Vox Veniae Podcast

Naming Empire’s Enticements

What does it say about our spiritual imaginations that Lenten fasts often center on our relationship to food, drink, or media, but less often on our relationship to power? As we begin Lent, Christopher Mack examines the testing of Jesus in the wilderness through the lens of how we steward and are enticed by power. [Matthew 4:1-11]

Reflection

• Where do you feel the pull to compromise your values and purpose?
• How might the power, perks, and prestige of Empire distract us from collective action?
• Where have you seen scripture, prayer, and community used to hurt and to heal? How might this change how you engage with them in the coming weeks?

Resources

• Book: Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading by Warren Carter
• Book: The Jesus Way: A Conversation On the Ways that Jesus Is the Way  by Eugene Peterson
• Litany: Levingston, Zhailon. “Hope: A Litany Claiming Another World Is Possible and On Its Way.” In Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice, edited by Britney Winn Lee 
• Vox Values

Trust in the Midst of Uncertainty

How might uncertainty propel us deeper into the mystery and revelation of God’s grace in the midst of injustice, suffering, and oppression? Virginia Cumberbatch sits with the sense of being out of control in our chaotic and heartbreaking world to find faith in learning to trust and work toward God’s Dream when we do not currently see it. [Psalm 99:1-5]

 

Reflection

• How might we invite a spirit of exploration and curiosity in the midst of uncertainty?
• How can the uncertainty or mystery of our human condition embolden us in our faith and in our purpose?
• What’s one thing this week you can invite spirit led revelation?

Resources

• Book: The Cross and the Lynching Tree  by James Cone
• Book: Shoutin’ In the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart
• Dance: The Dance Theatre of Harlem
• Instagram Social Media Account: @BlackLiturgies Project by Cole Arthur Riley  
• Song: “Man of Your Word” by Maverick City

What Does it Mean to be Reconciled?

How does relational conflict feel inside us? Gena St. David delves into Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to share a hopeful practice for navigating conflict with others, make amends, and embody peace. [Matthew 5:21-24]

 

Reflection

1. Who are you currently separated from (externally or internally)?
2. How might you talk with them about your role in the separation?
3. What might change (be reconciled) inside you after talking with them?

Embodying Our Identity

How are we invited to live out the identity that Christ offers us? Weylin Lee invites us to embody Jesus’ images of salt and light as we collaborate in God’s work, reveal injustice, and  see scripture as wisdom rather than a rulebook. [Matthew 5:13-18]

 

Reflection

• How can we participate and collaborate in God´s work around us?
• Where are the injustices we are invited to reveal and uncover?
• How might we engage scripture as a journey to wisdom?

Resources

• Book: Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women by Grace Ji-Sun Kim
• Book: How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers–and Why That’s Great News by Peter Enns
• TV Show: Hulu’s The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Come On Down

Where do you return for renewal when your heart feels heavy with sorrow? Christopher Mack holds recent national tragedies up to the beatitudes and wonders how they invite us into an alternative to the violence of our world, while simultaneously creating space for us to process the hardships we encounter while partnering for God’s Justice. [Matthew 5:3-12]

 

Reflection

• Where do I most struggle to see God present and enveloping my own life?
• Is there a situation or group in your world where it’s hard to imaging God? How might you open yourself to Radical Love?
• What invitation in the beatitudes might there be for action and contemplation this week?

Resources

• Book: Shoutin’ In the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart
• Book: The Ninefold Path of Jesus: Hidden Wisdom of the Beatitudes by Mark Scandrette 
• Book: Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice Edited by Britney Winn Lee
• Art: The Mothership Designed by George Clinton, Peter Larkin, Jules Fisher 
• Art: The Mothership (Capsule) Created by Jefferson Pinder

Cruciform Care

How is Jesus revealed through our community? Christopher Mack reflects on the messiness of community and how the cross leads us into solidarity with the marginalized as our personal and communal wounds are mended. [1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17-18]

 

Reflection

• Where do you experience the wounds of severed community?
• How might the cruciform power of Jesus bring care to your pain?
• What creative redemptive foolishness might you be invited to participate in?

