Crazy Faith Talk

Somewhere along the way in human history, our ancestors got the idea that whatever being or beings were beyond them (a single God, gods, or goddesses) must require sacrifices to be appeased--to feed hungry deities, to guarantee rains and good harvests, to promote fertility, or to avert their anger.  Ancient Israel had a system of prescribed sacrifices in its ritual and worship life, as well as a c...

As they continue asking the Big Question, "Wait--what actually happened at the cross?" pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at a passage from the New Testament that many believe is a fragment of an even earlier Christian hymn or song, the so-called "Christ hymn" of Philippians 2.  And instead of fitting neatly into later-developed boxes and categories that theologians call "atonement theories," th...

Jesus teaches his followers how to love in his own actions, words, and even his death--so that we, too, will be people known by our love.  Fair enough--that seems like pretty solid, basic Christianity.  But it also opens up a can of worms, too, when it comes to the cross of Jesus.  Do we have to DIE to be really, fully following Jesus' example?  And is all I need just a moral example to follow, li...

"Jesus died for us," says the New Testament.  And once we ask, "What exactly did that DO?" we are doing the work of atonement theology.  And the Scriptures are full of various ways of talking about it.  In their ongoing series for this Lent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve have been looking at some of those descriptions.  Having already looked at the Bible's talk of Jesus' death and resurrection a...

As they continue exploring the question, "What happened at the cross?" pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve look at an ancient way of understanding the atonment--as a cosmic victory over the powers of evil, sin, and death.  This model, often called "Christus Victor" ("Christ, the Victor," for non-Latin speakers), draws on biblical passages that depict the cross as God's great triumph in which Jesus def...

In a new series for the season of Lent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at the question, "What happened at the cross?"  From the earliest days of the New Testament community, Christians have made the claim that Jesus' death was somehow not just significant, but unique.  Somehow something happened at the cross of Jesus of Nazareth that is different from all the countless others executed...

In the last episode of their series on Hard Sayings of the New Testament, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a verse from late in the New Testament, in one of the letters to Timothy.  In addition to looking a little bit at the open question of authorship, and whether we have Paul the Apostle writing, or a later teacher writing in Paul's name, the trio looks at what might, or might not,...

As they continue digging into some of the "hard sayings" of Paul's writings in the New Testament, pastors and colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at a passage that is challenging because it can seem very hard to relate to in the 21st century.  Early Christians across the Roman Empire often only had access to meat that came from markets connected with pagan shrines and sacrifices to...

It turns out that just having someone shout rules at you doesn't make you better at following rules.  At best, it just highlights all the ways we mess up at rule-following.  Interestingly enough, the early Christian writer and apostle Paul said something similar about God's commandments: just having more commandments posted in more places won't make us better behaved people, but the Law shows us o...

As they continue looking at some of the most challenging sayings and passages in the New Testament, pastors and friends in ministry Sarah, Erica, and Steve turn to some of the "hard sayings" of Paul from the New Testament.  Paul's letters are tricky as a whole because they are basically "other people's mail" that we are reading two thousand years later in communities and in a world that are very d...

In their ongoing series looking at difficult and perplexing sayings of Jesus, pastors and friends Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore what Jesus (and the rest of the New Testament voice) mean when they talk about forgiving others and being forgiven by God, and also about a strange scene before Jesus' arrest where he tells his disciples to get swords (while then telling them not to use them).  So, does...

In their new series looking at "hard sayings" of Jesus--teachings that provoke or challenge, frustrate or confuse us--pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at the teaching of Jesus against divorce, in order to understand what was likely going on in a first century Jewish context (in which it was largely men who held the power to throw their wives away with easy divorce), and what this teachi...

In this first episode of a new series of conversations, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a couple of Jesus' "hard sayings"--things that are either difficult to understand, or easy to understand but hard to live out.  As people of faith who wrestle with texts like these, we'll discover that it's worth taking the time to dig into sayings of Jesus that can be challenging, and that the r...

As they take a look at several stories of Jesus being introduced to the world--from the visit of the Magi who followed the Star, to Jesus' first miracle, to his first public sermon in his hometown--pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore what impressions we are supposed to get about who Jesus is.  Of all the things one could say about Jesus, what does it mean that God goes to such great lengths to...

We have heard the story of the shepherds and the angels, and the child laid in a manger, lots of times before.  It may be so familiar to our ears that we can miss the radical idea of a God who becomes vulnerable, which is at the core of the Christmas story.  But in the week that follows Christmas, the church also traditionally recalls several stories that remind us that the world into which the Ch...

In this Christmas episode, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at the way our culture's storytelling about "Santa Claus" affects (or infects) our thinking about God.  In this season, we are surrounded by pictures, movies, songs, and storytelling about this magical figure who seems to be all-knowing, can travel around the world in one night, and judges who is worthy of good gifts or bad one...

Continuing their series on the lives of older sisters and brothers in faith (we often call them "saints") whose lives are remembered especially during the month of December, pastors and colleagues Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at a figure who isn't "canonized" in any official way, but who is well-known to some branches of the Christian faith: Katerina von Bora Luther, who is also remembered as the...

These days, some folks get fussy in December because they see that not everyone celebrates Christmas, or they get upset when someone greets them with "Happy Holidays!" instead of "Merry Christmas," and want to call it the persecution of Christians.  But for the first three hundred years of our faith, it was not only dangerous, but also illegal to be a Christian, because following Jesus meant you w...

In their Advent series about the lives of people who reflected the light of God (that we sometimes call "saints"), pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve take a look at the story of the authentic Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century bishop from what is now modern-day Turkey, and what his life, witness, generosity, and faith have to tell us today.  We'll sort out solid history from modern myth, and even explor...

The church has a funny way of keeping time.  We start the year a month or so before everybody else cracks open their new calendars with a season called "Advent," and we talk about those who have gone before us as still somehow connected to us in the present in the "communion of saints."  We even remember the stories and lives of some of those older sisters and brothers in the faith on the date of...

Curiously (maybe?), neither the people of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures, nor the church of the New Testament, have a single holiday or observance focused on being thankful... but that's because for both the Old and New Testament, all of our lives are meant to be lived in constant gratitude in response to the grace and gifts of God!  And often, "Christian" or "religious" discussions of gratitude...

In the final episode of their series, "Heroes for All," pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve zoom in to spend some time looking deeper at the context of several biblical passages often used or cited to forbid women's leadership in the church (or even in civil roles as well).  When they spend some time in some of the frequently-quoted passages on the subject in 1 Corinthians and in 1 Timothy, a more com...

In their ongoing series looking at Heroes for All from the Bible, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve dig into some New Testament passages where women are named in some pretty significant roles leading the early community of Jesus' followers.  Paul names a woman named Junia as an "apostle"--in fact, a rather outstanding one of all the apostles he has worked with, in Romans.  And the biblical evidence...

What happens after the manger scene?  Well, the baby Jesus doesn't stay there--and therefore, neither does his mother, Mary.  In our ongoing series looking at models of faith, courage, and love from the Bible called Heroes for All, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at Mary the Mother of Jesus throughout her appearances in the Gospels.  She is not only the woman who sings about God's table-turni...

As they continue looking at the stories of women in the Bible who are examples of faith, courage, and compassion, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve turn to the New Testament to the figure of Mary Magdalene.  Mary is presented as one of several women who both supported Jesus' ministry while he was announcing the Reign of God, and also a disciple of Jesus along with those other women.  And then when J...