Getting to the core of the biblical text.
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Episode 629 Set Your Face and Go (Luke 9:51-62) ASH WEDNESDAY SPECIAL EPISODE
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1:01:16Our reading for Ash Wednesday is Luke 9:51-62–a real pivot point in Luke’s story. Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, and the story gains a sense of focus, momentum, and urgency. Should we be surprised, then, that he wastes no energy on anger or retaliation when the Samaritans won’t host him? Should we be surprised that he asks people he encoun…
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Episode 628 A Transfiguration and a Failed Healing (Luke 9:28-45)
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1:06:55This week we’re reading the stories of Jesus’ transformation on the mountain top and the disciples’ failed attempt to heal a possessed boy as told in Luke 9:28–45. We discuss the significance of Jesus’s transfiguration and the importance of the command from the heavenly voice, “Listen to him!” We talk about the appearance of Moses and Elijah and th…
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Episode 627 A Sinful Woman and an Unmoved Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50)
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1:04:20This week, we are reading Luke 7:36-50, where Jesus, a Pharisee named Simon, and a woman who is a sinner come together at a dinner party. The emotional intensity of this story is hard to overstate. As the woman cries over Jesus’s feet, we wonder – what is the tenor of emotion that has cracked her open? Is it guilt & pleading? Gratitude or vulnerabi…
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Episode 626 Are You Really the One? (Luke 7:18-35)
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1:04:30This week we’re reading Luke 7:18-35. John the Baptist has been in prison since Jesus’s baptism, so he hasn’t been able to witness any of Jesus’ ministry for himself. Now he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask him if he is really the Messiah or if John should look for another. Imagine John, the great disciple preparing the way for the Lord, suddenl…
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Episode 625 A Centurion's Slave and a Widow's Son (Luke 7:1-17)
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1:03:52This week, we are reading Luke 7:1-17 – stories of two miraculous healings, both of which seem to focus more on the person who is well, who is concerned or bereaved, than on the person whose body is failing. What might that tell us about the nature of healing, or faith, or community? And of all the suffering one might alleviate, why does Jesus resp…
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Episode 624 Sabbath Controversies (Luke 6:1-16)
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1:08:15This week we’re reading three stories of Jesus told in Luke 6:1-16. In the first two, Jesus is in a dispute with some Pharisees about observing the Sabbath. In one story, Jesus seems to claim authority over the Sabbath, given his identity as the Son of Man. In a second story, Jesus presses the boundaries of mercy, healing a man on the sabbath even …
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Episode 623 The Call of Simon (Luke 5:1-11)
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1:02:30This week, we're reading Luke 5:1-11, a story of a miraculously large fishing haul. In the midst of stories of miraculous healing, why is it this one, about fishing, that launches Simon Peter into his discipleship? Is it because the miracle is so stark against the backdrop of his knowledge and experience? Is it because he has tools to help Jesus in…
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Episode 622 Jesus' Sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30)
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1:00:45This week we’re reading Luke 4:14-30, the story of Jesus giving his inaugural sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth. In the Gospel of Luke this passage serves as a kind of mission statement for the ministry of Jesus, which he envisions as fundamentally “good news to the poor.” This is a good measure, we think, for our own communities. To what ex…
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Episode 621 John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus (Luke 3:1-22)
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1:09:00This week, we read Luke 3:1-22, a text that orients us first in all of competing political powers at play at that moment in history – and there are many! But then we simultaneously zoom IN to the personal and zoom OUT to the godly with the accounts of baptism. We wonder - Does something change in that ritualized moment, or does the ritual mark a sh…
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Episode 620 The Boy Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52)
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1:05:45This week we’re reading Luke 2:41-52, the story of twelve-year-old Jesus left behind in the temple as his parents return home from the Passover celebration. We talk about the ways repeated rituals like that ancient Passover pilgrimage can open up space for new and profound encounters with God, opportunities to integrate one’s own life into the stor…
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Episode 619 Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-38)
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1:05:15This week, we read Luke 2:21-38. The baby Jesus has been born just a week prior, and our reading today is scaffolded by the Jewish rituals that surround his birth. We wonder about the role of ritual in our lives, and about the very different ways that Simeon and Anna, two individuals who seem very close to God indeed, navigate the passing days of t…
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Episode 618 Christmas Eve SPECIAL EPISODE (Luke 2:1-20)
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1:07:00On this special Christmas Eve episode we’re discussing the birth of Jesus as told in Luke 2:1-20. We talk about the imperial setting of this story, which takes place during the reigns of Augustus, Herod, and Quirinius but announces the good news of a different lord and savior who brings peace to all rather than to the few. We ponder the way that th…
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Episode 617 The Annunciation of Mary (Luke 1:26-56)
