This week BibleWorm reads the story of God giving the 10 commandments to Israel as told in Exodus 19:1-8 and 20:1-21. We draw out the idea that God has been calling these people out of Egypt and through the wilderness in order to make them a treasured possession among all the peoples of the earth. We think about God giving the 10 commandments to the people—and to us—to show the importance of integrity and fidelity in relationships with God, with each other, and with ourselves. And we marvel at the nature of God—1,000 parts compassion and 4 parts judgment. That’s the recipe for a covenanted life with us humans, who try and fail and try again.

Episode 405 Living the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:1-8 and 21:1-21)

Getting to the core of the biblical text.

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

This week BibleWorm concludes the Narrative Lectionary cycle with the Pentecost readings, Acts 2:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-13. We talk about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which empowers the original disciples to speak in languages they don’t know, calling them outward from the culturally homogenous group to enter into the cultures and languages of others. That same Spirit, Paul says, pours out on the Christians in Corinth—and on Christians today—empowering us with a diversity of gifts, from miraculous gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues, to floppier gifts like wisdom and knowledge. Whatever our gifts, Paul says, the community needs them all. If we withhold our gifts, or if we fail to recognizes the diverse gifts of others, we fail to live up to God’s vision for us as the body of Christ.

Episode 541 The Gifts of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-13)

Today BibleWorm reads from I Corinthians 15:1-26 & 51-57, a section of Paul’s letter that is focused unwaveringly on bodily resurrection. It seems this was one of harder aspects of the faith for the people of Corinth, and it is a tough one for many modern readers too. But Paul insists that you have to believe the impossible thing, the thing that goes against what you have seen with your own eyes. There is no hedging: You not only have to wholeheartedly believe the testimony of others, that Jesus was resurrected in body, but that it will happen again. It will happen for all Christians, and, Paul seems to say here, even universally. What happens when we shift from a shift from a spiritual orientation toward the idea of eternal life to an embodied one? Why is this body piece so important to Paul? What are people, anyway?

Episode 540 The Resurrection of the Body (1 Corinthians 15:1-26 & 41-47)

This week BibleWorm reads Paul’s famous discussion of love as given in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. It’s not every day that Bobby and Amy talk about Paul’s letters and find ourselves in full agreement that Paul is in fact right. But both our Jewish and Christian traditions can fully affirm what Paul says here—that love is the one undeconstructible reality, the most fundamental principle of the cosmos and, one might say, the very essence of God. The sort of love Paul calls us to in this passage is anti-imperial, the sort of soft love that seems foolish to those who live in a world where domination, control, and pride are the logic of the day. By contrast, Paul calls us to a softer way of inhabiting the world, characterized by patience, kindness, and yielding to others, trusting and hoping in the power of love toward which the world is ultimately moving.

Episode 539 The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

This week BibleWorm reads Acts 18:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, our introduction to the city of Corinth, a busy port city with all kinds of diversity and disparity ... almost like an ancient Las Vegas. And here in this city, Paul tasks the budding church with finding a way to profound unity. Speaking to a people that seem prone to latch on to the messenger instead of the message, as we humans like to do, Paul does whatever he can to sever that connection, even when that’s painful, in order to insist that his listeners find a common anchor point in something much bigger, something that unites them all: the cross itself, and only that. Is it possible for us humans to connect to something that big without holding onto the medium that gets us there? And how do we not lose the forest for the trees?

Episode 538 Unity in the Cross (Acts 18:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 1:10-18)

Today BibleWorm reads from two different books in the New Testament. We hear about Paul’s visit to the community  in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9 and then read from his letter to that community in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. As we read about the struggle of those early days for that budding church community, we wonder, what does it take for someone to throw in their lot with a revolutionary movement and really stick with it through all the real risk and seemingly constant uncertainty? And how can we support one another in living that sort of courageous life today?

Episode 405 Living the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:1-8 and 21:1-21)

Download our free app to listen on your phone