Every year, Christians around the world sing the ancient words from “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which continues, “…and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.” So what did exile mean in the Biblical story, and what does it mean for our hope this season? What did it mean for the birth of Jesus that his homeland was under foreign occupation under the Roman Empire, or that he and his family had to flee to Egypt in a sort of exile as refugees escaping Her...
Dec 03, 2024•25 min
In this final episode of our series, "Questions We'd Like to Ask God," colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, Natalie, and Steve wrestle with the matter of two millennia Christians have been waiting for the coming of Christ in glory. Why has Jesus not come back yet? And is that a matter of the fixed timing of God's plan, or somehow is it up to human choices or actions? Is there anything anybody can do that would delay or speed up Jesus' coming? And when we say Jesus is coming again, do we mean to ...
Nov 26, 2024•24 min
For as long as human beings have been seeking the divine (which is probably pretty much from the beginning), we have been arguing about the right ways to talk about God, how to understand God, and how to identify God. Sometimes we argue with spoken debates or written theses (maybe posted on a door), and sometimes we have launched wars (we call "holy") in the name of getting God's identity correct. So... how does God feel about all of this? In our next episode within the "Questions We'd Like To A...
Nov 19, 2024•36 min
In this November's series, "Questions We Want to Ask God," colleagues in ministry Erica, Sarah, Steve, and Natalie are getting to lob out the BIG questions we still wrestle with. This time, the question is, "What (that human beings do) breaks God's heart the most?" And over the course of this conversation we'll explore what the Scriptures suggest matters most to God, and what it even means to suggest that God's "heart" can break. We'll look at times in the Bible where the writers talk about God ...
Nov 12, 2024•22 min
In a new series this November, Crazy Faith Talk is welcoming an additional voice around the table and posing questions we have always wanted to ask God. In addition to our regulars, Erica, Sarah, and Steve, we welcome Natalie, who is a seminary intern learning ministry in the congregational setting where Steve serves, and we're glad to have her around the microphone! In this episode, we'll explore why God gave human beings free will--and what that might or might not mean in different theological...
Nov 05, 2024•28 min
In a sense, Jesus' disciples are meant to be forever learning: there is always deeper to go, and there are always new adventures on which Jesus invites us to accompany him. But at the same time, Jesus' disciples do move from being solely students to becoming teachers and leaders as well. In Matthew's Gospel, for example, there is a well-known scene after the resurrection in which Jesus directs his disciples now to go outward in all directions and "to all nations" not only to baptize people, but ...
Oct 28, 2024•30 min
If following Jesus were a short sprint on a clear track, it would be easy. But in reality, discipleship is a lifelong marathon on rough terrain, and it involves the ongoing challenges of dealing with setbacks, obstacles, and course corrections. How does Jesus help his disciples, both in the Gospels and today, to face the obstacles in our path as we follow him? Join us for this latest conversation in our fall series, "Discipleship As Apprenticeship," as pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve explore how...
Oct 22, 2024•20 min
It's not just WHAT Jesus does, but HOW he does it. And it's not just about head-knowledge but training our hands and hearts to live out what we believe. As we continue this fall's series on Discipleship as Apprenticeship to Jesus, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve now look at how Jesus models for his disciples practices like prayer, fasting, and giving, and how he teaches us still today how to see our relationship with God from a perspective that lets those be authentic rather than performances or...
Oct 15, 2024•30 min
In this, their 400th episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at the central teachings of Jesus as the beginnings of our apprenticeship to him. We'll see how the parables of Jesus and teachings like the Sermon on the Mount are not merely "head knowledge" or trivia to be memorized for a test, but a whole new way of seeing the world and understanding our relationship to God, from which we then act, speak, and follow. Join us for another round of conversation here on Crazy ...
Oct 08, 2024•25 min
In a new series for this fall, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are taking a look at what it means to be disciples of Jesus, and in particular to see ourselves as apprentices who learn Jesus' way of life. In contrast to so much of our wider culture that persuades us to see ourselves as paying customers (who are thus "always right," and can take our business elsewhere if someone says or does something to challenge us...), Jesus calls us to let go of our old assumptions, prejudices, habits, and pra...
