No Experts Allowed

Advent texts, particularly the Old Testament readings, often offer a glimpse into joy, peace, and justice God’s second coming will bring. In this week’s texts, Isaiah describes unlikely animals living in peace with each other. They’re neither dominated by their prey drive or fear. What unlikely pairings might be possible today? Who can we befriend for the betterment of the world God loves? What holds us back from these relationship...

Are you a "prep-er"? Are you prepared for anything, running through scenarios and 'what-ifs' at work, in life, with friendships, and everything in between? To start the new liturgical year, Paul wants us to wake up and be ready. Jonathan, as someone who is ever-prepared, and Seth, someone who is moderately prepared, talk about what that looks like in the life of faith. They discuss being ready as a state of being and how we can liv...

Reign of Christ Sunday, or sometimes called Christ the King Sunday, ends the liturgical year. It asks who is ultimately in charge and worth worshipping. But to know that God is in charge and to act like it is much easier said than done. Jonathan and Seth discuss the challenge of the phrase, "Be still, and know that I am God!"  (Psalm 46:10) and what a faithful stillness might look like in our hurried, news-flooded world. Since this...

Recorded on election day, November 4th, politics was in the air. In Virginia, the gubernatorial election dominated advertisements. In Pennsylvania, the option to retain state Supreme Court justices was on the ballot. All of this was happening during a government shutdown that was affecting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And the author of 2 Thessalonians - who may or may not be Paul - writes, "anyone unwilling...

What does a theology look like that has "good bones?" What does a theology rooted in care and concern for people look like? What are its hallmarks? How is it lived? In this week's lectionary text, the Sadducees ask questions about the resurrection. Jesus, however, speaks about resurrection as a way of life so that their question about multiple husbands is moot. Jonathan and Seth discuss this idea of a resurrection faith that takes ...

Do you crave praise? In this week's gospel text, Jesus talks about simply doing one's duty without expecting any additional reward. The job itself is the reward. Jonathan and Seth discuss why we might still want praise, but what it looks like not to need it. What does it look like to find contentment in what we're doing? How do we balance commendation and criticism? Is there anything that students and teachers can illuminate for us...

Psalms express a particular feeling at a particular time to a particular audience. Because they are so... particular, they can serve as the basis for new psalms and poems. This week, Jonathan and Seth start with Psalm 14 and reverse it. It helps them see the psalm in a new light and to ask questions about professing Christians "do[ing] abominable deeds" (Psalm 14:1). This helps them explore the parable of the lost sheep and the los...

Approximately 1/3rd of Americans do not get enough sleep. They lack rest. God, on the other hand, never needs to sleep and yet rests on the 7th day of creation. When this week’s Hebrew Bible text picks up, Isaiah is extolling the benefits of the Sabbath. So, Jonathan and Seth talk about the importance of rest. They wonder what a sabbath practice might look like that isn’t overly strict, but is still help. And they use Tricia Hersey...

In this week's appointed gospel lesson, Jesus says, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" (Luke 12:51). Generally, Jesus has been seen as a great uniter, a unifying force among disparate groups with differing identities of every sort. It's what makes this declaration particularly challenging, at least for Jonath and Seth. So, they ask what Jesus might want to separate us f...

Do you have a lot of stuff? In this episode, Jonathan and Seth discuss the items they collect. Seth talks about his Uncle Joe, who was a hoarder (and we use that term seriously), and how he witnessed his uncle's attachment to his belongings, especially towards the end of his life. They talk a little about what we can do about all our "stuff", but more about what it means to be ready for Jesus' return by finding our security in Jesu...

The temptation exists to read Ecclesiastes as fundamentally different from the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. It's not history, not law, not like proverbs or the psalms, but a completely different genre altogether. There are themes, however, that echo throughout the entire Hebrew Bible that reverberate in Ecclesiastes as well. One of them is rest. The writer doesn't want their audience to toil constantly; that would be pointless, o...

Jesus gives his disciples what is often called "The Lord's Prayer" or the "Our Father." Afterwards, he tells a story about persistence and relates it to one's prayer life. What happens, however, when our prayers go unanswered despite persistent pleas? What is the point of prayer if it is not a gumball machine, dispensing what one wants after they've paid? Who does prayer change, us or God? Jonathan and Seth discuss why prayer matte...

Jesus has some difficult-to-hear words about following him, including seemingly telling a man that he should not even return home to bury his father. In the ancient world, family may have been more important than it is today; there were no retirement homes, so family had to take care of their members as they aged. If someone ended up in prison, food was not provided. Family or friends had to bring it to them. It's into this ancient...

When a man is purged of his many demons, it seems like cause for celebrating (Luke 8:26-39). The townspeople who knew the man, however, "asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear" (Lk. 8:37). How do we let fear dictate how we see our future, how we see others, even how we see Jesus? Jonathan and Seth talk about this rather strange story that seems like a traditional healing, but has much more detail before and...

After celebrating Pentecost, the Church turns its attention to the Triune God. This Sunday makes preaching, teaching, worship planning, and children's sermons particularly difficult because the danger of heresy seems to lurk everywhere. What if we didn't let that stop us from dreaming and exploring what God was like? Jonathan and Seth attempt to unpack what is dangerous about heresies related to the Trinity and whether there is any...

As Target learned the hard way, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the way forward. It's also the way of God in the world as evidenced at Pentecost. So, Seth and Jonathan talk about DEI. While we've occasionally spoken around it, referenced it, or advocated for an inclusive Church, this episode tackles DEI head-on. Why do we need DEI? What are its limits? How can we go further than DEI initiatives? And how does the multicultural, ...

Situated between Jesus' ascension and Pentecost, this is an odd Sunday. One of the oddities, at least for modern readers, is that a whole household is baptized together in the appointed Acts reading. When the patriarch of the family, a jailor, decides to be baptized, he decides for his entire family. Is this merely patriarchy at play? Could it tell us something about how households functioned in the ancient world and, perhaps, some...

When and how do we tell difficult-to-hear truths? In this Sunday's gospel text, Jesus heals on the Sabbath. In doing so, he does what isn't expected or accepted. Speaking difficult truths can be similar. Others may expect us to "toe the line" by parroting what others in authority have said. Likewise, our truths may not be accepted or could be viewed as harsh. Jonathan and Seth discuss how this applies to the war in Gaza. It also ha...

The seer John watches an entire city, a new Jerusalem, descend from heaven. While cities in the ancient world were much smaller than cities today, they were still hubs of economic and civic engagement. People lived closer to one another, interacted more frequently, and likely got into more spats. What do cities offer us that suburbs do not? What are some of their challenges? Can we develop a theology of cities? And what lessons mig...