The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form

The majority of Christians would probably not use the term "mystic" to describe Jesus. Many Christians, especially those of us in the West, think of mysticism as a spirituality that is disconnected from the everyday experiences of life. However, what we see in the life of Jesus is that his spiritual practices created a sense of Oneness with God and other human beings that deeply informed his belie...

Jesus's baptism and subsequent time alone in the desert mark the beginning of his ministry. Both events describe profound spiritual experiences of the Divine, whom Jesus names his Father. While these experiences follow patterns similar to previous prophets, his response to the tempter while in the wilderness offers helpful insight into how our experience of the Divine can sustain us if we listen f...

The context surrounding Jesus' life was complicated by an imperial domination system. The central features of Roman colonial power were that it was politically oppressive and poverty-inducing. How was it possible for Jesus to develop a spiritual path of radical compassion out of this social world of political and economic marginalization? www. TheLoftLA.org

After having spent time in his community preaching and teaching, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do the people say that I am?" For those of us who grew up Christian, how we answered that question was extremely important. However, as we mature in our faith, an equally important question begins to emerge:  how will we tell the story of Jesus? There are many ways to tell the story of Jesus, but how we...

We know that there were women whose resources and labor enabled Jesus to travel and heal and preach. We even know some of their names: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna. On this final Sunday of our "Blessed Are the Women" series, we honor their stories, and imagine what they offer to us today. On this final Sunday of our series, we center the stories of these women at the margins (in diverse ways!),...

This Sunday we will continue our sermon series that focuses on women in the Christian tradition and highlight the work of M. Shawn Copeland, a Black Roman Catholic theologian whose work explores the nature of being human as we recognize Black History Month. What does it mean to be human and yet treated as an outsider, less than human? The story of the bleeding woman forces us to wrestle with this...

For the next two Sundays, we will be highlighting the work of two pioneering black women theologians as a way of both honoring Black History Month and our current sermon series that focuses on women in the Christian tradition. This Sunday, we will be celebrating the work of Rev. Dr. Delores Williams. When most Christians read the story of Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael, Hagar is seen as having a...

Throughout the gospels, we see both men and women sharing stories about Jesus' ministry and his miracles. Yet, it was only when women were sharing his message that we encountered disbelief and, at times, outright resistance. Why? What is at stake? Building upon last week's conversation, this Sunday we explore Jesus' encounter with a woman at a well and imagine what may have happened if her communi...

Throughout the gospels, we see both men and women sharing stories about Jesus' ministry and his miracles. Yet, it was only when women were sharing his message that we encountered disbelief and, at times, outright resistance. Why? What is at stake? How might believing women change the way we see ourselves and the world we live in? www. TheLoftLA.org

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is often portrayed in art as a meek, mild-mannered woman who happens to be Jesus' mother. However, a closer look at her words in the Gospels reveals someone who sought to upend oppressive regimes and uplift the poor and oppressed. How might reimagining Mary as a revolutionary inform how we think about the radical teachings of her Son? www. TheLoftLA.org

Interpreting Eve's actions in the Garden of Eden as having doomed all humanity is perhaps the foundational claim used by many Christians to uphold patriarchy. Eve has been associated with evil, sin, temptation, and fallenness. Interestingly, but unsurprisingly, none of these claims are mentioned in the biblical story. Join us this Sunday as we read the story of Eve through a feminist and womanist...

This is a special crossover posting from the Progressive Christians Podcast, hosted by Rev. Dr. Carter.  Los Angeles is suffering from a historical fire. Thankfully, Julia, Westley, Rev. Blair, and Dr. Carter are safe, but we are thinking about and actively working on ways to support our local community. If you are interested in supporting, please check out the links below. In this episode, Rev. D...

Too often, we've been told that a successful life is a linear one. But in reality, our lives unfold with many unexpected twists and turns. The Magi follow a star, embarking on a long journey in a foreign land to honor the newborn Christ. Instead of returning to Herod as commanded, they trust their dreams and go home by another way. Their road isn't straight, but God "makes a way in the wilderness"...

After eight days have passed, Mary and Joseph circumcise their child and give him the name Jesus. They return to the temple in Jerusalem to enact the sacred birth rituals of their culture and tradition. Rituals mark sacred turning points in our lives. As new parents, Mary and Joseph would reasonably be nervous about the future of their family. Given this, the invitation for us is to view these sac...

As John the Baptist teaches about bearing good fruit, the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers ask him, "What, then, should we do?" His answer to each group was some version of: "Do the good that is yours to do. In the same way, the question we are invited to consider this Advent is, what is the good that we are called to do?  Join us as the Singers of Soul will be performing timeless Christmas an...

One of life's most essential lessons is that we are never meant to go alone. And yet, modern culture pushes us more and more into lonely silos. Our scriptures reveal how vital community is and how God can bring even unconventional pairs of people together. Indeed, the stories of Ruth and Naomi and Mary and Joseph exemplify how unlikely pairs can become a covenant community. www. TheLoftLA.org

When Mary encounters the angel of the Lord, the angel reminds Mary that God favors her and exhorts her not to be afraid. To be sure, fear would be a natural response to everything that is happening to her and her community. However, Mary shows us that when we remember who and whose we are we can avoid succumbing to fear and trust that all things are possible with God. www. TheLoftLA.org

Parents spend countless hours teaching their children about the importance of sharing, it is a lesson we struggle to fully comprehend even in adulthood. In America, we live in a society of extreme wealth and poverty because we are still unable to share. Why do we allow these extremes to exist? We invite you to join us on Sunday as we explore how our trinitarian understanding of God can help us dev...

In times of unrest, Jesus often responded by tending to his immediate needs and those of his community before deciding what to do. As we emerge from this season of political unrest, the healing stories of Jesus show us that our response to this unrest is to begin with personal and communal healing. Doing so reminds us that God cares for all of God's creatures, great and small. www. TheLoftLA.org

The gospels tell us that Jesus practiced nonviolence and taught his followers to expand their preconceived ideas about who was welcome at God's table. Despite this inclusive theology, we are currently in the midst of another rise of Christian Nationalism—a belief system rooted in mythological lies about American history and the Divine. We invite you to join us this Sunday as we unpack the lies of...

What role should churches, and specifically our church, play in addressing the challenges of loneliness in our faith community? We invite you to join us for the last sermon of this series as we explore how following the religion of Jesus should transform our relationship with ourselves and each other. www. TheLoftLA.org  

We all want to be accepted and belong to a supportive circle of friends. However, our desire for relationships and community are often in conflict with what we actually prioritize, and we are now learning that children are noticing this behavior and mirror it. How can we close the gap between what we say we want and what we actually prioritize? How might we prevent our children from developing hab...

What does it mean to be someone's friend? How does friendship expand our experience of the Divine? As humans, we all need the social connection of friendship to help prevent us from feeling lonely. To be sure, making friends and keeping friendships alive is not easy. However, as we see in the friendships between David and Jonathan and Jesus and his disciples, friendship is essential to our spiritu...

For those of us who struggle with loneliness, the obvious "solution" to our challenge would be to go and spend time with people. If only it were that easy. While there are several practices that we should adopt to address our longing for community, the most important one is somewhat counterintuitive. Jesus teaches his disciples that we must first deepen our connection with ourselves, which builds...

Rugged individualism and self-determination are among the core values that dominate American culture. These values have simultaneously incentivized many of us to prioritize our vocations or social obligations at the expense of and for the benefit of our relationships. The result is that far too many of us struggle with loneliness and long for connection and belonging. As the writer of Ecclesiastes...