Vox Veniae Podcast

Inviting Simplicity

How do you know when you are standing on your own sacred ground? Christopher Mack imagines a table where we are not serving our unhealthy fixations and impulses, but are living out of attachment to God’s Inclusive and Transformative Love. [Luke 14:1, 7-14]

Reflection 

• Which strategy for pursuing happiness seems primary for you right now?
• Who might you share your honest experience of life with this week?
• Is there someone you. Might invite to experience the radical love and grace of God’s Beloved Community this week?

Resource

1. Book: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Sacred Objects

Is there an object of place that connects you to prayer? Amy Wolfgang dusts the cobwebs off the ritual of the rosary prayer, from their religious upbringing, infusing it with joy and sacredness in our lives and being. [Revelation 12]

 

Reflection 

• Can you take a moment to meditate on the needs of a person or group you might pray for intercession for this week?
• Where has God invited you into a “queer-ing” of your experience of Christianity?
• If Mary spans the divine and human, interceding on our behalf and welcoming us to heaven; how can you take the next small step to root your prayers in spiritual and earthly action?

Resource

1. Book: Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal by Christine Valters Paintner
2. Website: Pride Resources Mentioned in Homily

The Peaceable Kingdom

What gives people power in Western societies? Eric Robinson cultivates compassion and curiosity around how we relate to power in light of the cross and resurrection, as we seek to embody a multicultural and diverse body of Christ. [Isaiah 11]

 

Reflection

• Where is God calling you to lean more into the cross?
• Where is God inviting you to embrace resurrection?
• How might you intentionally change one thing in your life this week to live out the Peaceable Kingdom?

The Path to Proximity

What is the difference between an encounter and an interaction? Caroline Cody explores the merciful Samaritan parable through the lens of how we can open ourselves more fully to people we encounter in our paths. [Luke 10:25-42]

 

Reflection

• What is a creative way you can show up differently to put yourself more in the way of others?
• Who might Jesus have pointed to as your “neighbor” if you could ask him today?
• In what ways can we also embody care for our neighbor like Mary, by sitting at the feet of Jesus?

Desperate

What is your life desperate for? Jennifer Cumberbatch of Full Measure preaches about how we our desperate for connection to the life of God and deep relationship with one another, and how Christ embodies this Hope and in-breaking reality.  [Colossians 2:6-15]

 

Reflection

• What am I desperate for or about?
• How would it look to truly be alive without guilt?
• Can you ask God to restore your hope in Christ

Cosmic Beat

What needs to be said or done in the world right now? Vanessa Maleare and Brandon co-share a message about how we sync with the Cosmic Christ and one another through a rich understanding of the incarnational and transcendent life of God. Seeing the world through the Cosmic Christ imbues our lives with meaning.  [Colossians 1:15-20]

 

Reflection

• What is my Big Idea that feels sacred?
• How can I connect with the Cosmic Christ, through small/humble moments?
• When do I feel the most in sync with God’s presence,  and why?

Resource

1. Book: The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers & Mothers by Henri Nouwen
2. Book: Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie

Attending to Good

What does it look like to prayerfully open up more fully to both suffering and hope?  Christopher Mack wonders how we attend to the Goodness of God as an invitation to grow in prayerful discernment, empowerment, and liberation. [Colossians 1:9-14]

 

Reflection

• What is one way I can grow in attending to God’s Nonviolent Inclusive Kin-dom?
• Where do I need to grow my endurance for building Beloved Community?
• How might  I compassionately welcome this moment without feeling resigned to the status quo?

Resource

1. Book: The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers & Mothers by Henri Nouwen
2. Book: Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie

Made to Make

On this 5th Sunday worship, centered around tables and brunch, and inclusive of all ages, Vanessa Maleare reflects on the recent Art Camp and what it means that kids and all of us are created to be creative, just like our Creator.  [Genesis 1:26-27]

 

Reflection

• What do you create?
• What makes you want to create?
• How might you involve the Creator to become involved in your process?

Resource

Book: The Creator In You, written by Jordan Raynor and illustrated by Jonathan David

After the Lament

What songs evoke lament and joy for you? Gina Bastone looks at the psalmist’s cry like a mixtape to the heavens, which invites us to companion our grief and imagine how God is calling us to participate in building a new world.  [Psalm 22]

Reflection

• What is causing your lament, what is causing your praise, and how is God showing up in between?
• What kind of world do you want to build—with our Vox community in Austin, Texas, and in our world more broadly?
• How might we dwell in God’s possibility and open our narrow hands to gather paradise in these difficult times? What phrases might we add to the space after the em dash?

Where the Wild Things Are

On Trinity Sunday, we conclude our series, Teach Em How To Say Goodbye: Jesus’ Parting Words to a Community in Transition, which looked at the final discourse of Jesus with his disciples before the whirlwind of his death, resurrection, and ascension. Today, we consider how God is shaping our leadership for our own lives, our faith community, and the larger world.   [John 16:12-15]

 

Reflection

1. In what ways can I courageously lead in my larger community?
2. What can I do to tend to my full self while I am doing that?

Kintsugi Storytelling

On Pentecost, we are in the penultimate message in the series, Teach Em How To Say Goodbye: Jesus’ Parting Words to a Community in Transition, which looks at the final discourse of Jesus with his disciples before the whirlwind of his death, resurrection, and ascension. Today, we consider how God might be inviting us to bear witness to beauty and brokenness, as we humbly listen to one another’s stories.   [John 14:15-27]

 

Reflection

• As we sit together in our own metaphorical upper room, can we pray together that the Holy Spirit would astound us with unexpected beauty?
• How might God be inviting you to speak into or bear witness to another’s beauty and brokenness?
• How might God be breathing beauty or possibility into the broken places in or around you?

