One Thousand Words - Stories On The Way

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I'm wondering about the ingredients that make seemingly impossible healing possible - how did Dr. King point to a Resource greater than any human as he proclaimed a dream for humanity? I'll close with two prayers written by Dr. King. All of that somehow relates to apple pie, obviously, right? Please subscribe, comment, and share. Thanks! The post S3:E2 – ML...

Welcome to Year Three of the podcast! I'm excited to get things started up for this season. In this episode, I'll share one of my "quirky loves", and explore three analogies - jazz improv, storytelling, and sailing - as we talk about how to discern reality in the midst of so much confusion. Please subscribe, comment, and share. Read the essay text: www.matthewclark.net/onethousandwords The post S3...

The title of this season's finale is a play on words: "Radiant" as a noun is the source of light, and "radiant" as an adjective is whatever is being illumined by that Radiant. Jesus is Creation's Radiant, the Light and Logos who makes it radiant. This is too often a lost connection that must be remade again and again, since without it, the wisdom of God that signals life's dignity is broken. The p...

This week, special guest essayist Amy Baik Lee shares about her "personal quirk": grapheme-color synesthesia, and how its "joint perceptions" may offer an encouraging clue toward developing faithful sensitivities. How do the body God has given us and the world we live in intermingle so that God's promises and presence "make sense to our senses"? The post S2:E30 – Amy Baik Lee, “Synesthesia” appear...

Lately, life has been a landslide and I've felt exhausted by the false-light of information and the apparent darkness. A people without vision perish, says Proverbs, and Jesus in the sermon on the mount appeals to those whose lamps (eyes) have gone dark without their realizing it. This week, I'm writing as a sort of prayer for renewed vision - a vision of God alive and at work in the world giving...

This week is a departure from the normal podcast. I decided to revisit an old, familiar nursery tale and it went in a direction I hadn't planned. The post S2:E28 – Storytime: Of Wolves and Piggies appeared first on Matthew Clark .

As an artist and in everyday life, perfectionism can be paralyzing. Afraid I'll fail to do the best thing, I wind up doing nothing. Of course, I believe in excellence, but there's no way around the fact that there will always be a "gap" between what we hoped to do and what we were able to do. But, in grace, Jesus invites us to bravely, humbly offer up whatever we can, and he will fill in the gaps....

I was worn out last week, so I didn't make a podcast. Then, I had a great conversation with a friend which helped me remember (again) that salvation is not a thing to get, or do, or achieve. Rather, Jesus *is* our salvation. That sets me free to be a person in abiding love with a Person - ever becoming a living character in God's story - rather than a task machine. The post S2:E26 – He has become...

I need sobering reminders that snap me out of the spell of apathy, passivity, and disengagement with life. This week, I've been hearing Jesus's call to stay present and to participate deeply through talks given by friends during Anselm Society's "Imagination Redeemed" online conference (imaginationredeemed.com). I'll talk some about that, and close with a passage about bravery from Marilynne Robin...

Psalm 135 says, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, Made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, Eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear... Those who make them will become like them, And so will all who trust in them." But what happens when we worship Jesus - a person with eyes that do see, and ears that do hear? Do we become like him? Do we have a real shot at...

This week, I'm sharing a live song and story from a house concert I played last Fall. The song is "Meet me here", and it was written for the Easter season as a reminder of the joy that Jesus has set before us - literal bodily resurrection and subsequent deathlessness forever. "You can meet me here in 10,000 years, and I'll know your face, and you'll know mine." Also, I'm premiering the Song & Stor...

...But wait, there's more! It's still Easter, or Easter-tide, all the way till Pentecost on May 31st! So, today I'm sharing two interrelated readings on the theme of Easter Joy. One from Alexander Schmemann that I'll read, and one from Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" read beautifully and joyfully by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson. We may weep, yes, but since Christ has come we have a "sec...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Well, friends, thank so much for walking through this week with me. I've really needed it, personally. In this last Holy Week episode, Amy Baik Lee will read her piece "In the space of a single word", Son of Laughter (Chris Slaten) will sing "The Gardener", Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson will read John Updike's poem "Seven Stanzas at Easter", and...

