First Baptist Church of Asheville Podcast

After Mary treasures and ponders in Luke, Matthew introduces us to a Joseph who dreams. There are two dreams in this passage, and Joseph is warned by an angel in both of them. Here is a side of Christmas we often pass over for its intense dangers and communal laments. But the threats to Jesus and his family mirror the contemporary dangers immigrants and asylum seekers experience today. Nevertheless, the good news is that God works through both our waking and dreaming to undermine the plots of the wicked and make a way where once there was no way.

Without knowing it (for he doesn’t focus on Christmas in the conventional sense), Paul’s salutation to the Romans is a distilled version of Christmas and the whole gospel story. This one sentence maps out all the high notes of our salvation history. A key phrase comes toward the end: “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” Like unsuspecting bystanders suddenly conscripted into the action, by God’s grace we, too, have become characters around the manger, “set apart for the gospel of God.”

Though the rapture-mongers have convinced their followers they don’t want to be left behind on Judgment Day, Advent begins with Jesus trying to convince us otherwise. “Keep awake,” he says, with a warning about the suddenness of salvation’s arrival. Our readiness will depend on how we spend our time in the daily affairs of our lives. Do we go through the motions, merely “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”? Or do we live with a heightened sense that “whatever task you do, work as if your soul depends on it” (Col. 3:23)?

Paul commends to the Thessalonians an ancient method of learning—imitation (mimesis). Learning a skill comes not from watching but from following the example of someone with the skill you wish to acquire, sitting with them, mimicking their moves until you begin to get them down yourself. What’s at stake is the passing on of traditions that make possible “the life that really is life.” As well, such imitation ensures that each person in the community is doing their part to enable the flourishing of the whole.

November 2, 2025

Scripture: Luke 6:20-31

Preacher: Mack Dennis

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost · October 26, 2025

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

Preacher: Casey Callahan

“All scripture is inspired by God,” Paul writes. Notice, he doesn’t say “All scripture was inspired by God,” but all scripture is. The word of God is alive. It’s active. It moves. It darts to and fro. It springs forth. It pours down upon. It quickens and slows. It breathes. The Bible is not an old, outdated book but an exciting record of God’s works that never loses its power to touch our hearts. Today we enjoy the opportunity to teach our children to appreciate the lively and playful nature of scripture and all it has to teach us.

And he was a Samaritan. Of all ten lepers cleansed, only one returns to give thanks to God—and he was a Samaritan, a foreigner, an interloper. But not only does this Samaritan leper find himself healed of his disease, upon returning and praising God, Jesus informs him that “your faith has made you well.” So he’s not only healed, but also made well. Which means, presumably, the other nine didn’t get that far. The Samaritan’s gratitude is a bracing demonstration of a foreigner being an exemplar of faith.