Music, Hope, Word, Prayer

  A twenty minute episode on Ash Wednesday about eternal and spiritual matters intended for listening while going about the daily tasks on this special day.  Tags: Noticing; Humility; What’’s Your Legacy?’ Ashes and Dust. Music by Nate Strasser: “What Wondrous Love is This” and “Who Am I?”. Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-12

Maybe we’re wrong, but we sense that a lot of us have fallen into patterns that aren’t working for us. Or patterns that got us to where we are today, but will not get us to where we need to go. This episode explores how the ancient practice of Sabbath rest may be timely for us to hear when it comes to meaning, community, fun (yes fun) and of our need for a protective shell against the technologica...

Episode Description: Pastor John shares reflections on the words of Jesus to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount while making connection to current events. For music,the choir from EBPC sings “Prayers of the People” by Ben Johnston-Krase.. Tags: Jesus and the Beatitudes ; Micah 6:8 ; Advocate; Avi Poster ;  Professor Raj Nadella ; Grief and Mourning; Memphis; Tyre Nichols; Kate Bowler’s Podca...

To dream big, one has to be a little foolish, especially at first. There comes a time for crunching numbers and being practical, but you can’t truly think of all possibilities until you let go of your inhibitions for a bit and perhaps be a little foolish. Whatever big dreams we pursue hopefully are in line with what God calls us to do and who God calls us to be.  You are called and you are enough...

To see God in each other impacts how we live and move around. When people are going through the thresholds of life - a move, a new job, hardship - there are people and communities waiting on the other side, people and communities to anchor and hold a person in the nebulous spaces of change, uncertainty, and fear. It is a testimony to people seeing God in each other. Links to references: Ukrainian...

We hear the words do not be afraid said a lot in the Bible, especially this time of year. “Fear” is one of the most popular keyword searches – for who of us doesn’t feel fear from time to time? John Hilley reflects on parental advice recently given and how the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary, mother of Jesus, points us to the strongest antidote to fear:  the knowledge that we are not alone...

This episode looking into Jesus’ family history was recorded just after Thanksgiving, a holiday known for family gatherings. You may find it of some comfort as John Hilley describes the messiness in the family history of Jesus. But no matter how messy the human story is, no matter how messy your family is, no matter how messy your life is, this Immanuel Child we welcome at Christmas has come to cl...

How are the boys and men in our lives doing? Men, how are you doing? How would you complete the sentence? Join us as we attempt answers to this question. Richard Reeves’ bestseller Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About It has its answer in its title: we are struggling . Yes and no. Scripture sources for today: Isaiah 65:17-25 and II Thessalonians...

The Rev. Edwin Arrison of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation joins us to talk about Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Four Loves: Justice, Jesus, Joy, and Jazz. Reverend Arrison, an Anglican Priest ordained in 1992 by Archbishop Tutu, was an anti-apartheid activist and President of the Interchurch Youth (ICY). Few people knew Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu better than Edwin, who wal...

Increasingly it feels like we are living in an either/or binary world on contentious issues and it is tearing us apart as we see people demean, dismiss and discount others who hold different views. We are not saying our listeners are guilty of such behavior (smile), but at the very least some of us are struggling with the snark monster that wants to take up residence in our own lives and homes. Je...

How would you describe yourself right now, especially given all that we have faced the last couple of years: “Surviving” or as a “Survivor”?  When we are in survival mode it is easy to see hope as wishful thinking. A survivor’s mindset, on the other hand, sees hope differently. It is active. It is practiced. We are calling it a Resurrected Hope in this episode and describe two ways survivors pract...

One time Jesus told a story ( Luke 18:1-8 ) about a persistent woman who wore down an unjust judge. Jesus told his followers this story so that they would pray always and not lose heart. The disciples likely needed to hear that inspirational message then and how we need to hear it today. Because it is so easy to lose heart. And it can be so hard to pray. This episode explores the subject of prayer...

We welcome Dr. David Dark to this week’s podcast. His talk, “The Word of God is Not Chained,” is based on II Timothy 2:8-15 and was given on October 9, 2022.  Themes in this talk: transformative justice; ways of knowing; the dangers of unexamined opinions and life. David shares with us about his recent conversation with Anthony Ray Hinton , who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned and served for o...

Today’s episode celebrates a new original song that came out of hardship and trauma. This song written by our own Liz Beatty and Nate Strasser is currently in the Top Ten of an International Song Contest that received over 20,000 submissions. Liz Beatty joins John Hilley and Nate Strasser and they share about the process of creating this song as well as the moving personal experiences that led to...

If you make a name for yourself , you become well known for something.  For instance: Aaron Judge as a home run slugger; Whitney Houston as a great singer. (Teaser: Nate drops her name and an exciting feature film project he is involved in.) Once Jesus told a story about a rich man who made a name for himself and had everything, but we don’t know his name and a poor man who had nothing but who we...

Recorded with the anniversary of 9/11 in mind, we explore where we are Seeing Faith , taking us from a Little League baseball diamond to the 2001 World Series and to our own lives as we are looking for where we see faith in action. Seeing faith involves the outsized power of your small acts of kindness. Episode message: “I believe God is revealing God’s own self to us and that God is revealing God...

This episode has in mind those who find themselves trying to make sense of their lives, especially in terms of their work and their faith. We explore the idea that God is a calling God and pose the question: “do you feel that God has called you to anything?” It doesn’t have to be something BIG or anything specific; it is more a sense of how you see the world and your place in it. We bring in the w...

The writer of the Book of Hebrews writes: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11).  Another writer, in our time, Frederick Buechner - referred to as the C.S. Lewis of our generation -wrote about faith. He did so by listening to his life. What emerged, he said,  were “whispers that organized themselves into a faith.” Buechner died earlier thi...

This week we welcome Dr. Aaron Stauffer, Post Doctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He explores the frames of mind we walk through the world looking through and how our viewing the world holds us back and keeps us separate from one another and from God. Aaron shares with John and Nate a little about his growing up in small town Kansas and of his graduate work at Union Seminary in New York...

Today, we visit a story in the Gospel of John where Jesus feeds the 5,000. It is a very important story in the Bible to understand Jesus as the "Bread of Life" and the answer to our anxiety over what I like to call "enoughness." Of feeling like we have enough. Nate Strasser brings in guest musician Matt Bogen to offer their arrangement of "Here I Am, Lord."

There is a lot of interest in prayer these days. And there are a lot of questions surrounding prayer: How do I pray? What is the purpose of prayer? Does prayer work? There are a lot more questions and in this episode John explores these and other questions you’ve likely asked before. All these questions can make prayer a playground for doubt…and for growth. Helping with these questions, John uses...

This episode centers upon a recent message Pastor John gave on  abortion, wondering how our faith tradition (as “Presbyterians”) and the Bible can help us with this complex issue. Who of us doesn’t know someone with an experience related to this issue? Emotions are so strong, with many not knowing what to think – are they pro -… what?   The way the discussion is framed; the terms are tragically in...

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the 4th of July and its homage to freedom. And, yet, individually and as a nation it feels like we are living through convulsions and trauma, not unlike Luke’s story of the Garasene demoniac (Luke 8:26-39).  In this episode, we focus on how the practice of persistent incarnate love for God and for neighbor can restore us to our right minds. Jesus took on the empire a...

“I love you” are thought to be the three most important words. But in light of a story in the Bible (Luke 7:36-8:3) , the words “I forgive you” may be the three most important words. As David Lose writes: “no matter how much we profess our love, we fall short (as does the other person). They are not - we are not- despite our best efforts fully loving persons which is why “I forgive you” end up bei...