Crazy Faith Talk

To hear the opening story of creation in the Bible tell it, all of God's creation, and all its many forms of life, all fit together supporting one another and giving life to one another.  Human beings, too, are placed in a role of being stewards who nurture life, who help foster its growth with beauty, and we find our own sense of purpose at least partially in how we care for the world God made an...

Sometimes it can feel like we have huge burdens of responsibility placed on us and we don't know how to let them go or catch our breath.  When the things you usually enjoy or have a sense of accomplishment from seem fruitless, or when your bad days outnumber your good days at work or home, you may be moving beyond just tired to burning out.  And that can be a great deal more difficult to recover f...

The storytelling in the book of Acts records the spread of the early Jesus-movement like it was an explosion--it can seem like the first generation of Christians had it all figured out and reached every corner of their world with lighting-fast speed and unmitigated success.  But even just a closer, more honest, read of the New Testament reminds us that the early church had both times of rapid prog...

Easter celebrates the good news that Jesus' resurrection somehow gives life and hope for us all, but... what exactly do we mean by that?  In a new series for this Eastertide, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at what we mean when we talk about Jesus giving us life.  And starting with what might seem obvious, we start with the way the early Christian community made the startling claim tha...

Throughout the season of Lent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve have been looking at practices and disciplines that are often taken up in the season of Lent--things like new ways of prayer, fasting [whether from food or other things], and generosity.  But once we leave behind the forty days of Lent, what are we supposed to do?  How might some practices continue on as part of our long-term Christian...

Throughout the season of Lent, many Christians take on new practices or return to annual disciplines to refocus our faith and discipleship.  Over the course of these weeks, pastors Sarah, Steve, and Erica have explored some of those traditional practices, ranging from fasting to prayer to almsgiving and other sorts of variations on them.  But as Lent turns to Holy Week, a different kind of ancient...

So far this Lent, we've looked at creative ways to fast, either from food or in uses of our time and technology, and we've looked at creative ways of praying.  But how can we be "creative" in giving away money?  What's the difference between giving to my local church for its regular maintenance and ministry work and charitably giving to others in need?  And do I get to put strings or conditions on...

When you want to deepe your relationship with another person or reconnect with them after a season of growing apart, you make time to connect with them.  What if we saw the church's season of Lent as a chance to do the same with God by deepening our prayer lives?  And what if, instead of making that "one more thing to do" that we felt we have to check off our already-busy schedules, we looked for...

As we continue our series for Lent 2023, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve continue to look at new ways to consider traditional spiritual practices and disicplines people may take up in these forty days.  While many people are familiar with the idea of fasting from food--at least as a concept--the idea of other kinds of fasts can be helpful, too, as we take an inventory of what really matters in our...

In the second episode of our series for Lent 2023, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at an ancient spiritual practice with roots not only in the past two thousand years of Christian history, but also going even further back to the spiritual life of ancient Israel: fasting from food. Whether it was Daniel and friends' fasting from meat as an act of defiance against the Babylonian Empire, the pro...

Let's be honest: Lent is a strange critter.  Some devoutly observe this seaon of forty days with dedication by giving something up, or adding a spiritual practice to their lives for this season every year.  Others are worried that it comes off as too showy or self-righteous to fast or change their habits for a season.  And for some, this season just looks like a second chance to start New Year's R...

In this final episode of our series on finding honesty and hope in situations of death and dying, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve spend time looking at two extremes: situations where medical choices may hasten death in the name of relieving suffering, and situations where life ends in infancy or during a pregnancy.  These situations are especially difficult but for almost opposite reasons. In situ...

In this episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve talk through some of what makes the subject of suicide and self-harm so especially difficult to deal with.  Because of the content of this episode, you might want to choose the right time and place to listen.  And if you or someone you love is dealing with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please reach out to the new national hot...

At some point, experience teaches us and readies us to say to goodbye to the generations that have come before us; as painful as it is to lose grandparents, parents, or even older mentors, in some way life teaches us to prepare for those losses, as hard as they are.  But something feels more jarring--and often unfair or unjust--when people die in unexpected ways and times.  When lives seem "cut sh...

When it comes to making important--and often difficult--choices about care needs at the end of life, sometimes we aren't in a position to speak our wishes out loud or make decisions in real-time.  We do, however, live in a time and a place where it is possible to write down wishes in advance, or to designate other people to make medical decisions for us in times when we are not able to communicate...

We are more than the set of molecules that make up our bodies at any given moment, right?  After all, our bodies are constantly trading out old dead cells and creating new ones, and yet we believe that there is a continuity to the "you-ness" of you and the "me-ness" of me.  Christians also classically believe that God created the universe out of chaotic nothingness in the beginning, and so resurre...

Nobody likes to talk about death, but it's one of only a handful experiences that touch everyone [you know the old saying about death and taxes].  The trouble is, there are so many ways to avoid really dealing with matters of our own mortality.  We can ignore and deny it.  We can delay and procrastinate.  We can fill the uncomfortable silences with bad theology about God "needing another angel." ...

In one light, it makes total sense that Jesus was baptized--after all, Christians today usually mark their own baptism as the formal beginning of their lives of faith, much like Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry.  And the New Testament connects our baptism with Jesus' death and resurrection, so there seems to be a close connection between Christ and the followers of Christ...

In 21st century American culture, almost everyone has heard the name "Jesus."  And most probably have some clue about the person being referenced by that name--even though it would more likely have been pronounced something more like "Yeshua" and been more closely associated with the biblical figure we remember as "Joshua" from the Hebrew Scriptures.  But what does the name of Jesus mean, and why...

All this Advent, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve have been tracing the themes associated with each of the candles on the traditional Advent wreath--things like "hope," "peace," "joy," and "love."  But the celebration of Christmas isn't merely a listing of abstract concepts or spiritual virtues--it's centered on Christ.  And appropriately, many Advent candles have a fifth candle, waiting to be lit...

One of the most well-known Bible verses asserts that "God so loved the world" that God gave us Jesus and sent him into the world. Love is at the heart of what the Christmas story is about, and yet so often we settle for a shallow, limited, or conditional understanding of what love looks like, especially when it comes to God's love. As pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at this theme for t...

Halfway through Advent, after weeks of being reminded, "We're not there yet--keep hoping, keep waiting, be ready, and repent," the church's surprising way of keeping time calls us to rejoice.  Joy is a tricky concept, as it turns out, because it's more than mere happiness, and yet it feels very much like an emotion.  At the same time, joy seems like something we can practice as a virtue or a disci...

Anyone born this century has only ever really known a world with one major power or another at war, and our communities and country often feel uncivil and conflicted.  We have more technology than ever to keep track of our many responsibilities, but it doesn't give us relief from the anxiety of it all.  We are aching for peace, but as something deeper than just a quiet, comfortable feeling.  There...

It is terribly easy for the themes that recur in Advent--things like "hope," "peace," "joy," and "love"--to become empty slogans or buzzwords, or the vague wishes of a greeting card.  But there is rich and deep substance in the Christian practice of hope, and all the others, if we are willing to recover it.  This Advent, join pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve as we explore more closely the themes of...

It's easy to miss in between helpings of turkey and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, or with the neighbors already setting up their Christmas lights and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" playing on a loop on the radio, but at the very end of the church's year is a powerful and surprising celebration called "Christ the King" Sunday, or "The Reign of Christ" Sunday.  And even though i...