Music, Hope, Word, Prayer

We all have a deep longing for our home to be made whole, made right, and made well. The world is not as it should be.  Nor are we.  We all know homesickness. John Hilley visits Luke 21:25-36  as he reflects on the theme of “Homesickness” at the start of  the journey of Advent.  Nate Strasser plays an instrumental version of the famous song "Homeward Bound".

In this podcast being recorded just before Thanksgiving, we are thinking about about thanking. We are thinking about gratitude and  we are thinking about home. “Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior.” writes Anne Lamott. Today’s theme is on how we can set the table of our lives  for a renewed practice of giving thanks.  Our Thanksgiving List builds upon Romans 12:9-18. So...

We have heard before that there is purpose in pain and suffering; in fact, we seek it out. We ‘feel the burn’ at the gym. Heck, we keep buying Ikea furniture in which we pay for the pain to spend hours poring over their directions, using choice words while assembling. And then there is an illness survived or a financial difficulty overcome which we determined was worth the cost if it resulted in s...

In this episode we talk about dogs, caregivers, who is caring for the caregivers. We welcome to this podcast Susan Rohleder - a member of our church, a caregiver, and a trainer of service dogs – to talk about her work with dogs and about how we can support the caregivers all around us.  Caregiving touches almost every person and every family and in very different ways and so this podcast will be h...

This episode includes a monologue sermon from October 31st when Rev. John Hilley took on the persona and dress of John Calvin who lived in the 1500s.  In the spirit of Halloween and also All Saints Day , it was fun to dress up as the Reformer – known by many names dour, dull, irrelevant for the 21st century – and to cast him in a different light. Feeling that he had something instructive to say to...

A long time ago, Jesus – on his way to an appointment – stopped, stood still, and asked a man alongside the road: “What do you want me to do for you?” The man, a blind beggar, was Bartimaeus ( Mark 10:46-52 ). It is said that we walk through our lives waiting for someone to ask us a good question. Jesus asked a good question. Join us for Nate Strasser’s music and as Pastor John visits Jesus’ impor...

This Children's Sabbath we are thrilled to welcome Matthew Paul Turner, the New York Times best-selling author of What is God Like?  to join in a conversation about both the challenges children face and the gifts they offer us as a community of faith. Join us as we search for ways to inspire change that will improve the lives of ALL children.

We've been talking about how to feed joy and find peace. What better voice to add to our conversation than with The Rev. Wilma Jakobsen. Wilma is Chaplain at the famous Volmoed Retreat Centre in South Africa and was one of the first women to be ordained into pastoral ministry in South Africa - in her case into the Anglican Church by her mentor Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Pastor John invites her...

Each year on the first Sunday in October, we observe World Communion Sunday, a day that is organized around the idea of sharing a meal together. It is a remarkable claim that when we come to the table we move from being separate to being one, and for the whole worldwide community of faith to come together as one.  

Jesus didn’t get to his sick friend Lazarus in the nick of time before he died. The stone had been rolled shut across the tomb for four days by the time Jesus arrived and called his friend to “Come Out”!  If you have ever been to the Holy Lands, you can visit the tomb of Lazarus. But you don’t have to travel there to get a sense of the experience of being in the tomb. When we are in the “tombs” ho...

In this episode we look at prayer. Jesus said, “when you pray…” Prayer may come easily for some listeners, but likely it is hard, if not infrequent, for many others. And then there are all of these questions surrounding prayer: Who is the God we encounter when we pray? Is prayer for God or for us? What happens to us when we pray? This episode is based upon James 5:13-20 and explores these question...

We have all heard the aphorism: “Sticks and Stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt me.” It is simply not true. Long after cuts and bruises and broken bones have healed, hurtful words still wound us. James, in his little book in the New Testament, says words matter because of the damage they can do ( James 3:5-12 ). In this episode Pastor John speaks to this reality but also how word...

