Off the Beaten Pulpit

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

a) What are good reasons to leave a church?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Luke 5: The Calling of Levi and the table ministry of Jesus.

(b) Genesis 32: The blessing of God and Jacob's wrestling match to become "Israel"--receiving the blessing of God and undoing the curse of his father.

3. Offerings

(a) A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission Around the Table by Tim Chester

(b) The Man Watching by Rainer Maria Rilke

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

Episode 6 | Four Loves, Three Sacraments, Two Pukes, and an Alien

My favorite episode yet!

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

a) Is God an alien? (Richard Dawkins thinks so!)

b) Who are the Nephilim?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Revelation 3: On Jesus' warning about spitting the church of Laodicea out of its mouth (bad puke) unless repent of their self-reliance (good puke)!

(b1) James 4: On the meanings of love(s)—loving God as a friend and loving your spouse as an embodied sacrament!

(b2) Mark 10: On marriage as a covenant and sacrament, Jesus' assertion that God does not recognize divorce in the way the state (and many of us) do, and the claim that certain second marriages are adulterous.

3. Offerings

(a) From C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves

(b) Jane Austen: Persuasion

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

For article referenced, "Fifty Shades of Hell: When Sex Becomes Sexuality, Communion Becomes Consumerism," see the following link: toomanywords.substack.com/p/fifty-shades-of-hell

*One correction: During the discussion about the Nephilim, I mentioned that in Hebrew 'Elohim' is the word for God (El) with the plural ending (ohim), so it is translated God or gods depending on context. But in Genesis 1:1, the plural noun (Elohim / אֱלֹהִ֑ים) takes a singular verb (bara / בָּרָ֣א), suggesting that this "God" who "created the heavens and the earth" is in some sense both plural and singular, in the same way he depicts his image being when he says, "Let us (pl.) make man (sg.) in our (pl.) image (sg.)...So God created man (sg.) in his own image (sg.)...male and female he created them (pl.) (Gen. 1:26-27). This grammar of plural God who is singular in being and act, present in the very first verse of Scripture, lays the foundation for the ultimate Trinitarian revelation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All that to say, I misspoke and for some reason said the singular verb was "is" (the verb of being) when I referenced Genesis 1:1--and it obviously isn't!

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

Episode 5: Special episode discussing the two 2026 superbowl halftime shows, and two (or three?) visions of America (or the world?)

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

Episode 4: Godly Wisdom from Above & Glittering Images from Below

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

a) Why are there missing verses in Scripture?

b) Who is qualified to lead a bible study?

c) Are you calling for open borders?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) James 3: On the godly wisdom from above contrasted with the demonic(!) wisdom from below: seeing the "spiritual" nature of everyday life

(b) Revelation 3: On Jesus' condemnation without affirmation to the church at Sardis, and the warning: "Don't be a Sardis"

3. Offerings

(a) From Susan Howatch's Novel: Glittering Images

(b) Poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez: "I Am Not I"

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

Episode 3: Wild Things & Untamed Tongues

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

Are those who rejected by Jesus in Matthew 7:23 the ones who are "saved through fire" in 1 Corinthians 3:15?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Reading Revelation like Where the Wild Things Are

(b) James 3: Untamed Tongues and Teachers as the Norm Setters for Speech about God

*Excursus on the real meaning and intention of the separation of church and state.

3. Offerings

(a) From Christopher Beha's What Happened to Sophie Wilder? on learning to accept the unresolved stories that are not our own. This novel is a beautiful blend of Fight Club and The Notebook. 

(b) From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's essay Live Not by Lies on the overlooked and underappreciated power of non-participation in in lies, which the *only* power that destroys the power of the lie.

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. You Asked for It: How does the Church relate to the government (and what kind of Government does the Church uniquely have?)? What about immigration, abortion, and how do we speak the truth in love to those across the political isle (without getting caught up in "the swarm")?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Daniel: Revelation 2:12-17 Letter to the Church in Pergamum: Scales, Blindfolds, and Swords: What true liberty and justice look like in light of the One who is coming with a double-edged sword in judgement.

(b) Jeremy: James 2:14-28 What Exactly Are the Works of Faith? Not works of the Law, Not works of Morality, Not Works of Merit, but a Certain Kind of Obedience (Find further reflections on Pastor Jeremy's Substack post: There's No Such Thing as Biblical Morality).

3. Offerings: From The Myths We Live By (Mary Midgley) and "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" (Wendell Berry)

1. Sermon Discussion:

(a) Jeremy: James 2:14-28 Faith with a Pulse

James: saving faith and the kind that doesn't save, cheap grace and costly grace, the relationship between faith and works (and righteousness), the eschatological nature of works (as the "outworking" of faith in Christ as Lord and coming Judge).

(b) Daniel: Revelation 2:8-11 Letter to the Church in Smyrna

Revelation: one of the two exemplary churches of the seven to receive letters in Revelation, their faithfulness in the face of persecution, the way persecution (and suffering) clarifies what's truly important in life, and the struggle for faithfulness this side of the "Constantine Shift" (that represents the historical moment when the Church transitioned from a persecuted to a favored religion of the state: before, it was harder to be a Christian than to not be a Christian; after, it was harder to not be a Christian than to be a Christian).

2. You Asked for It: Is the devil redeemable?

3. Offerings: From The Insanity of Obedience (Ripkin) and The Cost of Discipleship (Bonhoeffer)