Episodes
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Facing Our Fears
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
How does relating with God impact your fear? Gena St. David explores how the focus of our fears often fail to materialize, and how we might navigate the challenges that do emerge. [Hebrews 13]
Reflection
- How does your relationship with God impact your fear?
- How are you feeling afraid, and how can you empathize?
- What would you do differently if you felt less afraid?
Resource
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Stand Up in Solidarity
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
On Austin Pride weekend, Christopher Mack looks through the Gospel of Luke’s portrayal of a woman bent down to ponder what it looks like to stand up in solidarity for the marginalized. [Luke 13:10-17]
Reflection
- How might you allow your formation in the Divine Womb to shape your identity?
- Where might our habitual patterns and comfort zones be pressing down on the marginalized?
- How might we confront the powers of resentment and rejection with steadfast joy?
Resources
Pride 2022 Research & Resources
Books
- “Beatitudes for a Queerer Church” from The Backwater Sermons: Poems by Jay Hulme
- In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture by Shannon T.L. Kearns
- Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J.M. Nouwen
- Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
- “Who Said It Was Simple” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde
Prayer
Documentary
Friday Sep 02, 2022
A Contemplative Life
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Friday Sep 02, 2022
Lauri Raymond reflects on how embracing contemplative prayer opens us to the Love, Wisdom and Wholeness of God that transforms us individually and collectively. [Ephesians 3:14-19]
Reflection
- What is getting in the way of vulnerability and trust?
- How can I spend more quiet time with God?
- How can I bring contemplation into my life and relationships?
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Does Fear Keep Us From Heaven?
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Title: Does Fear Keep Us From Heaven?
How might fear keep us from experiencing heaven here and now? David Wallace examines how our commonly held fears impact our spirituality. [Luke 12:32-40]
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
What’s God Like?
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
God’s Love gets on eye level with us and God’s Liberation lifts up the marginalized. Christopher Mack shares how Hosea pictures God as a loving caregiver who we can mirror in our own life through steadfast solidarity and working for the common good. [Hosea 11:1-11]
Reflection
- How might you reflect on who you are called to be in the world and who we as a faith community are called to be?
- Is there an invitation for you to act as you consider God bending down in Love and lifting you up in solidarity?
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Learning How to Ask
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Praying can be an act of naming that invites us into creative responses of redistributive justice. Gina Bastone-Trevino wrestles with the Lord's Prayer and a familiar parable in ways that stretch us during times of crisis. [Luke 11:1-10]
Reflection
- What surprising strangeness can you find in re-reading the Lord’s prayer?
- What desire do you need to name to God, and what creativity do you find in this practice of naming?
- Where is God calling you to pray for redistribution and justice?
Resources
- Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Pádraig Ó Tuama:
- “Prayer is words and shape and art around desperation, and delight and disappointment and desire. Prayer can be the art that helps you name your desire. And even if the desire is only named, well, naming is a good thing, surely. Naming is what God did, the Jews tell us, and the world unfolded. Or perhaps naming is what the Jews did, and God unfolded. Either way, I’m thankful. Naming things is part of the creative impulse. Naming the deep desires of our heart is a good thing, even if those desires are never satisfied.”
- New Zealand Anglican Lord’s Prayer | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Making the Invisible Visible
Friday Jul 29, 2022
Friday Jul 29, 2022
If we understand Jesus as making the invisible, visible, then how might that reshape our faith and lived experience? Gena St. David invites us into a conversation about how the incarnation impacts our own bodies and upsets patterns of retribution. [Colossians 1:15-20]
Reflection
- What impact does reflecting on the incarnation have on your body?
- What qualities of God are reflected in Jesus?
- What’s the story about God we’re telling through our relationship with one another?
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Plummeting in God’s Love
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Title: Plummeting in God's Love
This week’s Old Testament reading talks about setting a plumb line as a measurement against an unjust nation. Nicolas Acosta explores living a life rooted in prayer as a plumb line to anchor us in a chaotic world. [Amos 7:1-7]
Reflection
- How can I find little moments to sink into God's love live this week?
- How might God’s love anchor us in place amid the chaos of the world?
Resources
- The Prayer of Examen:
Friday Jul 08, 2022
What Gods We Trust
Friday Jul 08, 2022
Friday Jul 08, 2022
In a world enamored with violent power over others, ensuring security for only some, Christopher Mack shares an alternative empire defying wisdom from those on the margins. [2 Kings 5:1-14]
Reflection
- Where might you glimpse God in the surprises, setbacks, and ordinary moments of your life?
- How might you listen to the wisdom of the marginalized this week?
- How can you mirror Jesus’ relationship to power and the powerless?
Resources
- Poem: Start Close In by David Whyte
- Visual Art: Stars and Bars by Hank Willis Thomas
- Prayer: The Romero Prayer by Bishop Ken Untener
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
The Face of Nonviolence
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
In a time of upheaval and in a culture of violence, Gena St.David guides us to consider how our spiritual community might become known for its immunity to violence through acts of creative confrontation, surprising defiance, and disruptive humor. [Luke 9:51-58].
Reflection
- What have we been taught about Jesus’ nonviolence?
- How does a passive understanding of “turn the other cheek” serve the oppressor?
- Where might we utilize creativity, surprise, and humor to interrupt patterns of violence?
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Lamentations: An Act of Love and Liberation
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
Thursday Jun 23, 2022
On Juneteenth, Virginia Cumberbatch invites us into practices of acknowledgement, confession, and lament on our collective journey of liberation [Romans 5:1-5].