Resources

• Book: Forgiveness and Reparation, the Healing Journey by Mpho Tutu van Furth

Immersed in the Way of Christ

As we begin a new year, how might we discover rhythms and moments of immersing ourselves in the way of Christ? Weylin Lee opens up about how experience and encounter get us unstuck and in step with God’s Radical Love  [John 1:35-42]

 

Reflection

• How might we sit in the tension of the paradox of Christ?
• How can we intentionally make space to listen?
• What ways can we foster community towards transformation?

Resources

• Book: Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis

The Mystery of God

Speaker Gena St. David uses the phrase "all bodies matter" in today's homily in the context of support and solidarity for the vision and mission of Black Lives Matter https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/. She begins the new year reflecting on Epiphany and how mystery can lead us into goodness, belonging, and beautiful embodiment. [Ephesians 3:5-12]

 

Reflection

• When have you felt part of a larger body?

Resources

• Visual Art: Myein by Ann Hamilton
• Vox’s Values: Mystery

Unexpected Joy and Peace

What are we invited to do or change as we consider the unexpected disruption that the first Christmas brought with the birth of a baby? On the eve of Christmas Eve, Weylin Lee leads us in the practice of lectio divina through a reflection over the past year and through the Christmas story  [Luke 2:8-15]

 

Resources

• Book: Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans

Dreaming of a Just Love

How do we move from our reasonable resolutions to dreaming in league with the Divine? On the fourth week of advent, Christopher Mack opens up about how experience and encounter get us unstuck and in step with God’s Radical Love  [Matthew 1:18-25]

 

Reflection

• How is Jesus being “with us” an anchor through imperfections and surprises this season?
• Is there someone you might respond differently to in light of God’s Love?
• What’s awakened and unsettled in you as you move with God through the certainty of the status quo to the creative unfolding of God’s Just Love?

Resources

• Book: Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor
• Book: Silence: And Other Surprising Invitations of Advent  by Enuma Okoro
• Poetry: For a New Beginning By John O’Donohue https://luminaryquotes.com/quote/for-a-new-beginning

Making Space for the Unexpected

How do you usually respond to something that’s unexpected? On the third week of advent, Weylin Lee invites us to glimpse restoration and healing for ourselves and those around us, even in the most uncomfortable places and seemingly invisible people. [Matthew 11:2-11]

Reflection

• What are the glimpses of restoration around us in the midst of disappointment?
• What are the uncomfortable truths that we’re invited to hear and engage?
• Who are the invisible that we need to acknowledge and advocate for?

Resources

• Invisible: Theology and the Experience of Asian American Women by Grace Ji-Sun Kim

What Does It Mean to Repent?

How does God relate to us through trust? As we enter the second week of advent, Gena St. David invites us into a wilder waiting in the wilderness, as we reconsider misperceptions of our life and their ramifications. [Matthew 3:1-6]

 

Reflection

•  Who has embodied God’s love for you?
•  How has your perception of love changed after being with them?
•  What misperceptions about God, love, or ourselves need confessing?

 

Resources

•  The Wisdom of Wilderness: Experiencing the Healing Power of Nature by Gerald May 

Daring Disruption

How might we foster hope among so much grief and cyclical injustice in the world? Christopher Mack begins this season of Advent slowing down to glimpse with the prophet Isaiah, a word that might remake our world. [Isaiah 2:1-5]

 

Reflection

• What ruts of routine or quicksands of status quo are constraining your life or world?
• How might you move in ways congruent with your openness to hope?
• Is there a place of deadly chaos you are lamenting? How might that be an act of hope?

 

Resources

• Sometimes by David Whyte https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/08/19/david-whyte-sometimes/
• Tracks of a Fellow Struggler: Living and Growing through Grief by John Claypool
• Rise Up Shepherd: Advent Reflection on the Spirituals by Luke Powery

Whose Apocalypse Is It Anyway?

