All Things

We preview our upcoming series, "Communicating the Unknowable," then, to move into Easter, we share one of our favorite episodes from the early archives where we talk with Debbie Bishop and her brother James (music by Brother ) about creation, new life, and human creativity.  www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

In a complex time of confusion, fear, hurt, and anger, we remind ourselves of the simple and basic building blocks of our faith - which have massive implications for who we are and how we live. You can consider this our statement on what it means to be Christian in these days. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We explore the musical and theological importance of harmony, to see how music might help us appreciate the real difference between heaven and earth. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We look at a particular form of religious art where the artist intentionally withholds both their talent and their subjective take on the world to form purple, gold, red, blue, and some clothing and hand gestures into something that can help you see the truth of the world. Icon Examples Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We look at a specific passage from the book of Revelation to see how this is not some cypher to be decoded for information about the end of the world, but an example of how words can be arranged and used as symbols that re-present the form of Jesus of Nazareth, and impress that image on our very souls. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We explore the journey of Christian worship and art that takes us from catacombs to cathedrals, and why a strange setting that confronts our senses with both life and death might be just right for our exploration of God. Then we use all this to help you try to discern which are genuine expression of Christian worship and action against the backdrop of our current pandemic. www.shemasd.org Original...

We look at how liturgies that arrange ordinary objects and our everyday habits to shape our hearts and minds are not just things that happen in some worship services but also in our entertainment and work commutes and, well, everything really. Then we look at how the structure of good liturgy opens up surprising creativity and connections with others. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obreg...

We continue our conversation on black art and theology with M'Lynn Martin to explore how the creative process can help us face and move through the painful parts of our lives, giving us an instrument for beauty and hope beyond the world's death. If you'd like to read more of M'Lynn's work, you can find her writings on Instagram (link in her bio) under the handle @mlynn.martin. www.shemasd.org Orig...

We explore some specific artistically formed words, to see how they can not just express grand thoughts about God and God's beautiful desire to reconcile the world, but help us better enter the concrete realities of some of the most difficult and painful issues of our day, to really experience miraculous reconciliations. Our featured guest for this episode and the next is M'Lynn Martin. Find her w...

Our senses, feelings, and initial perceptions are notorious for misleading us. So we look at the process of refining our senses and feelings so they can get involved in helping us explore reality, perhaps even realties beyond death. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

Art intentionally arranges things and builds on our expectations to help us see, hear, feel, or otherwise notice something.  This time we look at instances where Jesus artistically arranged things, and explore why arrangements that help us seek and know God should not always be pleasing to us. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We explore the sweat, frustration and repetition it takes to get good at something like music or baseball or sketching or worship, and ask what makes this all worthwhile. Again, with Dr. Charissa Noble www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

In this series we explore the question, "how can we humans, finite creatures that we are, know anything about the Infinite?" To do this we look at how people captivated by a vision of God have crafted everyday materials we can grasp like cloth or stone or metal and arranged very basic things like sound and color and shape, to help us seek and know God. This time we look at the difference between a...

We trace the connection between the things you do often, and without much thought, to the   deepest and most influential beliefs you hold. This brings clarity on those moments it feels like you may not actually believe what you want to believe, or think you believe. Then we take you through an exercise and meditation to help you sketch and enact a new habit that would lead to better beliefs.   Ori...

We explore why the kind of forgiveness we really need to heal the kinds of things that really need healing, might only be possible if the dead are raised. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We give a fresh take on what church is, and explore how church can give us a fresh take on everything. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We explore how we might recognize God's Spirit subtly moving in us, and in our world, in something we've seen many, many times before but never truly seen.

We explore how the line, "He ascended into Heaven and sits and the right hand of God" is not so much a cartoony picture of Jesus floating up to the clouds, but a picture of Christ bringing peace and beauty to the deepest (and lowest!) places of our lives and world. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

In summarizing the entire life and work of Jesus in only two words, the Creed says, "he suffered." That's a log way from quick, feel-good fixes. So, this time we dive straight into the difficult question, "Why did Jesus have to suffer and die?" and explore how a few words about suffering and death might connect us to life itself. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

We explore how it might be good news to have, at some level, a Lord running things, and how this Lord might enter our reality through our own actual experience of something like a virgin birth. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

How we might keep our beliefs in Jesus' humanity and divinity from remaining as unnoticed as an song that's playing in a waiting room, or from staying at the level of platitude and opinion, and instead becoming the kinds of beliefs that shape how we actually think, feel, and act. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

Engaging some of the keys ways the Christian church has talked about God, found in the first line of the Apostles' Creed, we explore the role of metaphor, and how it helps us in moments where the best way to talk about some truth is to say something that is true in some ways and not true in others.   www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

With guest Kevin Portillo, we explore the Apostles' Creed line by line in a way that helps us hear words that go back to the earliest days of the Christian Faith as an invitation to and guide for a way of life, and perhaps to speak it as something like a Pledge of Allegiance that transcends borders and cultures and epochs. This time we look at how the Apostles' Creed was used to explore what a cre...

Coming next week: The Apostles' Creed as something like an invitation to a way of life, or a Pledge of Allegiance that transcends boarders and epochs. 

We look at Maximus the Confessor, a Saint who gave up his right hand and tongue for what might seem like a bit of nerdy theological trivia, but that might end up freeing you to better choose what is good and helping nations overcome the evils of colonialism. www.shemasd.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.