Vox Veniae Podcast

Watering Down Fear

What might baptism have meant for Jesus and what might it mean for us today? On the Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Christopher Mack plunges into waters of chaos and upheaval to hear baptism  as an invitation to be transformed into the person, who by God’s grace, we are called into becoming…for God, ourselves, and one another. [Isaiah 43:1-2; Luke 3:21-22]

 

Reflection

• What wisdom have you gained from participating in a community moving through fear and upheaval together? 
• How can we reorient ourselves around that which is life-giving, for our flourishing, inviting us into mutuality and interdependent beloved community?
• If you feel you’ve lost sight of who you’re becoming in Christ, how can you listen for the voice calling you beloved this week?

Grounded in Imago Dei

On the second Sunday after Christmas, Aurelia Dávila Pratt reminds us of our true identity as children of God, image bearers, and beloved. Repeating The Jesus Prayer and other intentional phrases and mantras, we are invited to ground ourselves in our deeper meaning and purpose.  [Luke 18:9-14]

 

Reflection

• What helps you remember who you truly are, especially when life feels overwhelming?
• When do you feel most grounded or connected to the Divine within you and around you?
• When have you felt the need to start over, and what gave you the courage to begin again?

Being a Blessing

How can we create a shared world where God’s love is experienced? On the fourth week of Advent, Vanessa Beltran highlights how moments of shared vulnerability–like Mary’s journey to Elizabeth–are essential to becoming who God created us to be, so we can truly understand God’s blessings. [Luke 1:39-45]

 

Reflection

• How can you open your heart and life to others in ways that allow both you and them to experience the blessing of God’s love, even in moments of vulnerability or unknowingness?
• In what ways do you sometimes forget that you are blessed by God, and how can community—your relationships with others—help you remember and live into this truth?
• How can you actively create spaces of relational freedom and blessing in your daily interactions, allowing both yourself and others to experience God's love and affirmation?

Joyfully Undone

Is there a part of your life that feels exiled or stuck in a rut? On this third week of Advent, Christopher Mack hears in the message of John the Baptizer, an invitation for our lives to be joyfully undone in the wilderness of waiting. [Luke 3:7-17]

 

Reflection

• When have you experienced a disruption that led to transformation?
• How can this season of waiting re-envision our way in the world?
• Where is there an invitation for God’s newness in this current disruption?

Navigating Uncertainty

What comes up for you when you think about uncertainty? Weylin Lee begins our season of advent with three markers for wading into waiting and uncertainty: discerning with imagination; recalling God’s gifts; and embodying a path of love. [Psalm 25]

 

Reflection

• How might we practice discernment with imagination?
• What are some of God’s gifts that you can recall in this current season?
• What is the path of love you are invited to walk and embody?

Chords and Metal

How powerful can we be when our one voice is not just one voice? Vanessa Maleare tends to our collective healing with four admonitions inspired from Ecclesiastes: grab your people; conserve energy; grab hold of your joy; and make decisions. [Ecclesiastes 4:9-12]

 

Reflection

1. What are my non-negotiables?
2. Who do I have to have around me?
3. What is true for me right now?

Bearing Witness with Whole Lives

What does it look like for you to listen to your whole life? Christopher Mack looks for a way see God in those who see differently than us and how to experience communal solidarity in uncertain and challenging times. [Psalm 146:2-3, 5-10]

 

Reflection

• How might we be centered in God’s Peace this week?
• Where do you find it challenging to bear witness with your whole life?
• How might you reconnect with the larger worlds of creation and community this week?

Resources

1. Book: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
2. Website: Hokusai: Waves of Inspiration https://nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/hokusai-waves-of-inspiration-from-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/ :

Welcoming Wanderers, Skeptics, and Believers

How do we practice radical welcome? Gena St. David explores how inside each of us exists a wanderer, skeptic, and believer as we conclude our fall series “Who is Vox?” She uses the practice of walking a prayer labyrinth to help us recognize vulnerability, value the winding path, and practice small experiments. [John 3:3-8]

 

Reflection

• What does the wanderer inside you want from Vox?
• Who at Vox do you trust with your inner skeptic?
• How does the believer inside you wish to participate in Vox?

Pursuing Justice

What is Vox’s invitation and practice of pursuing justice as a spiritual community that seeks to embody Christ? Weylin Lee considers our hospitality to the vulnerable, embodied presence for solidarity, and nonviolent resistance for flourishing in our fall series “Who is Vox?” [Matthew 5:3-6, 10]

 

Reflection

• Where are the places we can practice hospitality as an act of justice?
• What are some practical ways you can meet physical needs of the vulnerable?
• How might our nonviolent resistance be needed for restorative justice?

Collective Healing

Do you have fear around showing up in church spaces? Kimberly Culbertson invites us to embody Jesus together by becoming a community of repair and wholeness in our fall series “Who is Vox?” [John 14:18-19, 25-27]

 

Reflection

• Thank you for being part of my healing. Love, Kimberly.
• How might God be healing you in this season, both through and for deeper community?
• Who is God asking you to see or champion or smile on in this season?

