This week BibleWorm reads Isaiah 55:1-13, a gorgeous poem of hope, persuasion, urgency and witness. Set either right near the end of the exile or right afterwards, it paints the picture of a limited window of time when God is ready to be sought and found, preserving a sense of God’s freedom, saying it is time, right now, to make a move toward God. But while this divine unpredictability might sound a little frightening, it also underscores the vastly forgiving nature of God. And finally, it elevates the natural world as a witness -- to God’s power, and to our lives – offering yet another connection between us and the divine. 

This week we read Ezekiel 37:1-14, another text set in the time of the exile. In a book known for  bizarre visions and sign-acts, this chapter shows us the valley of dry bones. We dive into the great chasm between hopeless and hopeful, and find Ezekiel somewhere in the middle, willing to prophesy to scattered bones in a field as he's been told, but honestly unsure what will happen when he does. We discuss the role of stories that feel scary in our lives of faith, and how the concrete images of bodies and of death in this chapter force us to go all the way to our most frightening thoughts before it pulls us back. And we see the sort of alchemy between God’s power and Ezekiel’s willingness to speak God’s words into the world, even when he’s not entirely sure what will happen.

For this first week of advent, BibleWorm reads Jeremiah 29:1-14, a text of in-between times, historically set between the first exile from Jerusalem and the full devastation of the second exile. We imagine the grief and confusion of the people in exile, and try to take to heart Jeremiah’s call to them -- live your life. Even here, even now, right where you are. How do we accept the wildly imperfect present and use the fullness of our heart and our limited power in this moment, without getting so comfortable in the present that we forget the greater, underlying hope for the future? How can we exist in both worlds? This question resonates through traumatic moments that are societal and personal, past and present, and Jeremiah holds us in that tension.

On this special edition of the podcast we talk with Dr. Cameron Howard, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, about her latest book, The Old Testament for a Complex World: How the Bible’s Dynamic Testimony Points to New Life for the Church. We talk about biblical interpretation as being less like digging for buried treasure and more like an atomic reaction that generates new energy when text and interpreter come together. We discuss the multiple authors of the Hebrew Bible and the way they represent not a unified voice that speaks to us in absolutes but a diverse set of witnesses that invites us into a conversation about God and the life of faith. And we discuss the ways in which the Bible remixes ancient Near Easter traditions and how that might be a model for creating our own theological remixes today.

This week BibleWorm reads Isaiah 9:1-7, which celebrates the arrival of a righteous king to restore the people. We talk about the anxiety of walking in darkness and the joy that comes when dawn finally breaks. We discuss the experience of oppression, bearing the yoke of hard labor and the rod of the stern ruler and contrast that with the arrival of a new king who breaks the rod and who bears authority on his own shoulders. And we discuss the promise of a new ruler, wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace and wrestle with the significance of that ruler both in Isaiah’s time and in our own.

This week we move into the world of prophecy and poetry with Amos 1:1-2 and 5:14-15 and 18-24. We situate Amos’s call to hate evil and love good within his broader message of economic justice. We make ourselves the audience of this prophecy, and sit with the idea that if we keep taking more than we need as we go about our daily lives,  any real communion with God through worship or through ritual will be impossible. But Amos isn’t asking us to sacrifice ourselves for someone else, he is asking us to have faith that someone else’s thriving will benefit us, too. When justice flows down like a mighty stream, all of our proverbial fields are watered.

This week Bobby and Amy read 1 Kings 19:1-18, the story of Elijah’s encounter with God on Mount Horeb. We talk about Elijah’s journey into the wilderness and God’s miraculous offering of bread for the difficult journey ahead. We think about God’s appearance to Elijah as a “still small voice” and wonder why God sometimes appears as a pillar of fire but here as a nearly inaudible whisper. And we wrestle with the threat of violence, both divine and human, and wonder when we, like Elijah, might need to take a step back from our zealousness.

This week Amy and Bobby read 1 Kings 5:1-6 13-18 and 8:1-13, the story of the Temple’s construction. We think a lot about the messy intermingling of self-interest and service to God or to the good, in Solomon’s time and today, and we appreciate that while the text doesn’t comment on it, it doesn’t try to hide it, either. We see the need to be suspicious about the way that religion can be manipulated to gain political power. And we sit with the almost amusing juxtaposition of an infinite God, who dwells in a cloud, who travels the desert, coming to inhabit this incredibly grand, seemingly permanent, and deeply human structure of cedar. It is a slightly awkward but sort of sweet meeting place for humans and the divine.

This week we read 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and Psalm 51:10-14, the story of David’s anointing and David’s prayer of contrition. We talk about the odd mixture of the religious and the political that permeates both this text and our own lives. We ponder the claim that God looks on the human heart rather than the outer appearance and wonder exactly what kind of heart God might be looking for. And we wrestle with the fact that in this text God uses a religious ceremony to distract the people from what God is really doing in anointing David. What does that mean for the way we practice religion today?

This week BibleWorm reads 1 Sam 3:1-21, where Samuel in his youth is first called by God. We are enamored of this text where the prophet doesn’t realize it is God talking, and we reflect on the role of our community and our mentors in recognizing the divine voice … or to gut check us when it might just be indigestion. We are moved by the loving and complex relationship between young Samuel and his father-figure, Eli, and its numerous points of connection with the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. And over and over again, we see the importance of saying what needs to be said, even when it’s hard -- and the power our speech can have in shaping reality.