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1:07:30This week we’re reading Luke 1:26-46, the annunciation of Mary and the Magnificat. In this biblical version of the Bechtel test, we find two women, Mary and her older relative Elizabeth, as the only two people on earth who know that God is in the process of upending the world. We marvel at the strength of young Mary, who doesn’t flinch when the ang…
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Episode 616 God's Spirit Is Upon Me (Isaiah 61:1-11)
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1:03:30This week, we read the beautiful and inspiring language of Isaiah 61 – a chapter that made us think about the work and the power of restoring human dignity. We saw in this chapter a call to care for both emotional and physical needs – to attend to people in their wholeness. We were reminded that once people remember their own beauty and dignity, th…
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Episode 615 Rend Your Hearts (Joel 2:12-29)
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1:07:45This week we’re reading Joel 2:12-29, a text most familiar from the Christian celebration of Pentecost as remembered in Acts 2. Read in context, though, Joel is about God promising to restore the land after it has been devastated by a plague of locusts, not only bringing an abundance of grain but also pouring out the Spirit on young and old alike. …
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Episode 614 Daniel in the Lions' Den
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1:07:45This week we read Daniel 6:1-27. It's the very well-known story of Daniel in the lion’s den, but it seems much more complicated now than it did in that picture book from childhood. How exactly do we hold the power of a king – that's real power! -- alongside the power of God – which is also real? Daniel’s special touch seems to lie in his willingnes…
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Episode 613 Written on Your Hearts (Jeremiah 36:1-16, 21-28 & 31:31-34)
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1:09:45This week we’re reading a set of texts from the book of Jeremiah, beginning in 36:1-16 and 21-28 and then continuing in 31:31-34. Together these texts tell of Jeremiah’s written prophecy, read by his scribe Baruch in the Temple, calling the people to repentance. But when King Jehoiachim hears of the prophecy, he cuts it to shreds and tosses it into…
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Episode 612 Here I Am Send Me! (Isaiah 6:1-13)
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1:02:30This week, we read Isaiah 6:1-13 – definitely an MVP candidate in both the Jewish and Christian communities. We wonder – what can we learn from the way that the seraphim offer praise, and what would it feel like to be a human in the middle of this scene? It’s tempting to stop reading after Isaiah tells God “Send me” – we just want to dwell in the b…
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Episode 611 Jonah and the Compassion of God (Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10; and 4:1-11)
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1:10:15This week we’re reading the story Jonah as told in the book of Jonah chapters 1, 3, & 4. The story opens with God sending Jonah to prophesy against Israel’s greatest enemy, the Assyrians, in their capital city of Nineveh. Jonah at first runs away from God, preferring to take his chances in the sea, where he is famously saved by spending three days …
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Episode 610 Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:1-24)
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1:06:00This week, we read 1Kings 17:1-24, and meet the larger-than-life figure of Elijah. How should we understand his boldness – is he a man of God who has taken things into his own hands, kind of gone rogue ... or is he so tied into God’s ideals that he is willing to inhabit them even when they are an awkward fit for the world of humans? And what does i…
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Episode 609 Dedicating the Temple (1 Kings 5:1-6; 8:22-30, 41-43, 52-60a)
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1:09:00This week we’re reading the story of Solomon dedicating the Temple as told in 1 Kings 5:1-6; 8:22-30, 41-43, and 52-60a. We talk about the task of temple building and the tension that comes with trying to create containers for the uncontainable God, whether that be the sanctuaries we build or the services we design to control our interactions with …
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Episode 608 I'll Build You a House (2 Samuel 7:1-17)
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1:08:00This week, we read 2 Samuel 7:1-17 – King David's got an idea, y’all. Having just built himself a house – a palace – he wants to build God a house – a Temple. Is he motivated by a love for the Lord, or by political savvy? Or a little of both? And why does God say no, but then offer David yet another kind of house – a dynasty? With all this house la…
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Episode 607 LIVE EPISODE Hannah's Prayer (1 Samuel 1:1-20 & 2:1-10)
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1:14:00A special live episode on 1 Samuel 1:1-20 and 2:10, recorded at Heartland Retreat Center in Parkville, MO, with pastors from the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation's Pastoral Leadership Revitalization Program.BibleWorm
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Episode 606 Hannah's Prayer (1 Samuel 1:1-20 & 2:1-10)
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1:06:30This week we’re reading the story of Hannah as told in 1 Samuel 1:1-20 and 2:1-10. Really we’re supposed to be talking about Hannah’s song in chapter 2, but we find the story of Hannah herself so compelling that we linger over it to see what it can teach us. We ponder the way Hannah prays out of her wretchedness, speaking her truth before God in wa…
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Episode 605 The Golden Calf (Exodus 32:1-14)
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1:09:10This week we read Exodus chapter 32: 1-14 – the infamous story of the golden calf. Okay, we all know that this was not the best move the Israelites have ever made. But let’s slow down our reading and see what else we can find in here. What are the Israelites feeling, and what do they mean to do by making this calf? Is Aaron sensitive and subtle in …
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