Crazy Faith Talk

In a new series for Eastertide, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve are looking at media that explore theme of faith or are compatible with faith for children--from TV and movies to books and other resources. We start taking a look at some classic faithful TV and video resources, exploring how faith formation includes not only Bible stories but also discipleship and how we teach our c...

Surprises, reversals, and plot twists aren't just the random exception to the flow of Scripture: it's at the heart of the central event of the Christian faith! In the events of Holy Week, and most centrally, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have God's upside-down victory over the powers of death by dying , and the revealing of how "the stone that was rejected has become...

It's one of the most dramatic reversals in the whole Bible: the zealous persecutor of the church who is called by the risen Jesus to bring the Good News to the whole world as "apostle to the Gentiles." Saul's story is full of drama and twists, not only for his own change of perspective, but for the early church that had to decide if it would welcome someone who had so clearly bee...

As Luke's Gospel tells it, Jesus begins his public ministry going back to his hometown to give a sermon in the synagogue, and at first is welcomed home warmly by the congregation. But the moment he starts talking about God's grace being shown to outsiders and even-- gasp! --enemies, the friendly crowd turns hostile. What's going on in this story from the Bible, and what does it mean fo...

Many kids in Sunday School remember the character of Jonah as simply "the guy who got swallowed by a whale." But the point of the whole story of Jonah isn't reducible to merely, "Don't disobey God or you'll be eaten by a fish." In fact, when the enemy people to whom Jonah was sent actually listened to his message and turned away from their violence, injustice, and rottenness, Jonah got mad because...

Conventional wisdom has it that God is on the "side" of the powerful, the mightiest, and the ones with the biggest numbers, but the Bible gives us a recurring theme of God's choice to lift up the lowly and come to the aid of the weak. That's part of the unexpected reversal in the story of scrawny young David against the towering professional enemy soldier Goliath. And at the same...

The favored son ends up enslaved and then imprisoned, only to end up using his God-given ability to rise to prominence in Pharaoh's Egypt and save his family when famine strikes. It's the story of Joseph, and it's another story from the Bible that is not only full of dramatic reversals, but also that forces us to rethink what it means to have God at work in our lives. In this episode o...

This Lent, join colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve as they look at God's habit of reversing expectations and turning tables in a new series we're calling "When the Bible Flips the Script"! In this first episode, we'll explore the biblical figure of Jacob, the sneaky schemer who burns bridges with his family members and then comes face to face with God and finds...

All through this series we have looked at more-or-less well known figures as examples of people who lived out their faith. From former presidents to pioneers of children's television to theologians of earlier centuries, we have looked at numerous ways people have taken their Christian discipleship into their lives, work, and witness. In this concluding episode we'll tell some personal stor...

Although the names of reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley are pretty well known, the witness, theology, and work for unity done by Katharina Schutz Zell is lesser known. In this episode as we continue our series looking at people who lived out their faith in different ways, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve look at the life and work of this figure from Reforma...

As our series highlighting the stories of people who lived out their faith continues, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore the life of a medieval polymath, Hildegard of Bingen, who was a composer, philosopher, mystic, healer, theologian, and advocate of creation care! We'll explore how Hildegard communicated theology through her music, how her perspective held together natu...

She was a 20th century American Catholic radical, working for the well-being of the poor, offering hospitality to the homeless, advocating for peace, and calling fellow Christians to live out their faith in concrete ways. Dorothy Day is one of those complex figures who challenges us, provokes us, and inspires us. And in this episode of Crazy Faith Talk, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and S...

In this episode of our series looking at people who lived out their faith in various ways, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve explore the faith and legacy of Fred Rogers, beloved creator of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  We'll take a look at how his work in children's public television was a form of his ministry as an ordained Presbyterian pastor, as well as his practical...

As we continue a new series for 2025 on people who lived out their faith, colleagues in ministry Natalie, Sarah, and Steve explore the life and legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  From his life experience during and after the apartheid era in South Africa to his deep faith and accessible but profound theology, there is a great deal that the contemporary American church can learn from Tutu's witnes...

A new series is starting here on Crazy Faith Talk, as we take a look at different life stories who embodied their faith in different ways, different settings, and different times.  Rather than being exhaustive biographies of these people, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, and Steve will touch on the dimensions of these lives that speak to our faith and how they sought to live out their own fa...

As the second half our mini-series on thelogies of giving and receiving, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve take a look at what it means, from a faith perspective, to be receivers of gifts--both from God and from others.  How can we get over our need to "get even" or "pay people back," especially when some gifts are simply given unconditionally?  How might we see others' need...

In this final episode of our Advent series for 2024, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve explore one more dimension of the biblical notion of exile.  This time we'll look at how the New Testament writers see all of our present life right now as a sort of exile-within-the-world, and how each of us are aliens in the world who also care for the good and well-being of the world whe...

As we continue exploring the theme of hope in the face of exile this Advent, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Erica, Natalie, and Steve zoom out to creation itself, and to God's promise to make all creation new and to dwell with us.  Rather than just wishing for freedom from one empire or another--like Babylon in the history of Judah, or Rome in the time of Jesus--Christian hope is ultimately for all...

This Advent, colleagues in ministry Sarah, Natalie, Erica, and Steve are exploring the biblical theme of hope in times of exile as a way of better understanding what the coming of Christ meant for people in the first century, as well as for us today.  In this episode we explore the meaning of the Empire's presence in and around the backdrop of the birth of Jesus, and how traumatic it would have be...

Every year, Christians around the world sing the ancient words from “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which continues, “…and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.”  So what did exile mean in the Biblical story, and what does it mean for our hope this season? What did it mean for the birth of Jesus that his homeland was under foreign occupation under the Rom...

In this final episode of our series, "Questions We'd Like to Ask God," colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, Natalie, and Steve wrestle with the matter of two millennia Christians have been waiting for the coming of Christ in glory.  Why has Jesus not come back yet? And is that a matter of the fixed timing of God's plan, or somehow is it up to human choices or actions?  Is there anything anybody ca...

For as long as human beings have been seeking the divine (which is probably pretty much from the beginning), we have been arguing about the right ways to talk about God, how to understand God, and how to identify God.  Sometimes we argue with spoken debates or written theses (maybe posted on a door), and sometimes we have launched wars (we call "holy") in the name of getting God's identity correct...

In this November's series, "Questions We Want to Ask God," colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, Steve, and Natalie are getting to lob out the BIG questions we still wrestle with.  This time, the question is, "What (that human beings do) breaks God's heart the most?" And over the course of this conversation we'll explore what the Scriptures suggest matters most to God, and what it even means to sug...

In a new series this November, Crazy Faith Talk is welcoming an additional voice around the table and posing questions we have always wanted to ask God. In addition to our regulars, Erica, Sarah, and Steve, we welcome Natalie, who is a seminary intern learning ministry in the congregational setting where Steve serves, and we're glad to have her around the microphone!  In this episode, we'll explor...

In a sense, Jesus' disciples are meant to be forever learning: there is always deeper to go, and there are always new adventures on which Jesus invites us to accompany him.  But at the same time, Jesus' disciples do move from being solely students to becoming teachers and leaders as well. In Matthew's Gospel, for example, there is a well-known scene after the resurrection in which Jesus directs hi...