Pod Be With You

Two weeks after Easter, and John is still telling us resurrection stories! Which, of course, is only appropriate, because the new life we find in Christ isn't limited to one day once a year. This Sunday is an amalgam of references to other Gospel stories, the reconciliation of Peter, and the commissioning of him and the others to the work of the Kingdom. It's a lot...but the overarching theme is new life, rebirth, resurre...

It's a Jesus Christ Superstar moment..."The rocks and stones themselves would start to sing!" Luke's version of the Triumphal Entry is on the pod today. There are no palms, no hosannas, no donkey, but there is resistance, and protest, and challenge all in the shouting and the silence. Both can be sacred and necessary in their moment, and yet both can also be counterproductive in others. How do we know when to li...

Zacchaeus is the story this week, the story of a rich tax collector who climbs a tree just to see Jesus. Again, we think we know what this story is about, but do we really? Is it about repentance? Coming back to your true self? Or not judging the life and work of another? Maybe, like our theme this entire Lent has suggested, it is all of these things, and more, a nuanced tale about the complexities of life in general, and the life ...

[AUDIO FIXED] This week, the very short, and in many ways abrupt, Parable of the Fig Tree. Jesus seems to be preaching the same themes as John the Baptist before him here, that time is short, repentance is essential, and bearing fruit a necessity. But, is that all there is? Is it about rest? Is it about nurture? Is it about patience? Is it about the Divine's delight in us? Well, if you read the scholars and commentators, the a...

Are you a Mary or a Martha? That's the traditional question when it comes to Luke's story this week about the sisters and Jesus. But maybe that's not the right question to ask. This little story, only five verses, might be more about being in the moment than valuing some gift over others, or launching a faith versus works battle. It's far more nuanced, more compassionate, more relatable than all that. So, join u...

It's Lent! And the Sanctified Art series we are using this season asks us to explore where God meets us, where our faith thrives, where we can find solid ground to stand...or, "Everything (in) Between." This week we dive into the story of the Good Samaritan, and ask ourselves, what is the distance between a Stanger and a Neighbor? How can we tell? How do we behave? What does it mean? It's complex, of course, mes...

The Transfiguration story that rolls around every year before Lent is a strange and wonderful one. But so is the very disturbing story that follows it, the story of Jesus, in the grit and the grime of real life, healing a child from possession. What are we to make of these tales? Maybe they're about mystery...maybe they're about Divine presence...maybe they're about the work of the Church, passed down from generation...

That's what this particular section of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain is all about...resisting the values of the dominant culture, resisting the urge to lash out, resisting oppression and evil. But we can only do it through training, through practice, through the difficult and often painful work of making the movements of grace again, and again, and again. And at the heart of it all...love, muscular, tangible, active love. Le...

Both the lectionary passages given to us this week, found in Luke's Sermon on the Plain, and Paul's words about the reality of the resurrection, are at heart about God's great yes...to the poor, the hungry, the grief-stricken, the struggling, those looking death in the eye. God is about life, abundant and bountiful, and both Jesus and Paul affirm that reality in our texts for Sunday. Differently, of course, but beaut...

Happy New Year! This week, we explore the different gospels' renderings of Jesus' baptism - especially that of the Gospel of Luke. Less of a public declaration and more of a private revelation, Jesus is reminded who and whose he is - all in the wake of John the Baptist's arrest and imprisonment. Jesus is praying about what's next, and the answer he receives is: "You are what's next. I love you - now ge...

Thanksgiving can be hard...both the national holiday, and the act of gratitude. But Jesus, in our Gospel lesson for today, a clip from the Sermon on the Mount about worry, providence, and thanksgiving, offers us a solution. We can find ourselves poisoned by the negativity around us and within us sometimes, and gratitude opens us up to...more. More joy, more connection, more life. So join us today for a meditation on the power of gr...

It's time for All Saints Sunday, folks, one of the weirdest and, arguably, most wonderful celebrations in the Christian Year. We take a Sunday to remember and honor and grieve those who have died...but it's not a morbid service. It is an affirmation of legacy, and love, and life, the connections that still hold us together. Enjoy today's conversation, and maybe find a church on Sunday to enter in to the mystery that ...

Welcome to the book of Job: one of the most fascinating and frustrating books in all our scripture. Famous, but often misunderstood, this ancient work of fiction brings us to questions of grief, accident, and loss. How do we make sense of life when it is so blatantly unfair, and God is absent and/or mysterious? Are we faithful simply to work a system of reward and punishment, or because righteousness is inherently good? What are th...

It's Worldwide Communion Sunday, and we are revisiting the vision of unity, abundance, and wholeness that is at the heart of what Communion is. This Sunday reminds us that this "togetherness" is not just a mystery, but something we live out daily in the way we enact our faith. Two Gospel stories this week...Zacchaeus, and John's version of the Feeding of the 5000...illustrate the heart of the Kingdom...welcome, ...