How might I endure in the presence of fear without being overcome by it? Christopher Mack looks at an apocalyptic biblical text, and how it invites us to reflect on our own fears, challenges, tragedies, and violence in light of the Jesus Way. [Luke 21:5-8, 10-13, 17-19]

 

Reflection

• How might the name of Jesus guide and ground you in chaotic and troubling times?
• Where might you be led astray by easy answers, charismatic personalities, shiny spectacles, or a group to scapegoat?
• What is essential about your life that you must not betray in challenging times?

 

Resources

• Pope Francis Discusses LGBTQ Catholics with James Martin SJ In Private Vatican Audience by Gerard O’Connell

 

Recounting Goodness

As we recount God’s goodness, what are the ways we’re invited to embody that goodness for others? Weylin Lee explores how we might embody the goodness of Christ in seasons of disruption and challenge. [Psalm 145: 1-5, 17-21]

Reflection

• In what ways are we invited to participate in restorative justice?
• How might we practice proximity with the most vulnerable?
• What is our work in advocating for the liberation of those who are marginalized?

Resources

• Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation by LaTasha Morrison
• The Power of Proximity: Moving Beyond Awareness to Action by Michelle Ferrigno Warren
• This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

Embodying an Ecology of Participation

What is our connection to the environment, our faith, one another, and our bodies? Christopher Mack closes our series on participation by leaning into our call “to care for and serve the earth we belong to.” [Romans 8:19-23; 12:18]

 

Reflection

• Where do you see creation groaning for renewal?
• How does the lament of creation show up in you?
• How might right-sizedness toward creation invite hopeful participation? 

 

Resources

• Dr. Robert Bullard: Father of Environmental Justice
• Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth by Randy Woodley
• Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Vox Veniae’s Values 

Poured Out

How do we navigate the messiness of our humanity together? Kimberly Culbertson reflects on messages of codependency versus interdependency in our faith community and beyond. [2 Timothy 4]

 

Reflection

• When have you been tempted to carry other people’s loads? When have you been tempted to let others carry your load?
• Can you make space this week to practice interdependence? To do so, will you lean toward offering care or asking for care?

 

Resources

• Vox Veniae’s Values 

Cultivating Our Soul

What is the movement that we are invited to as we cultivate our souls? Weylin Lee explores how tending our souls centers us around love, invites us into harmony with others, and forms us in humility. [Romans 12:9-16]

 

Reflection

• When it comes to our participation, how are we invited to tend our soul and create space for others?
• How is spiritual formation, both individually and collectively, an act of our participation?

 

Resources

• Vow of Nonviolence by Eileen Egan and Rev. John Dear, S.J.
• Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times by Bishop Michael Curry
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant
• Vox Veniae’s Values

Participating in a Creative Body

What does it mean to be the body of Christ? What places inside my body are crying out? Gena St. David reflects on how we embody participation, as we continue our series. [Romans 12:1-5]

Reflection

1. How is your body unique?
2. How is God creating transformation through our bodies?
3. How is Vox participating in Christ's body?

 

Resources

• Vox Veniae’s Values 

Cultivating the Common Good

What is our communal interpretation and incarnation of the life of Jesus? Christopher Mack continues our series on Participation by reflecting on how we might navigate enduring hopelessness with our beloved belonging and collective creativity. [1 Corinthians 12:1-3, 27-31 and Jeremiah 32:17]

 

Reflection

1. Is there someplace you have been silent where you can begin praying for wisdom on how to speak out?
2. How might you find your true self by grounding yourself in community ?
3. Where is cruciform love leading you to consider offering your gifts for the common good?

 

Resources

1. Moonage Daydream Director Brett Morgen on Meeting David Bowie and Capturing  the Artist’s Spirit by Luke Hicks
2. Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community by Pádraig Ó Tuama
3. Vox Veniae’s Values 
4. Partnerships
   1. Inside Books Project 
   2. Keep Austin Fed
   3. Ashish Centre