Oct 01, 2024•23 min
In this finale episode of our series on people in the Bible we would (or wouldn't) want to be, we'll look at the less-familiar story of Phoebe, whom Paul commends at the end of his letter to the Romans as a fellow leader in the early church. Phoebe is only mentioned in two verses of the whole Bible, but it is likely that she was the one carrying Paul's letter to the Romans and actually read it in Rome out loud to the gathered community, also probably giving the first explanation, commentary, or ...
Sep 24, 2024•20 min
In our current series exploring biblical figures we want to be (or know we can learn from), we'll explore what it would have been like to be Esther (from the biblical book of the same name). Esther lived centuries before Jesus and thousands of years before us, and yet so much of her faith-story is like ours. Like Esther, we often struggle (and stumble) through our discernment of what God is calling us to do or how our faith is leading us to act, and also like Esther we each have to wrestle with ...
Sep 17, 2024•17 min
In this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Sarah begin a round of conversations highlighting people in the Bible they would like to be, or would want to have some part of. And to get this started, we'll take a look at Saint Paul, famously known as apostle to the Gentiles and the voice behind a large part of the New Testament. He can be bold and confident, and yet sometimes he struggled to be heard with respect and struggled with finding his place in God's work amid suf...
Sep 10, 2024•26 min
This week, our series "Who We DON'T Want To Be" takes a look at Simon Peter, the fisherman-turned-apostle who talked a good game and often had half-right answers, only to misunderstand or let Jesus down when it counted. This week, Steve explores why he struggles with the story of Simon Peter, and colleagues in ministry Erica and Sarah offer grace for all of us who struggle and stumble our way through being disciples of Jesus. Join us for another faithful conversation here on this week's Crazy Fa...
Sep 03, 2024•18 min
In this series we've just recently started here in these late summer days, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are asking the question, "Who do you NOT want to be from the Bible?" And each week, we'll feature a different biblical character, while these friends around the micophone try to persuade one another either to be, or not to be, in that character's shoes (or sandals). This week, we'll take a look at the towering figure of the Torah, Moses, who is remembered both as liberator from slavery and ...
Aug 27, 2024•23 min
In a new series kicking off here in these late days of summer, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are exploring biblical characters we would not want to be, and maybe why they wouldn't be so bad after all. Getting things started, a look at how difficult it must have been to be the mother of Jesus--exactly because he was the Messiah, and she had been told that ahead of time! What challenges would have been there with her unusual pregnancy? What heartaches did she have to endure? How different might ...
Aug 20, 2024•30 min
At the end of the last book of the Christian Bible, there is a vision of a wholly renewed creation, a "new heavens and a new earth," in which mnay peoples (plural) from every language, tribe, and nation are gathered into God's presence, and when heaven comes to earth, for God's dwelling to be among us completely. In light of that promised future, Christians are freed to be open-eyed, honest and realistic about the limits, failings, and flaws of every human government and every nation on earth. B...
Aug 13, 2024•23 min
As we keep thinking through the value of having a separation between church and state in the United States, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve spend some time looking at the biblical picture of the church as a multi-national community. From the time of Paul's letters (the earliest documents of the New Testament!) onward, we see the early church choosing to include people from other nationalities, cultures, and languages without making them "assimilate" into the practices of ancient Judaism first. T...
Aug 06, 2024•31 min
As we continue our summer series exploring why the separation of church and state is good for both sides of that arrangement, we explore the way our voice as Christians can be a helpful check and balance on the actions and decisions of government. Most folks who have lived in the United States understand the concept of how we are supposed to have "checks and balances" within government itself, in the separated powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. But what if...
Jul 30, 2024•33 min
This summer on Crazy Faith Talk, we're taking a look at the separation of church and state in the American experiment, and why it's a good thing. Around the table as usual are pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve, and this week, we're looking at the possible dangers of a church or religious faith taking control of the wheels of government. While some might think it would only mean getting to have Christmas trees or nativity scenes in town squares, history suggests that there are LOTS of ways state po...
