Pod Be With You

Our Good News story for this week is one that shows up in one form or another in each of the four Gospels, a rarity to be sure. Luke's version tells it this way: an unnamed woman, known to be a "sinner," crashes a dinner party at a Pharisee's house to wash Jesus' feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with costly perfume. It's an intimate, extravagant, uncomfortable act...much, actually, like God's love for us. And in a wonderful flip, also the way we are to love others. It's a lot to consider in Lent, but we have 40 days...so let's dive in.

Lent, historically, at least, is a bit of a heavy season, with an emphasis on penitence, and self-reflection, and those things that are "wrong" in our lives and the life of the world. This year, we're shifting our focus a bit, to the fundamentals of the Gospel...the Good things that are the Good News. And so we start today with Good News from two places in the text, which highlight how the Gospel can surprise us...the Wedding at Cana, and Jesus' Parable of the Mustard Seed. Join us to talk joy, potential, and the goodness of life.

We've reached another classic section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the bit about salt and light. So familiar, so comforting, so...challenging?! But it is more than just a Sunday School song with neat little motions, it's about an entire way of life, bringing brightness and flavor to a dull and bland world. People will notice...and will be drawn to the source. But dull, bland, pointless...where does that get us? According to Jesus, not particularly far.

It's "Greatest Hits" week in the lectionary...foundational passages about what faith looks like in Micah 6 and Matthew 5. If someone were to ask, "What are the fundamentals of your faith," these are the places we might go. So simple, but so radical, in that they are rooted in the love of the Divine. Join us on the journey.

We're back, after a hiatus created by sickness, and travel, and the surprises of life. And today we are walking with Jesus beside the Sea of Galilee as he calls his first disciples. It's a familiar story, a Sunday School classic...but what is at the heart of it? Community, partnership, adventure, the call of the Kingdom of God? All of these things and more. It's a great story, a great adventure, a great call.

And here's part two! This Bible study explores Advent hope and peace, but through the unlikely angle of fear, grief, expectations, legacy, and more. What do we have faith in? What are we working for? And how can we hold on to hope and become peacemakers in the face of so much stacked against it?

Part one of your delayed double-dose of Pod Be With You! With apologies for technical difficulties, here are two episodes to catch you up. Thank you for your patience! 

This week, two passages cut right to the heart of our faith as a way of life. We hear both from Matthew and Ephesians where God's heart is (hint: with the vulnerable) and how we will be: gentle, generous, tenderhearted, patient, and true. This moment demands of us a response - and this moment desperately needs people who see the world this way and live this way. 

Two separate scriptures and themes from our pastors this week, but a real overlap, as we discuss reformation, righteousness, humility, and discerning what of our "old" treasures to hold on to, and what of our "new" is holy. It's a good one, folks, and timely, as reformation is happening around us and in us right now!

Another hugely challenging - even potentially dangerous - passage from the Gospel of Luke. This is a message for mature audiences only. "Increase our faith," the disciples demand. And what follows are two teachings from Jesus that will ask of them a great deal of faith. 

In this episode we explore what Jesus might mean with these, as well as larger points about how we read scripture, the nature of authority within churches, and how our divided world no longer seems to share a reality, let alone common goals.