Take Off Your Shoes Sermon Podcast By Marie Duquette

There’s a jarring gap between the golden calf and Moses whispering, “Show me your glory,” and it’s a gap most of us were never taught to sit with. We go back into Exodus and read the part that often gets left out the violent fallout, the shattered tablets, the excuses, the grief, and the real damage a community can do when fear takes the wheel. If you’ve ever wondered why Bible stories sometimes feel sanitized, this is the moment where honesty changes everything.

From there, we track what happens when a relationship breaks not only between people, but between a people and God. Moses doesn’t just keep marching forward on religious momentum. He questions, he grieves, and he draws a line: if God’s presence will not go with them, they would rather not go at all. That demand turns Exodus into a story about trust and repair, not just rules and miracles, and it opens up a surprisingly practical lens for our own relationships after conflict.

We talk about why “be curious, not judgmental” belongs in biblical interpretation, how transforming justice refuses to excuse harm, and why rebuilding starts with truth telling and remembering who we are to each other. We also connect the covenant language of Exodus to the Christian story of forgiveness and renewal, where presence matters more than performance.

If this episode helps you think differently about Exodus, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What’s one relationship in your life that needs a braver first step toward repair?

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A missing leader, a frightened crowd, and a pile of melted jewelry that turns into a god. Exodus 32 moves fast, and that’s the point: when fear spikes and waiting feels unbearable, we reach for something we can see, touch, and control. We walk through the golden calf story step by step, from Israel’s impatience at the mountain to Aaron’s disastrous decision, and we sit with the uncomfortable truth that idolatry often starts as a search for safety.

Then we trace how that same pull shows up in public life today. We talk about the Charging Bull in New York City as a symbol of wealth and prosperity, and how Fearless Girl was placed in front of it to challenge what power looks like and who gets to hold it. Side by side, these images become a modern mirror for the ancient question: what do we treat like a savior when we’re anxious, uncertain, or craving control?

We close by getting practical and personal. We explore how faith can drift toward false idols when it isn’t humble, accountable, and rooted in prayer and community, and why worship has a way of confronting our motives and attachments. If you’ve ever wondered what your own “golden calf” might be, this conversation offers language, clarity, and a path back to truth. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review if it helps, then tell us: what’s one modern idol you’re learning to name?

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Thirst makes people say things they never planned to say. When water runs out, trust gets tested, leaders get blamed, and the real question rises to the surface: is God here with us or not?

We start with a surprising story from near Copenhagen, where a spring becomes famous for healing and draws crowds who leave behind crutches and bandages. It’s a vivid reminder that people will walk a long way for hope, and that water has always carried more meaning than chemistry. Then we turn to Exodus 17 and the unforgettable scene of water from the rock. We talk about God setting the plan, Moses caught in the middle, and why the same staff that once struck the Nile matters in a moment when the people are ready to turn on their own leader.

From there, we bring it down to lived experience: the relief of a shower after you feel filthy, the difference between warm plastic water and ice water when you are truly thirsty, and the strange lightness you feel when you get into water. Those everyday moments help us hear the poetry of faith and the human condition behind Massah and Meribah, testing and dispute.

We end at the font, exploring baptism in the Lutheran tradition as a sacrament shaped by the Word of God, a promise from God, and an earthly element. We name the mystery of how the Holy Spirit comes, and we lean into what we do know: people gather, speak the Word, trust the promise, and promise to walk together. If this connected with you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Where are you asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

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Freedom doesn’t automatically make us grateful. We pick up the Exodus story at the exact moment the Israelites start grumbling, looking back at Egypt through a nostalgic haze and blaming their leaders for a very real fear: hunger. Then God does something both tender and demanding, raining manna and sending quail, while insisting on a new rule for survival and community life: take just enough, don’t hoard, and let the world rest with Sabbath built into the week. 

From there, we ask a bigger question that hits home in 2026: how do we relate to creation when the ground feels less stable under our feet? We talk about Aldo Leopold’s “world of wounds,” why a green field isn’t always a healthy ecosystem, and how “stewardship” can still sound like control. We’re reaching for something deeper: partnership with creation, where plants, animals, soil, and water are not background scenery but neighbors we choose to protect, especially because those with the fewest resources get hit first by climate change and food insecurity. 

We also take on the fossil fuel economy as a kind of modern nostalgia, a story of “abundance” built on extraction, pollution, dependence, and preventable illness. The alternative can sound strange at first, like manna did: wind, sun, and water as provision that’s been here all along. We close with practical conservation ideas you can actually use and a moment of peace from Wendell Berry when despair rises. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations about faith, sustainability, renewable energy, and creation care.

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A seven-mile walk after a brutal week doesn’t sound like a spiritual breakthrough, yet that’s exactly what the Road to Emmaus becomes: two grieving disciples replaying events they can’t digest, and a stranger who keeps pace with their questions. We lean into that walking-speed theology and ask the question that won’t go away when life gets loud and painful: where is God in all this?

