This week we’re reading John’s version of the call of the disciples as told in John 1:35-51. Unlike the Synoptic story of Jesus beckoning Peter, James, and John from their fishing boats, this version of the call of the disciples is more subtle and variable. Two disciples follow Jesus because they’re curious, one because his brother invites him. One gets a direct call from Jesus and another is skeptical but goes along anyway. It doesn’t matter how you receive the call of Jesus, we think, but just that you take the next step, however big or however small. “Come and see!” becomes a refrain in this text—but what do these new disciples see? They see Jesus, the kingdom of heaven come to earth, walking around and being human, not just teaching them but also showing them how to live a life, how to be human with deep authenticity that invites further relationship. How can we, too, embody that kind of life? Come and see, Jesus says. Come and see.

This week we move past the introductory material and into the story itself with John 1:19-34. It begins with John – John the Baptist, that is, who is indeed out there baptizing people, but he himself could hardly be more clear that what he’s doing is really not the point. What we should attune to is this lamb of God who is apparently right here among us. What does it mean to call Jesus the Lamb of God – what is that language drawing upon? What does it mean to say he takes away the sin of the world – takes away, in the present tense, even before his crucifixion? And why does he say the SIN of the world, and not the sins? We’re pretty sure there is more than one. 

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.

For this fourth week of Advent we’re making the move to the New Testament with John 1:1-18, which describes the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. We think about what it means for God to become flesh, and how lonely it must be to exist in a world where there is none like you, both a human and a divine being. We discuss the darkness of the ways of Empire, oriented toward death, which cannot comprehend the true Light, which orients toward the fullness of life for all humankind. And we take courage in the invitation to live in that light, knowing that the powers of darkness cannot overcome it. Take courage, friends. The light of life is coming into the world.

For this 3rd week of advent and our last week in the Hebrew scriptures, we are reading the gorgeous words of Isaiah 55. This text starts us out in these bodies we’ve been given, these bodies that need water and food, and joy, and God. Why do we consume so many things that don’t fill us up? How have things gone so haywire? What if we could just trust that there is a much bigger system we are being invited into, where our lives have meaning both alone and intertwined? And what if there’s a pathway to that way of being, coming up just ahead on the right? Would you take it? Can we trust it? 

For this second week of Advent we’re reading Ezekiel 37:1–14, Ezekiel’s famous vision of a valley of dry bones. We wonder why God asks Ezekiel whether he thinks the bones can live and why on earth he instructs Ezekiel to prophesy directly to the bones, kind of a ridiculous prophetic task. But as the bones come together with new sinews and new flesh, we recognize the importance of a prophet who can speak hope to the hopeless and restoration to a community in despair. We also notice that the breath that animates these restored bones comes not directly from God but from the four winds reminding us that we need to be open to the enspiriting breath of the world around us, from which our own renewal may come.

This week we are reading Daniel chapter 3 - a story that seems for a while to be moving in the direction of an over-the-top, cartoon worthy adventure, until you get to the utterly arresting, mic-drop statement of faith planted somewhere in the middle. We wonder: In an environment where loyalty to the king has been conflated with loyalty to the king’s god, what does it mean to live a life faithful to your god and still within the boundaries of the society where you find yourself? Could Shadrach, Meshach and Eved-nego have de-escalated this conflict? Should they have? And how sure were these guys that they were going to come out of that furnace okay?

This week we’re reading Jeremiah 29:1-14, a text so hopeful about the future that it is often found on t-shirts and graduation gifts. But while the passage is indeed hopeful—“I know the plans I have for you”—in the context of Jeremiah it is a certain kind of difficult hope: a hope that must first reckon with a tumultuous present reality that will not yield in your generation, or your children’s generation, but only seventy years from now, when Babylon’s time is up. So what then must we do in the meantime, until that hopeful day finally arrives? Build houses, plant gardens, have children. Seek the welfare of the community—the whole community, the Babylonian community—for only when it thrives can you survive until the day God’s promises are finally realized.

On this special episode, Amy talks with Bobby about his new book, Reading the Bible with Brueggemann: Scripture's Power to Remake the World. We discuss the nature of truth, the power of imagination, whether and how Jews and Christians can read the Bible together, and whether or not God exists, among many other things. We also encourage you to buy Bobby's book, which you can find here: https://store.acupressbooks.com/products/reading-the-bible-with-brueggemann

This week we are reading Isaiah 9:1-7–a gorgeous and well-known piece of poetry that imagines a shift from darkness to light; a shift from a time where the powers that be weigh down on your shoulders like a yoke, to a time when a new leader will emerge and take that weight upon his own shoulders. These verses invited us to go back to the Hebrew original over and over, and we found quite a treasure there. At the top of the list, strangely, maybe, is a point of grammar–what does it mean to speak of something that hasn’t yet happened in the world around us, as though it is so certain it is essentially completed? Something as huge as an end to fear and violence ... as good as done? 

This week we’re reading Amos 1:1-2 and 5:7-15, 21-24, where we hear the eighth-century prophet Amos critiquing the wealthy elite of ancient Israel for their mistreatment of the poor. We hear the voice of God roaring from Zion, rejecting the worship of the elites and declaring that justice is the precondition for an authentic relationship with God. We struggle with the idea that the wise should keep silent in evil times but ultimately conclude that God is directing us away from public speeches and toward local acts of mercy, seeking the good and establishing justice in the places where we have influence. With the blessing of God, these small acts of righteousness become a mighty stream rolling down like waters all around.