“To be is to do”said Socrates. “To do is to be” said Jean-Paul Sartre. “Do-be-do-be-do” sang Frank Sinatra. “Don’t just have faith… do faith” wrote James in his book in the New Testament. In this episode John Hilley plays with the age old tension between what is more important: our belief and our words or our actions.  He imagines a conversation between Jesus and James (who is thought by some to h...

We are starting a new series called “Practical Wisdom from James: Timely Wisdom for Our World Today.” The Book of James is a short book in the Bible. It is unique in the New Testament for its focus on actions. In chapter 2 verse 17, James writes that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” In this series, we explore four ways that faith is lived according to James. Together...

Have you ever considered how you - your behaviors, choices, and actions - are part of God’s redemptive activity in this world? This episode is the final in a series of reflections on Jesus’ saying “I am the bread of life” (John 6) and in this episode we are looking at what it means to be the bread of life to a hungry world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of God’s redemptive activity that “Christ is for...

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Jaco Hamman Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture and Director of the Program in Theology and Practice at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Prodigious author and avid motorcyclist who has crisscrossed this country and Canada multiple times, he introduces us to the scriptural witness of God, who Hamman names Earthroamer, and to six qualities of traveling. Whether y...

In this episode, we continue our series called The Bread of Life with the subtitle “Fuel for the Road ahead. Coming off the summer travel season, so many of us got used to watching the fuel gauge and making sure our distance to empty stayed large enough to avoid a disaster of running out of gas. But sometimes it is harder to keep our own personal fuel tank filled for the road ahead we call life. I...

 There is a connection between the importance of rest and your own life reflecting the abundance of God. In this episode, we will provide you with a prompt followed by some wonderful music by Nate Strasser. It is our hope that you will use this gift of time and music to listen and look for God’s healing and restorative presence in your life. Jesus gives us permission to take care of ourselves. Fol...

This episode introduces the theme of Jesus as the B read of Life who came to address our deep sense of scarcity and not-enoughness by becoming the bread of life that was enough to satisfy ancient, deep hungers and to replace what Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann refers to as the “bread of affliction.” John Hilley’s talk builds upon two scripture passages - Isaiah 55 and John 6 – and invite...

Jesus shows his weary disciples that he gets it: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” (Mark 6:30-56) Are there any words in all of Scripture more welcome to tired followers? Jesus gives us permission to take care of ourselves. Is this invitation to rest an invitation to laziness? Or is it a form of resistance? Rest is a gift from God that helps prepare and launch us...

This episode features two favorites: the famous story of King David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant (II Samuel 6:1-20) and the much beloved song “Lord of the Dance.”  A part of this famous story overlooks an important piece of information that leads to David dancing alone. This year has felt like we have all been dancing alone, missing out on joy and happiness. John Hilley revisits this fam...

It’s the weekend of the Fourth of July, when we remember our history --or put more accurately need to learn, or re-learn, our history -- the history of freedom and our wrestling with what freedom means for all people. This episode of word, prayer and music recalls the Apostle Paul’s words “For Christ has set us free” in Galatians 5 and a little known speech in which President-Elect Abraham Lincoln...

Episode 6 of Music, Hope, Word, Prayer. What people say about you says more about their minds than about your soul, making it easy to confuse your condition and your character. But, they are not the same, nor to be confused. Listen as John Hilley speaks about the pressure we all face to live within the limitations people design about your life, about your call, and who you area as a human being as...

Episode 5 of Music, Hope, Word, Prayer. Join Rev. John Hilley, Nate Strasser, and Lindsey Hinds-Brown as they offer a time of worship reflecting on the power of faith, prayer, and what it really means to have a life well-lived. To help us, we are going back to the pages of Scripture (I Samuel 8:1-18:9) to learn from the person of Saul – the first king in Israel We can learn from our “worst” and “b...

The title of Episode 4 of Music, Hope, Word, Prayer is taken from a line in Toni Morrison's book Beloved. It aptly describes "Hannah's Song," the beautiful song Hannah sings in I Samuel 2:1-10 as she looks back over her life and voices the aspiration we all have: to have the pieces of our life given back to us in all the right order. Join Rev. John Hilley, Nate Strasser, and Li...