Spiritual Community

What is an indicator of a healthy spiritual community? Christopher Mack focuses our fall series “Who is Vox?” on the centrality of community as a rhythm that forms us in the Jesus Way of living, dying, and rising. [John 13:1, 35-38]

 

Reflection

• What wisdom could we learn if we explored the broader history of the church with humility and curiosity?
• Are there areas of Christian tradition that are unhelpful to our growth, and what would it look like to let go of them and explore other areas?
• What are some ways we might embrace our collective imperfection as a community?

The Body of Christ

Nic Acosta continues our fall series “Who Is Vox?” by connecting us to being the Body of Christ by delving into what it might mean to embrace both our  Christian pluralism and our collective imperfection. [Colossians 1:15-23]

 

Reflection

• What wisdom could we learn if we explored the broader history of the church with humility and curiosity?
• Are there areas of Christian tradition that are unhelpful to our growth, and what would it look like to let go of them and explore other areas?
• What are some ways we might embrace our collective imperfection as a community?

Why Vox? Why Here? Why Now?

What’s your reason for getting out of bed? Vanessa Maleare begins our fall series “Who Is Vox?” by introducing our communally crafted purpose statement: Vox Veniae (Voice of Grace) is a spiritual community that seeks to embody Christ by fostering collective healing, pursuing justice, and welcoming wanderers, skeptics, and believers.

 

Reflection

• How have I defined my personal purpose in the past?
• How do I define my personal purpose now?
• What is Vox doing right now that excites me?

Know That You Are Loved

What are ways you know you are loved? On the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Brittany Graves connects our spiritual journey, which starts out  the size of a mustard seed to seasons of growth and embracing shifts, while nourishing ourselves in Divine Love. [Mark 4:26-34]

 

Reflection

• When hearing the text for today, what stands out to you in the parable of the growing seed?
• What spiritual practices are grounding for you?
• What are ways that you know you are loved or you witness the kingdom of God surrounding you?

World Shaping Words

Where might we compassionately reconsider the messages we are embodying and passing on? On the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Christopher Mack wonders how we might learn to use our words to build a more compassionate world for ourselves and others. [James 3]

 

Reflection

1. Are there words of wisdom you can immerse yourself in over the coming weeks?
2. Who is someone whose wise presence you might seek out and from whose practice you might learn?
3. How might you choose life giving words for family, friends, and social media this season?

The Beauty in Tension

What excites you about what Vox is (or could be) creating?  On the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Kimberly Culbertson propels us into creative tension as we consider our communal gait. [Matthew 13:31-34]

 

Reflection

1. How often have you seen yourself as a vital part of the church body versus as a recipient of church services?
2. How does the concept of tensegrity shift the way you think about the Vox value of participation?
3. Do you see Vox as part of a new imagination or new movement of the church? And if so, what does this energize you toward?

The Embodied Practice of the Way of Christ

If our practice of faith is to be aligned with the way of Christ, what are we invited to embody? practice? On the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Weylin Lee grounds us in a nonreactive posture of engaging with presence and intention toward others. [James 1:22-27]

Reflection

• How might our posture of listening facilitate a healthier practice of faith?
• What does a more freeing and sustainable practice of faith look like for us?
• How is our practice of faith being guided by the most vulnerable around us?

Resources

Book: This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

 

Whatever Readies for Peace

What comes to mind when you think of Christ’s power? On the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Christopher Mack examines the armor of the oppressive Roman Empire, and how it was reimagined as strength for creative nonviolent resistance in challenging and tumultuous times. [Ephesians 6:10-20]

 

Reflection

1. How might you practice pivoting toward God’s Peace in this season?
2. What does it mean to experience God’s Peace without detaching from challenges around you?
3. How might we creatively embody God’s Peace for our loved ones? For those marginalized?

The Wildness of Wisdom

When you think of wisdom, what do you usually think of? On the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lilly Ettinger sees in Wisdom not boredom, over-spiritualizing, or dry asceticism, but joy, celebration, and a way of seeing clearly. Wisdom is an invitation to really live. [Proverbs 9:1-6]

 

Reflection

• How does the imagery of Wisdom building a house and preparing a feast invite me to live this week?
• How do the metaphors of Wisdom resonate with my understanding of spiritual nourishment and growth?
• What does the invitation to “Leave your impoverished confusion and live!” (The Message) mean for me?

Resources

1. Quote: “We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.” -9th Step Promises, Big Book AA
2. Quote on Hospitality: “We make sure we always create space to welcome others” -Lilly Ettinger

Discerning Truth

How much do I look to God as I try to discern what is true and good? On the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Kimberly Culbertson acknowledges that to speak the truth requires us to wrestle with our practice of discernment, rather than outsource it to others. [Ephesians 4:24, 29]

Reflection

• What stops me from engaging the practice of discernment?
• What stops me from speaking the truth?
• How can I lean into community as I practice discernment?

Resources

1. Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept that there are things I do not know, The courage to speak the truth I do know, And the Wisdom to know that even what I think I know today may seem wrong tomorrow.”  –Serenity Prayer revised by Kimberly Culbertson