Peace | The Podcast

Is It I Lord? | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Here Am I Lord is a well-known hymn based on Isaiah 6.8. It's about calling, hearing God's invitation for good work. But in order to answer that call we need the autonomy to answer, the creativity to know if the call is ours to do, and to see the purpose of that call. 
 

Inseparable | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Thank God I Do by Lauren Daigle, is a song about identity, a song about being known. Often in life we can get knocked down or things don't go the way we expect or hope, and the story we start to tell ourselves isn't true or filled with God's love. 
These stories have a way of working on us in an unhealthy way. But what if we told ourselves a different story? Like the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, who tells the people facing division and persecution that they are more than conquerers and that nothing can separate them from God's love.
The stories we tell impact the stories we are living.
 

A Place At The Table | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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A Place At The Table by Shirley Erena Murray, is a modern day hymn about the expanding and growing table of Christ that is offered to all! 
In the book of Luke, Jesus is confronting some marginalizing habits and patterns of the Pharisees. They believe the table is exclusive, only for the elite and the perfect. And Jesus is going to challenge their expectations with a parable about a dinner host who invites EVERYONE!
At the end of this message, we talked about a situation with our Little Free Library. The books have been emptied on three occasions - so we decided to respond - but maybe not in the way one would expect. 
What does it look like to expand the table?
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Generations of __________ | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Cat's In The Cradle: Harry Chapin said that he stole a few of the lyrics from his wife and that the song is dedicated to his son Josh. And he also said that this song terrifies him!
The theme of what we pass on to the next generation is not only a modern day parable, but it's a central component of what the LORD tells the people when they receive the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai. 
Steadfast love will be given to the 1,000th generation, but iniquity will be given to the 3rd and 4th generation. 
We pass on all the ways we cause injustice, and we pass on relational wholeness. What type of generation are we passing on? Generations of _______.
 

All You Need Is Love | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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All You Need Is Love: There are too many Beatles songs that we could have chosen...so we did 4!
Help | With A Little Help From My Friends | All You Need Is Love | Let It Be
We specifically looked at the type of love that is shared between friends...the family that we choose. And Jesus models for us how to love as a friend...but it's hard to see until we dig deep into the Scriptures and actually look at the Greek words for love. 
 

A Cold & Broken Hallelujah | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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A Cold & Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen wrote a haunting, beautiful, and deeply meaningful song called ‘Hallelujah’. It’s been covered and recreated countless times; many people have a favorite version: from Jeff Buckley to Pentatonix. This song resonates with people because it speaks to a deep ache in all of us… Even when things are at their worst, can I still say Hallelujah? This question is at the heart of the prophet Habakkuk, who longs for God to intervene and make things right...but still chooses to praise God when the answer isn't swift. 
The version of 'Hallelujah' we heard at church was by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris: HERE.
 

An Interconnected Network of Love | Out of the Box and Outside the Lines | Pt 6

Every beginning comes from chaos. And then God brings order, an invitation to tend and guard the good. But humanity is quick to take that good order of tending and guarding and move to control. A control that often only benefits a few. In these moments, we often see God thinking out of the box and coloring outside the lines. We see God moving towards liberation. 
In this series we will explore what this pattern | chaos-order-control-liberation | has looked like in the Bible, and how it can inform how we can show up and partner with God in our world today.
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With humility, gentleness, patience, and love, Paul calls upon the church in Ephesus to be ONE. Unity is at the forefront of being a Christ-centered people. So often our world only looks divided, and Christians are often leading the charge of divisiveness. How can that change?
Paul gives us a beautiful aspiration, a vision of what we can be.
Jesus shows us how that takes root in the real world. 
In Matthew 9, Jesus is eating with tax collectors and other 'sinners'. The Pharisees are upset. Then Jesus says they should learn this phrase - I desire mercy and loving kindness, not sacrifice. 
How can this be a model for us? 
How can Jesus be showing us a way to be with one another?
 

Displaced Presence | Out of the Box & Outside the Lines | Pt 5

Every beginning comes from chaos. And then God brings order, an invitation to tend and guard the good. But humanity is quick to take that good order of tending and guarding and move to control. A control that often only benefits a few. In these moments, we often see God thinking out of the box and coloring outside the lines. We see God moving towards liberation. 
In this series we will explore what this pattern | chaos-order-control-liberation | has looked like in the Bible, and how it can inform how we can show up and partner with God in our world today.
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Jesus often finds himself saying and doing things that get him removed from the inner circle. He is asked to leave towns, he's chased away because of what he says. Jesus is present and close to those who are hurting, and it affects his place in the world. 
Power is at the heart of the Jesus story. But it's not simply a question of how do certain people give it up, while certain people gain it. It's a question about what do we do with the power that we have. Jesus has power, but he doesn't use it for his own gain. He moves towards those who are hurting. 
How can we use our power to be present?
How can we find our purpose instead of pursuing a position?
And how can we de-center certain stories, so all stories can be told?

Apologies that Disrupt | Out of the Box & Outside the Lines | Pt 4

Every beginning comes from chaos. And then God brings order, an invitation to tend and guard the good. But humanity is quick to take that good order of tending and guarding and move to control. A control that often only benefits a few. In these moments, we often see God thinking out of the box and coloring outside the lines. We see God moving towards liberation. 
In this series we will explore what this pattern | chaos-order-control-liberation | has looked like in the Bible, and how it can inform how we can show up and partner with God in our world today.
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Forgiveness is a BIG topic, one that we can't circle back to often enough. One of the most important components of forgiveness is when one offers an apology. But an apology is more than a quick 'I'm sorry' so we can move on. Apologies should disrupt things. They should disrupt the working order of things that have often been harmful. They should disrupt us, personally. 
This message is given by a special guest. Joretta Marshall is an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and holds membership in the Mountain Sky Conference. She retired from service to Brite Divinity School as Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling in June 2021.
While at Brite, Joretta was the Director of the Carpenter Initiative in Gender, Sexuality, and Justice, where she worked with students, churches, and communities to promote reconciling conversations and training around sexual orientation and gender identity.
Joretta is an author and editor of numerous books and articles, including Pastoral Care in Rural Congregations. AND – she is the aunt of Jason’s wife Michelle!
 

Moving Mountains | Out of the Box & Outside the Lines | Pt 3

Every beginning comes from chaos. And then God brings order, an invitation to tend and guard the good. But humanity is quick to take that good order of tending and guarding and move to control. A control that often only benefits a few. In these moments we often see God thinking out of the box and coloring outside the lines. We see God moving towards liberation. 
In this series we will explore what this pattern | chaos-order-control-liberation | has looked like in the Bible, and how it can inform how we can show up and partner with God in our world today.
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Prayer is one of those things that we know a lot about, but can be hard to understand at the same time. 
In Matthew 6, Jesus tells the disciples about prayer. He cautions them not to put on a mask and pretend to have it all together. Prayer should be a move towards vulnerability. Jesus also warns them against making prayer a formula for getting God's attention. It doesn't work like that. 
But in the end, what does prayer do? Does it change the future? Is that possible? Does prayer change us? Does it make us capable of facing the reality of this messy life?