Vox Veniae Podcast

How do you work through your expired dreams? On the eve of our Fall vision series, Christopher Mack ponders how setbacks, dead ends, failure, and loss shape our spirituality. How might we see ourselves and one another with new eyes of hope, imagination, and solidarity for the journey ahead?  [Exodus 3:1-15]

Reflection

• How have you been shaped by expired dreams?

Resources

• Book: Does God Have a Big Toe? Written by Marc Gellman and illustrated by Oscar de Miejo

How do we show mercy to our bodies as God does? Gena St. David juxtaposes a living sacrifice with the death dealing ways we often do violence to our bodies. She explores how showing mercy, as God does, to our bodies through gentleness, rest, and healing is an act of worship. [Romans 12:1-2]

Reflection

• Where is God inviting me to try softer this week?

Resources

• Book: Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode--and into a Life of Connection and Joy by Aundi Kolber

What would it look like for us to create more space at the table? Weylin Lee looks at an encounter between Jesus and the marginalized to consider how we move beyond our biases, prioritize mercy over convenience, and disrupt negative peace.  [Matthew 15:21-28]

Reflection

• How are you invited to decolonize your view of Christ and your faith?

Resources

• Book: Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald

What hope might you create space for in order to stay close to God’s promises? Virginia Cumberbatch opens up about audaciously holding on to hope through seasons of challenges, disappointments, and injustice.  [Psalm 105:1-5]

Reflection

• What would it look like to create space to reflect on the promises God has kept?

Resources

• Book: Joy Hunter by Alexis Jones

How might we respond when we feel powerless, unsupported, and at a loss for words? Christopher Mack points to the Apostle Paul’s understanding of Spirit crying out with us for compassion and renewal.   [Romans 8:26-32]

Reflection

• How do you handle moments when you find yourself speechless?

Resources

• Book: Romans Disarmed by Sylvia Keesmaat & Brian Walsh

What might it mean to have a nonviolent relationship with the rest of God’s creation? Gena St. David explores how the nonviolence of Jesus and the Apostle Paul’s hope that ‘creation itself might be set free’ could impact our relationship to all of creation. [Romans 8:20-25]

Note: Speaker Gena St David invites curiosity about how the nonviolent practice of Jesus applies to our food and environment, while acknowledging a diverse community like Vox is going to include multiple perspectives. Conversations about plant-based eating must include sensitivity to those recovering from disordered eating and those living with food insecurity or in food deserts. Our hope as a community is to continue to collaboratively explore multiple ways of practicing nonviolence with all of creation.

Reflection

• What can we do today to help creation be free?

Resources

• Book: The Nonviolent Atonement by J Denny Weaver

How does reflecting on God’s abundance impact your willingness to consent to God’s movement in your life? Weylin Lee considers a parable of Jesus on growth. How might we reimagine our relationship to God’s abundance and how we expand our lives beyond ourselves?  [Matthew 13:1-9]

Reflection

• How might consenting to God’s abundance facilitate your growth?

Resource

• Poem: The Facts of Life by Pádraig Ó Tuama

What expectations, titles, and ideas have you been handed about Jesus? Nick Zadrozny approaches the gospel text with curiosity, playfulness, and insight. We find ourselves challenged as Jesus befriends people on the moral margins of society who make us feel uncomfortable.  [Matthew 11:16-19]

Reflection

• What have you been told about who Jesus is?

Have you ever had to push through discomfort to stand in your beliefs? On the last weekend of Pride, Amy Wolfgang recounts their own journey of integrating their faith with their queer identity. They challenge us to imagine and live into a hopeful and creative stance toward our collective future.   [Matthew 10:27-39]

Reflection

• Is there a hurtful or violent theology you are being invited to set aside for your healing journey?

Resources

• Book: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing World by Adrienne Maree Brown

How do we pivot from a past experience of deliverance to forming a community practicing sustained love and liberation? On the weekend of Juneteenth, Christopher Mack recalls the evolution of slavery to Jim Crow segregation to mass incarceration in the United States. How do our scriptures’ images of liberating eagles, nonviolent sheep, creative serpents, and peacemaking doves inform how we form community?  [Matthew 10:16; Exodus 4-6]

Reflection 

• How might you listen more clearly to your life?

Resources

• Raise Up by Hank Willis Thomas