The Heavenly Banquet

Charlotte Elia offers this sermon on Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 , a passage about the crowds seeking healing from Jesus. "There’s never no more urgent time for prayer than the now in which you find yourself, but I also- I know what it feels like to exist in this world right now. I often feel overwhelmed, anxious, frightened, helpless, useless, and when I start to feel a bit better, a bit more hopeful, an...

This episode is a live recording of a Requies Divina session held at Chester Presbyterian Church in Chester, VA on May 15, 2024. Join Charlotte Elia for a time of guided contemplation and centering prayer for spiritual rest and renewal. Put on some comfy clothes, settle onto a mat or bed, and give your breath, your body, and yourself to God. During our practice you will be invited to focus on an i...

In this episode Chad and Charlotte discuss Charlotte's experience with COVID-related phantosmia , an olfactory disorder which causes for her the sensation of smelling smoke that is not actually present. Chad then introduces us to various philosophical takes on our perception of reality before inviting us to deeper reflection on how we perceive the Divine and whether we can reliably communicate tho...

This episode is a live recording of a sermon on John 21:1-19 preached by Charlotte Elia at Chester Presbyterian Church on April 7, 2024. "All of those Peter stories reflected in this text, all of those experiences, all of those lessons to be learned and Peter doesn’t know why Jesus keeps asking if he loves him. It’s Peter’s denials; it’s Jesus’ crucifixion, and it’s Peter’s feelings that are hurt....

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia discuss Requies Divina, a practice of divine rest that Charlotte has been developing. They also speak more broadly about the difficulties of beginning and establishing habits of spiritual practices and the crucial need for the Church to share its wealth of spiritual tools. Charlotte: I had been thinking about the pandemic… Congregations had been, sinc...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia talk some more about spiritual practices in the Christian tradition, but this time they get a bit more practical. They discuss specific practices and their experiences with each, and they make some suggestions for finding space for God in our current context. Chad: One thing I’ve learned in keeping up a practice of contemplative prayer, of just sittin...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia chat about the purpose and theology of spiritual practices in the Christian tradition and some of the various approaches folks have taken as they sought to enact our faith in the world. Charlotte: Spirituality in the Christian tradition has a goal of union with God through imitation of God, either imitation of the divine attributes, things that we kno...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia celebrate Valentine's Day by discussing love in the Christian tradition. This episode also serves as something of a preview of the manuscript Chad has written on this topic. Chad: The one thing that always remains the same in our love relationships is constantly we want what is good for the other person. I think that gets closer to what is essential t...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia talk about the themes and significance of the liturgical season of Lent, share some reasons why it is important to them, and offer guidance on how you might observe this penitential time. Charlotte: These particular spiritual practices are ways in which we enact the faith in the world or in our personal lives, so they are outward expressions of the fa...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia discuss Chad's work with Francisco de Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet. Chad has been posting monthly on our Substack on each letter of the Third Spiritual Alphabet as both a way of introducing Francisco de Osuna's thought and of exploring the practice and concept of recollection. Chad's posts on Osuna are collected here . Charlotte: And as Osuna says...

In this episode Charlotte Elia and Chad Rhodes discuss the tools and perspectives used by Origen, Cassian, and Augustine in the interpretation of scripture. Chad: The thing that impresses me most and has really kind of changed the way I think about the scriptures is this idea that you see in the early church that in coming to the scriptures I can encounter the risen Christ, the person versus an id...

Charlotte Elia offers this sermon on Matthew 22:1-14, commonly referred to as the Parable of the Wedding Feast. "This is a parable that like Jesus’ teachings, a parable that like Jesus’ life, shows the absurdity, the lies, the ultimate ineffectiveness of supposed power. Power seeks only to maintain power, and power is maintained through cruelty, manipulation, violence. Power serves itself, but lov...

Join Charlotte Elia for a time of guided contemplation and centering prayer for spiritual rest and renewal. Put on some comfy clothes, settle onto a mat or bed, and give your breath, your body, and yourself to God.  During our practice you will be invited to focus on an intention, for healing or wholeness, for yourself or someone else, something that you want to release to God’s care. You mig...

On this episode Charlotte Elia and Chad Rhodes discuss the relationship between faith and science. What threats might they pose to each other? Could they possibly enhance one another? Are there even ways that science might bring us to a deeper understanding of faith? And what might we do when faith and science seemingly come into conflict? Charlotte: These folks are in a position of protecting a p...

In this episode Charlotte Elia and Chad Rhodes discuss creation care. Why have so many Christian absolved themselves from the dominion mandate or chosen to interpret it in a destructive way? What's lost in relationship to the faith when parts of creation are marred or destroyed? And why aren't we in constant lament for the destruction of our planet? Charlotte: Just the idea that creation is a refl...

In this episode Charlotte Elia and Chad Rhodes discuss apokatastasis, a form of Christian universalism prevalent in the early centuries of the faith. What are some primary features of apokatastasis? Why was it championed by so many leading figures in the early church? Charlotte and Chad consider these questions and others as they exam a more hopeful and loving account of Christian faith. Chad: The...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia discuss recent actions by the Southern Baptist Convention to further suppress women. They then look at the scripture most often used to justify this misogyny and consider some of the absurd non-biblical arguments raised. Chad: Here’s the thing: Paul is writing letters; he doesn’t see himself as writing scripture. And at times Paul makes explicit that...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia discuss a recent church service in Nuremberg, Germany that was organized and led by ChatGPT, and that leads them to muse on the nature of preaching, our capacity for creativity, and what it means to be human. Chad: I mean, the computer is just a program. I don’t know if people need to hear that. It’s encryption all the way down, turtles all the way do...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia talk about Jesus' sayings in Matthew and Luke regarding the "sign of Jonah." Here they revisit the story of Jonah, investigate how it illuminates Jesus' work, ponder how Jesus might have understood Jonah's story, and ask what bearing these comparisons have on the work of biblical interpretation. Charlotte: What I love about Jesus’ interpretation of Jo...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia chat a bit about the doctrine of the Trinity, what they most value there, some challenges it presents, and their favorite analogies of the Trinity. Chad: There's something about the idea of this perfect identity of diversity in unity that hits a lot of high notes for me. I mean, the creation reflects that. We live in a universe that is a diverse unity...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia take a look at the section of the Nicene Creed that addresses the Church and try to unpack the wealth of meaning there that can almost be obscured by our familiarity with the text. The sound quality for this episode falls far from our own expectations. Charlotte called in to record from what sounds like the bottom of a trashcan, and we'll not let that...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia take a look at the section of the Nicene Creed that addresses Holy Spirit incarnation and try to unpack the wealth of meaning there that can almost be obscured by our familiarity with the text.

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia take a look at the section of the Nicene Creed that addresses Christ's incarnation and try to unpack the wealth of meaning there that can almost be obscured by our familiarity with the text. 

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia take a look at the second section of the Nicene Creed and try to unpack the wealth of meaning there that can almost be obscured by our familiarity with the text.  Chad: The idea, at least according to the tradition, is that we’re created ex nihilo, out of nothing, and the principle they would use is, “Anything that’s created out of nothing, tends...

In this episode Chad Rhodes and Charlotte Elia take a look at the first section of the Nicene Creed and try to unpack the wealth of meaning there that can almost be obscured by our familiarity with the text. Chad: When I was first looking at this, I was like, “My goodness. What are we going to talk about?” But the more I started thinking about it and the implications, specifically for our faith an...