Commons Church Podcast

A chance to look back at the last year and forward toward where God might be leading us.

Easter 

Palm Sunday

Jesus taught primarily in parables. Short pithy stories that surprise us with Jesus unique perspective on life. These parables centre around three main concepts. Kingdom, Grace and, wait for it… Judgement. In this series we intend to face into the hardest parables, those that give us Jesus’ unique perspective on judgement. As Klyne Snodgrass explains: Discourse we tolerate; to story we attend. Story entertains, informs, involves, motivates, authenticates, and mirrors existence. By creating a narrative world, stories establish an unreal, controlled universe. The author abducts us and—almost god-like—tells us what reality exists in this narrative World, what happens, and why. And as we immerse ourselves in Jesus’ narrative world—we hope to be transformed by the experience.

Jesus taught primarily in parables. Short pithy stories that surprise us with Jesus unique perspective on life. These parables centre around three main concepts. Kingdom, Grace and, wait for it… Judgement. In this series we intend to face into the hardest parables, those that give us Jesus’ unique perspective on judgement. As Klyne Snodgrass explains: Discourse we tolerate; to story we attend. Story entertains, informs, involves, motivates, authenticates, and mirrors existence. By creating a narrative world, stories establish an unreal, controlled universe. The author abducts us and—almost god-like—tells us what reality exists in this narrative World, what happens, and why. And as we immerse ourselves in Jesus’ narrative world—we hope to be transformed by the experience.

Jesus taught primarily in parables. Short pithy stories that surprise us with Jesus unique perspective on life. These parables centre around three main concepts. Kingdom, Grace and, wait for it… Judgement. In this series we intend to face into the hardest parables, those that give us Jesus’ unique perspective on judgement. As Klyne Snodgrass explains: Discourse we tolerate; to story we attend. Story entertains, informs, involves, motivates, authenticates, and mirrors existence. By creating a narrative world, stories establish an unreal, controlled universe. The author abducts us and—almost god-like—tells us what reality exists in this narrative World, what happens, and why. And as we immerse ourselves in Jesus’ narrative world—we hope to be transformed by the experience.

Jesus taught primarily in parables. Short pithy stories that surprise us with Jesus unique perspective on life. These parables centre around three main concepts. Kingdom, Grace and, wait for it… Judgement. In this series we intend to face into the hardest parables, those that give us Jesus’ unique perspective on judgement. As Klyne Snodgrass explains: Discourse we tolerate; to story we attend. Story entertains, informs, involves, motivates, authenticates, and mirrors existence. By creating a narrative world, stories establish an unreal, controlled universe. The author abducts us and—almost god-like—tells us what reality exists in this narrative World, what happens, and why. And as we immerse ourselves in Jesus’ narrative world—we hope to be transformed by the experience.

Jesus taught primarily in parables. Short pithy stories that surprise us with Jesus unique perspective on life. These parables centre around three main concepts. Kingdom, Grace and, wait for it… Judgement. In this series we intend to face into the hardest parables, those that give us Jesus’ unique perspective on judgement. As Klyne Snodgrass explains: Discourse we tolerate; to story we attend. Story entertains, informs, involves, motivates, authenticates, and mirrors existence. By creating a narrative world, stories establish an unreal, controlled universe. The author abducts us and—almost god-like—tells us what reality exists in this narrative World, what happens, and why. And as we immerse ourselves in Jesus’ narrative world—we hope to be transformed by the experience.

This series has become a staple for us, and rightly so. Sex and money is our annual attempt to talk about the issues that challenge and puzzle us most. And we won’t be done any time soon. We realize that while the Bible has plenty to say on these topics, easy moralism doesn’t work. What we need is a greater depth of insight, to see sex and money as gifts of God, but also as renegade powers; as things that bless our lives, but also as things that can bring us pain and loss when we fail to understand them well. We need reasons, not just rules. This year though, we are changing things up by using this series to trace the story of Ruth. Gender imbalance, poverty and social concerns, and ultimately sex and love find their way into this tale and as we talk candidly about sex and money, we will see once again how grounded and practical Christian faith is.

This series has become a staple for us, and rightly so. Sex and money is our annual attempt to talk about the issues that challenge and puzzle us most. And we won’t be done any time soon. We realize that while the Bible has plenty to say on these topics, easy moralism doesn’t work. What we need is a greater depth of insight, to see sex and money as gifts of God, but also as renegade powers; as things that bless our lives, but also as things that can bring us pain and loss when we fail to understand them well. We need reasons, not just rules. This year though, we are changing things up by using this series to trace the story of Ruth. Gender imbalance, poverty and social concerns, and ultimately sex and love find their way into this tale and as we talk candidly about sex and money, we will see once again how grounded and practical Christian faith is.