Reflection
- What might the church need to acknowledge before sojourning on its journey of reconciliation and justice?
- How might we individually and corporately consider lamenting racial injustice and collective harm?
- How can you lean into God’s definition of righteousness and justice (Romans 5:1) to inform your communal practice ?
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Bearing the Unbearable
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
This Trinity Sunday, Christopher Mack offers questions for reconsidering how the Triune Life of God invites us to strengthen our spirituality and our goodness toward others. [John 16:12-15].
Reflection
- As you prepare to approach the Table, where do you need grace to bear the seemingly unbearable?
- Where might God’s Triune Life guide you to trust your inner authority and discernment?
- How do you see Spirit advocating on behalf of those who suffer oppression and injustice today?
Resources
- Book: Why Did Jesus, Moses, The Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-faith World by Brian McLaren
- Art: The Life of Christ by Keith Haring
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Yes, You
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
On Pentecost Sunday, Kimberly Culbertson invites us to lean in and listen for Spirit’s divine ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ over our lives. [Acts 2:1-11].
Practices
- Invite the Holy Spirit into moments of disorientation, and in doing so, receive peace that only God can offer
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help us see clearly
- Ask the Spirit how you are discounting yourself, and step out in faith
Reflection
- In moments of disorientation, can you turn toward the Spirit and receive peace?
- Where might God be looking to help us see and hear one another more clearly?
- How might God be releasing you from frantically ranking your significance, and instead invite you to trust that you are enough?
Resources
- Poem: Keep Yourself at the Beginning of the Beginning by Hannah Emerson
- Book: The Brain and The Spirit: Unlocking the Transformative Potential of the Story of the Christ by Gena St. David
- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-brain-and-the-spirit-gena-st-david/1140496719
Tuesday May 31, 2022
What Did Jesus Think He Was Doing in Giving Us the Holy Spirit?
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
As we build towards pentecost with the life of the Risen One in our midst, James Alison invites us to see our lives as a place of God’s indwelling and revealing. [John 14:23-29].
Reflection
- What do you make of the difference between appearing “to” someone and appearing “within” them?
- What do you make of Jesus’ going and his coming being the same thing?
- How do you understand the peace of his parting?
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Joining the Song of Triune Love
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Christopher Mack imagines Jesus’ prayer for our active participation in God’s Love and call to work alongside those struggling, afraid, and forgotten. [John 17:20-26].
Reflection
- What is it like to imagine Jesus’ praying for you?
- Where do you or your world feel fragmented? How might you open yourself to God’s Love and Oneness?
- How might you move yourself to the song of Triune Love?
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Praying and Seeing
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Each of us is not seeing something about God, and this fifth Sunday of Eastertide, Gena St. David invites us to shift our perspective to glimpse something unexpected. [Acts 11:2-12].
Reflection
- If we’re not seeing something clearly, then how will God let us know?
- What new prayer practice do you want to try this week?
- Toward whom is the Spirit moving you?
Practice
- Open Hearted Prayer: If I’m seeing things wrong, let me know.
- Question for the week: Who are we still seeing wrong?
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Growing Good Together
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Wednesday May 11, 2022
On this Good Shepherd Sunday, Christopher Mack reflects on who might be good shepherds in our lives and how we might be the same for others [Acts 9:36-42].
Reflection
- Does Jesus’ self-giving life as a good shepherd offer you hope, healing, rest, or reconciliation you need right now?
- Does someone in your life remind you of Tabitha? Is there an invitation in their example for you to embody Beloved Community?
Practice
- Showing up for mutual flourishing. How do you show up for your own grief? How can you show up for the grief of others? How might you invite others to show up for you?
- Consenting to God's presence. How is the Mystery of God’s Love inviting a ‘yes’ from you? How might you become aware of God’s Love flowing to you in ordinary moments?
- Leaving a legacy of love and liberation. How is the Mystery of God’s Love inviting a ‘yes’ from you? How might you become aware of God’s Love flowing to you in ordinary moments?
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Forming a New Way of Life
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Tuesday May 03, 2022
In this season of Easter and resurrection, Weylin Lee reflects on how we are forming new patterns and a new way of life that Jesus invites us toward [John 21:1-19].
Reflection:
- How might making space for sacraments help disrupt our default patterns?
- What does our version of feeding and tending to the vulnerable look like?
- What is our tension with following the nonviolent path of Christ?
Practice:
- Making space for the sacraments. How does the Eucharist disrupt our need for self-achievement and self-protection? How might liturgy disrupt our isolation and individualistic faith?
- Love in the ordinary ways. How do we faithfully contribute to the restoration and healing of the hurting and marginalized? What does our version of feeding and tending to the vulnerable look like?
Resources:
- Film: Revolution of Our Times (viewer discretion advised)
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Does Doubt Mean I Don’t Believe?
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
David Wallace reflects on how doubt and belief coexist and both are necessary in our journey of faith [John 20:19-29].
Reflection
- When has your certainty led to unforgiveness?
- How does trusting in God change your understanding of having faith, despite living in a world with such suffering?
Resources
- Book: The Sin of Certainty (Peter Enns)
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Fits and Starts
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
Tuesday Apr 19, 2022
On this Easter Sunday, Christopher Mack reflects on the paradox of resurrection love and the invitation that Jesus’ nonviolence offers us towards peacemaking [Luke 24:1-11].
Reflection:
- Where is Christ inviting you to shift perspectives to find life in death?
- How might forgiveness, righteous anger, and nonviolent resistance call you toward hopeful action?