Cornerstone Boulder Weekly Podcast

Last week Brian talked about the Covenant Journey of Faith, but covenant is about a lot more than a personal journey: it involves us in community. Brian addresses this aspect of covenant and the way that covenant draws us into a bigger story. Covenant initiates a voluntary movement towards a common purpose. Though this is done freely, the consequences of stepping into covenant give us important responsibilities towards one another. Ultimately the covenant bound together by covenant becomes much greater than the sum of it's parts.

Faith is not a mere belief, but a journey full of promises, purpose, and struggles. Here Brian explains how covenant provides the necessary context for this journey and builds a bond of incredible friendship.

Rabbi Gene was able to spend some time in New York recently with a group organized around finding meaningful ways to be generous. While he was there he was inspired to change his message for this week and gave a powerful talk on Sunday all about the power of generosity for both the giver and the receiver together.

In this message, Aaron takes some time to look at a very important role in scripture: the role of the shoshben. A shoshben was a friend of the bridegroom and they serve a very important role of partnership with the bridegroom, preparation for the wedding, presiding over the event, and protecting the marriage. As friends of the heavenly Bridegroom, we are invited into a similarly important role that we can engage with no matter our circumstances.

In this message Gene takes a look at the chaos and confusion that are often symbolized by darkness in scripture. In the beginning, God brings light into this darkness and starts a story with a beautiful conclusion full of light. Now, darkness remains a part of that story, but this won't last forever. Until the end, we are invited to live from a place of hope and participate in this story of light invading the darkness.

The thing Jesus talked about the most in the scriptures is the Kingdom of Heaven, but close behind that is a surprising topic: money. Looking around us, though, we can see why; there is a great deal of confusion, fear and insecurity around the issue of money. As we pay attention to these words of wisdom, our attitude towards money becomes less of an anxious grasping as we gain freedom from greed and idolatry and we experience the joy of generosity.

Incivility seems to be on the rise these days, and that's not good news. Getting caught up in the picking of sides and the bickering back and forth is starving us of something absolutely necessary: kindness. As Gene points out in his message, God is in control, we are on a rescue mission, and it is kindness that will win the day. After all, it's kindness that leads us back to God and helps us survive Crazyland.

With a sermon series about Surviving Crazyland, you knew we had to talk about parenthood one of these weeks. Whether or not you're currently a parent, Brian shares some important information about what parenthood is like for parents, for the community that surrounds them, and important things to keep in mind as we look at a scriptural model for parenthood. Whether you're not a parent, you've already raised your kids, or you're right in the middle of it, the lessons from this talk can help all of us.

Pastor Aaron Wardle continues our Crazyland series with a talk about what happems when Crazyland gets in our head. It's important to realize that this happens to all of us at one stage or another, and that we have to learn how to handle our fears in order to survive crazyland.

One of the more dangerous aspects of Crazyland is the proliferation of preventable health problems. It seems that we don't do a very good job of taking care of ourselves. Yet, as Gene points out in this message, our ability to give care to others is directly related to the care we take for ourselves and the love we show to others will always be related to the love we first receive. If you're looking to make a positive contribution to the world, make sure you listen to this message and get some very important tools for Surviving Crazyland.