Luke 18:31-34

You could say that this one is about death and dying and so nobody wants to listen to it. But it is much more than that. It's about how underneath all culture warring, underneath all worldview defense lies a sheer terror: We are all enslaved to the fear of death. That fear infects everything.

What does it mean to follow Jesus and walk towards an inevitable death without being enslaved to this fear?

Sources:

Ernest Becker, Richard Beck, Ted Pyscynski, Andrew Root, Kara Root, Brian Ross, Kosuke Koyama, Mark Baker, Richard Rohrbaugh, Bruce Malina, Brian Zahnd, Eric Versluis, Cynthia Vinney, Russell Barkley, Emily Smith, Erika Hayasaki, Plato, David B. Rose, Helmine Bigler, Stephen Covey, Mark Strauss, Craig Keener, N.T. Wright, and Elizaeth Bruenig.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(12/7/25)

Luke 18:15-30

So many people see the rich in the powerful in one of two ways.

• They either see them as the posterchild of success and they secretly envy them.
• Or they villainize them as corrupt oppressors.

Neither view looks through the eyes of compassion. Jesus sees what few others see about what riches and power are doing to them.

This one explores the way that Jesus speaks out of compassion for the rich and the powerful.

Credits and Sources:

Ivan Paz, William Herzog, Gerhard Lenski, Tim Jennings, Dacher Keltner, Sukhvinder Obhi, James Alison, Jerry Useem, Skye Jethani, Justo Gonzalez, David Garland, Bruce Malina, Richard Rorhbaugh, Alan Culpepper, N.T. Wright, Kenneth Bailey, Moises Silva, Tim Geddert, Renee Durbin, Miguel de la Torre.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(11/23/25)

Luke 18:15-17

This episode explores why reconnecting with your younger self is crucial to healthy spirituality.

Credits and Sources:

Eugene Peterson, Andrew Root, Kara Root, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Hartmut Rosa, Lacy Finn Borgo, Ken Shigematsu, Justo Gonazalez, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(11/16/25)

Luke 18:9-14

Do you know that part of you that dearly wants to be right? Do you know that part that doesn't want to need any fixing, any correction, any help? Do you know that part with a chronic need to impress others.

Do you know that part of you that known that you can't fix you? It's the part that knows that you keep trying to make it better and solve things, but somehow you have stuck patterns and things that aren't working?

Can you feel that tension? These parts polarize within us and fight against one another.

What story does Jesus tell here that might help you find relief?

Credits & Sources:

Kenneth Bailey, William Herzog II, Brian Zahnd, David Garland, Alan Culpepper, Justo Gonzalez, Bill Wilson, Daniel Taylor, Ian Cron, Gerald May, Steve Cuss, Eugene Peterson, Josiah Haken, Michael Farris.

Music by Michael Gungor & Tyler Chester

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(11/9/25)

Luke 18:1-8

Life hits us with so many opportunities to just give up. We all know the feeling. "Nothing I do is going to change anything. Why am I trying any more? I'm just banging my head against a wall. This is an unsolvable puzzle, an impossible problem. This is an incompatible relationship. I have no control over this."

What difference does it make if prayer is the alterative you choose to giving up?

Credits:

Tim Geddert, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Marsha Linehan, Craig Keener, Kenneth Bailey, David Garland, Justo Gonzalez, David Wenham, Luise Schottroff, William Herzog II, Robert Capon, St. Francis, St. Patrick, Nijay Gupta, Martin Seligman.

Music by Michael Gungor & Tyler Chester

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(11/2/25)

Luke 17:20-37

You can see that life you want on the horizon. But the more you chase after it, the more you exert control, plan, strategize, threat manage, self-preserve, rush, cling, and try...

The further it retreats. It slips out of your grip. It dissolves. It disappears and leaves you feeling empty and alienated.

Jesus says, "Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33)

What does this paradox mean for your life?

Credits & Sources:

Andrew Root, Kara Root, Hartmut Rosa, Justo Gonzalez, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Moises Silva, Craig Keener, N.T. Wright, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Alan Culpepper, Greg Boyd, Luise Schottroff, Eugene Peterson.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(10/18/25)

Luke 17:11-19

When life turns upside down sometimes we realize what we were taking for granted. We realize that there were things we treated as important that simply are not important. There are things that are important, but we treated them with little regard. It's strange how a crisis can take controversies, prejudices and polarizations that feel like they matter so intensely...and suddenly they do not matter at all.

What if you could live now the way you will wish you could have lived back then? And in the middle of all of this-what is the faith and salvation that Jesus sees happening within you?

Credits and Sources:

Greg Boyd, Tim Geddert, Joel Green, T. Omiya, David Garland, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Fred Craddock, Justo Gonzalez, Craig Keener.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(10/5/25)

Luke 17:1-10

Both Jesus and the Pharisees wanted people to change. They used the same tool to seek change. But they used that tool in opposite ways. That tool was table fellowship. The Pharisees withheld table fellowship as a means of changing people. Jesus extended table fellowship as a means of changing people. What does it mean to participate in the kind of community of change that Jesus created?

Credits & Sources:

Mark Baker, Moises Silva, Tim Geddert, Lewis Smedes, Brian Ross, Michael Card, Richard Rohrbaugh, Bruce Malina, Kenneth Bailey, Justo Gonzalez, Stephanie Rigg, Joel Green, Alan Culpepper, Jan Richardson, Fred Craddock.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/28/25)

Luke 16:19-31

What happens when you get so far inside of your own experience that you cannot see from someone else's perspective. Call it a funk, tunnel vision, an echo chamber. Whatever it is, their experience, their perspective, their needs become invisible to you. All you can see is your pain and what you want. They might as well be a million miles away. And the farther you go into the experience, the deeper and darker it becomes.

From time to time, this just happens to us. It does.

What does Jesus have to say? How does the Spirit work with us in these experiences?

Credits and Sources:

Craig Keener, Moises Silva, William Herzog II, Brian Zahnd, Eugene Peterson, Fred Craddock, N.T. Wright, David Garland, Clarence Jordan, Brad Jersak, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert.  

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/21/25)

Luke 16:1-15

Figuring out your relationship to money, wealth, stuff, and things can be tricky. It's complicated!!! This episode explores some stories Jesus tells as a way of possibly helping you discern your own heart and desires related to income, money, wealth, stuff, and things.

Credits and Sources:

Ryan Shellenberg, Ched Meyers, Paul Trudinger, William R. Herzog II, Justo Gonazlez, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Craig Keener, Kenneth Bailey, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Donald Kraybill.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/13/25)