Jul 23, 2024•20 min
This week on Crazy Faith Talk, we continue our series exploring the separation of church and state by looking at what happens when governments overstep their bounds and claim to speak for God (or the gods). Whether it's pagan empires like Pharaoh's Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, or the Roman Empire of the first-century, or even the kings of Israel and Judah claiming God's endorsement for everything they did, there are lots of biblical examples of the dangers of a government claiming to have di...
Jul 16, 2024•32 min
Should the government get to dictate what the correct belief in God is? Should the church be able to punish people with jail time for incorrect theology or unorthodox biblical interpretation? Are there good reasons why the Founders of the American experiment chose deliberately NOT to establish an official religion when the United States was formed? These questions kick off a new series for this summer as pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at the separation of church and state, and why at least...
Jul 09, 2024•21 min
In this final episode of our series on the Psalms, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore ways to use the psalms in our own individual and corporate lives. While there are some parts of the Scripture we may struggle to come back to for multiple readings (let's be honest, it's hard to be inspired by genealogies or records of how long different kings reigned for), the psalms continually invite us to pray using their borrowed words, or to let them be a springboard for our own new conversations wit...
Jul 02, 2024•31 min
In this week's episode, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a difficult group of psalms in the Bible--those that wish for revenge or cursing on the enemies of the ones praying. For many of us, we wouldn't have even known this was in the Bible, and for others, we just don't know what to do with such angry--and often violent--words brought to God! So in this conversation, we'll explore some ways to deal with these psalms, how they might give voice to pain that needs to be expressed some...
Jun 25, 2024•25 min
As they continue exploring the poems and prayers in the biblical book of psalms, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look today at the royal psalms, often used in enthronement or coronations in ancient Israel's life, which asked for God's blessing and help for their kings and for long dynasties of continuity in their rule. To American ears, used to the constant turnover of elections and trained to be skeptical of monarchies, these psalms can sound strange or confusing. And yet, as we look clo...
Jun 18, 2024•30 min
There are a few essentials for a good traveling song: it needs to help make the trip go quicker, it needs to be memorable for people to sing along, and it helps make the journey as much of a memory as the destination. Well, ancient Israel had its own set of traveling songs, at least for the times when the people would be going up to Jerusalem for worship at the Temple at festivals and other special occasions. They're called "songs of ascent," and they're a subset of the Book of Psalms. They were...
Jun 11, 2024•15 min
In their ongoing series this summer on the psalms, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve take a look at the laments in the Psalms. These prayers, poems, and songs feel like the blues--they name the times when our worlds fall apart, when we feel abandoned (even by God), and when our hearts are heavy. And rather than discouraging us from lobbing those feelings at God, the psalms of lament actually give us permission to bring whatever is on our hearts and minds to God! Join us for a conversation about ho...
Jun 04, 2024•30 min
In our new series this summer exploring the psalms, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve now take a look at different kinds, or genres, of psalms. And in this episode our conversation takes us to psalms of praise and thanksgiving. In a sense, these kinds of prayers and songs seem obviouus--when you are happy or something is going well, sometimes the joyfulness just bursts out of you, after all. But it is worth exploring how these psalms call attention to WHY God is worthy of praise. That might includ...
May 28, 2024•22 min
In a new series for the summer, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve invite you to get to know the psalms better. While many people know phrases or selections from the psalms (like, "The Lord is my shepherd," or "Be still and know that I am God..."), this is a book that is often underused and possibly misunderstood. So as we begin this series, we'll explore why it can be valuable to "borrow words" from someone else's prayer life, or to use pre-written wording in corporate worship. And we'll also look...
May 21, 2024•38 min
In this final episode of our series for Eastertide, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at how other Christian traditions think of the sacraments and how differing definitions lead to different counts of how many sacraments there are, and what they mean. We'll look at how many of the ritual moments named "sacraments" in other denominations are still practiced by others--things like marriage, prayers and anointing for the sick, or ordination of pastors--but are understood differently from...
May 14, 2024•35 min
