In this week's appointed gospel lesson, Jesus says, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" (Luke 12:51). Generally, Jesus has been seen as a great uniter, a unifying force among disparate groups with differing identities of every sort. It's what makes this declaration particularly challenging, at least for Jonath and Seth. So, they ask what Jesus might want to separate us from, what is the historical context of Jesus' statement, and how does it apply to us today? What do we need to be divided from to follow Jesus more closely?

We're glad you're with us! We hope your summer ends well. Keep cool, keep hydrated, keep listening!

Do you have a lot of stuff? In this episode, Jonathan and Seth discuss the items they collect. Seth talks about his Uncle Joe, who was a hoarder (and we use that term seriously), and how he witnessed his uncle's attachment to his belongings, especially towards the end of his life. They talk a little about what we can do about all our "stuff", but more about what it means to be ready for Jesus' return by finding our security in Jesus' love for us rather than our belongings.

We're glad you're with us! We'd love to hear what items you collect; we won't judge! And if you've had success thinning your hoard, we'd love to hear about that too. Because we're glad you're on this journey with us, wrestling with what it means to follow Christ in a complex world.

The temptation exists to read Ecclesiastes as fundamentally different from the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. It's not history, not law, not like proverbs or the psalms, but a completely different genre altogether. There are themes, however, that echo throughout the entire Hebrew Bible that reverberate in Ecclesiastes as well. One of them is rest. The writer doesn't want their audience to toil constantly; that would be pointless, or vanity, or like a breeze that blows through quickly and disappears. What does rest look like? And how can people like Jonathan and Seth help others rest who don't have the opportunity to do so? What does it look like to read Ecclesiastes constructively as opposed to the ramblings of a depressed Solomon?

We're glad you're with us! Ecclesiastes is, maybe strangely, one of Seth's favorite books of the Bible. If you want to read a groundbreaking work, see Jennie Barbour's The Story of Israel in the Book of Qohelet: Ecclesiastes as Cultural Memory.

Jesus gives his disciples what is often called "The Lord's Prayer" or the "Our Father." Afterwards, he tells a story about persistence and relates it to one's prayer life. What happens, however, when our prayers go unanswered despite persistent pleas? What is the point of prayer if it is not a gumball machine, dispensing what one wants after they've paid? Who does prayer change, us or God? Jonathan and Seth discuss why prayer matters. We do it at the end of each episode, after all.

We're glad you're with us! Is there a prayer practice you've found particularly meaningful? Is there a prayer you recite often? If so, we'd love to hear from you. We apologize that this episode was released late too. Like usual, it's Seth's fault!

Jesus has some difficult-to-hear words about following him, including seemingly telling a man that he should not even return home to bury his father. In the ancient world, family may have been more important than it is today; there were no retirement homes, so family had to take care of their members as they aged. If someone ended up in prison, food was not provided. Family or friends had to bring it to them. It's into this ancient context that Jesus' words seem particularly difficult. But they're difficult today, too. What do we do when we encounter texts that seem to push against the grain we see in Scripture? Shouldn't we love and care for those who love and care for us, after all? Shouldn't we invest in our chosen or given families? Jonathan and Seth discuss how to approach and read tough texts.

We're glad you're with us! Seth returned from Greece the day before this episode was recorded, and his circadian rhythm had never been more off. It's better now, but he'd appreciate it if you gave him extra grace this episode.

When a man is purged of his many demons, it seems like cause for celebrating (Luke 8:26-39). The townspeople who knew the man, however, "asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear" (Lk. 8:37). How do we let fear dictate how we see our future, how we see others, even how we see Jesus? Jonathan and Seth talk about this rather strange story that seems like a traditional healing, but has much more detail before and after the healing takes place in the narrative. What does this additional information help us learn about the healed, the healer, and the wider community they find themselves?

We're glad you're with us. Lately, our podcast statistics have been trending up! More people than ever are listening. If you're enjoying us or finding us helpful for your sermon preparation, we hope you'll share us with someone else, write us a review, or both.

After celebrating Pentecost, the Church turns its attention to the Triune God. This Sunday makes preaching, teaching, worship planning, and children's sermons particularly difficult because the danger of heresy seems to lurk everywhere. What if we didn't let that stop us from dreaming and exploring what God was like? Jonathan and Seth attempt to unpack what is dangerous about heresies related to the Trinity and whether there is anything we can learn from rigid rules defined in patriarchal councils convened by rulers intent on using the Church for their control. In other words, why does the Trinity still matter?

We're glad you're with us! Seth nerds out on this episode as early church history and the patristic period (from roughly 100-451 CE) piques his interest. We hope that excitment comes through.

As Target learned the hard way, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the way forward. It's also the way of God in the world as evidenced at Pentecost. So, Seth and Jonathan talk about DEI. While we've occasionally spoken around it, referenced it, or advocated for an inclusive Church, this episode tackles DEI head-on. Why do we need DEI? What are its limits? How can we go further than DEI initiatives? And how does the multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual story of Pentecost inform diversity efforts today? This episode is not political charged, unless you find any mention of diversity inherently political. It is, however, faithful.

We're glad you're with us. This episode was particularly fun to record because we could confront an issue that has been widely politicized. We hope our joy and our commitment to inclusion shine through because if you have a problem with inclusion, your problem is not with, but with God.

Situated between Jesus' ascension and Pentecost, this is an odd Sunday. One of the oddities, at least for modern readers, is that a whole household is baptized together in the appointed Acts reading. When the patriarch of the family, a jailor, decides to be baptized, he decides for his entire family. Is this merely patriarchy at play? Could it tell us something about how households functioned in the ancient world and, perhaps, something about how people can walk along with us toward our baptism? Jonathan and Seth try to sort out what's happening in this story through a lens of grace.

We're glad you're with us! As the Easter season ends, we hope you'll continue living in the joy of Christ's resurrection.

When and how do we tell difficult-to-hear truths? In this Sunday's gospel text, Jesus heals on the Sabbath. In doing so, he does what isn't expected or accepted. Speaking difficult truths can be similar. Others may expect us to "toe the line" by parroting what others in authority have said. Likewise, our truths may not be accepted or could be viewed as harsh. Jonathan and Seth discuss how this applies to the war in Gaza. It also has applications in our personal lives. As we wrestle with these, we hope it stirs questions and insights into how to break the rules, just as the water in the pool of Beth-zatha is stirred up (John 5:7).

We're glad you're with us. In this episode, they reference the book One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. I (Seth, here) would recommend it to anyone.