Jay is back and popped online briefly to discuss the future of Revolution. And also reflected on how far Revolution has come from since it started all those many years ago. Jay has the next few months planned out, starting how we bring in every new year, our annual Galatians study! That starts next week and will be broadcast live from Northern Ireland! Jay also discusses the different influences on his work from MLK to philosophy to punk rock and more. Along with all of that, Jay shares some future plans and ideas we have for Revolution–but for that we need your help! We’d like to keep this going, but we can’t do it on our own. Jay goes into all of that, and more! (As well trying his hand at optimism!) This is a great community and we love you all! Happy New Year everyone!!

This talk was given on January 1, 2023 in Seattle, WA.

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It’s Jay’s birthday so we’re giving him the week off! In this week’s talk, Joshua Murray dives into the process of grieving a loved one and tries to make sense out of the change of perspective that happens when someone passes away. Why do our views of them change and all the bad things get stripped away? Is there a reason behind this? Josh also spends time in what seemingly is becoming his favorite book of the bible, Ecclesiastes. He dives into this ‘meaningless’ book about our ‘meaningless’ lives and tries to find meaning in all of it. In typical fashion this also involves discussing Cormac McCarthy, Japanese animation, ocean waves, partying in 101 different places, Coldplay, failing repeatedly, and just about every topic under the sun that is not the bible…to amplify Josh’s understanding of the things the bible teaches us.

This talk was given on December 18, 2022 from Long Island, New York.

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Jay starts this talk off by sharing memories of our friend Frank who passed away unexpectedly. He was greatly loved, greatly appreciated, and will be greatly missed. Then Jay does the unthinkable…he dives into a scripture he’s been avoiding, seemingly, for his whole career. What is this elusive scripture? Matthew 21. In this chapter, Jesus talks to leaders that are doubting his authority. This is done for a number of reasons, a main one seeming to be the company Jesus kept. In this interaction Jesus poses questions and parables, but also he makes sure to mention the love and kindness his company gives. He states how the tax collectors and sex workers of the time are more primed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven before the religious leaders. It bares to mention that Jesus don’t imply that the religious leaders won’t have access to the Kingdom, just that they seem to be trailing behind when it comes to love and grace, deeds and actions. Because, as Jay teaches in this talk, love trumps everything else. And he truly believes it–and it's a hill worth dying on. We are called to love and to be gentle with each other. To be patient. Can we imagine the impact on the world if we all just took extra steps to be gentle with each other! How does this chapter translate today? Who are our religious leaders that need this message? One of love and grace? Of gentleness and patience? Is it our politicians? Is it comedians? Is it us? At Revolution we love the hope of grace!

This talk was given on December 11, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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With the loss of another dear friend from Revolution, Jay needed time to grieve and process. So, for this week’s talk we have a special throwback. We have a talk from 2005! A younger, passionate Jay gives a talk at a festival–our guess is maybe Cornerstone. As with digging up anything that is nearly 20-years old, not everything Jay said back then lines up with who he is now, or what Revolution stands for now. As people change and grow, so does their understanding of life and people, the Bible and theology. But it is both amazing and comforting to be able to go back almost twenty years and see the constants in Jay’s message and what Revolution stands for. It stands for grace, and love. For being someone people can turn to and feel safe and know they will not be judged. For sticking around when others bail. For learning that grace is enough, there are no other strings attached. We are accepted and need to accept others and ourselves. These things have been a constant in Revolution–and still remain. The grace of God is sufficient–let’s accept it, and ourselves and each other. Because no one is perfect and no one is beyond the need of grace. Let’s accept it and love each other.

This talk was given in April 2005.

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With some of the people we love most from the Revolution community falling ill or going through tough times, life and circumstances has brought a few of us non-prayers back to praying. So, Jay decided to talk about the prayer of all prayers–The Lord’s Prayer. In really diving into it and breaking it all down Jay sees a pattern emerging: forgiveness. To forgive as we are forgiven. How the prayer calls for us to be in a constant moment of forgiveness–a continuing cycle of forgiving others and being forgiven. Jay also talks about the tough journey of empathy and how it’s so important to see the humanity in others because people are people and we all suffer. We’re all fighting our own battles. Because of that we really need to try and put in the hard work and become a safe place for others. A place where they know there is no judgement or condemnation. A place they know they can turn to. A place where we don’t focus on the specks in their eyes but instead deal with the log in our own. Seeing that maybe their specks aren’t that big of a deal compared to the hefty logs we’re carrying around. We need to have a passion for redemption, for love, for forgiveness…for doing the hard work.

