Pod Be With You

We're covering a lot of ground today! With Aaron out of town the next two weeks, we're previewing not only this Sunday, but June 21 and 28. We also cover Pride celebrations in Batavia and Dundee, reflecting on the nature of welcome and the challenge of unity and diversity in the Fox Valley. In Batavia, we're got three new stories: "A Church for All," "I'll Love Y...

Our Summer Series' are off and running, and this week we will talk about Mark's story of the healing of the Woman with the Hemorrhage, the tale of The Velveteen Rabbit, and the power of love to connect, and heal, and transform. There's a lot to imagine as we take up some of our favorite stories this week, both Biblical and "secular." Join us if you can.

Pentecost, the wild, untamed unboundaried arrival of the promised Holy Spirit. It' s exciting, and inspiring, launching visions for the future and excitement for the present...and the Institution of the Church. Because, in order to hold on to what is good, there have to be some guardrails. The dance between Inspiration and Institution, Spirit and Stability, Freedom and Fence. It's all th...

This week, Jesus gets out of the way - or tries to, anyway. The disciples are once again waiting on him to work wonders, and it becomes clear they will never step into what is next while he is still there. So, after promising them the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to lead them into their new season, he is taken up into heaven - and they still need to be booted away from that moment, as they were...

What a week to be the Church! Here in Dundee, we're celebrating our 185th Anniversary, where we'll hear stories of our less-than-promising ancestors but grow in appreciation of the great legacy we have inherited. In Batavia, we're doing different church work: gathering for funerals and remembering the God in whom we live and move and have our being. In all this - in the blessed, the...

The Gospel of John never disappoints. And this week's passage is a big one, touching on grief, comfort, empowerment, unity, and the work of building something that will last. We're in John 14:1-14, with a short side quest to 1 Peter chapter 2, as we explore together all of these themes, and more.

Two paths diverged in a yellow wood, and strangely went parallel to each other for quite a while. We are both going with different themes this Sunday, but the overlap is notable. One church will be observing Earth Day, another the lectionary's snapshot of the Early Church in Acts 2, and both led us to conversation about interconnectedness, what we owe other living beings, and the nature of co...

This third Sunday of Easter brings us a strange (aren't they all?) post-resurrection appearance by Jesus to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In turn cryptic, funny, poignant, and profound, this story describes the powerful experience of divine inspiration - and challenges us to look for God at work in more places than we expect. 

It's the Sunday after Easter, so it must be the story of Doubting Thomas. Which it is. but it is also so much more. It is the story of coming out of your fear, coming through your questions, finding the power, the confidence, the permission to go out and do good work in the world, Jesus' work, the work of justice, and compassion, and love. It's the next step after the resurrection.....

A classic story from the Gospel of John, an obscure and sassy comeback to the Pharisees from Jesus, and the fine balance between Justice and Mercy, held together by our faithful relationship with the Other. It's a good one for the last Sunday before the start of Holy Week, both Good News and Challenge.

The Good News for the 4th Week of Lent is Protection and Care for the Vulnerable, rooted in two amazing passages...the Law of Moses, found in Deuteronomy, and that Law lived out in practical action, demonstrated by Jesus blessing the children in the Gospel of Matthew. These are not mere children's stories, but the commitment of God to those most in need...will we follow in that path? 

Our Good News story for this week is one that shows up in one form or another in each of the four Gospels, a rarity to be sure. Luke's version tells it this way: an unnamed woman, known to be a "sinner," crashes a dinner party at a Pharisee's house to wash Jesus' feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with costly perfume. It's an intimate, extrav...

Lent, historically, at least, is a bit of a heavy season, with an emphasis on penitence, and self-reflection, and those things that are "wrong" in our lives and the life of the world. This year, we're shifting our focus a bit, to the fundamentals of the Gospel...the Good things that are the Good News. And so we start today with Good News from two places in the text, which highlight...

We've reached another classic section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the bit about salt and light. So familiar, so comforting, so...challenging?! But it is more than just a Sunday School song with neat little motions, it's about an entire way of life, bringing brightness and flavor to a dull and bland world. People will notice...and will be drawn to the source. But dull, bland, poin...

It's "Greatest Hits" week in the lectionary...foundational passages about what faith looks like in Micah 6 and Matthew 5. If someone were to ask, "What are the fundamentals of your faith," these are the places we might go. So simple, but so radical, in that they are rooted in the love of the Divine. Join us on the journey.

We're back, after a hiatus created by sickness, and travel, and the surprises of life. And today we are walking with Jesus beside the Sea of Galilee as he calls his first disciples. It's a familiar story, a Sunday School classic...but what is at the heart of it? Community, partnership, adventure, the call of the Kingdom of God? All of these things and more. It's a great story, a gre...

Part one of your delayed double-dose of Pod Be With You! With apologies for technical difficulties, here are two episodes to catch you up. Thank you for your patience! 

And here's part two! This Bible study explores Advent hope and peace, but through the unlikely angle of fear, grief, expectations, legacy, and more. What do we have faith in? What are we working for? And how can we hold on to hope and become peacemakers in the face of so much stacked against it?

This week, two passages cut right to the heart of our faith as a way of life. We hear both from Matthew and Ephesians where God's heart is (hint: with the vulnerable) and how we will be: gentle, generous, tenderhearted, patient, and true. This moment demands of us a response - and this moment desperately needs people who see the world this way and live this way. 

Two separate scriptures and themes from our pastors this week, but a real overlap, as we discuss reformation, righteousness, humility, and discerning what of our "old" treasures to hold on to, and what of our "new" is holy. It's a good one, folks, and timely, as reformation is happening around us and in us right now!

Another hugely challenging - even potentially dangerous - passage from the Gospel of Luke. This is a message for mature audiences only. "Increase our faith," the disciples demand. And what follows are two teachings from Jesus that will ask of them a great deal of faith.  In this episode we explore what Jesus might mean with these, as well as larger points about how we read scripture, the...

It's a familiar, if troubling parable...known to us as "The Rich Man & Lazarus." Troubling in what it suggests about the afterlife, challenging in what it says about wealth, conflicted, I would argue, in its view of righteousness. But it's the challenging parables that are often the most rich, most compelling. So, let's dive in together.

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager is Jesus at his most enigmatic - which is pastor-speak for, "We have no idea what he's saying." But if you want to hear us take some swings, here you go! A compilation of Jesus' teachings on money, power, and our relationship with God, this passage challenges us to live with clever integrity in an often confusing and corrupt world. 

Jesus this week, as found in the Gospel of Luke, is not the Jesus we often think of, peaceful, and compassionate, and gracious. This Jesus knows what time it is, and is urgently trying to get those around him to look at the clock, too. His words are jarring, disruptive, and designed to wake folks up. It is a difficult saying, for a difficult season. Can we hear it? 

Back after a hiatus due to traveling and health and what not, we have two amazing, and on the surface at least, contradictory Gospel stories. The first, Jesus telling his followers that they must practice denial, take up their cross, and follow. And the second, Jesus celebrating a wedding with flowing wine, warm fellowship, and I am sure dancing.  How do these go together?  Join us to find out!