Complete in Diversity

On the seventh Sunday of Easter, we continue in the series, Teach Em How To Say Goodbye: Jesus’ Parting Words to a Community in Transition, which looks at the final discourse of Jesus with his disciples before the whirlwind of his death, resurrection, and ascension. Today, we ponder how to be complete in unity by highlighting the unique ways we have been created and called to illuminate God’s Love.   [John 17:20-26]

 

Reflection

• What difference does it make to hear Jesus praying for Vox Veniae, churches across our continent, and the global church?
• Is there a specific way you or Vox could show oneness with other Christians from whom you are divided?
• How might you begin to pray for people  who will be part of Vox and the global church in future? 

Move Em Along

We pick up in our series, Teach Em How To Say Goodbye: Jesus’ Parting Words to a Community in Transition, which looks at the final discourse of Jesus with his disciples before the whirlwind of his death, resurrection, and ascension. On this sixth Sunday of Easter, we confront transition as an inevitable part of life and consider what it is to wake up to Jesus making a home in our everyday lives.  [John 14:23-24, 28-29]

 

Reflection

• How might our collective faith buoy us in seasons where our personal faith is lagging?
• Is there an invitation for you to keep company with Jesus?
• How might our experience of loss and joy be in transformative conversation?

 

One Last Time

On the fifth Sunday of Easter, we begin a new series, Teach Em How To Say Goodbye: Jesus’ Parting Words to a Community in Transition, which looks at the final discourse of Jesus with his disciples before the whirlwind of his death, resurrection, and ascension. On this graduation Sunday, we hear reflections from Olaya Hinojosa and Sam Malare about how they are navigating this transition.  [John 13:31-35]

 

Reflection

• How do you navigate challenging feelings during times of transition?
• What legacy of love has been shared with you?
• How might God’s Love guide you and ground you in times of transition?

Divine Goodness Pursues

What is Divine goodness inviting us into? On the fourth Sunday of Easter, giving his last homily as a pastor at Vox, Weylin Lee recalls moments of Divine goodness through the restoration of contemplation, comfort through solidarity, and mercy through nonviolence.  [Psalm 23]

 

Reflection

• Where can I make space to reflect in stillness and truly rest?
• How might I practice presence with those experiencing a dark valley?
• How am I invited to adopt a lens of abundance in practicing mercy?

Your Peculiar Calling

What is that thing you just can’t help but do? On the third Sunday of Easter, Vanessa Maleare sifts through our lives in search of our precious and peculiar calling as she juxtaposes our journey with Peter’s call to be God’s Presence in the world.  [John 21:15-19]

 

Reflection

• What is written on your rock?
• What are you being called to in this season?
• What are you being called out of this season?

Giving Up Politics for Lent

How might we be tempted to over-identify with our politics in unsettling times? On the second Sunday of Easter, Nic Acosta fasts from being “that guy” in regards to seeing everything solely through a political identity and challenges us to question how a purity psychology of politics might subtly supplant our love for Christ and neighbor.  [John 12:1-8]

 

Reflection

• Has purity thinking affected how I relate to other with different political views?
• What are some ways I can practice detaching my sense of self from my political views?
• How can I lean into Christ as the true source of my identity?

Unexpected Rebirth

How does Easter invite us to live into the unexpected experiences of rebirth? On Easter Sunday, Weylin Lee beckons us to the Risen Christ through unexpected loss, listening to unexpected voices, and reimagining unexpected hope.  [Luke 24:1-12]

 

Reflection

• How might the places of loss in our lives be generating rebirth?
• What unexpected voices are inviting us to disrupt our lens of normalcy?
• How might we expand our imagination of hope?

No More of This

How might we put our nonviolent resistance into words? On Palm Sunday, Gena St. David draws inspiration from both the nonviolent example of Jesus and the nonviolent practice during the civil rights era on how we might resist dehumanizing evil and injustice.  [Luke 22:47-54]

 

Reflection

• How might we draw courage from Jesus’ response to violence?
• How might you practice nonviolence toward yourself this week?
• Which violent patterns might you wish to interrupt?

Overcoming Our Dreams

How might some of our unquestioned core beliefs keep us from growing in the Life of Christ? On the fifth Sunday of Lent, Christopher Mack wonders how we might jump off the treadmill of unfulfilled dreams and imagine what arrival at purpose and belonging in the Life of Christ looks like. [Philippians 3:7-14]

 

Reflection

• Are there some dreams for your life that seem ill-fitting in light of the life of Christ?
• Does understanding the love of God we experience and extend to others as cruciform, invite you to reexamine your own belovedness or someone else’s?
• How does the cruciform love of God expand your longing and understanding of bearing good fruit?

 

Resources

1. Book: Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2. Book: The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life  by Henri Nouwen
3. PDF: Core Beliefs Info Sheet from Therapist Aid
   1. https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/core-beliefs-info-sheet 
4. Podcast: Don Koch, John Mark McMillan, Thomas Torrey, hosts, “Redefining Success” You Have Permission (podcast), March 24, 2025, accessed April 2, 2025.

https://megaphone.link/TOREC2388149299