Monday, September 28, 2026
Spirituality for the Streets • Wisdom for the Journey • A Fuller Life for Everyone
Motto: Eternal Progression • A Fuller Life for Everyone • Live and Help Live
SCRIPTURE FOR THE DAY
“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
— John 8:32
Truth is not merely something we possess.
Sometimes truth is the thing that interrupts what we thought we knew.
That makes paying attention a spiritual discipline.
FROM THE PILGRIM’S DESK
Pack Curiosity
An Urban Pilgrim carries useful things.
Water.
A flashlight.
Medication.
A power bank.
Maybe a snack that was supposed to last until an emergency but mysteriously disappeared Tuesday afternoon.
But there is another piece of everyday carry:
curiosity.
Before reacting:
What actually happened?
Who is telling the story?
Whose voice is missing?
Can I verify this?
What don’t I know?
Today is the International Day for Universal Access to Information, which makes those questions particularly appropriate.
Information can liberate.
It can also manipulate.
The pilgrim therefore learns not only to find information, but to discern it.
TODAY’S SERMON
TRUTH WITHOUT A THRONE
John 8:31–36
“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Few biblical sentences have escaped their context as thoroughly as this one.
It appears on libraries, universities, government buildings and motivational posters.
But John wasn’t writing a slogan for fact-checking.
The Fourth Gospel emerged near the end of the first century, probably through a complicated process involving a community’s traditions, theological reflection and conflict.
John’s Jesus speaks differently from Jesus in Mark.
Long speeches replace many short sayings and parables.
Jesus speaks extensively about his identity.
Historical-critical scholarship therefore cautions us against treating every Johannine speech as though someone secretly recorded Jesus with a first-century microphone.
John gives us interpreted Jesus tradition.
And yet its theological question remains powerful:
What kind of truth liberates?
The Greek word translated truth is alētheia.
In John, truth is not merely correct information.
Truth becomes relational.
Embodied.
Something encountered.
That matters because people can possess enormous amounts of correct information and remain deeply unfree.
An empire can have excellent statistics.
A corporation can possess tremendous data.
A church can memorize Scripture.
A government can maintain enormous archives.
Knowledge alone doesn’t guarantee liberation.
The question is:
Who controls knowledge, and what does knowledge serve?
Throughout history, controlling information has been a way of controlling people.
Who is educated?
Who may read sacred texts?
Who owns printing presses?
Who controls newspapers?
Who controls broadcasting?
Who controls digital platforms?
Whose history enters textbooks?
Whose history disappears?
These are questions of power.
Liberation theology teaches us to ask where power sits.
Feminist theology asks whose experience was excluded when supposedly universal truths were constructed.
Queer theology asks who gets classified as normal or deviant—and who was allowed to create those categories.
Postcolonial thought asks whose knowledge was dismissed as primitive while imperial knowledge declared itself objective.
An anarcho-communist perspective asks another uncomfortable question:
What happens when knowledge becomes concentrated within hierarchical institutions that ordinary people cannot meaningfully question?
None of this means expertise is bad.
Expertise matters enormously.
I want trained engineers designing bridges.
I want physicians practicing medicine.
I do not want Brother Francis improvising nuclear-reactor maintenance because hierarchy makes him uncomfortable.
Expertise and domination are not identical.
The question is whether knowledge becomes shared capacity or concentrated power.
Good knowledge empowers communities.
That connects surprisingly well with Jesus.
Jesus teaches ordinary people.
Fishermen.
Women.
Laborers.
People excluded from respectable religious society.
He tells stories about farmers, bread, weeds, sheep, coins and household work.
The sacred appears in ordinary knowledge.
Francis does something similar centuries later.
He doesn’t establish his movement around elaborate academic credentials.
He learns from lepers.
Birds.
Poor people.
Roads.
Suffering.
Scripture.
Creation.
Franciscan knowledge begins in attention.
And perhaps that is where truth begins too.
Pay attention.
Look again.
Listen to someone whose experience differs from yours.
Admit:
I may be wrong.
Those four words can become spiritual practice.
Religion often has difficulty saying them.
We like certainty.
Certainty feels secure.
But certainty can become a fortress protecting us from reality.
Radical theology invites another posture.
John D. Caputo speaks of God less as an object we possess through correct propositions and more as an event—an insistence, a call, something happening within the name of God.
God does not become information we control.
God interrupts us.
Justice interrupts us.
The stranger interrupts us.
The suffering body interrupts us.
The earth interrupts us.
Truth happens when the world refuses our convenient story.
That makes truth dangerous.
Suppose I believe poverty results primarily from laziness.
Then I meet people working two jobs who still cannot afford housing.
Reality interrupts my theory.
Suppose I believe every family naturally protects its children.
Then I listen to queer people describing rejection.
Reality interrupts my theory.
Suppose I believe humans stand above nature.
Then ecological collapse reveals our dependence upon soil, water, insects, microorganisms and climate.
Reality interrupts my theory.
Truth makes us free because truth destroys some of our cages.
But there is another side.
