Hey everyone! 

If you didn’t catch it, check out this week’s episode of The Fascinating Podcast, which features the three of us talking about leaving colonized faith, the future of the American church, and a whole lot of pop culture. Also, keep a lookout tomorrow for a special, extra episode of Shake the Dust featuring a new poem that Jonathan just wrote. We’re going to start adding some other types of audio to the podcast feed (at some interval we haven’t yet established), and this recorded spoken word poem is the first of these little experiments. Let us know what you think! And now, without further ado, let’s get to this week’s highlights. 

Sy’s recommendations: 

• Since we’re about half-way through Holy Week, I thought I would share this reflection from Sarah Bessey published on Palm Sunday. It’s a reflection on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the many expectations of violence and nationalism that it upends. She notes how painful it must have been for Jesus to watch the praise of so many people transform into betrayal and abandonment over the course of the following week, as their own desires for power and status stop all but a few faithful (women) followers from remaining with him to the end. Bessey’s love and earnest excitement for the coming of Jesus is clear in her words, and it’s a gift to get to read people who have caught such a clear glimpse of what God’s Kingdom can look like when we seek it first.