In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, the pastors kick off our new Eastertide series, The Commons, reflecting on Luke 24 and the story of the road to Emmaus, exploring what it means to live as a resurrection community. As two disciples walk in confusion, grief, and disappointment, the risen Jesus meets them along the way—though they do not recognize him at first. Through their conversation, Pastors Corey, Jad, and Melissa unpack how context, emotion, and unmet expectations can cloud our ability to see Christ at work, even when he is near. It is ultimately in the breaking of the bread that their eyes are opened, revealing the power of community, scripture, and the table to make Christ known. This conversation invites listeners to consider how Jesus is present in their own journeys, especially in seasons of uncertainty, and challenges them to walk together in faith, remain open to encountering Christ in unexpected places, and share their stories of transformation with others. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, the final episode of our Lenten series Crossroads, pastors Corey, Melissa, and Jad invite us into the depth and significance of Holy Week as more than just a lead-up to Easter, but as the very heart of the Christian story. Walking through the movement from Palm Sunday to the Last Supper, the cross, and the stillness of Holy Saturday, they reflect on how these sacred days reveal not only who Jesus is—through love, humility, and sacrifice—but also who we are, in both our brokenness and our capacity for grace. This conversation encourages us to slow down, resist skipping ahead to resurrection, and instead fully engage the tension, beauty, and challenge of the week that changes everything. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, Pastor Jad reflects on the Palm Sunday story from Matthew 21 as the culmination of the Lenten Crossroads series, inviting listeners to wrestle with the tension between expectation and the way of Jesus. While the crowds shout the right words— “Hosanna” and “Son of David”—they misunderstand the kind of king Jesus is, expecting power and triumph while he embodies humility, gentleness, and sacrificial love, entering on a donkey rather than a war horse. Matthew’s telling reveals that it’s possible to say all the right things about Jesus and still miss his way entirely, as the same crowd that praises him will later turn against him. This episode challenges listeners to examine their own expectations of Jesus and consider whether they are willing to follow a king whose path leads not to spectacle or success, but to surrender, nonviolence, and the cross—especially as they prepare to enter the journey of Holy Week. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, we continue our Lenten series, Crossroads, by exploring John 11 and the powerful story of the raising of Lazarus. Pastor Jad reflects on how the story unfolds less as a miracle tale and more as a series of conversations that reveal who Jesus is, culminating in his declaration, “I am the resurrection and the life.” As Martha, Mary, and their grieving community wrestle with loss and the painful question of why Jesus arrived too late, the story invites us to consider what faith looks like in the midst of grief and uncertainty. Jesus’ tears remind us that God meets us not only in celebration but also in sorrow, and the raising of Lazarus becomes a turning point that reveals both the promise of resurrection life now and the crossroads where belief, doubt, love, and loss intersect. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, we explore John 9 and the story of Jesus healing the man born blind through the lens of our Lenten series Crossroads and this week's theme: Learning to See Differently. What begins as a story about physical sight becomes a deeper reflection on perception, assumptions, and spiritual openness. As the man who was blind gradually recognizes who Jesus is, the religious authorities who believe they see clearly become unable to recognize God’s work in their midst. Drawing on insights from Disability Theology, this episode invites listeners to reconsider common interpretations of suffering and disability, to reflect on how society often overlooks or marginalizes people, and to ask where God’s work might be revealed in unexpected places. Ultimately, the story challenges us to examine our own assumptions, listen to voices we may have ignored, and allow the light of Christ to transform the way we see the world and one another. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, Pastor Jad explores the powerful encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4:5–42, a story that unfolds at the crossroads of culture, theology, and human division. As part of our Lenten journey, this lesson reveals how Jesus intentionally crosses boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and religion to reveal God’s living water to someone society had overlooked. Rather than a story of shame, this passage becomes a story of revelation: a conversation that transforms an unseen woman into a courageous witness and expands the understanding of worship, salvation, and belonging beyond the limits people try to impose. Through rich biblical insight and historical context, Pastor Jad invites listeners to see how Jesus meets people in contested spaces—and how the church is called to follow him, crossing boundaries so that God’s love can reach the whole world. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, Pastor Jad explores Gospel of John 3:1–17 through Jesus’ nighttime conversation with Nicodemus, inviting listeners to reflect on what it means to be “born from above.” Unpacking the rich symbolism and double meanings in John’s Gospel: light and darkness, wind and Spirit, lifting up and exaltation, the episode examines how sincere faith can coexist with honest questions. Centered on John 3:16, Pastor Jad reframes this well-known verse within its broader context, emphasizing God’s love for a confused and resistant world and clarifying that Jesus’ mission is not condemnation but salvation. This conversation encourages listeners to release control, trust the movement of the Spirit, and embrace the transforming love of God that brings eternal life not just someday, but beginning now. 

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In this special episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, Pastor Jad launches the Lenten series called Crossroads with a reflection on Matthew 4:1–11, where Jesus faces temptation in the wilderness. Framed as “Love 101: Resisting False Power,” the episode explores how Jesus, freshly named God’s beloved Son at his baptism, is tested not in his identity but in what that identity means. Drawing connections to Israel’s wilderness story, Pastor Jad unpacks three temptations: self-sufficiency, spectacle, and compromise, and shows how each invites Jesus to misuse power for self-protection, self-validation, or control. Instead, Jesus chooses trust, faithful dependence, and wholehearted allegiance to God. Listeners are invited to see Lent not as punishment but as formation, a season to notice where we grasp for control and to practice small, intentional acts of trust that reflect the way of love. 

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In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, Pastor Jad invites listeners to step thoughtfully into the season of Lent by exploring the meaning and history of Ash Wednesday. Tracing Lent’s roots to the early church as a season of communal preparation, repentance, and renewal, he explains the biblical symbolism of ashes as signs of mortality and truth-telling before God. Reflecting on Matthew 6, Pastor Jad unpacks Jesus’ teaching on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, highlighting the difference between public faith and performative faith and challenging us to examine our motives and “audience.” Rather than focusing on outward ritual, this episode reframes Lent as an invitation to reorder our desires, prepare our hearts, and walk honestly toward the cross and the hope of resurrection.  

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Join us for worship on Ash Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary and live online 

In this episode of Your Week with St. Luke’s, all four pastors come together to explore what it truly means to lead our lives as disciples of Jesus in everyday, ordinary life. Rooted in 2 Peter 1 (from The Message), the conversation reflects on discipleship as transformation rather than perfection; faith that moves from belief into embodied practice through God’s grace. Using rich Wesleyan imagery like stepping into the “river of grace,” the pastors discuss prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace, emphasizing growth over time, authenticity over polish, and participation over passivity. They wrestle honestly with failure, formation, and the public square, showing how God’s story shapes real decisions, leadership, justice, and love in the world. This episode invites listeners to stop tiptoeing, lean into grace, and lead lives formed by Jesus... together.  

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