Access matters.
A person cannot act upon information deliberately withheld from them.
Workers need information about workplace hazards.
Communities need information about pollutants.
Patients need understandable medical information.
Citizens need information about decisions made in their name.
People facing emergencies need reliable information about weather, evacuation routes, shelter and services.
Information is therefore part of preparedness.
During emergencies, rumors travel remarkably fast.
Someone posts:
“The water is contaminated.”
Another person forwards it.
Twenty minutes later half the neighborhood believes mutant alligators are coming through the faucets.
Before sharing emergency information, pause.
Check the source.
Check the date.
Check whether another reliable source confirms it.
That tiny discipline can protect people.
This is especially important in communities.
Mutual aid depends upon trust.
And trust depends upon truthfulness.
If we organize horizontally, without coercive hierarchy, then reliable shared information becomes even more important.
People need enough knowledge to participate meaningfully in decisions affecting them.
Information becomes part of the commons.
But truth also requires humility.
Nobody sees everything.
Not scientists.
Not theologians.
Not activists.
Not clergy.
Certainly not preachers with newsletters.
Our perspectives remain partial.
That doesn’t mean all claims are equally true.
It means good discernment requires evidence, dialogue and willingness to revise ourselves.
The Urban Pilgrim therefore walks with two commitments:
Seek truth.
And:
Hold your certainty lightly enough for truth to surprise you.
Jesus says:
“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Maybe freedom begins when we stop demanding that reality agree with us.
Look.
Listen.
Learn.
Question.
Verify.
Change.
And when truth calls from somewhere inconvenient—
answer.
Amen.
THE WORLD OUTSIDE OUR DOOR
The Right to Know
Today, September 28, is UNESCO’s International Day for Universal Access to Information. UNESCO proclaimed the observance in 2015, and the U.N. General Assembly recognized it at the U.N. level in 2019. The observance emphasizes access to information as important for informed decision-making, inclusion and social progress.
Today is also World Rabies Day. The World Health Organization’s 2026 theme is “Stronger Together,” emphasizing cooperation among communities, veterinary professionals, healthcare workers, governments and global partners. WHO also recently validated Bhutan as having eliminated dog-mediated human rabies as a public-health problem after years of vaccination, surveillance, free treatment and community participation.
Urban Pilgrim reflection: These observances unexpectedly belong together.
Reliable information can save lives.
But information must be accessible, not merely technically available. A warning that people cannot read, hear, understand, afford to access or act upon is not adequate communication.
From my anarcho-communist perspective, knowledge should empower communities rather than function primarily as something hoarded by institutions or used to control people.
From my Franciscan perspective, knowledge becomes wisdom when it helps us care for our neighbors—including our animal neighbors.
SCHOLAR’S CORNER
John Is Not a Transcript
The Gospel of John was probably composed toward the end of the first century and reflects substantial theological development.
Its long speeches differ considerably from the shorter sayings and parables characteristic of the Synoptic Gospels.
Historical-critical reading doesn’t make John worthless.
It makes John interesting.
Instead of asking only:
“Did Jesus say these exact words?”
we can also ask:
“What did communities following Jesus come to understand about him?”
Scripture becomes conversation rather than stenography.
QUESTION EVERYTHING
Is Doubt the Enemy of Faith?
Maybe not.
Doubt can become intellectual humility.
Certainty says:
I already know.
Faith can say:
I will keep walking even though I don’t know everything.
A pilgrim doesn’t need to know the entire road.
She needs enough light for the next few steps.
CREATION IS OUR MONASTERY
Learn One Name
Choose one tree, bird, plant or insect you encounter today.
Learn its name.
Not because naming means possessing it.
Because attention creates relationship.
Yesterday it was “some bird.”
Today it becomes a neighbor.
QUEER WISDOM
Listen to People About Their Own Lives
One simple principle can dismantle a surprising amount of domination:
People possess knowledge about their own experience.
Queer and transgender people do not need outsiders to explain their own lives back to them.
Listening does not require abandoning critical thought.
It requires recognizing that lived experience is also a form of knowledge.
Sometimes solidarity begins by shutting up long enough to learn something.
ONE BIG IDEA
Situated Knowledge
Feminist philosopher Donna Haraway has challenged the fantasy of a completely disembodied observer looking at reality from nowhere.
We always see from somewhere.
Bodies.
Histories.
Cultures.
Communities.
Experiences.
That does not mean truth is impossible.
It means humility belongs inside knowledge.
Ask:
Where am I standing when I see this?
SAINT, HERETIC & TROUBLEMAKER OF THE DAY
Hypatia
Hypatia taught philosophy and mathematics in Alexandria during late antiquity.
She became an influential public intellectual before being murdered by a Christian mob in 415 CE amid political and religious conflict.
Christians should remember stories like hers.
Religion does not become holy merely because it believes itself correct.
When certainty joins power and dehumanization, people can become dangerous while believing themselves righteous.
The pilgrim chooses curiosity over the mob.
WORDS FOR THE ROAD
Truth does not fear questions; domination does.