We share a modern road story that puts flesh on the question, traveling 1,747 miles from Ann Arbor to El Paso with a multi-faith caravan of clergy. Rabbis, imams, and Christian ministers arrive to witness what had been reported about children and families in detention, only to find fences, heat, and refusal at the gate. From El Paso to Juarez, we walk alongside refugees beginning the long process toward citizenship, passing volunteers offering tiny cups of water, gum, and mints, small signs of dignity when the system feels cold. At Annunciation House, we serve in ordinary ways and see how hospitality becomes a form of resistance, care, and prayer.

Then we return to Luke 24 and the deep twist at the heart of Easter: Jesus comes to the disappointed and doubtful, not just the confident. We talk about biblical literacy, the meaning of wounds that remain visible, and why “scars, not muscles” might be the truest credential of faith. The bread is taken, blessed, broken, and given, and we explore how that pattern can shape communities facing illness, medical leave, collective grief, and the daily work of showing up for each other.

If you’re navigating trauma, searching for hope, or trying to practice a faith that tells the truth, listen, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of the road are you on right now?

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Some Bible passages sound like a problem, not a comfort: an army drowned in Exodus, a parable in Matthew 18 that includes torture, and the quiet temptation to call all of it “God’s will” so we can feel justified. We sit with that discomfort on purpose, because skipping the hard parts does not protect faith, it weakens it. When scripture is violent, what are we actually supposed to believe about God, and what are we being tempted to copy in our own lives?

We walk through the Exodus story and the Red Sea with clear eyes, then turn to Matthew 18 and ask a surprisingly practical question: are we sure the king in the parable is God? The text never says that, and that single assumption can change how Christians talk about judgment, punishment, debt, and mercy. We also ask how easily humans make God in our image, using selective Bible interpretation to sort the world into “good people” and “bad people” and then excuse whatever happens next.

From there, we bring it home to real life: how we decide who is dangerous, how fear after 9/11 shaped public reactions to people like Sikhs, and why thoughtful citizenship and careful voting are part of discipleship. We connect forgiveness and divine justice to the pressures people carry right now, including poverty, unemployment, health insurance, SNAP cuts, and hungry kids who might need food more than punishment. We end where the gospel keeps pushing us: unity as the end game, and love as the only path that can get us there.

If this raised questions for you, you are not alone. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who likes serious Bible study, and leave a review, then tell us: how do you read violent scripture without turning it into permission to harm?

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We trace the story of Exodus from Israel’s growth in Egypt to Pharaoh’s escalating violence, then sit with the hard truth of Passover as justice and mercy collide. We also share the sudden loss of our dog Nala and use that grief to name the longing behind Passover: that death might pass over our home.
• Exodus as the continuation of Genesis and God’s blessing moving through Abraham’s family
• Pharaoh’s slavery, infanticide, and the way power redefines good and evil
• Moses’ rescue as God’s reversal of an evil plot
• The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and the idea of chances that reach a point of no return
• Passover as judgment with a provided escape through the blood of a lamb
• Grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as a long walk
• Why shared grief heals and hidden grief multiplies
• God’s protection and God’s presence with us in the night

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Rape Culture: identified, explained, Rape Culture Pyramid explained and how to stop it.

A community can memorize the Ten Commandments and still miss what they’re for: protecting real people in real life. We start with a careful content note because we’re talking about sexual violence against women, and we want survivors to feel seen, not blindsided. Then we step into Exodus 20 and the covenant carved “in stone,” asking what it means when a society breaks those relationship-protecting commands and calls it normal.

We respond to recent news of a campus sexual assault at Cornell University and the chilling dehumanization that surrounded it. That story pushes us to face a bigger question: why do so many women live with daily calculations of risk, and why do so many institutions hesitate when justice and protection are needed? From there we define rape culture in plain language, tracing how it’s built through victim blaming, rigid gender rules, objectification, and the small dismissals that teach women their voices don’t matter.

One of the most useful tools we share is a “pyramid” framework that links the bottom layers of prejudice and entitlement to the top-layer harms of coercion, drugging, and assault. We also get intensely practical about bystander intervention: planning what you’ll say, practicing it ahead of time, protecting a woman’s space, cutting off demeaning jokes before the punchline, and teaching kids consent alongside dignity and integrity. We close with a promise of solidarity and a reminder that God is near to those who suffer and to those who are blamed for violence.

If this matters to you, listen all the way through, share it with someone who needs language for what they’re seeing, and subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations.

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Rev. Marie Duquette returns after 4 months of medical leave.  Thank you all for your positive thoughts, prayers and cards.

How Dolly Parton shown God's light no matter where she went and what she did.

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