Myers Park Baptist Church: Theology Upstream Podcasts

Can you believe it is Lent already?  Some of you may be asking, what is Lent?  Short version is: it’s the time of year we set intentions (give something up, take on a spiritual practice, etc.) to make us aware of our humanity and our human finitude.  For this reason, we begin the season on Ash Wednesday hearing the words “From dust you cam and to dust you will return,” or “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It is an interesting season because as we are called to face our sinfulness, we are also reminded of our beloved-ness.  Two sides of the same human coin.  We are deeply loved by God and we are made painfully aware that we are not God, we fall short. Sometimes we can get stuck in that second part and become withdrawn, complacent, and static.  We see huge problems in  our world: violence, war, hatred, prejudice, poverty, hunger, etc. and we refuse to engage because we don’t know how. That’s why we chose Brené Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, for this season.  It’s a field guide for engaging the wilderness (a.k.a. our world) and it all starts with her quest for true belonging (which is a quest I think we can all relate to).  So just as Christians around the world are wrestling with the tension of beloved-ness and sinfulness, Brené gives us this beautiful little book on belonging and wilderness.  Listen in and see how those two tensions are inextricably woven together.

In this final episode on Making Room we explore ways that we can begin to create for ourselves a rhythm of hospitality.  Beginning with gratitude, recognizing the culture of busy-ness, and continuing to share the stories of hospitality are three ways that we can resist mainstream culture that keeps us separated, blind, and estranged from one another.  Additionally, we have to recognize that we cannot host every stranger all the time.  We are humans and we need time for rest and renewal.   If we can structure our lives around these principles, we can begin to incorporate sacred hospitality into every area of life: in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in our workplaces, and yes, even in our politics.   Considering these final two chapters (8 & 9), we saw many opportunities for overlap in our own lives and in the congregation we serve, Myers Park Baptist.  Through our tactics on small groups and the Awakening to Immigrant Injustice series, we are already beginning to break down barriers that have been built over time.  How will you begin breaking down those barriers?  How is God calling you to do the next small thing to become more hospitable?  We’d love to know your thoughts! We hope you enjoy this last episode!  Stay tuned for our new series on Brene Brown’s newest book, Braving the Wilderness.  In-person small groups are welcoming new members now for this book study.  Check out the options here:  https://myersparkbaptist.org/event/braving-the-wilderness-group/

Welcome back after a couple of weeks off for Christmas and New Years travel!  Did you all put your hospitality to the test in this season?  If so, we want to know all about it!  Add your story in the comments section!In this episode we’re doing a few things new. First, we’ve invited a guest to be on the podcast (isn’t that hospitable of us?).  His name is Daniel and he’s a new member at MPBC.   Next, we’ve moved into the realm of Disney Theme Songs with our musical selection.  To all of you who followed simply for the classic rock and grunge, I’m sorry.  To all those parents out there who have forgotten what decent music sounds like… this one is for you!  Really, though, I can’t believe we hadn’t thought about this song for our musical introduction yet!  Thanks Daniel for helping out with that one! And finally, we’re in a new section of the book called “Recovering the Practice.”  So we’re moving from history and information to practical stuff.  How do we begin to do this thing called hospitality?  Where are the limits and tensions?  In this episode, focusing on Chapter 7, we talk about tensions between scarcity and abundance, holy possibility and human limitation, arrogance and humility.  It’s clearly a jam-packed conversation.  As you listen and reflect on your own work with this chapter, consider what your own limits and boundaries might currently be.  How is God calling you to stretch those places and lean into something a little more vulnerable… a little more risky… and a little more welcoming?

In Chapter 6, we move toward the margins.  Pohl brings us up to speed on the historical migration of Christian practice from the margins, where it emerged, to the center – thank you Constantine!  While the normalization of Christian practice is more complex than one post, one podcast, or one chapter can cover, Pohl helps us understand why the practice of sacred hospitality becomes more difficult when the practitioners are connected with social, political, and economic power.  In this chapter, we meet some model citizens who have used their social locations, their wealth, and their access to resources as a means of moving further into the margins and welcoming all kinds of strangers in the spirit of faithful hospitality.  Some of the most notable are Fabiola, Olympias, and a name more familiar to most of us… Dorothy Day.  Each of these faithful women took their own economic securities and used them to offer “home” to strangers, refugees, and anyone who came seeking welcome.  Their incredible stories cause us to wonder how we might use our lives and our resources to expand our welcome as a congregation and as individuals.  What resources do we have that we might use to love and welcome strangers in need of refuge? One additional (and necessary) piece of the chapter is that Pohl reminds us of the necessity to become marginal.  A host cannot fully welcome another I the host is unfamiliar with marginality.  Do you have any experiences of marginality or exclusion that might help you better host others?  To harken back to the previous chapter… How might we become “bridge people” who understand both the world of power and the world of disempowerment?  Connectivity and disconnection?  Centrality and marginality?  Participation and exclusion?

Who or what is a stranger?  In this chapter (5) Pohl defines “stranger” and then helps us understand different kinds of strangers. The chapter is a beautifully written piece that calls us to consider all types of outsiders and in that understanding, to begin to break down the magnitude of risk and vulnerability that keeps so many of us paralyzed when we think about becoming hosts… welcoming strangers.  The best part of the chapter, for me (Chrissy), is on the last page when Pohl reminds us that as we practice hospitality, we may start small, but our embrace of others will grow wider and wider.  We don’t have to do the hardest thing first!  But we do need to do something soon!​What will you do?

