BibleWorm

Episode 335 The Trial Before Pilate (John 19:1-16a)

This week BibleWorm reads John 19:1-16a, a continuation of Jesus’s trial, if one can even call it that. Despite the fact that Pilate repeatedly says he finds no charge against Jesus, the machinery of this human penal system is now in motion, and Pilate seems unwilling to stop it. We pull out our hair watching the web of forces that seem to hold sway over the characters – both the religious authorities and the empire’s authorities – many of which are based in fear, and none of which are based in speaking and acting upon what one actually believes to be true.  And we see pretty clearly that indeed the empire would lose its power if it could not hold the fear of death over its people. Good heavens, humans are a disaster.

Episode 334 What is Truth? (John 18:28-40)

This week BibleWorm reads the story of Jesus’s trial before the Roman governor Pilate as told in John 18:28-40. We talk about the complex interaction of religious authority and political authority and the ways they often operate to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. We discuss the concept of truth and what truth even means in an age of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. And we wrestle with what it means to follow a king who refuses to wield the power of death over and against the enemy but instead submits to death in self-giving love, giving witness to the ultimate power of life. Can the kingdoms of the earth follow this path of love? According to this text, they cannot. But can we? That is the question.

Episode 333 Peter’s Denial (John 18:12-27)

This week BibleWorm reads John 18:12-27, the story of Jesus being taken into custody by the religious authorities. We try to climb into the character of Paul - the one disciple who defends Jesus with the sword, one of only 2 who chooses to follow him into the next dangerous place, who then unravels in his loyalty and denies him. We think about this in light of Jesus’s attempt to send the disciples home once he has been arrested – Jesus’s recognition, maybe, that humans won’t have the strength to be with him as his story unfolds. We reflect on how both of our faiths, Jewish and Christian, are built with the understanding that humans can strive and strive and have the very best of intentions, and we will still have gaps where we will just need grace and forgiveness. It is a wretching thing to fall into the gaps.

Episode 332 Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet (John 13:1-17)

This week we’re reading the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet as told in John 13:1-17. We talk about the profound way Jesus’s actions destabilize the social hierarchy, envisioning a community in which everyone honors and lifts up the other regardless of social status. We marvel at the idea that the incarnation seems to have made God’s relationship with humans more intimate—from God loving the world in John 3:16 to Jesus loving us as his own in this text. And we wrestle with the presence of Judas the betrayer at this intimate encounter. If Jesus chooses to wash even Judas’s feet, what does that mean for the way we treat those we suspect of betraying us today?

Episode 331 The Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:1-44)

This week we read John 11:1-44, the story of Lazarus being resurrected from the dead. We see the fully human Jesus unfold and bloom in this story – a Jesus who must hold back from healing someone for whom he holds a particular love, a Jesus who weeps for a man’s death before he calls him back to life. We hear this Jesus say “I am the resurrection” – the light, the word, and now even the resurrection. In just one chapter, he embodies the biggest and most abstract realities, and also walks into the depths and particularities of human suffering.

Episode 330 SPECIAL EPISODE The Gate and the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18)

On this special Ash Wednesday episode we’re discussing the image of Jesus as both the shepherd and the gate in John 10:1-18. We talk about what it means to be gathered into the sheep pen and why, according to this text, you can’t simply stay there. Somebody is going to lead you back out into a dangerous world—what matters is who you follow. We think about Jesus as the gate, who keeps out the thieves and outlaws and lets only the good shepherd in. And we think about Jesus as the good shepherd, who knows our names and is willing to lay down his life to keep us safe. And, on this Ash Wednesday, we ask what it means for us to be people of faith willing to go forth into a dangerous world, leaving the safe confines of our spiritual enclaves to bring abundant life to the world.

Episode 329 The Light of the World (John 9:1-41)

This week we read John 9:1-41, the story of a man whose blindness is healed by Jesus. We watch the incremental changes in the way the man seems to understand what has happened. We wonder about the different beliefs that may lie behind the statement that God’s work could be revealed through this person in particular, precisely because he is blind. And we think a lot about the things that garner our attention, that make us think we know, that actually blind us to whole layers of reality.

Episode 328 Living Water (John7:35-52)

This week we’re reading the story of Jesus’s offer of living water as told in John 7:37-52. We talk about the significance of the Holy Spirit as living water, and wonder about what it means when Jesus says that living water will flow out from the heart of believers? Is it possible that we can be sources of living water? We notice that the religious leaders reject the idea of Jesus as the messiah simply because he comes from Galilee, and we wonder whether we, too, sometimes miss the amazing things that God is doing in our midst because we get too wrapped up in the fixed meaning of Scripture. And we wrestle with the tension between the religious scholars and the common people, in that day and in our own. How might it be possible to embrace the wisdom of the people while also guarding against dangerous theologies. All that and more in today’s BibleWorm!

Episode 327 The Bread of Life (John 6:35-69)

This week BibleWorm reads John 6:35-69--which is 10 verses beyond the narrative lectionary, because we just couldn’t help ourselves. Why does Jesus lean so hard into the shocking language that his followers ought to eat his flesh and drink his blood? What is it about food – as a universal human need, and also as an appetite that can go way beyond need - that opens up what Jesus is asking of his followers? Does the metaphor suggest an elevation of spiritual needs in place of physical ones, or does it wrap them ever more closely together? This teaching is difficult, say the disciples - indeed it is.

Episode 326 Two Healing Stories (John 4:46-5:18)

This week BibleWorm reads two miracle stories told in John 4:46-5:18. In the first story, Jesus saves the child of a royal official, who believes Jesus’s word even before he sees evidence of the healing. In the second story, Jesus heals a man who has been sitting by the healing waters of Beth Zatha for 38 years with no one to help him into the pool. We wonder how a community could allow someone to suffer for so long and marvel at the healing Jesus offers him. We ponder the motivations of Jesus, who seems reluctant to heal in one case and heals without being asked in the other. And we struggle with how to read miracle stories in our own day, when all too often those who need miracles seem not to receive them. How do we read miracles stories in a miracle-free world?