PILGRIM JOURNAL PROMPT
What belief do I hold so tightly that I become defensive when someone questions it?
Write:
“What evidence could change my mind?”
If the answer is nothing, ask whether you are holding a conclusion—or protecting an identity.
HOLY FOOLERY
A theologian announced:
“I have finally figured God out.”
God whispered:
“That’s adorable.”
PRAYER FOR PEACE ACROSS ALL FAITHS
Sacred Mystery beyond every name,
bless those seeking truth.
Protect journalists.
Protect teachers.
Protect scientists.
Protect librarians.
Protect whistleblowers.
Protect communities whose stories have been erased.
Bless Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Pagans, Indigenous traditions, humanists, atheists and seekers.
Where propaganda divides us,
give discernment.
Where ignorance creates fear,
give understanding.
Where knowledge becomes power over others,
make it wisdom shared among neighbors.
May truth serve liberation.
May knowledge serve compassion.
May wisdom serve peace.
Amen.
FRANCISCAN CLAREAN REFLECTION
The Book of Creation
Francis learned theology from Scripture.
He also learned from creatures.
Bird.
Wolf.
Water.
Fire.
Sun.
Moon.
The world itself became a book.
Today practice Franciscan scholarship:
Read one page of creation.
Slowly.
No footnotes required.
CHRISTO-CORRELLIAN / INTERSPIRITUAL MOMENT
The Lamp Within
Light a candle safely, or imagine one.
Say:
May truth illuminate without blinding.
May wisdom guide without dominating.
May mystery remain larger than my certainty.
Sit quietly.
Let the flame remind you:
Light reveals.
It does not need to shout.
KILUBANSA HEALING MOMENT
Listen Before Fixing
Place a hand comfortably over your heart.
Ask:
What is my body telling me today?
Not:
“What is wrong with me?”
But:
“What do I need?”
Rest?
Water?
Food?
Movement?
Medical attention?
Company?
Quiet?
Healing begins with listening.
THE HERBAL MINUTE
Rosemary — Memory in the Garden
Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) has a long culinary and traditional herbal history and has culturally been associated with remembrance.
The simplest use remains one of the best:
food.
Use rosemary to season vegetables, beans, soups or bread.
Culinary amounts are different from concentrated extracts or essential oils. Rosemary essential oil should not casually be swallowed, and concentrated herbal products can carry medication, pregnancy or medical-condition considerations.
The Urban Pilgrim herbal rule remains:
Start with food before pretending your kitchen needs to become Hogwarts.
URBAN PREPAREDNESS
Verify Before You Share
During an emergency, bad information can create its own emergency.
Before forwarding a warning:
1. Check the source.
Is it an emergency-management agency, weather service, utility, transit authority or other credible source?
2. Check the date and time.
Old emergency posts routinely return from the dead.
3. Confirm when possible.
Look for another reliable source.
4. Share the source, not merely the rumor.
Accessibility matters too.
If someone cannot easily read an alert, tell them.
If someone cannot hear an announcement, show them.
Community resilience depends upon information reaching everybody.
Preparedness isn’t knowing everything.
It’s knowing where to find trustworthy information when you need it.
OUTDOOR PILGRIM SKILL
Three Landmarks
Navigation doesn’t begin with fancy equipment.
It begins with noticing.
During your next walk, deliberately identify three landmarks:
a distinctive building,
intersection,
bridge,
hill,
tower,
stream,
trail junction,
or other stable feature.
Periodically look behind you.
A route often looks surprisingly different in reverse.
This practice builds an internal map of your surroundings.
For visually impaired pilgrims, navigation may instead rely more heavily on tactile landmarks, sound cues, accessible GPS, familiar routes, orientation-and-mobility techniques, or a trusted companion.
The principle remains:
Know what tells you where you are.
Pilgrimage requires wonder.
It also helps to know how to get home.
PILGRIM PRACTICE FOR TODAY
Learn One Useful Thing
Today learn one piece of information that increases your ability to care for yourself or somebody else.
Your local emergency number or non-emergency service.
A neighbor’s phone number.
Where the nearest public library is.
How to identify one local plant.
Where your household water shutoff is.
A transit route.
A first-aid skill.
Something small.
Then share something useful you know with somebody else.
Knowledge becomes community when it circulates.
CLOSING BLESSING
May your curiosity remain larger than your certainty.
May knowledge make you useful rather than arrogant.
May information become a commons rather than a weapon.
May preparedness produce confidence rather than fear.
May questions become doors rather than threats.
May Francis teach you attention.
May Clare teach you discernment.
May Hypatia remind you what certainty joined to domination can destroy.
May queer wisdom teach you to listen to lives that institutions have misunderstood.
May creation remain a book you never finish reading.
And may the God who refuses to become an answer we can possess continue to insist within every honest question:
Look again.
Listen deeper.
Check your source.
Love your neighbor.
Change your mind when truth requires it.
And keep walking.
Eternal Progression • A Fuller Life for Everyone • Live and Help Live.
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