This week we begin our series “Our Bodies and Our Creator” by hearing from Steve Hartman-Keiser. Steve shares from a chapter of Marilyn McEntyre’s book, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict, and helps us consider who we are, as children of God. As the events of this month unfold, Steve’s words and sharing feel fitting for this moment in which we as individuals and as a faith community find ourselves.

You can learn more about the book that Steve reads from here:
https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7814/speaking-peace-in-a-climate-of-conflict.aspx

And the poem Steve shares can be read here:
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/L/LeeLiYoung/PraiseThem/index.html

This week we hear from Erin Cassidente, who helps us try to find the silver lining in the past, tumultuous year by considering what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown from our experiences. She encourages us to pay attention to this experiential wisdom and growth and asks what this might mean in the coming year.

This episode also includes background music from Magmi.Soundtracks, https://freesound.org/people/Magmi.Soundtracks/

This week on the podcast, many members of the Milwaukee Mennonite Church family share the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2: 1-20).

Today on the podcast, Amy Bowers shares her thoughts on Mary’s Magnificat, the winter solstice, and what this season has meant.

This week on the podcast, Dan Eash-Scott shares the wisdom of one of his summer Bible campers and the well-known passage of 1 Corinthians 13, and considers how God’s Love might be manifested in our lives.

Accompanying Norm’s sharing are several scriptures that he alludes to without naming:

Scripture where the virgin birth is tangentially inferred: Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; Luke 3:23; 4:22; John 6:42; 9:29; Galatians 4:4

The NT passages that contain very early, proto-creedal language: Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Philippians 2:11; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John 4:2, 15.

In this installment of M4D, Rachel Eash-Scott finds hope in the Advent texts for this week and encourages us to pay attention.

Along with our usual music contributors, Connie Johnson-Evers and David Stolpe, music during the questions to consider this week is by Maxim Tsukanov, a Russian composer, and used under the Creative Commons license. Check out Maxim’s work at https://soundcloud.com/x3nus

This week, Lori Hartman-Keiser shares with us the challenges and struggles of life during a pandemic and looks to Romans 8:24-25. She reminds us of the connections that we miss during this time, and encourages us to embrace the versions of those connections that might bring us hope.