First Baptist Church of Asheville Podcast

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The tale of the rich man and Lazarus is the only parable with named characters (Lazarus and Abraham). It’s significant that one of only two named people is a destitute human being who doubles as a rich person’s last chance for friendship with God. Lazarus may be one of those angels we can “entertain unawares” (Heb. 13:2). Even so, the rich man misses his opportunity to give himself a name, and finds himself on the other side of an impassable distance. The good news is that there’s still time for the living to straddle the fault line with generosity before it’s too late.

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October 5, 2025

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“Dishonest” is a misnomer, for the manager is not breaking laws (he’s arguably enacting Levitical law by cutting out the interest on commodities). Rather, we’re better off thinking of him as more of a trickster, a clever rascal whose actions somehow strengthen the relationships between his boss, customers, and himself. The master commends him for acting shrewdly, which raises a question: how might the church emulate the manager’s shrewdness in our contemporary context? What might an economically savvy church’s public witness look like?

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“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them,” the authorities grumble. Meanwhile, Jesus is rejoicing, and inviting us to do the same. For the lost are found, lives have been changed, and the kingdom has drawn near. What might happen when an entire congregation has a reputation for such “vexing celebrations”? Word travels quickly when there’s a place people can go to be forgiven, change their ways, and live their lives in communion with a people whose celebrations are never more jubilant than when a sinner repents.

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September 7, 2025

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Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost · August 31, 2025

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Hebrews details accounts of biblical heroes before focusing on Christ’s life and witness as the superlative example, “the pioneer and perfecter”of suffering faith. The author conveys a deeper sense of suffering, asserting it’s not punishment but rather a sign of faithfulness. If anything, Jesus’ faithfulness—and faith in Jesus—invites more suffering than it relieves. While suffering for its own sake is not a virtue, we may be comforted to know that suffering as the result of faith aligns our lives with him who “has taken his seat at the right hand of God.”

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Jesus adds an addendum to the Lord’s Prayer—a parable of one neighbor pestering another for three loaves of bread at midnight. Jesus encourages us in our prayers to be just as disruptive and even as “inconsiderate” as this pesky neighbor. He invites us to ask, and not only to ask but to search, and not only to ask and to search but also to knock after hours. In other words, Jesus teaches us not to be polite or try to protect God from our prayers, but to “cast all [our] cares” (1 Pet. 5:7) on God without regard for the Almighty’s busy schedule.

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The “basket of summer fruit” God shows Amos is a play on words meaning “summer’s end.” In other words, it’s over. Winter is coming. Israel’s sins against the poor and needy have done irreparable harm and made God’s wrath and silence unavoidable. The good news is that this ending marks a segue to a new time of restoration and thriving. Amos’s prophecy invites Christians to ask what we might be glad to see coming to an end about our own history, and what joys we might find in the ways congregations are “starting over” today.

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