The Final Episode!

For more than 10 years Jonathan and Charley have been involved in the podcasting world in one way or another. Together, they started “Twelve Enough” which Jonathan continued for a number of years. And, two years ago they reunited to do “Kitchen Table Spirituality” to help with a sense of community through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There have been a number of wonderful and powerful moments and some great episodes, but it is time to bring this chapter of podcasting to a close. In large part it is because Jonathan is moving out of parish-based ministry into wilderness-based ministry. You can see more about this at his new website.

We are so thankful to everyone for their support, their input, and their encouragement. This was a wonderful opportunity to question, to push, to celebrate, and to find God in new and different places.

Keep an eye out for other podcasts from both Jonathan and Charley!

Here is the poem/prayer that was read -

When I Am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.'“

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

Thank you all and God Bless!

You can pre-order Jonathan’s book at Judson Press

A weekly devotional.

For the last episode before summer, Jonathan and Charley discuss Pride Month and Juneteenth. Remember, if you are excluding people, then you are doing it wrong.

We don’t have transcriptions of the prayers from this episode - sorry about that.

A weekly devotional with pastors Charley Eastman and Jonathan Malone.

This week, Jonathan and Charley look at the pull to return to “normal” as things start to open up again.

Here is the prayer that Charley read:

the concluding prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, in his Letter to the Entire Order.

He writes: “Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, grant us in our wretchedness the grace to do for You alone what we know You want us to do and always to desire what pleases You. Thus, inwardly cleansed, enlightened, and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to follow in the footsteps of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by your grace alone, may we make our way to You, Most High, who lives and rules in perfect Trinity and simple Unity…. For ever and ever. Amen.

A weekly devotional

Jonathan and Charley continue their look at Mary Oliver’s collection of poems: Thirst

Jonathan looked at the poem “Praying” and Charley the poem “Thirst”

For a closing prayer, Jonathan read:

CONTINUE

 by Maya Angelou

Into a world which needed you
My wish for you
Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden
of your tender heart

Continue

In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined

Continue

To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely

Continue

To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good

Continue

To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit

Continue

To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing

Continue

To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name

Continue

And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally

A weekly devotional with pastors Charley Eastman and Jonathan Malone

This week Jonathan and Charley start to look at Thirst, a collection of poems by Mary Oliver.

Jonathan started the conversation by reading and reflecting on the poem “Making the House Ready for the Lord.”

Charley then offered the poem, “Mozart, for Example.”

Next week, two more poems!

The prayer that Charley offered was “Percy (Four)”

I went to church.

I walked on the beach

and played with Percy.

I answered the phone

and paid the bills.

I did the laundry.

I spoke her name

a hundred times.

I knelt in the dark

and said some holy words.

I went downstairs,

I watered the flowers,

I fed Percy.

A weekly devotional with Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. This week Jonathan and Charley reflect on four different headlines:

Lutherans Elect Megan Rohrer First Transgender Bishop

Head of Federal Election Commission Calls Separation of Church and State a '“Fallacy” and 2020 a “Spiritual War”

Immunizations and Religion

Romania: Orthodox Church Washes Its Hands of Baby’s Baptism Death

It is amazing that they were able to stay focused and limited to just four headlines!

Here is the prayer that Jonathan read:

Blessing

 by Jan L. Richardson

May God,

who comes to us

in the things of this world,

bless your eyes

and be in your seeing.

May Christ,

who looks upon you

with deepest love,

bless your eyes

and widen your gaze.

May the Spirit,

who perceives what is

and what may yet be,

bless your eyes

and sharpen your vision.

May the Sacred Three

bless your eyes

and cause you to see.

~ from In the Sanctuary of Women, copyright © Jan L. Richardson.  Posted on the painted prayerbook.

A weekly devotional. This is part 4 of Jonathan and Charley’s reflection to Bryan Walsh’s article America Is Losing Its Religion. This week, to close things out, Charley and Jonathan discuss the importance of spirituality.