What do we do with this strange, suspended Saturday? This in-between time, this "Nondum" or "not-yet" time, after Jesus's death but before his Resurrection? For his first followers there was no certainty of what was to come. Surely, this silent Saturday is a part of Jesus's gift to us, too, right along with Friday and Sunday? I'll talk a little about that, read a poem, Taylor Leonhardt will share...

This is Crucifixion Day, Good Friday. This is a hard day, because Jesus’s brutalized face, faces us with the truth about ourselves - asking us to face him with our true faces, and discover an unexpected new life is possible in Him. Amy Lee will share "The Blood-bought gift of loneliness", I'll sing a song, and Brian Brown will read T.S. Eliot's "East Coker IV" and close us in prayer. Join us every...

It's Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" means mandate or command, and this is the day Jesus washes his disciples' feet and mandates that they love as he has loved them. The Last Supper takes place today, after which Jesus prays at Gethsemane in anguish as his disciples fall asleep. Then he is betrayed with a kiss and arrested. Tonight, Chris Slaten (Son of Laughter) will sing for us, we'll hear from Amy Ba...

On this Wednesday of Holy Week, I wonder how lonely Jesus felt? No one really gets what he's doing. But then Mary breaks the jar of costly perfume. She gets it somehow, and is promptly attacked by the others for her "foolishness". Today, we'll look at Mary's beautiful act, Taylor Leonhardt will sing a Mission House song, my friend Grace Andrews will read George Herbert, and Brian Brown will close...

On this Tuesday of Holy Week, I'm trying something different. I'm sharing a fictional imagining of Jesus as he camps outside Jerusalem, remembering the promises made to Abraham so long ago and how they are about to be fulfilled, finally in himself. I'll also share a song, Malcolm Guite will read a sonnet, and Brian Brown will close us in prayer. Join us every day this week as we walk our story tog...

This Monday of Holy Week, we continue walking with Jesus to the cross. So far he's wept over Jerusalem, entered to short-lived praise, and now he makes his way to the City's broken heart, the Temple. I'll share a reflection and a song, Malcolm Guite will recite a sonnet, and Brian Brown of The Anselm Society will close us in prayer. Join us every day this week. The post S2:E15 – Holy Week: Monday,...

This is Palm Sunday. Our Story begins today with Jesus, having resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem, entering that City to shouts of praise that he knows will quickly change to shouts of condemnation. But He knows exactly what he is doing; he has come to die. I'll read a passage from Frederick Buechner and sing a song, Malcolm Guite will read one of his sonnets, and Brian Brown will pray fr...

How do we learn to identify and desire goodness? What's something you love, and who taught to you love it? This week, I'm remembering my Grandmother Mal - her storytelling, her laughter, the things she taught me to notice and love. I'm giving thanks. On the other hand, I've also learned to love many things that aren't, in reality, good, and so I'm joining in an old prayer that the Lord would turn...

Guest essayist Rachel Mosley shares about time with her family, facing death, crawfish boils, and finding oneself at a table set in love by those who've come before. And we'll close with a poem by contemporary African American poet Jacqueline Woodson called "lessons". The post S2:E12 – The Cloud of Witnesses, Rachel Mosley appeared first on Matthew Clark .

When our fragility becomes uncomfortably apparent, what rises to the surface? Fear and anxiety certainly do, and for good reasons. But also, in times of weakness and need, a kind of tenderness rises that teaches us to move out of ourselves towards others in care. This week, I'm sharing an essay I wrote last Fall, and poet and fellow-podcaster Susan Mulder (susanmulder.com) reads her poem "What if?...

I like feeling and appearing competent, having the know-how, looking like I know what I'm doing. But holding too tightly to those things, or expected them to generate real life often keeps me from trying new things and trusting in God's care for the childlike. This week, I'm experimenting with a fictional imagining of how Nicodemus may have felt as he wrestled with becoming a child of God. The pos...

Being a Patron is so much more than being a customer; it is partnering as a family member with God and our brothers and sisters in Christ to bring good things into the world. This week, guest essayist Tresta Payne, shares her passion for arts patronage as a way of being in ministry, along with some practical suggestions and a prayer that we would both "make good art, and make good art possible." T...