Where the Story Finds Us

Every Friday afternoon, Walt Disney would summon the Sherman Brothers into his office and ask for one particular song: “Feed the Birds.” Why that song? Standing inside Walt’s actual office decades later opens a doorway into a bigger question about the stories we return to because we cannot afford to forget what they teach us. Woven together with Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, giant sequoias, and the UCC’s understanding of covenant, this episode explores collaboration, community, and holy interdependence—and asks whether the world needs more than a church that knows the song. Maybe it needs us to play it.

There is something almost magical about what happens when a dining table is pulled apart, another leaf is added, and extra chairs appear. Suddenly there are more voices, more laughter, more stories—and sometimes more healing than anyone expected. Beginning with Isaiah’s invitation to the thirsty and Jesus’ banquet where the guest list keeps expanding, this episode explores extravagant welcome as more than letting someone through the door. Because sometimes belonging asks us to move our own chair a little—and thankfully, God’s table was built with extensions. 

What does “welcome” actually mean when someone has spent years wondering whether the church could ever truly want them? On Open and Affirming Sunday, the image of a tree planted beside living water becomes a fierce vision of faith: roots growing deeper not so the church can remain safely planted, but so love can reach farther. From Cincinnati Pride to Lakeview’s own ONA covenant, this episode moves beyond rainbow banners and open doors toward a welcome that is public, courageous, embodied—and unwilling to be moved by fear. 

A rainbow banner at a Pride parade. Peter praying on a rooftop. An ancient prophet declaring that God is doing a new thing. And, unexpectedly, The Lion King. This episode asks what may be one of the most important questions a faith community can ask: if God is still speaking, are we still listening? Moving through Scripture, discernment, silence, and the courage to have our old certainties interrupted, it imagines prophecy not as predicting the future, but noticing where the Spirit is already widening the circle. 

Every great story needs a beginning, and this one marks the first Sunday of a new pastor and congregation learning to write theirs together. Around the communion table, amidst Great Danes, roller coasters, baseball, beaches, Disney, and a glimpse into the summer’s “Pastor’s Playbook,” the question becomes surprisingly serious: when Jesus looks upon a hurting world with compassion, what does Jesus ask the church to do about it? This is an invitation to notice where love is needed—and discover that we may already be the laborers being sent.

Sometimes what we thought was gone is simply waiting to be recognized differently. Through a deeply personal story, a familiar song, and the disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, this episode explores resurrection as something more mysterious than returning things to the way they were. When life changes the picture we expected, perhaps faith asks us not to look harder—but to look again.

On a final Sunday at St. Paul UCC, this message stands in the tender space between holding on and letting go. Beginning with the mystery of awe and the ways our bodies seem wired to recognize the sacred, the story travels through prairie roots, poetry, calling, and the strange truth that sometimes loving a place faithfully means allowing it—and ourselves—to enter a new season. A farewell, yes, but even more, a blessing: honoring what has been while trusting the Spirit with what comes next.