BibleWorm

Episode 541 The Gifts of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-13)

This week BibleWorm concludes the Narrative Lectionary cycle with the Pentecost readings, Acts 2:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-13. We talk about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which empowers the original disciples to speak in languages they don’t know, calling them outward from the culturally homogenous group to enter into the cultures and languages of others. That same Spirit, Paul says, pours out on the Christians in Corinth—and on Christians today—empowering us with a diversity of gifts, from miraculous gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues, to floppier gifts like wisdom and knowledge. Whatever our gifts, Paul says, the community needs them all. If we withhold our gifts, or if we fail to recognizes the diverse gifts of others, we fail to live up to God’s vision for us as the body of Christ.

Episode 540 The Resurrection of the Body (1 Corinthians 15:1-26 & 41-47)

Today BibleWorm reads from I Corinthians 15:1-26 & 51-57, a section of Paul’s letter that is focused unwaveringly on bodily resurrection. It seems this was one of harder aspects of the faith for the people of Corinth, and it is a tough one for many modern readers too. But Paul insists that you have to believe the impossible thing, the thing that goes against what you have seen with your own eyes. There is no hedging: You not only have to wholeheartedly believe the testimony of others, that Jesus was resurrected in body, but that it will happen again. It will happen for all Christians, and, Paul seems to say here, even universally. What happens when we shift from a shift from a spiritual orientation toward the idea of eternal life to an embodied one? Why is this body piece so important to Paul? What are people, anyway? 

Episode 539 The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

This week BibleWorm reads Paul’s famous discussion of love as given in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. It’s not every day that Bobby and Amy talk about Paul’s letters and find ourselves in full agreement that Paul is in fact right. But both our Jewish and Christian traditions can fully affirm what Paul says here—that love is the one undeconstructible reality, the most fundamental principle of the cosmos and, one might say, the very essence of God. The sort of love Paul calls us to in this passage is anti-imperial, the sort of soft love that seems foolish to those who live in a world where domination, control, and pride are the logic of the day. By contrast, Paul calls us to a softer way of inhabiting the world, characterized by patience, kindness, and yielding to others, trusting and hoping in the power of love toward which the world is ultimately moving.  

Episode 538 Unity in the Cross (Acts 18:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 1:10-18)

This week BibleWorm reads Acts 18:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, our introduction to the city of Corinth, a busy port city with all kinds of diversity and disparity ... almost like an ancient Las Vegas. And here in this city, Paul tasks the budding church with finding a way to profound unity. Speaking to a people that seem prone to latch on to the messenger instead of the message, as we humans like to do, Paul does whatever he can to sever that connection, even when that’s painful, in order to insist that his listeners find a common anchor point in something much bigger, something that unites them all: the cross itself, and only that. Is it possible for us humans to connect to something that big without holding onto the medium that gets us there? And how do we not lose the forest for the trees?

Episode 537 The Church in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9 and 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)

Today BibleWorm reads from two different books in the New Testament. We hear about Paul’s visit to the community  in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9 and then read from his letter to that community in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. As we read about the struggle of those early days for that budding church community, we wonder, what does it take for someone to throw in their lot with a revolutionary movement and really stick with it through all the real risk and seemingly constant uncertainty? And how can we support one another in living that sort of courageous life today?

Episode 536 The Disciples' First Miracle (Acts 3:1-10)

This week we’re continuing on in our post-Easter readings with the story of disciples’ first healing, as told in Acts 3:1-10. On their way to the temple one afternoon, Peter and John encounter a man who was born without the ability to walk. Not having any money, they heal him in the name of Jesus, then take him into the temple where he leaps and praises God. We talk about the disciples regarding the man as an equal, looking him and the eye and grasping him by the hand as they offer him healing. We discuss the risk Peter takes, pressing beyond the most obvious gifts and offering the man what he most truly needs. And we notice the most profound gift of all—the restoration of the man to his community, where he enters fully among them for what is likely the first time in his life. If only our communities could be sources of healing in the world in the same way.

Episode 535 Waiting for the Spirit (Acts 1:1-14)

This week BibleWorm begins not only a new book but a new kind of book in the New Testament – we move from a gospel to the Book of Acts with Acts 1:1-14.  We love seeing what the author lays out for us as the sort of “season recap” at the beginning – what parts of the Jesus story are most pressing for us to hold close for this next chapter? And truly it is a new chapter – the disciples sit in the echo of what has happened, but really don’t know yet what it all means for the future. And guess what they are to do, these leaders of the budding church, these people whose lives were turned upside down in every imaginable way? They are to stay put, stay in community, stay in prayer, and wait. How much pressure must they feel to DO something with what they’ve received already – to figure out what should happen next? But something is still missing – you can’t get ahead of the spirit.

Episode 534 Easter without Jesus (Mark 16:1-8)

This week BibleWorm reads the story of the first Easter as told in Mark 16:1-8. In this most challenging version of the Easter story, we never encounter the resurrected Jesus. Rather, a young man in white tells the women to go to Galilee where Jesus will meet them. It’s strange not to see Jesus on Easter, but isn’t this the way we mostly live our lives? We live the life of faith, based on the testimony of others and mostly without tangible evidence, trusting that Jesus really is resurrected just as the young man said. But Mark tells us that the women, startled and overwhelmed, left the tomb in silence, saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid. So it falls to us, as the readers, to make a choice. Will we go to meet Jesus just as the young man instructed? Do we have enough faith to meet Jesus in Galilee?

Episode 533 SPECIAL EPISODE Good Friday (Mark 15:16-41) REPLAY

On this special Good Friday episode, originally released on April 4, 2020, BibleWorm explores the story of Jesus's crucifixion in Mark 15:16-41. We talk about the humiliation and abandonment that so often accompanies and exacerbates our suffering, about vessels of God’s holiness breaking open into the world, and about what it means to have supporters out there that you may never know about.

Episode 532 SPECIAL EPISODE The Last Supper (Mark 14:12-42)

This week BibleWorm has a special episode for you – we are reading Mark’s account of the Last Supper, in Mark chapter 14: 12-42. What a story. We can feel the urgency in this supper, just like the original Passover meal – that something new and big and awesome and fearsome is about to happen, and there‘s no way you can really anticipate its magnitude. But alongside that, the text forces us to stare deeply into the frightening idea that no matter our convictions or our intentions, at the end of the day, we can’t really trust ourselves. What do we do with that – how can we live with it? And maybe more importantly, what does Jesus do with it?