Vox Veniae Podcast

Theology of Making

Marcus Clarke, Resident Artist at Vesper, enters into a conversation with Weylin Lee exploring how art articulates and forms us along our spiritual journey, and encourages us to see our various callings as part of exercising our God given creativity. [Genesis 1:1-5, 26-27, 31]

Reflection

• How are we invited to practice creativity and co-create with Creator?
• How might our practice of making invite healing and restoration?
• How might we explore our own expression of creating and making?

Resources

• Website: Studio Delmar.  The artistic practice of Marcus Clarke

 https://www.delmar.work/

What is Collective Discernment?

What is Collective Discernment?

How do we create a community of equals that resists becoming a cult of personality… that resists celebrity culture? Gena St. David wraps up our fall series on non-hierarchy by inviting us to recall the wisdom we’ve gained from each of our teaching team’s perspectives and practicing collective discernment by listening deeply to the Spirit, our bodies, and to on another as we navigate community conversations and practices. [Philippians 2:1-2]

 

Reflection

• What questions are alive inside me today?
• How might I practice listening deeply to the Spirit, my individual body, and others?
• Which voices do I tend to elevate above others?

Dreaming in League with God

How do we exercise power effectively and holistically? Christopher Mack examines different organizational models and what characteristics might characterize a faith community moving beyond non-hierarchy. [Philippians 4:1-7]

 

Reflection

• In a crisis, where do you tend to look for safety, control, or influence?
• How might you seek a “loyal companion” to help facilitate an  impasse in your life?
• Is there a practice for right-sizedness you feel drawn to this week?

 

Resources

• Book: Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations by Frederic Lafloux

Rethinking Priesthood

What hesitancies do you have when you consider yourself in relation to priesthood? Kimberly Culbertson explores how we are invited to be hope carriers, resource facilitators, and sacrificial relators as we live out a shared calling. [1 Peter 2:4-5, 9]

 

Reflection

• How have you been called out of darkness into marvelous light? 
• How has God wired you to be part of creating spiritual space for others?
• How does interdependence change the way you view priesthood?

 

Resources

• Book: Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans

Engaging Tension with Humility

How can we grow from engaging tensions in our world? Vanessa Maleare shares her story of being shaped by tension in living out her calling, while reflecting on the story of Peter living in the tension of past failure and present affirmation.  [John 21:18-22]

 

Reflection

• Where in your life are you fleeing from tension?
• Which of these unresolvable tensions calls to you the most??
• Which of the unresolvable tensions feels most pressing to engage in personally? Corporately?

Resources

• Book: Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown

Shared Leadership as Resistance

How is a practice of shared leadership resistance against oppressive and harmful structures? Weylin Lee vulnerably reflects on the journey of Vox from hierarchy toward non-hierarchy and how this practice is a form of resistance.  [Philippians 2:1-8]

 

Reflection

• Who are the voices we need to include at the table?
• In what ways might you practice love with the most vulnerable?
• What areas of power and privilege are we invited to let go of?

Resources

• Podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill by Christianity Today
• Book: When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse by Chuck DeGroat
• Book: A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture by Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer

A Posture of Non-Hierarchy

What has been your experience of (non)hierarchy in faith communities? At the beginning of our Fall vision series, Gena St. David interrogates our relationship to power and experience of hierarchy in light of a nonviolent messiah who embodied humility.  [Philippians 2:5-8]

 

Reflection

• What are the strengths and shadows of hierarchy?
• How might I practice embracing myself, and others?
• Do I tend to overutilize or underutilize my power? 

Resources

• Podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill by Christianity Today
• Book: When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse by Chuck DeGroat
• Book: A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture by Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer

The Peculiarity of Expired Dreams

How do you work through your expired dreams? On the eve of our Fall vision series, Christopher Mack ponders how setbacks, dead ends, failure, and loss shape our spirituality. How might we see ourselves and one another with new eyes of hope, imagination, and solidarity for the journey ahead?  [Exodus 3:1-15]

 

Reflection

• How have you been shaped by expired dreams?
• How might you cultivate humble awareness to see the unexpected in the ordinary?
• Where are you trying on your own, where you might need to invite others in?

Resources

• Book: Does God Have a Big Toe? Written by Marc Gellman and illustrated by Oscar de Miejo
• Song: Defying Gravity by Stephen Schwartz from Wicked: A New Musical
• Article: The Ghosts of Archer City by Michael J Mooney

 

Mercy to Your Bodies

How do we show mercy to our bodies as God does? Gena St. David juxtaposes a living sacrifice with the death dealing ways we often do violence to our bodies. She explores how showing mercy, as God does, to our bodies through gentleness, rest, and healing is an act of worship. [Romans 12:1-2]

 

Reflection

• Where is God inviting me to try softer this week?
• What prevents me from resting when I need to?
• Whose help could I ask for in my healing process?

Resources

• Book: Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode--and into a Life of Connection and Joy by Aundi Kolber
• Book: Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
• Book: My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies  by Resmaa Menakem

Extending the Table

What would it look like for us to create more space at the table? Weylin Lee looks at an encounter between Jesus and the marginalized to consider how we move beyond our biases, prioritize mercy over convenience, and disrupt negative peace.  [Matthew 15:21-28]

 

Reflection

• How are you invited to decolonize your view of Christ and your faith?
• How might you offer a unique voice and story in our collective work of advocacy?
• What does a nonviolent response look like for you in response to someone else's violence?

Resources

• Book: Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald
• Book: Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm by Kazu Haga

Promise Keeper

What hope might you create space for in order to stay close to God’s promises? Virginia Cumberbatch opens up about audaciously holding on to hope through seasons of challenges, disappointments, and injustice.  [Psalm 105:1-5]

 

Reflection

• What would it look like to create space to reflect on the promises God has kept?
• How can the uncertainty or mystery of our human condition embolden us in our faith and purpose?
• What promises have you dismissed or declared obsolete that God might be calling you to resurrect and reclaim?

Resources

• Book: Joy Hunter by Alexis Jones
• Book: Shoutin’ In the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart

Rallying Cry of Resistance

How might we respond when we feel powerless, unsupported, and at a loss for words? Christopher Mack points to the Apostle Paul’s understanding of Spirit crying out with us for compassion and renewal.   [Romans 8:26-32]

 

Reflection

• How do you handle moments when you find yourself speechless?
• How can we continue to bear witness as God’s subversive global family?

Resources

• Book: Romans Disarmed by Sylvia Keesmaat & Brian Walsh
• Art: Wintered Field by Jason Yarmosky
• Book: Roman for Normal People by J.R. Daniel Kirk

Creation & Trust

What might it mean to have a nonviolent relationship with the rest of God’s creation? Gena St. David explores how the nonviolence of Jesus and the Apostle Paul’s hope that ‘creation itself might be set free’ could impact our relationship to all of creation. [Romans 8:20-25]

 

Note: Speaker Gena St David invites curiosity about how the nonviolent practice of Jesus applies to our food and environment, while acknowledging a diverse community like Vox is going to include multiple perspectives. Conversations about plant-based eating must include sensitivity to those recovering from disordered eating and those living with food insecurity or in food deserts. Our hope as a community is to continue to collaboratively explore multiple ways of practicing nonviolence with all of creation.

 

Reflection

• What can we do today to help creation be free?
• How is our pain like creation’s pain?
• What does a trusting relationship with creation look like?

Resources

• Book: The Nonviolent Atonement by J Denny Weaver
• Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Reimagining Growth

How does reflecting on God’s abundance impact your willingness to consent to God’s movement in your life? Weylin Lee considers a parable of Jesus on growth. How might we reimagine our relationship to God’s abundance and how we expand our lives beyond ourselves?  [Matthew 13:1-9]

 

Reflection

• How might consenting to God’s abundance facilitate your growth?
• Where have you experienced growth even in rocky and thorny seasons?
• What are some ways we can be active beyond ourselves?

