Vox Veniae Podcast

Lent: Expectations…

Jason Minnix reflects on our expectations as we near the end of the Lenten season [Matthew 21:1-11].

Reflection:
What pain and darkness is God starting to untether in me this week?
How can I relax into the grace that God actually likes me?

Resources:
Video: On Love with Alain De Botton

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Lent: Waiting For Resolution

Gena Minnix talks about how we reflect on and respond to waiting in this season of Lent [Psalm 130:1-8].

Reflection:
How might sharing my feelings, needs, and wants with God help me while I’m waiting?
How might God use the ‘waiting’ parts of my life to write an exceptionally good story?

Resources:
Podcast: Missing Richard Simmons

Practices:
Voicing to God our feelings and needs.
Breath prayer – “(inhale)Jesus Christ, Son of God, (exhale)have mercy on me a sinner.”
God, how might you use this in your story?

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Lent: Suffering

John Chandler reflects on what will come of our season of lent where we open ourselves up to brokenness, grief and suffering [Romans 5:1-11].

Reflection
What suffering already might be present for you to take hold of?
How have you not allowed hope to birth out of your suffering?

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Lent: Learning to See

Gideon Tsang talks about how we can learn to see the kingdom of God here and now and how we can see as God sees [John 3:1-17].

Reflection:
What does it look like to create space in this lent season?
How can you live out of your worthiness this week?

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Kindness to the Other

Jason Minnix explores how to respond to violence with loving kindness, both towards ourselves and difficult people in our lives and world [Matthew 5:38-48].

Reflection:
What in my life needs kindness today?
How can I extend compassion to the people who are difficult for me to love?

Resources:
Book: Rosenberg, Marshall. “Nonviolent Communication.”

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Stories We Tell

Sarah Berson explores the stories we tell about ourselves and about God [2 Peter 1:16-21].

Reflection:
What am I hiding that God is inviting me to bring into the light?
What would it look like to share my fears with God in a meaningful way this week?

Resources
Video: Hail Caesar – Religious Leaders Meeting
Icons: Jesus’ Parables -illustrations by Tim Bauer
Website: Humans of New York

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Maturing Obedience

Weylin Lee talks about the things that a maturing obedience should move us towards and how they might help us make life-giving decisions instead of life-limiting ones [Psalm 119:33-40].

Reflection:
How can we live from our heart instead of our ego?
What would a movement toward contentment look like?

Resources:
Podcast: This American Life-Fine Print
Podcast: On Being- Joan Chittister
Video: Minimalism Documentary

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Changing Our Minds

Gideon Tsang reflects on what it would look like to have our minds continually changed to discover the mind of Christ is already in us [1 Corinthians 2:1-8].

Reflection:
When did a moment of powerlessness change you?
What’s scares you about being vulnerable?

Resources:
Podcast: Fresh Air- Mike Birbiglia
Video: Manchester by the Sea

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Forget Your Perfect Offering

Gena Minnix talks about what Jesus says and invites us to do in the context of difficult times and seasons [Matthew 5:13-16].

Reflection:
How can I practice experiencing and feeling the full range of human emotions?
Who in my life is living in shadow? What parts of me remain in shadow?
What’s my imperfect offering today?

Resources:
Video: Doctor Who & Van Gogh
Video: Anthem by Leonard Cohen

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The Wisdom of Foolishness

Weylin Lee reflects on how the wisdom of God seems foolish and in that foolishness, what God’s wisdom invites us into [1 Corinthians 1:18-31].

Reflection:
How can we hold the tension of the known and unknown in order to practice faith?
What are the attachments in our lives that we need to confront?
Who are the people in our lives we might need to be in solidarity with?

Resources:
Podcast:On Being: John Lewis

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Unity

Matt Worthington reflects on how we can reframe our divisions and walk a path of unity [1 Corinthians 1:10-18].

Reflection
Where is God asking you to be on the journey towards unity?
In what ways do we need healing in order to walk with others in our lives?
In what ways can we reframe the language and perspective we adopt with others?

Resources
Video: TED Talk-Suzanne Barakat

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Light Calling

Jason Minnix speaks about our calling and how we’re invited to focus on what we are and not just what we do [Isaiah 49:1-7].

Reflection
What is the invitation today that feels like grace?
What support do I need to engage or reengage my calling in a meaningful way?

Resources
Video – Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Funeral)

Exercise
Here is a list of exercises that you can try to consider your calling “to be”.

• Write or draw a chronos time line of your life.
• Include moments of chairos time (graced time), significant events in your journey that have formed you, timeless moments of meaning, joy, trauma, loss.
• List some of your life dreams and desires.
• Write trustworthy words that have been spoken into your life. Ask people who love you now.
• Write a simple statement of your calling.

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Consent to Love

Gideon Tsang reflects on what it means to consent to where God is already at work in us and forming us this year [Matthew 3:13-17].

Reflection:
What are we currently experiencing that we might need to consent to?
What are some things we need to let go of?

Resources:
Video: This Year by The Mountain Goats
Video: Trouble with Boys by David Bazaan

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Blessing

As we start a new year, John Chandler reflects on the story that we need to tell that is larger than the challenges and difficulties we have faced and will face [Numbers 6:22-27].

Reflection:
What might it look like for you to spend more time in the shine of a face than the shine of a screen in the year to come?
How might you serve as priest, a go-between, to another who needs to receive the blessing of YHWH?

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Advent IV: The Surprise of Emmanuel

As we approach the end of the Advent season, Weylin Lee reflects on the surprising invitations that we find in Joseph and Mary’s experience of the birth of Jesus [Matthew 1:18-25].

Reflection
How can we reframe our interruptions and disruptions to help strip away our false self?
What are the things that we fear in our lives that we need to act against in our process of experiencing freedom?
What are some areas of our lives that we need to let go of control in order to fall into grace?

Resources:
Podcast: On Being- James Martin

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Advent III: Disappointment

As we continue in the season of Advent, Matt Inman speaks about what it means to long for joy and how we live in the tension of our fears and dreams [Hebrews 11:13-16].

Reflection:
How has disappointment impacted your life and faith?
What does your life look like being broke open versus broke apart?

Resources:
Podcast: Inefficiency-Jamie Tworkowski

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Advent II: Preparing for Peace

As we continue in the season of Advent, Gena Minnix speaks about how we prepare for peace and become agents of peace [Matthew 3:1-6].

Reflection
Where are the wilderness places in our lives where survival feels like a struggle?
What experiences (feelings, situations, conditions) do I find difficult or nearly impossible to welcome?
What practices help me prepare for a peace that’s here but not yet here?

Resources
Center for Action and Contemplation

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Advent I: Hope

Jason Minnix begins the season of Advent by reflecting on the hope that Jesus lived and where we look and wait for that hope [Isaiah 2:1-5].

Reflection:
Where am I watching and waiting for epiphany to break in?
How can I make space to rest and trust transformation is happening?

Resources
Book:Come Out My People by Wes Howard-Brook

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Hope Through Struggle

Gideon Tsang continues our conversation on hope and how it is a function of struggle in times of distress and uncertainty [Psalm 141].

Reflection:
What are you feeling today? What might those feelings be revealing to you?
What does it look like to struggle together for hope?

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Hope

Weylin Lee explores what we’re invited to do in times of hopelessness as we wait for God’s original vision for us and our world to be fully restored [2 Thessalonians 2:13-17].

Reflection:
How can we see ourselves and others the same way God sees us?
How can our responses to hopelessness be more life giving instead of life limiting?
How can we practice grace in the face of hopelessness?

Resources:
Film: Interstellar
Film: The White Helmets

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