Here is the prayer that Charley read:

I AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH, by Julia Esquivel

I am no longer afraid of death
I know well
Its dark and cold corridors
Leading to life.
I am afraid rather of that life
Which does not come out of death,
Which cramps our hands
And slows our march.
I am afraid of my fear
And even more of the fear of others,
Who do not know where they are going,
Who continue clinging
To what they think is life
Which we know to be death!
I live each day to kill death;
I die each day to give birth to life,
And in this death of death,
I die a thousand times
And am reborn another thousand
Through that love
From my People
Which nourishes hope!

A weekly devotional

This week Charley and Jonathan discuss the importance of morality

Again, Jonathan and Charley are discussing the article Is America Losing Its Religion by Bryan Walsh

Here is the apology that Jonathan read:

Last week I stated that in the 1950s it was very likely that the great and wonderful condiment mayonnaise would have been sold in cans. I even suggested that there may have been a time when, on the 5th of May, people would collect no less than five cans of mayonnaise and celebrate with said cans. I realize that I was wrong with such a statement. As much as I would have liked to believe it, mayonnaise was never sold in cans; such a suggestion denigrates the honorable and time-tested reputation of mayonnaise. I retract such a statement and sentiment and apologize to the mayonnaise industry and all of the mayonnaise related culinary delights that might have been offended or harmed by such a statement. These include but are not restricted to:

Ham salad

Tuna salad

Egg salad

Devil eggs

Spinach, artichoke dip

Grilled cheese,

Mayonnaise cake

Ranch dressing

Turkey salad

Potato salad

Tomato pie

Lobster rolls

Cole slaw

Dagwood sandwiches

And … mayonnaise casserole

Now lets enjoy some mayonnaise together…

Here is the selection that Charley read for the prayers:

From C.S.Lewis, A Grief Observed: “Once very near the end I said, ‘If you can—if it is allowed—come to me when I too am on my death bed.’ ‘Allowed!’ She said. ‘Heaven would have a job to hold me; and as for Hell, I’d break it into bits.’ She knew she was speaking a kind of mythological language, with even an element of comedy in it. There was a twinkle as well as a tear in her eye. But there was no myth and no joke about the will, deeper than any feeling, that flashed through her.”

Here is what Jonathan read:

Prayer –

Lord, give us weak eyes for things which are of no account and clear eyes for all your truth.

-       Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855

From the cowardice that shrinks from new truths,

From the laziness that is content with half-truth,

From the arrogance that things it knows all truth,

O God of truth, deliver us.

-       Kenyan Prayer maybe

A Weekly Devotional

Again, Charlie and Jonathan are considering the article by Bryan Walsh: American is Losing Its Religion

This week they focus on the idea of social implications and community.

Here is the prayer that Charlie Read:

“A Prayer Against Anti-Asian Violence: For the Protection of (All) of our Elders”

by Erina Kim-Eubanks

God of our elders, Creator of sacred bodies,
we are outraged and we are scared.

We pray for the streets we inhabit
to be exorcised of white supremacy and violence,
for your shalom and togetherness to dwell-
filling our Chinatowns and driveways with
the safety of home, the spirit of family.

We pray for your protection upon our elders-
that our popos and bà ngoại, lolos and Bpòo,
halmonis and niam pog would all encounter space
to live, move, and have being-
knowing that they are not forgotten,
their bodies are not expendable.

We pray for protection upon them-
for hands that have folded dumplings and braided our hair
feet that have walked on many different shores
eyes that have witnessed both atrocities and new birth,
ears that have heard slurs in foreign tongues,
backs that carried the generations,
and hearts that are both resilient and fragile
in a moment when their existence has become a target.

And as we pray for their protection,
guard us too from division and othering
that places blame on “those people” -
driving wedges between communities,
mistaking criminalization for accountability,
multiplying harm instead of healing it.

Give us a vision of the world in which all our elders are honored,
because we see each other’s families as our own.

Amen.

Part one of four! Is America losing its faith? This is the first part of four responding to the article by Bryan Walsh:

Americans is Losing Its Religion

Take a read and join us.

Here is the poem that Jonathan read:

Emily Dickinson – “I died for Beauty – but was scarce.”

I died for Beauty – but was scarce

Adjusted in the Tomb

When One who died for Truth was lain

In an adjoining Room –

He questioned softly “Why I Failed”?

“For Beauty”, I replied