Easter is all about hope, but the truth is that many people are not feeling very hopeful right now. The resurrection stories remind us that Jesus doesn’t meet us in our hope, but first in our grief. It is in Mary’s grief and confusion that Jesus calls her name and invites her into hope for something that she cannot yet fully understand.

Where is God reaching out to you in your grief and pain and inviting you into hope?

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Note: For the next two weeks, ther will be no podcast episode because we are having a music service and a guest preacher at my church.

Be sure to check back on May 12th as we kick off our new series - “It’s Complicated - Family as a Means of Grace”

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

Join me this Palm Sunday as we reflect on the contrast of the shouting crowds and Jesus' humble silence as he enters Jerusalem. When are you called to shout and when is it better to be silent?

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

“'God has a really bad habit of using people we don’t approve of,'” Rachel Held Evans once said. “'What makes the gospel offensive is not who it keeps out, but who it lets in.'”

I might tweak Evans’s formulation and put it this way: God has a really bad habit of loving people we don’t approve of. Or maybe this: God has a really bad habit of showing mercy to people we don’t approve of.

Or maybe: God has a really bad habit of extending grace to people we don’t approve of" (Jeff Chu).

Join us this week as we look deeper into one of those people, Zaccheus, the chief tax collector, and what his example might have to teach us about ourselves.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

Welcome to our second week of "March Pulpit Madness." Today’s sermon was recorded at Rock Grove United Methodist Church in Salisbury, NC.

This week we’re looking at the Parable of the Fig Tree. Often this story is taken as a declaration of judgment from God on those who are not producing good enough fruit, but what if God is actually more like the gardener who desires to pour extra time and attention into the barren fig tree to nurture it and give it more time to grow?

Join me as we reflect on the balance between rest and growth and God’s deep patience and care for us in our spiritual journey.

Note: There will be no sermon podcast episode next week as I will be serving as a pastor on a weekend Pilgrimage Retreat. Enjoy today’s message and check back on April 6th as we look at Zaccheus and everything in between righteousness & mercy.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

This week I began a series of pulpit swapping in what the local United Methodist Churches in our community are calling "March Pulpit Madness." Today’s sermon was recorded at Bethel United Methodist Church in Salisbury, NC.

We are all using the same series based losely on the Narrative Lectionary through Sanctified Art called "Everything [in] between", wrestling with the many extremes posed to us in the gospels that we tend to over emphasize on one side or the other.

This week we join Mary, Martha and Jesus as we reflect on everything in between Faith and Works. Is Jesus really "scolding" Martha for her hospitality when her work is precisly the kind of thing he calls us to do elsewhere? Is he really saying that we should always and only sit at his feet and listen while never moving into action, despite his constant invitation to "go and do" the work of ministry? Maybe, just maybe, it's not a clear cut either / or.

Join me as we dive into what's really going on here, and how both faith and works play a pivotal role in our life with Christ.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

As we begin this Lenten Journey, we meet many suffering people along the way. We also encounter so-called benefactors with eloquent words about their suffering and occasionally a Good Samaritan who actually does something about it.

Join us this week as we begin this journey together, and reflect on how we are invited to be with those who are hurting in our world today.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

"God does not make the mountains to be inhabited. We ascend to the heights to gain a broader vision of the world below. But we do not stay there. We do not tarry there. The streams begin in the uplands, but they descend quickly to gladden the valleys below" (Henry Drummond, Scottish theologian)

As we descend the mountain into the dark valley of the Lenten season and journey with Jesus toward the cross, we must not leave behind the vision of God’s glory. Instead, we are called to carry that light with us — to embody God’s love in the valleys of pain and suffering along the way.

For further reflections on the transfiguration, listen to this week’s sermon here.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Reconciliation and Liberation Story is an
alternative seventh story embodied by Jesus. It
contrasts sharply with the six dominant narratives of the first century and all of human history.  In Luke 19, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.  He laments her refusal to
embrace the way of peace and foresees the inevitable destruction caused by these other stories.

This week in worship we shared in table conversations around how we are tempted into the six stories of domination, revenge, isolation, victimization, purification and accumulation and what steps we can take to live into the seventh story marked by the unconditional love of Christ for all.

Join us as we finish the seventh story and take some time to reflect on these questions for yourself. How are the six stories of the world impacting your life and how will you live into the Seventh Story this week?

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Accumulation Story tells us that the most important thing in life is the accumulation of wealth, and that great wealth comes with great power. Tragically, the effectiveness of this story is built into the very fabric of our consumer capitalist society. As more and more wealth and power is concentrated into the hands of a smaller and smaller few, the rest of the population is discarded as essentially disposable. Workers are treated as commodities to exploit as they labor endlessly for less and less in return.

Jesus shows us another way, a way of generosity and care for the poor and vulnerable rather than the exploitation of those who already have so little. As he says to the disciples in Matthew 19:23, it is hard indeed for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. With great wealth comes great responsibility, a basic truth that our world seems to have all but lost.

Join us as we reflect on the ways Christians have resisted this accumulation story throughout the centuries and how we might be called to do the same in our own time.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Victimization story tells us that there is no hope. It fills us with a spirit of fear and ultimately leads to hatred and bitterness. While it is understandable for those who are truly oppressed to feel this way, Jesus reminds us that the injustice we face does not define us. Even in our suffering, we are blessed because God sees us and loves us. The truth is that God always takes the side of those who are truly oppressed.

Join us as we lament together the injustice in our world and lean into our call to rise above the victimiztiaon story and lean into a story of hope, mercy and love. Let us stand in the gap for those on the margins, that they may truly experience the love of Christ through us.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa