Vox Veniae Podcast

You Belong Here

Who do you know that gives really good hugs? On this Fifth Sunday, Vanessa Maleare leads the Wonder Moment for our New Year’s Eve liturgy and brunch. She invites children of all ages to remember and reside in our beloved belonging. [Galatians 4:4-7]

Advent: Glimpses of Grace

What are the glimpses of hope, peace, joy, and love that we are invited to notice and hold with us? On the Friday before Christmas, Weylin Lee looks back on our year through both a global and local lens, before inviting us to practice sacred reading or lectio divina to glimpse grace in our own lives. [Luke 2:13-20]

Resource

• Practice: Vox Lectio Divina Guide 
• https://voxveniae.com/lectio-divina/

Advent: Joy of Being Remembered

Homily: The Joy of Remembering

When have you been surprised by joy? On the third Sunday of Advent, Christopher Mack ponders how Mary and Elizabeth found deep joy in challenging circumstances through gratitude, kindness, peacemaking, and solidarity. [Luke 1:46-56]

Reflection

• How might I cultivate joy by practicing gratitude this week?
• Is there a person or situation where I might choose kindness and generosity?
• Where can I seek out community and practice solidarity for the road ahead?

Resources

Commentary: Luke 1-9 (Wisdom Commentary Series)  by Shelly Matthews and Barbara Reid

Advent: Preparing for Peace

How are we preparing to embody the peace of Christ and live as peacemakers? On the second Sunday of Advent, Weylin Lee connects peacemaking to the practices of rehumanizing others,   Being present to decentered places, and adopting a posture of consent. [Mark 1:1-8]

 

Reflection

• How is love helping me hold on?
• Which parts of life feel like caterpillar soup?
• How am I inviting my community to come near? 

Resources

1. Article: Welcoming Prayer  by Contemplative Outreach  https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/welcoming-prayer-method/
2. Poem: Shalom, Her Magnetic Heart Than by Kaitlin Curtice https://www.kaitlincurtice.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Curtice_poems.pdf

Advent: Hope

What helps you hold on? On the first Sunday of Advent, Gena St. David wades into the wilderness to grasp onto hope in these challenging times. [1 Corinthians 1:3-7]

Reflection

• How is love helping me hold on?
• Which parts of life feel like caterpillar soup?
• How am I inviting my community to come near? 

Resources

1. Instagram: @blackliturgies by Cole Arthur Riley
2. Article: The Three Elements of Self Compassion by Kristin Neff https://self-compassion.org/the-three-elements-of-self-compassion-2/ 

 Podcast: Swearing Is More Important Than You Think by Freakonomics https://freakonomics.com/podcast/swearing-is-more-important-than-you-think/

Indivisible from Justice for All

How might we re-imagine God’s justice in a restorative framework rather than a primarily punitive one? On Christ the King Sunday, Christopher Mack reexamines scriptures on God’s justice and judgment through a lens of nonviolent theology and restorative justice. [Matthew 25:31-40]

Reflection

• Where are you struggling to see God at work in our divisive, violent, over-consumptive, and destructive world?
• When you long for God to be at work in the world, what values or actions do you hope for?
• How might our hunger for justice reshape our baggage of images of God’s judgment?

Resources

• Book: Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination by James Alison

Finding Wisdom

Finding Wisdom

What does wisdom mean to you? Gena St. David glimpses the wisdom of nature as shared through life, trees, and rain. We are invited to consider how we might find spiritual wisdom in the cycle of connection, disconnection, and reconnection embodied in nature and the life of Jesus. [Proverbs 3:13-20]

Reflection

• What wisdom have you learned by observing patterns in nature?
• Where am I currently working against the wisdom of nature?
• What does nature teach me about the wisdom of Love?

Resources

• Book: On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old by Parker Palmer
• Meditation: “Personal Weather Report” from Sitting Still Like a Frog by Eline Snell

Let’s Not Do This

Let’s Not Do This

When you think about your story of faith, is there a season where you felt especially burdened by the teachings and ideas around you? Kimberly Culbertson follows up her October 1st message, “Rethinking Priesthood” with a reminder of three areas, Problematic Sexual Ethic, Religious Responsibility, and Disregard for Self, where we should reconsider how religious leaders have set limitations to reinforce their own power instead of offering mercy to the marginalized. [Matthew 23:1-5]

Reflection

• What burden might God be trying to lift from your shoulders this morning?
• What burdensome expectation for others might God be calling you to release?
• How might you lean into the “rest for your soul” that Jesus promises?

God Loves Every Part

God Loves Every Part

What does a hug from God feel like? On this Fifth Sunday, Vanessa Maleare, leads our entire community, including our younger ones from Greenhouse and Zamyn, in a wonder moment. She reminds us that God loves us holistically, including our being, thoughts, and feelings [Genesis 1:1-5, 26-27, 31]

 

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

• Film: Inside Out by Disney’s Pixar
• Poem: Broken Record by Michael Moynahan SJ

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