school farm I help with. But I also found out how much I was dependent on a car for so many little things…
The BP Oil Spill: A Christian Call for Lament and Reconciliation
During the Duke Center for Reconciliation’s Summer Institute, Christians from varied denominations, backgrounds, and nations gathered to explore the work Christ is doing in reconciling all things…As followers of Christ…we mourn the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and the BP oil spill now polluting the Gulf of Mexico…