This talk was given on November 27, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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Jay woke on Sunday morning to the news about the terrible shooting in Colorado. This tragedy altered Jay’s talk and instead of his regularly scheduled message Jay turned to a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. A sermon where Dr. King talks about living a complete life, a fresh take on the book of Revelation, and an interesting view of The Good Samaritan. Jay goes through the sermon in its entirety and really unpacks what is said and how we can use the same principals when navigating today’s life, as we try to make sense of the senseless. To add to it all, in the time between when this talk was given and when this episode is posted there has been another shooting. MLK’s words are just as important today as they ever were.

This talk was given on November 20, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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Jay is back and refreshed and hits us with a great talk about Redemption. The talk is a bit of a follow up to a social media poll he put out asking for different thoughts, stories, or examples of redemption. He discusses how sometimes we have the thought of redemption pretty backwards–sometimes it’s not about us redeeming others, but it’s about them redeeming us, or us redeeming ourselves. About how sometimes enough time goes by that the truth starts to show itself. This leads him into a pretty deep dive into the redemption of Sinead O’Connor and what truth the passing of time has shown us about her life and actions. He discusses the difference between ‘restoration’ and ‘redemption’…is there a difference? Jay also dives into 3 examples of redemption as shown in the Bible looking at the books of Luke, Acts, and Romans–is grace and redemption for everyone? How did Paul go from killing Christians and upholding the law to wanting to do away with the law? Is the law cursed? Is Sinead O’Connor a perfect example of redemption? And where does the fictional prison of Shawshank fit into all of this?

This talk was given on November 13, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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“The Truth of Fiction” This talk is kind of hard to sum up…so I’m not going to even try. A choose your own adventure! Is this a review of the Tammy Faye musical? Is it just a talk? Is it a sermon? Is it all of the above? You choose! But whatever you find this talk to be it still has it’s roots in grace, love, a perseverance. In revolution.

This talk was given on October 30, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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Jay is getting ready to head to London to see the musical Elton John wrote about Tammy Faye. What a strange life this is. But before he heads across the pond, he gives a lively talk about…

…grace, obviously! This is Revolution we’re talking about. In this talk Jay reflects a bit on being ‘haunted by God’ and how it’s what pulls him to continue his work and to love a religion that has caused him and his family so much pain. “Someone needs to save religion from the harm it’s done.” Enough with the punishment talk and the judgement talk. Enough of Christianity being defined based on all of the things it’s against. Grace is real and it’s something to talk about. Jay also dives into a bit of a philosophical quandary–Grace is a free gift…but what if it is an unwanted gift? What if people don’t want grace for themselves or to give it to others. What if they don’t want to argue well? It’s a question that’s worth diving into. To ask ourselves how a religion based on faith, hope and love and of grace and forgiveness is now the opposite of that. How a belief structure of unconditional love has so many conditions now. It’s a slippery slope because to whom much is given…much is required. And we’ve been given much much grace. So there has to be more than just preaching to the choir! What good does that do? There has to be disagreements and learning in order to grow. So, let’s be ready to give an answer, but let’s make sure it’s covered with love and grace.

This talk was given on October 23, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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Jay starts this talk with the heart-breaking news that Steve Pieters has Stage 4 cancer. It’s scary. It’s sad. And we’re giving all of our love and prayers to Steve. If you pray, please pray for Steve. If you don’t pray and praying just feels like talking to the ceiling, please talk to the ceiling for Steve. All prayers and everything you can muster. We love you Steve!! The rest of the talk Jay focuses on Jesus and how he turned everything upside down. Unorganized Religion. Jesus turned the world on its head with the things he said, the love he showed, and the company he kept. He tore the division between us and God. If there is no curtain separating us from God, then why are we forcing naivety onto ourselves and onto others? Shouldn’t we be the least naïve? But if we build a Christianity of naivety–to the point where we can’t think for ourselves–we fall into group think and our convictions stop being our own. If Jesus tore the curtain that separated us from God, why are we so eager to add separation back? How can we separate ourselves from others and cut them off and call it love? God is love! The church isn’t a building, it’s not a tradition. It’s us! The people. If our faith is built around buildings and big communities and traditions, is it really faith? Is it really something that is infinite? If the church is keeping you from loving people…then leave! Go some place where you can love and love radically!

This talk was given on October 16, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.

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