Connecting Scripture and Life

Chapter four of Micah is a dark warning and admonition to those who abuse their power and leave the lesser in dire circumstances. We struggle with the meaning of a prophecy that seems to leave us with hopelessness but in the midst of the chastisement is hope. The time of suffering has an end and the promise of coming to the place of God's love and goodness is always held out to us. There is work t...

This second chapter from the prophet is difficult to hear and necessary for all people of God to take in. Micah calls out those who plan iniquity and have the power to carry it out. The prophet is speaking to those in authority but we all have authority over something or someone. The voices in this chapter are hard to distinguish and we can hear them in multiple ways but the message to act rightly...

The prophet Micah opens his prophecy with God coming down from his dwelling place to "stride upon the heights of the earth." The people have gone far enough in their sinfulness and God comes as a witness against them. Things are going to get tough for rulers and citizens but as with all the prophets, God's message is not only of destruction but of restoration, of redemption. Woven into the judgmen...

In our final episode of the Samson saga we meet Deliah. She plays a small but pivotal role in bringing Samson through weakness into the truth of his strength. He falls in love with her and becomes vulnerable, giving away his heritage that was gifted to him in his mother's womb. He is brought low only to be raised up and offer his life to God. The god of his nemesis is brought low before the God of...

Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy talk about the Sermon on the Mount.

Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy have a conversation about the mode of Hannah's prayer as the foundation for all Jewish prayer, and wonder about what Hannah prayed for, and what we pray for and why.

Rabbi Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy talk about the challenges today that are not so very different from the time when the people, anxious about Moses's delayed return, looked for another god and found only suffering. We talk about how we remain faithful in times of great decision. Join us!

abbi Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy talk about that fateful day when humanity fell from grace and were sent of to figure it out on their own. We are still trying to work out what it means to know good from evil. Join us in our conversation about why we were so easily lead down a garden path.

Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy struggle with the events that lead to the Maccabean Revolt and the rededication of the Temple, what we know today as Chanukah. Please join us for a conversation that compels us to ask questions we never thought we would have to ask.

Elijah runs away in fear after dispatching all the prophets of Baal, or better, prophets of Queen Jezebel. She vows by whatever god will listen to kill Elijah for what he has done (see 1 Kings 18). Rabbi Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy wrestle with his journey and what it means for our own lives. Please join us in our conversation and we hope it will spark discussions of your own.

Tamar is one of the women whose name is commemorated in the Genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17). Often mistaken, as it was with her father-in-law Judah, for a prostitute, Tamar used the power she had in the world she lived in to fulfill the law of God given to Israel through Moses. The punishment for her actions was death, but she offered her life for the life of her adopted people. Please join us...

Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy talk about the strange story of the prophet Balaam and the Moabite King Balak and the donkey that saw the angel.

In the Good Samaritan story two leaders of the people walk by a beaten man on the street, but a traveler stops from his duties to take care of the wounded man. He brings him to an inn, sees to his comfort and promises to check in on him on his return journey. What is being asked of us in this parable? Join Rabbi Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy and they explore this question and much more.

Episode Eleven: Book of Ruth

In Connecting Scripture and Life first six-podcast series Rabbi Jason Fruithandler and Barbara Murphy share insights and struggles with faith today that the Scriptures both illuminate and confound. It is hoped that these conversations will encourage everyone to see beyond what they know and consider new ways of exploring the same truth. Rabbi Jason Fruithandler is Rabbi at the Woodbury Jewish Cent...

This chapter in the Samson saga employs some fantastic and macabre humor that draws the reader in and tends to leave us with the questions, huh? Three hundred foxes and the jawbone of an ass? It seems far-fetched, and yet when we lift our jaws up off the floor and look around at our world today it's almost embarrassing in how familiar the story seems to be. Who is this Samson and why did God choos...

The question we keep asking about this text is, 'Why is this here? What are we supposed to learn from this? Where is God?' This is a strange story of a young Samson going down into Philistine territory and finding a wife among Israel's overseers, and we're told this was God's doing! Huh?! Then we have the Lord gripping Samson, and Samson rips apart a lion but tells no one. He finds honey in the sk...

In this first chapter of the saga of Samson we hear the announcement of his birth to an unnamed barren woman. The angel of the Lord appears and tells her she will bear a son who will be blessed by God from the womb. Her husband, Manoah, does not believe her and prays to God to send the messenger to him so he might hear it with his own ears. Even then the angel appears to the woman. Only when the a...

In this episode we talked about what it means to have the spirit of the Lord upon us. Jesus anointed by God to bring good tidings to the poor captured our thoughts and we began to understand that all of us have the spirit to bring good news to people who are vulnerable or thought of as less than human. We told stories of experiences when the Spirit captured our hearts, those moments when humanity...

This is the difficult story of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, when Abraham is put to the test and told to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. It is a story in which Isaac's mother, Sarah does not appear, her name is not even mentioned, but we are feel her presence. God put Abraham, and in extension, Isaac to the test on Mt. Moriah, but not Sarah. When Abraham faltered she held firm. God promised h...

When we began our conversation about the birth of Isaac and the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael we found it hard to have sympathy for Sarah. We did not see the reason for her words and actions. Rather we over sympathized with the ones sent away and with Abraham's distress Our ears heard the language in one way and only after deep consideration and remembrance were they open to hear a strong woman...

The story of Sarah is a complicated one as is the woman herself. She endured captivity, barrenness, humiliation, and ultimately the greatest gift from God, to be the mother of a people and nation that extends to our day and beyond. She is the arrow of time of the Hebrew people, bringing us from the past into the promise of an unending future. She is a woman who is scarred and faith filled. She liv...

Lekh Lekha opens chapter 12 and the beginning of Abram's journey from his father's house to the land that God will show him. It means go for yourself or to yourself to be a blessing. In the journey to becoming who we are created to be we become a blessing for everyone we encounter. To follow the call of God to the place He will show us is to trust fully in the promise that we will be blessed, and...

In the final act of the creation of the world we tackle the story of the Tower of Babel. It is preceded by the genealogy of the descendents of Noah and for each one it says about the people, "according to their clans and languages, by their lands and nations." The introductory verse to the tower story is, "Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words." We have heard over and over God...

This is a strange and somewhat disturbing vignette that happens after the covenant is secured of our hero Noah becoming drunk, getting naked and passing out. His youngest son, Ham, sees him, then tells his brothers about it. Shem and Japheth hide their eyes and cover their father's nakedness. When Noah awakens he curses Canaan, the son of Ham, to be the slave of his brothers and their progenitors....