TW: This can be a challenging episode for some listeners because it's going to challenge a lot of the concepts of the origin of God from the narratives a lot of us grew up with. I want to say that even though I know the information I'm presenting in this episode, I still consider myself a believer in the divine and a devout follower of Jesus. I share this information, not to harm anyone's faith, but rather to help it grow and evolve.

Modern Christian thinking would have us believe that idolatry is constrained to not worshipping other gods or participating in rituals/practices that come from different spiritual backgrounds. However, when we look at idolatry through the context of the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels, and Paul's authentic letters, we get a different definition of idolatry; one that would even shine a light on how Christianity has made idols of God, Jesus, the Bible, national symbols, etc.

You simply can't read the Bible in your native language and know what it means. There are so many layers to interpreting the Bible, yet so many pastors and churches treat it this way. Even more frightening, Christian groups try to create policy based on their interpretation. Today we talk about this one-way interpretation, how we can look at texts from multiple angles, and a rough methodology for lay folk to engage the Bible.

When we remove from ourselves the need to think about or experience Christianity as a system of beliefs to get to an afterlife destination, then Jesus' words and actions shine in a new light. We find that Jesus invites us to participate in a value system that is markedly different than the world's. One of the primary value systems of the Jesus movement is radical inclusivity. Today we look at references to being radically inclusive throughout the Gospels, Paul's letters, and the Acts of the Apostles and discuss the difficulty we have in living this out today.

To be a parable, a story does not have to be untrue. The character of a parable is that the meaning of a story is more important than its factuality. When we treat stories in antiquity this way it helps us to understand their meaning in ways that their original audience naturally would have understood. In this conversation we look at the story of Jesus' resurrection as a parable, not to claim it's untrue, but to help us understand its meaning better.

Our stories of The Last Supper and Good Friday are almost entirely theological. The gospel writer is departing from trying to simply convey the chain of events and rather are focusing on conveying either theological or geopolitical statements to readers. Unfortunately, later communities renegotiated the theology in favor of a more individualistic and salvific understanding. Today we look at the theology behind Mark and his first community to help us understand these two events and their relevance better.

Another common story around Lent is what many Bibles call "The Cleansing of the Temple". Understood as removing ritualistic impurities, this aggressive moment by Jesus has always been excused without looking (intentionally or unintentionally?) at the context of Jerusalem's geopolitical climate in this time. In this episode, we not only talk about what the historical Jesus was doing, but also how Mark's gospel makes sense of this story for it's own audience. We find that this is not a story of Jesus being angry at ritualistic impurities, but rather Jerusalem's religious leaders cooperation with Roman oppression.

The story of Jesus' last week of life is treated without context. It's understood as Jesus going to Jerusalem to die for this sins of humanity and resurrecting so believers go to heaven after death. No context needed. However, when context is added we see that there's a lot more to Jesus' presence in Jerusalem and perhaps even more to his death and resurrection.

The Gospel story of The Woman at the Well features two people (Jesus and the Samaritan Woman) who grew up hearing stories of why they should hate each other. Yet, both create a bridge of unity that becomes a story of love. How can this help us understand the stories we've been given that tell us to hate or fear others and turn them into stories of love?

Thought of as a time to reflect on our own individual brokenness, does Lent today compare to Lent among the first communities? Today we take a look at how Lent was understood in the 1st century and what implications on our theology this might have.