Still Speaking with Ivanhoe Church

Today, Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss how the familiar story of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem at the festival of Passover compares with Pentecost as the birth of the church as a political body where Jesus's followers publicly rose to endorse Pax Christi over Pax Romana, setting in motion the events of two millennia.

A year after the pandemic’s official declaration, Pastor Kris and Shelley Groh invite Dr. Allison Salituro to discuss the pandemic’s effects in the brightening light of hope. Amidst the distribution of vaccines, we confront what may be long-term effects. Things will be different. Notably, we may be surprised how mental health concerns linger on and …

Continue reading "Episode 53: One Year Later"

Many of us quietly fear we are unworthy of God's love for who we "really" are. Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss gifts of emptiness as a place of accepting God's love in times of darkest mystery. The scripture highlights that it is within Jesus's forsaken cry from the cross that we find the gift of emptiness: not that Jesus found God but God found Jesus, remaking the story of humankind. Lenten emptying gives space for God, who loves us beyond our wildest imagination, to find us.

Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss 1 Corinthians 13:8-13. Assured that God's love for us never ends, can we accept the gift of life's uncertainty? In our Lenten journey, can we receive mystery as a gift, not a problem to be solved? Can we then fill the void of certainty with trust? In faith and gratitude, can we find the gifts of this dark wood?

Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss 'thin places' in Celtic tradition where the veil between heaven and earth is most ethereal. Christ's transfiguration in Mark 9 is one of those places, a place we want to inhabit. Yet Lent is active: about our intention to draw closer to Christ. As you descend the mountain during Lent, God is blessing you, preparing you for your journey; you are a part of this dazzling blessing, sharing it with others, using your gifts to sustain others in their darkest moments.

Led by Mark 1, Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss how we can know our calling. The Bible calls us to serve others, doing the difficult work of justice. So, do we listen for our call with foreboding? What if these fishermen dropped their nets so quickly out of an immediate, overwhelming sense of joy? Frederick Buechner notes that we find our calling where our greatest sense of gladness intersects with the world's needs. Can you find your calling in knowing Jesus, following Jesus, and sharing Jesus?

As our nation remembers Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shelly and Pastor Kriss speak about how people of faith may see how these early justice movements began with the church. Rooted in action by non-violent disciples of Christ willing to go to any length to restore God’s community, they call us yet toward a …

Continue reading "Episode 48: Come and See"

We believe in the power of the Word. Jesus, the Word born in flesh, is the way and the truth and the life—at its very genesis, our faith tells us that words and truth matter: words bring worlds into existence. Today, we wrestle with a Christian response to a national crisis of violence where it is expressly evident that what we say will encourage, engage, disengage, or enrage. As people of Advent, members in the body of Christ, we are called to do the will of God. Through our words of lament and hope, we can become a part of God's divine connectivity in a world that experiences adversity.

Our church began 2020 by sharing slips of paper containing a word to spark a year's meditation. Shelley's was 'light,' and as we reflect on this very dark year of isolation, illness, and death , we enter advent with renewed appreciation for the unfolding story. The Light of the World is constantly being born in us, and amid our covid-fatigue, we are called to be lighters of candles that bring others welcome and peace.

Pastor Kris and Shelley discuss the comfort spoken of in Isaiah 40:1-11, and how this dispossessed people were called to be messengers of hope. We may live in imperfect times but we are called to be the herald of good tidings because, not only is another world possible, it is on its way.