Like rings in a tree and onions and ogres and Russian nesting dolls, we as people and we as faith communities carry layers within us. Like the layer Israel built upon return from exile, and the layer Jesus added to the story of God, may we take apart layers of the nesting doll and bless the lives and years we are given.

What are we supposed to be doing with our lives? How can we focus on “everyday heroics” without becoming frozen by the vast brokenness of our world? What does it mean to live into the blessings of a reality that isn't here yet?

The second Sunday after Epiphany invites us to consider what it means to start over and how we might need to, occasionally, look at things anew. How can we honor the past, including the broken parts, and appreciate who we are becoming? How can we be attentive to the particulars so that we can add our light to the world?

How does the season of Ordinary Time and the story of Jesus’ baptism invite us to look at the world differently, through “poet’s eyes?” How might we embrace the ambiguities and confusions of life and still have a clear sense of who we are becoming?

On the 11th day of Christmas, we are invited to imagine what is coming to life in and around us in ways that are outside the traditional expectations of how and where we experience God.

In “Through the Looking-glass,” the White Queen advises Alice to practice believing six impossible things before breakfast each day. Every year around Christmas, it feels like Christians are asked to do the same thing. Joseph, who we don’t often know what to do with in the story, seemed to have a similar experience.

Who are we when life doesn't turn out like we thought it would? What if the joy of Advent isn't about magically having our circumstances changed, but about transforming our experiences of the wilderness? Can we stop trying to escape, and start finding a way to notice the strange beauty of our wild, unexpected lives right here, right now?
Join us as we explore John the Baptist's doubt and the wisdom of seeing the joy of the whole universe in a single grain of rice.

What makes for peace in Advent? How can we see conflict as a part of the peace process and not a threat to it? How can we be comfortable with who we are while still embracing the differences in others?

As we attempt to move from our Revelation study into Advent, we are given some of the most apocalyptic, Revelation-like words Jesus said. What does it mean to make ourselves at home as if the Kingdom of God were a reality here, now, on this earth? 

Studying alongside the lectionary means learning a new way of telling time centered on the life of Christ. For the next six months, we will study texts that we did not choose alongside one another and faith communities all over the world. We hope to pay attention to ourselves and one another as these texts are read aloud, noticing what resonates and what we feel resistance toward.