Crazy Faith Talk

At first blush, mercy and justice seem like opposites: justice is all about giving people what is due to them and ensuring what is fair, and mercy often involves giving people more than they deserve! So how these two relate? What is the goal of justice? And in times of conflict, can we speak of just wars? Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on this week's Crazy Faith Talk!

In times when many are especially struggling with access to food or help with making ends meet, plenty of people want to offer assistance. But how can we offer care that truly meets the needs of people, and how can we use our resources and time in ways that support both the physical needs of neighbors and also honor their worth and dignity as people? How does mercy show up in our public life? That...

The Christian claim is not only that God is merciful, but that we are called to be "merciful as your Father is merciful." In this episode, colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore how God's kind of unconditional, enemy-embracing love becomes the pattern for our lives, even when it's difficult--and even when we don't want to even recognize those we might...

Plenty of folks know the song, "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound," but... what are we actually singing about? When it comes to the grace and mercy of God, what do we mean? Does grace only show up in our lives once we have come to faith in Jesus, or gotten baptized, or gone to church? Does grace mean that God leaves us as we are, with our rough edges and persistent struggles with sin? W...

It's one of those words that Christians toss around frequently--in prayer and liturgy as well as in our action in the world--mercy. But what exactly are we talking about when we talk about "mercy"--is it a feeling, a mindset, a character trait, an action? And how is God's mercy supposed to connect to our actions and posture in the world? Are there times when mercy doesn't &qu...

In this concluding episode of our series on "Profiles in Courage" from church history, we look at the witness of Anne Hutchinson, who crossed an ocean to follow a pastoral voice she found compelling, then taught in small groups for women and men in a time when women's leadership was typically forbidden, and then risked exile for speaking up against what she saw as the bad theology of...

He was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington at which Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered, and was a part of a precursor to the Freedom Rides that attempted to desegregate bus lines across America, and yet many don't know his name or story. But Bayard Rustin was not only an important figure in the Civil Rights movement, but also he insisted on kee...

In the midst of the German occupation of World War II, a village full of ordinary French citizens took it upon themselves to hide and protect Jewish refugees from the clutches of the Reich. And they did it, not because a bishop had ordered them to, but with the guidance of their faith and pastoral leadership, they recalled their own experience having been persecuted before and saw the need to take...

Some people know the figure of Saint Francis from stories of his chosen poverty or care for animals (and even preaching to them, in some stories). But there's another episode told about Francis of Assisi that models courage in facing "the other" even when it is risky--the story of Francis seeking a meeting with the Sultan during the time of the Fifth Crusade. In this week's episo...

She approaches Jesus while he is on the way to heal someone else, at a point of desperation after twelve years of suffering, and her name wasn't even recorded for us. Yet her willingness to step forward and say "Jesus' goodness and healing are for me, too," is preserved in Scripture as one more profile in courage for us to look at. This week, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica,...

He's a towering figure in the New Testament (even though his name means "little"!) remembered for his numerous letters, his bold missionary journeys, and his endurance through brutal persecutions. But we don't often think about the bravery that Paul the apostle had to use before all of that, simply to admit his old way of thinking was wrong, and to be willing to let the risen Chr...

In a scene that feels like the climax of an action movie like John Wick or Die Hard, this lesser-known "judge" of ancient Israel plots a daring attack on an enemy king who was oppressing the Israelites that inspired them to fight back for their freedom. His name is Ehud, and if you've never heard his story, this is one that's worth getting to know. Join us for this week's &qu...

In a new series for this fall, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve take a look at figures in the Bible who offer us surprising pictures of bravery, often in unexpected ways. We start this series with the story of Abigail, a less-well-known figure in the book of 1 Samuel who is brave enough to avert a massacre from a young David, to prevent her husband from being foolish, and to...

While human beings go about their busy lives making money, going to work, buying and selling stuff, and tracking the markets, vast worlds of life are buzzing and blooming in our back yards, blissfully unaware of how the Dow Jones is doing, and yet gloriously reflecting the goodness of God. In this final conversation of our "Divine Fingerprints" series, Sarah, Natalie, and Steve talk abou...

What can we learn about God from the creepy crawlies and eight legged arachnids we find in the corners of our living room or spinning webs between branches of trees? And what possible living parables of Christ's self-sacrificial love could we find in the smallest of creatures around us, even if we are usually tempted to squish them? Join us for this week's conversation on Crazy Faith Talk...

What can we learn about our connection to God from our relationships with our pets? How do pets help us see our connection to other creatures that are a part of God's creation, and how might that help us better understand the storytelling in Genesis about human beings and animals, as well as our responsibilities to care for the world and the life within it? Join us on this week's episode o...

From the expansiveness of the ocean to the flowing motion of the river to the refreshment of a summer rain shower, water can remind us of the majesty, justice, and grace of God. In this episode of our series, "Divine Fingerprints," we look at how different experiences with water in creation--as well as in the swimming pool and baptismal font--can point us to dimensions of God's chara...

In our current series, "Divine Fingerprints," colleagues in ministry Natalie, Sarah, and Steve are looking at signs of God's character traits in creation, from elements of nature to plants growing in the garden to, in this week's episode, the little brown birds in the parking lot. This week we'll learn about killdeer birds, and how a surprising trick that mother killdeers pla...

In a new series this summer, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve are looking for signs of God's goodness in the world around us--divine fingerprints. From the garden to the wild things in nature to moments or creatures in the world that have taught us something about God, we're learning to recognize the presence of God in creation. In this first episode, we look at a theology...

After all the rabbit holes and deep dives of this series on "last things" and apocalyptic literature, what does it all mean--and is there any good news? YES! The bottom line is this: the Christian story doesn't imagine God saying, "Good luck for now with all the trouble, because you're on your own until I pluck the lucky few up from earth and meet you in heaven," but ra...

You don't need to be a Bible scholar to have heard of "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" or to be nervous about the number 666. Many people have heard of those concepts without knowing where they came from, much less what they mean. So in this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve do a deep dive into some of these well-known but p...

One of the most difficult books to understand in the New Testament is the one we call "Revelation." It's full of strange creatures, jarring imagery, musical numbers (seriously!) that feel like a Broadway show, and a handful of letters from Jesus, too. Trying to make sense of this book on our own can feel like navigating a wilderness without a guide. So this week on Crazy Faith Talk,...

Many of the biblical books that seem to focus on the "end times" use strange symbols, outlandish images, and repeated patterns. It turns out they are written in a genre of literature that was deliberately figurative, highly coded, and like a lot of 20th century sci-fi or dystopia, written with a view toward what was going on in the writers' current times. Understanding how "apoc...

In our new series, "Back to the Future: A Hopeful Look at Last Things," colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve are taking a closer look at a theology of the end times. Last week, we introduced the claim that the teaching of a secret "rapture" wasn't biblical, but actually only goes back about 200 years in Christian history. So what about those passages that sound...

For many people, both inside and outside the church, their picture of "the end times" comes from pop culture books and movies rather than a careful reading of Scripture. Meanwhile, many Christians don't know much at all about "last things" because nobody has ever talked or preached about it as a subject, so they assume that what they've heard on TV must be their belief,...