This week we are reading about Elijah’s encounter with God in 1 Kings 19:1-18. We have so many questions. Does Elijah know where he’s going when he heads out into the wilderness, or does some other force draw him toward Horeb, aka mt Sinai? When God asks, “Why are you here, Elijah” -- was God’s tone compassionate, curious, or irritated, or something else? And – when the battles of the world are exhausting us, just how long can we go sit under a bush before it gets weird?

This week we’re reading the story of Solomon building the Jerusalem temple as told in 1 Kings 5:1-18 and 8:1-13. We discuss the political alliance between Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre that makes building the temple possible, and wonder whether state-sponsored religion always exploits the poor laborers to satisfy the aims of the wealthy and powerful. We ponder whether and to what degree God resides inside of human religious structures, whether the temple of Solomon or the religious denominations of our own day. And we notice that even inside the stable structure of the temple, Solomon places the tent of the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant with its poles still attached, making us ponder what essential elements of our own traditions may need to be carried out of the reified structures of static religion and given new life beyond the status quo.

This week we read about the anointing of young David in I Samuel 16:1-13, and a few verses from Psalm 51, set much later in his career, at a time when he clearly was not living up to God’s expectations , and he knew it and grieved it.  We wondered what kind of heart God was looking for when he chose young David to be king? A pure one? A steady one? And what does it mean for us to read the story of David’s anointment as an innocent boy, when he is all potential -  alongside a psalm about his lowest of lows? How does the one inform the other?

This week we’re reading the story of the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-21 in which the young boy Samuel at first confuses the call of God with the voice of his mentor, Eli the priest. We discuss the process through which faith becomes our own as we, like Samuel, learn to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of our predecessors in the faith. But such differentiation can at times lead to conflict, as it does for Samuel when he realizes that God is preparing to punish Eli for his failure to correct and discipline his own sons, who have been harming the community of faith. And while we admire Samuel’s comfortability sleeping in the presence of the ark of the covenant, we wonder whether it may be possible to feel too comfortable in God’s presence, forgetting the gravity of the calling to which we have been called. Sometimes it may not be enough simply to be present. It is only when we say “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” that everything begins to change.

Try our Patreon for one month for FREE! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleWormPodcast/redeem/46A41 This week we are reading the story of the manna in Exod 16:1-18. “Manna from heaven” is synonymous now with some kind of unexpected way that our needs are miraculously met. We all want manna from heaven. But in the story, this miracle looks so strange that the people see it on the ground and – what's that? This story made us wonder – what's the difference between moving away from something and moving toward something else? Could it be that a first step in drawing near to God is turning toward the wilderness, where there is no predictable path, and nothing will be quite like you were used to? And when exactly will God start providing program overviews with timestamps and blurbs?

Try our Patreon for one month for FREE! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleWormPodcast/redeem/46A41 This week we’re reading the story of Moses’ encounter with God on Sinai as told in Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; and 4:10-17. We notice that in this text, God responds to the cry of the Israelites by first saying, “I’ve come down to rescue the people from Egypt” but then saying, “So you get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh.” The way God works in the world, it seems, is through people like Moses, who pay attention to the things that are on fire in the world and don’t ignore them or run away from them. But even Moses, one of the heroes of Scripture, is at first afraid to do what God asks of him, begging God to send someone else. Yet it turns out that this God of ours is an equipping God, who gives Moses what is needed for the task ahead of him, a staff, a partner, and even the divine name. “I am who I am,” says God. “I will be who I will be.” So who is God calling us toward today, we wonder, and how is God equipping us f the task ahead?

Try our Patreon for one month for FREE! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleWormPodcast/redeem/46A41 This week we read stories about Jacob’s young adulthood in Gen 27:1-4 and 15-23, and Gen 28:10-17. We think a lot about the push and pull of driving toward our desired outcomes vs just letting things unfold. How is Rebecca SO sure of what she’s doing? Why does Isaac bless even when he knows he’s getting mixed signals? Why does Jacob first encounter God in a dream-state – and if he'd fallen asleep somewhere else, would God have met him there, too?  

Try our Patreon for one month for FREE! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleWormPodcast/redeem/46A41 This week we’re reading one of the most difficult passages in all of scripture, the story of the near-sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 21:1-3 and 22:1-14. After years of waiting, Sarah and Abraham have finally received Isaac, the child promised to them by God. But almost as soon the promise is fulfilled, God commands Abraham to take the boy up on a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. We feel for Abraham, whose devotion to God sets him at odds with his devotion to his family, wondering how we might navigate the tensions between faith and family. And we wonder about this God, who demands sacrifice but relents in the end. Is this a moment where God chooses relationship over obedience, a new way of being God in the presence of the other? And seeing Abraham’s apparent willingness to offer Isaac on the mountain, we wonder: what exactly are we willing to sacrifice our children for?  

Try our Patreon for one month for FREE! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleWormPodcast/redeem/46A41 We are back to the beginning this week, reading Genesis 1:1-2:4-the very first Bible story, the story of creation in 7 days. But come on. Isn’t it really 6 days? In 6 days, God shows us a way of creating in “yes AND” mode–constantly making space for what is breathtakingly new without destroying or diluting what was there. A mode of creation that is exponential-where creatures themselves are meant to create, and life begets life, and every single life supports another. What does it mean for us to be made in the image of THIS kind of God? And seriously, with all the work there is to do in the world, how can rest be so important to creation that we count the 7th day in with the others?