​“The Greek word anamnēsis in Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24, where Jesus asks the church to ‘remember’ him when they eat the Lord’s Supper, is the cognate root to the verb ‘remember the poor’ in Galatians 2:10. The ana in Jesus’ usage is an intensifier. In Galatians 2:10 then there is the allusion to ‘make oneself present to’ the poor in the same way as we are to make ourselves present to Christ in the Eucharist” (David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission, 221, fn14). 

​“For Christians concerned with economic justice, this means that we should not look for a static solution, one perfect system in which to rest. We have no lasting city [my italics]. Fostering justice requires local and ongoing negotiation, as does the work of meeting human needs. But that is not to say that Christian ethics must resign itself to endless process, nor that Christians can hide behind abstract principles and leave the work of application to others. It means that ethical questions must be situated within specific narratives of human life moving toward its fulfillment” (Kelly S. Johnson, The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics). 

“Loving without agenda: Often our neighborhoods are filled with special interest groups. The church is not a special interest group; rather we have a reconciling mission that seeks unity, that all might flourish. Consider how your faith community can champion what others are already doing” (Paul Sparks, et al., The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community).
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​“Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied’” (MLK, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail).
 
“Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity” (MLK, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail).
 
“But in general, when ancient Latin writers used the term patientia, they didn’t have heroes in mind; they were thinking of subordinates and victims. Patience seemed an appropriate attitude for people of no account who were on the receiving end of actions or experiences. For these people—powerless, poverty stricken, and often female--patientia was ignominious. Patience was the response of people who didn’t have the freedom to define their own goals or make choices. Notably patience was a response of slaves, for whom it was an inevitability, not a virtue.” (Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, p. 20).
 
“The earlier Christian tradition was based on an understanding of God’s work as manifested in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The word that summed this up for them was patientia (hypomonē in Greek) [patience]. In their patience-shaped perspective, history is safe in God’s generous hands. So people who worship God and follow Jesus do not need to control things; they do not rely on the power of the state to vindicate their point of view; they do not fret their brows or hurry; and they never impose their view by coercion and force. And somehow, spontaneously, carriers of the gospel show up—slave women, business people, people of no account—and the church grows, spottily, unsystematically, and by ferment” (Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, 294–95).

​“The reason there will be no change is because the people who stand to lose from change have all the power. And the people who stand to gain from change have none of the power” (attributed to Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli).

“It’s easy to confuse what is with what ought to be, especially when what is has always worked in your favor” (Tyrion Lannister, “Game of Thrones”)

His passion is, as Abraham Heschel has seen, the passion of this God who knows what time it is (Jer 8:7). God knows, and his prophet knows with him, that it is end time. The king does not know, never knows, what time it is because the king wants to banish time and live in an uninterrupted eternal now. God has time for his people and God insists his people take his time seriously” (Walter Brueggemann, Prophetic Imagination, 48).
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“Hebrew history preceded what Christianity repeated: we both preferred kings, wars, and empires instead of suffering servanthood or leveling love” (Richard Rohr).