Resource

• Poem: The Facts of Life by Pádraig Ó Tuama

Who Is Jesus?

What expectations, titles, and ideas have you been handed about Jesus? Nick Zadrozny approaches the gospel text with curiosity, playfulness, and insight. We find ourselves challenged as Jesus befriends people on the moral margins of society who make us feel uncomfortable.  [Matthew 11:16-19]

 

Reflection

• What have you been told about who Jesus is?
• What have you studied about who Jesus is?
• What expectations do you have about who Jesus is?

In the Midst

Have you ever had to push through discomfort to stand in your beliefs? On the last weekend of Pride, Amy Wolfgang recounts their own journey of integrating their faith with their queer identity. They challenge us to imagine and live into a hopeful and creative stance toward our collective future.   [Matthew 10:27-39]

 

Reflection

• Is there a hurtful or violent theology you are being invited to set aside for your healing journey?
• Where do you sense tension from being at the point of opposition or oppression for countering a violent system?
• How might we imagine justice-bringing as ‘one of the most pleasurable experiences’?

 

Resources

• Book: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing World by Adrienne Maree Brown
• Vox Homily Practice and Resources

 

Liberated Into Community

How do we pivot from a past experience of deliverance to forming a community practicing sustained love and liberation? On the weekend of Juneteenth, Christopher Mack recalls the evolution of slavery to Jim Crow segregation to mass incarceration in the United States. How do our scriptures’ images of liberating eagles, nonviolent sheep, creative serpents, and peacemaking doves inform how we form community?  [Matthew 10:16; Exodus 4-6]

 

Reflection 

• How might you listen more clearly to your life?
• What would it look like to allow Christ to lament alongside you?
• Where might you show up in solidarity with your community this week?
  

Resources

• Raise Up by Hank Willis Thomas
• Museum: The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice by the Equal Justice Initiative
• Instagram Post: “How do we talk with our kids about life with Jesus if we don’t say obey?" By Meredith Miller
• Art: The Cotton Bowl by Hank Willis Thomas
• Art: ALL LI ES MATTER by Hank Willis Thomas
• Book: Mindful of Race: Transforming Race from the Inside Out by Ruth King

Welcome

What helps you feel welcome? Gena St. David gathers us around the table to notice who feels welcome and who is missing. How might a nonviolent practice might help us follow Jesus in being good news to the marginalized while celebrating alongside one another? [Matthew 9:10-13]

 

Reflection

• Who among us feels least welcome?
• Whose suffering might we relieve?
• How is our story related to our calling?

Resources

• Book: Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters by N.T. Wright
• Film: Chinatown Rising a Harry Chuck and Josh Chuck film
• Book: Love Is My Savior: The Arabic Poems of Rumi  translated and edited by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee

Returning Home: Beyond Nostalgia

How might we stimulate one another to bring to today, the best of what we can from the past? On this Pentecost Sunday, Christopher Mack ponders how Mother Holy Spirit might animate our nostalgia to empower us in challenging times. [Acts 2:1-8, 12-13]

 

Reflection

• How might you find a sense of home in some new and unexpected development?
• What might you do this week for the common good?
• Where might the disempowered find empowerment in our community?

Resources

• Book: Seasons of Our Joy: A Modern Guide to Jewish Holidays by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
• Song: Home by Diana Ross [from The Wiz, original film soundtrack)
• Book: An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
• Book: Acts of the Apostles: Wisdom Commentary by Linda M. Maloney and Ivoni Richter Reimer 

The Wisdom of Singing

How does singing sustain us? Gena St. David resonates with the power of songs to help us embody hope in challenging times of adversity and nonviolently resist injustice. [Psalms 68:4-9]

 

Reflection

• Which song or breath practice might you deepen?
• Where do you desire to feel more free?
• How might song or breath help you decide to wait or move?

Resources

• Book: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
• Song: Mississippi Goddam by Nina Simone
• Song: Hard Times (Come Again No More) by Stephen Foster