How’s everyone enjoying the book / study guide / podcast so far?  We’ve been hearing from a few of you and are so encouraged by your thoughts and comments – Keep them coming! This week is one of the best so far… in my opinion.  Pohl gets into some really interesting content about hospitality as resistance.  In this fourth chapter of the book She explains the importance of recognition, resect, and dignity as critical components of hospitality as a spiritual practice rather than an act of charity.  The chapter really gets good in the second half when Pohl names the “tensions” within the practice.  Some of those are things like: hospitality and human rights, hospitality and the deserving/undeserving, hospitality and security, and the problems with associating hospitality with belief.  This chapter was so good that we just couldn’t stop talking about it (which is why this episode is nearly 57 minutes long!).  At the end, we find ourselves wrestling with questions like these:  1- What are some of the barriers that are currently in place that keep some populations invisible?2- What is the difference between helping people and sharing our lives with them?3- What do meals mean in your household?  In your church?4- How do you feel about encountering God and knowing that you will be held accountable for the ways you have responded to strangers?Listen in as we discuss this chapter; and don’t forget to tell us what you’re thinking as you participate in the study!

This second week of Advent and Making Room, we are exploring the history of hospitality.  What was it in the ancient world, when/how did it change, and what was lost in the transitions?  In the second chapter of the full book, Pohl walks us through the spiritual and moral dimensions of hospitality in Christian history.  She reminds us throughout the chapter to remember that Christian hospitality is counter-cultural because it transgresses lines of social and economic class.  Rather than being host to friends, family, or people you aspire to befriend, the Christian host opens her doors to those who can never repay the favor.  It is non-transactional.  We see this play out in the life and ministry of Jesus who was always inviting to the table those who did not belong.  Whether he was at the party as guest or host, Jesus made sure that those on the margins of society were invited guests to the proverbial (and literal) banquet tables of his time.  Interestingly Pohl links this subversive behavior of Jesus to the incarnation of Christ as servant.  God makes God’s own self human as a servant, transcending all boundaries that existed between the divine and human, and in so doing, God becomes flesh as an outsider, a refugee, a child of questionable birth, a stranger.  Because God has come into the world in such a way, and because Jesus modeled for us how to host the stranger, the outsider, the one who did not belong… it is our moral obligation and our Christian response to go and do likewise.  In the ancient world, this bold hospitality was practiced widely among Christians.  The faith depended upon it.  The lines between church and home were nothing like they are today and the proliferation of the Gospel often happened around hosts’ tables.  As people gathered to eat, relationships were forged, and the Good News of God’s work of inclusion and welcome spread.  But overtime, the church began to take on its own life outside of private homes.  In addition, the commercialization of hotels, hospitals, etc. meant that in-home hospitality of strangers and travelers became less and less common.  Household structures also changed and became smaller as each generation sought independence.  With more adults are working, fewer generations under one roof, and more children are in school, most homes went from being bustling centers of family life, to structures that remain empty most of the time.  These shifts are only a few of those outlined by Pohl in chapters 2 and 3!  With all this change, it’s no wonder the art of Christian hospitality has been lost along the way.  So how might we begin to recover it? Listen in as we work our way through these two jam-packed chapters and begin to think (out loud) about the possibility of recovering the lost art of Christian hospitality.

This Sunday we enter the season of Advent.  This Sunday, we also kick off the study of Dr. Christine Pohl’s book, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition.  I am thrilled that the church is providing the Study Guides to this book for FREE to all who want to participate in this 8-week study (while supplies last)!  Get your copy at the Welcome Desk on Sunday mornings or by contacting Caroline in the church office during the week.  The study guides are awesome because they help us think deeply about the spiritual practice of hospitality as we process the content in the longer book.  There are two ways you can access the content of the longer book: 1 – Buy (or check-out) the book.  Making Room, by Christine Pohl.  It’s available on online and in the public library. 2 – Listen to the podcasts 3 – Both!In the podcasts, we will talk through the content of each chapter and highlight some of the more significant (in our opinion) questions that each chapter raises for us as we work through the material.  As you follow along in the study guides, read through the questions and spend time with each one.  You might want to read the scripture for each chapter every day of the week and then really sit with one of the questions for the whole day.  Go slow!  This is a really big topic that is absolutely counter-cultural.  So if you take your time with the questions, you stand to experience profound spiritual growth as you work through the book.  We think all podcasts and blogs are better when there are comments.  I know it’s a little scary to write out your soul and post it online for the whole world to see.  But, I look at our viewership and I can promise you, the whole world is not reading the blog.  More seriously, almost 100% of the time, you’re not along in your thoughts, vulnerability or questions.  Your courage to post might inspire someone else who is participating in the study to share her/his thoughts as well.  And every post makes the experience better for everyone!  All that being said, here’s episode 1.  In this episode we break down the content from the first chapter and consider the ways that the evolution of our culture has shaped our understanding of hospitality.  And, we look at the chasm that exists between cultural hospitality (i.e. the hospitality industry) and the ancient spiritual practice of Christian hospitality.

As we wrap up our study of Our God is Undocumented we find ourselves in the tension between the false stories we’d like to believe, our lived experience, and the true stories that are often more complex and difficult to understand.  Standing between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we explore some of the false narratives that circulate during the holidays and how the practice of hospitality might be the key to helping us connect with deeper truth.It sure is sad to see this book come to an end!  But we’re eager to pick back up with our 8-week (Advent and Epiphany) study of Christine Pohl’s book, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition.

This episode is all about purity.  Which is why we chose an amazing piece of music to jump start our conversation.  In the book, Ched walks us through purity codes in the Gospels and helps us to see how Jesus chose to interact within his historical context.  Reading Ched’s exegesis quickly turns our focus to purity codes that exist in our own cultural/ social/ historical context(s).  What are the purity codes that are present in your life?  How and when do they show up?  Do they determine how you live?  Who you spend time with?  How you make your decisions? ​Listen in and let us know what you think!