Commons Church Podcast

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.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

 We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.

We love the Biblical stories. We love what they do for us and in us. This fall we follow the wanderer Abraham, the “father of many” and the “father of faith”, who “went, not knowing where he was going”. Abraham was living his response to the voice which had told him (past) to “go” from his home country, and to journey (present) to the land God would (future) show him. The writer Thomas Cahill suggests that those little words — “Abraham went” — are two of the boldest words ever written. They mark a departure from the cycle of never-ending sameness which de ned that world, the cycle of repetition it seemed impossible to break out of. But in obedience to the call, Abraham began to move towards the possibility of something new, something unseen yet promised. And so we wander these weeks with our father Abraham, seeing his story and ourselves in his story. Abraham shows us what it means to “walk by faith, not by sight”. All of God’s children who walk by faith are, in this sense, children of Abraham.