Sabbatical Summer is upon us! As you already know, Pastor Aaron has started his sabbatical last week. So, for the rest of the summer, I will be joining forces to co-host with Pastor Michelle McNamara from First Congregational United Church of Christ Downers Grove. This week, we are also joined by her colleague there, Pastor Scott Oberle, just days before the start of HIS sabbatical. We gather to talk about the sacramental moment that is the Christian funeral, about death, and about the hope of life and love everlasting. (Please forgive the audio at the very beginning of the recording...it clears up after a minute.)

Aaron is beginning his sabbatical, and I am left to my own devices! And so, for this first week, I have leaned on my friend and colleague, Laura Bernabei, Director of Children's Ministry at the Congregational Church of Batavia, to talk about children, their place in the Body of Christ, and what they can teach adults. Join us for this fun and important conversation!

We cover a lot of ground this week, beginning with Aaron's upcoming sabbatical (May 23-Aug 23). We take this time to reflect on rest as a pattern of God's creation, as a natural and necessary good, and as (for some) a real struggle in this time and place. And for Paige's Easter Season of sacramental life, we talk sacred commitments: holy vows, abundance and celebration. We yearn for connection, it seems - it's how we're made. And it is a means by which we come to know the flourishing joy that is God's vision for creation. 

We're coming up on the third Sunday of Easter already, and in our scriptures and our worship, Resurrection is real! In Paige's congregation we explore the sacramental moment that is Confirmation, as we celebrate and nurture the gifts of the Spirit that make the Church the Church. And in Aaron's congregation, it is healing and hope, in the story of Christ's reconciliation with Peter by the lakeside. Join us as we continue to talk about the ways we embody our faith, live it out, and witness to the love of God.

It's the Easter Season! And we cover EVERYTHING in 43 minutes...life, death, resurrection, healing, the nature of the sacraments, the power of the Holy Spirit, and Pentecost! Whew. Join us for a recap of Holy Week, a taste of the Easter Season, and a preview of Pentecost, as we celebrate resurrection, rebirth, new life.

"Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended," is one of the great and traditional hymns of the season. This week, as we explore Palm and Passion Sunday, we talk a little about exactly how he did offend...how we got from shouts of "Hosanna" to "Crucify Him" in one week. Because Jesus was busy that week, provoking and prodding with God's justice, freedom, and radical love. Join us on this episode as we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.

We're on our fifth week of Lent, and the last of our senses, the sense of Touch. And with that, two wonderful Bible stories about the power of Touch, to heal, to connect, to make whole. But the Church's history with Touch, and our larger culture's is not as simple as these stories, at least on the surface, make it appear to be. Join us this week for the sense of Touch, and a far-ranging discussion on the last of our five senses.

Have you heard? We're coming up on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which means the sense we are celebrating and exploring is Hearing. There are so many stories in the Bible where this sense takes center stage, from healing stories in the Gospels, to call stories throughout the scriptures, to the music and praise of the Psalms. Join us this week as we talk about the power of music to shape our lives, the spiritual practice of silence, and the joy of a relationship with the Divine.

This one, the sense of smell, may seem like the strangest of the bunch, at least at first. But as we dive into the scripture, we find that smell is a powerful metaphor for the holy, a trigger for memory, a statement on the impermanent and the transcendent. Join us this week to talk about perfume, incense, sharpened number two pencils, and the power of smell to take us to a different place altogether.

"We walk by faith," wrote St. Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth, "not by sight." But do we? The sense of sight is such a fruitful metaphor in our scriptures for what it means to perceive, the apprehend, to gain spiritual insight and understanding.  This week, as we study the sense of sight, we will explore the Psalms and the Gospel of Mark, and talk about wonder, about awe, about limitation, about disappointment, about the incremental coming to life and awareness that is our journey this Lent. Join us if you can.