BibleWorm

Episode 521 Making the Demons Tremble (Mark 5:1-20)

This week BibleWorm reads the story of Jesus casting a legion of unclean spirits into a herd of pigs as told in Mark 5:1-20. We struggle with how to think of demon-possession in the modern world, ultimately concluding that demons represent those forces, both spiritual and societal, that intend harm to humans and especially to those living at the margins of society. We notice that when the demons see Jesus they immediately know they are going to be cast out, and we wonder whether the demons of this world likewise tremble when they see us. And we notice that rather than celebrating the restoration of their neighbor, the townspeople demand that Jesus leave their region, raising the question of whether we, too, are more concerned about the healing of our neighbors or worried about the costs of their restoration.

Episode 520 The Parables of Jesus (Mark 4:1-34)

This week, BibleWorm wades into parables with Mark 4:1-34. How striking it is that the chapter starts out telling us that Jesus creates some physical distance between himself and his followers, by going out in a boat before trying to teach the crowds that have gathered on the land. Similarly, he teaches here in a way that slows us down, and creates a little distance between the words we read and the meaning to be conveyed. The parables he tells in this chapter made us wonder: Which truths from our everyday economy will serve us well if we reorient toward God, and which ones do we need to relearn? When you are entrusted with something precious, when is it right to be careful with it, and when is it better to be generous with it? And how big or small is our role in God’s system, anyway? 

Episode 519 Their Faith Has Made You Well (Mark 2:1-22)

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 2:1-22, beginning with the story of a man whose friends dig a hole through the roof so they can lower him down to Jesus. We discuss the relative importance of forgiveness and healing, with this text suggesting that the most urgent matter is being set right with God whatever the abilities and limitations of our particular bodies might be. We notice, too, that Jesus heals him based on their faith, and we ponder whether our faith, too, can have effects for others, whether our faith in God or our faith in people themselves. And we discuss a series of stories in which Jesus contrasts a new community of radical welcome with an older structure of righteousness, concluding that God values both the old way and the new way, desiring only that each makes space for the other to thrive.

Episode 518 Following the Call (Mark 1:1-20)

This week, BibleWorm begins the Gospel of Mark - we’ll read Mark 1:1-20. Mark sets the stage by telling his readers that this is good news – though we will see even in these first 20 verses, that we’re not talking about a puppies and cotton candy kind of “good” – we’re talking about a deeper good, a harder one that involves significant struggle for everyone who pursues it, all the way up to the proverbial C-suite. But, oh, it’s such an empowering good. When we read how the heaven’s respond to Jesus’s baptism, we have to wonder - what if we took seriously the possibility that the events here on earth can reverberate in the heavens, maybe even change the course of things? What if we took seriously the invitations that we ourselves encounter to re-orient our actions toward a horizon other than whatever the empire has laid before us? What would be possible? 

Episode 517 The Christmas Story (Luke 2:1-20) SPECIAL EPISODE

On 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 the message makes its way into the world—through an unwed mother, a band of shepherds, and an assortment of people who happen to be awake in the middle of the night—leaving the official power structures unaware of the fact that the world has been fundamentally changed. And we talk about how this story challenges us to pay attention to who we listen to, where we look for good news, and what divine announcements we might sleep through because we’ve gotten too comfortable. Merry Christmas, y’all.

Episode 516 The Birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-25 & 57-80)

This week, BibleWorm begins a new testament – THE New Testament, in fact! We are reading today from Luke 1:5-25 and 57-80 – the story of the birth of John. We see and affirm Luke’s desire to offer us an “orderly account” of things, but y’all, there is something decidedly un-orderly about the heavenly kingdom breaking through. This reading made us wonder - What if we could live into a world where ye olde power structures are put aside, and parents orient toward children, and children orient toward wisdom itself? How can we raise up all the ways that we may come to know what God wants us to know - both the shiny angelophanies and the quieter moments of deep knowing, deep in our bones? And what is it that we need – that YOU need – to feel saved, to feel safe, to live the life you are called to?

Episode 515 Rebuilding from the Ruins (Ezra 1:1-4 and 3:1-13)

This week we’re in the third Sunday of Advent in the Christian tradition, reading the story of the people’s return from exile as told in Ezra 1:1-4 and 3:1-13. We reflect on the varying roles of the exiles in this text, some of whom return to Judea to do the hard work of rebuilding the temple while others remain in Babylon to support the rebuilding financially. We think about the resonances of this rebuilding with the story of Solomon’s original construction of the first temple, recalling the former temple in all its glory but also remembering a time when Israel worshiped God in the wilderness without a permanent building at all. And we ponder the generational experience in this text, some in the older generations weeping at the sight of the new temple foundation being laid while others in the younger generation shout in jubilant praise. And through it all we hear the refrain, “God is good; God’s graciousness for Israel lasts forever.”

Episode 514 Comfort, O Comfort My People (Isaiah 40:1-11)

This week BibleWorm is live in Aurora, Nebraska, reading Isaiah 40:1-11 with a group of pastors from the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation’s Pastoral Leadership Revitalization program. We explore Isaiah 40 as a text speaking hope to traumatized communities, both in the time of the Babylonian exile and also today. We discuss the relationship of God’s punishment and God’s mercy, the call to speak words of hope and encouragement to one another, and Isaiah’s image of the triumphant God as a tender shepherd, carrying the people home.

Episode 513 Hope Against Hope (Jeremiah 33:1-18)

This week BibleWorm enters the Christian season of Advent with a reading from Jeremiah 33. The text given to us by the Narrative Lectionary is Jeremiah 33:14–18, a lovely text about a righteous king from the house of David who will restore Jerusalem. But the hope offered by that short text seems naïve in the context of the rest of Jeremiah 33, which takes place against the backdrop of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, with Jeremiah in prison, anticipating the destruction of the city yet to come. In that context, the passage speaks a word of hope, but one muted by the pain and suffering that must yet be endured for an unjust world to be dismantled and for a righteous one to take its place. We struggle with this text, to be honest, and for the first time ever one of us has added a postscript to the podcast after mulling over it for a day or two. Welcome to advent y’all. This text is painful, but it is also beautiful.

Episode 512 Finding the Torah (2 Kings 22:1-20 and 23:1-3)

This week, BibleWorm reads 2 Kings 22:1-20 and 23:1-3– the story of King Josiah finding the scroll of the Teaching that seems to have been lost for a good while now. After a string of really disastrous kingships, we finally get a good egg in Josiah, and he is heartbroken to see all the ways that even he has not been living up to this teaching that was buried in a Temple storage room somewhere. Of course he will change their ways now, but in a system where punishment can come generations after the offending sin, is it too late? What does it mean for Josiah to choose to re-commit himself and his kingdom to God’s teachings, regardless of whether it can impact the fate of his generation?