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E57: Ecclesiastes B - Straight Up

The Bible in 30 Seconds or Less | Old Testament: Books of Poetry and Wisdom

The bartender asks, "How would you like it?" And this time just for once you say, "straight up". As if to say, "Do want the kid's version of the adult's version of the story?" Make no mistake this is the latter. It's 12 conversations that span a lifetime of learning and exploring. Hopefully, even after the toughest of these, you arrive at a place where you can toast your life. Welcome to the thinking and dialogue behind ash Wednesday.

Speakers:Anna Spencer

Writers:Anna Spencer

Topics:Ecclesiastes

Source:Jim Keat

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Genesis B - The Ultimate Good

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Genesis - Plotting Goodness Everywhere

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Exodus A - A Newly Nomadic People

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Exodus B - A New Hope

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Leviticus B - One Simple Message

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Numbers A - A Bit... Complicated

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Numbers B - In Your Wandering

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Deuteronomy A - The Last Installment

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Deuteronomy B - It Is God Who Delivers

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Joshua A - A Dangerous Genocidal Text

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Joshua B - A More Liberative Christianity

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Joshua A - The Mythic Model

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Joshua B - A Severe Ethical Challenge

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Judges A - A Merry-Go-Round

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Judges B - God is Still Moving

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Ruth A - The Secret Hero

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Ruth B - Patron Saint of the Grumpy

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Ruth A - A Foreigner Named Ruth

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Ruth B - Do Not Press Me to Leave You

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1 Samuel A - A Narrative History

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1 Samuel B - Grace Enough

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2 Samuel A - Politics, Adultery, Betrayal

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2 Samuel B - Live Wholeheartedly

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1 Kings A - The Death of a King

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1 Kings B - This is Good News

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2 Kings A - Even More Depressing

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2 Kings B - The Will of God

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1 Chronicles B - Not As Unreasonable as Some Might Think

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2 Chronicles B - You Can Be Redeemed

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Ezra B - Every Step of the Way

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Ezra A - A Theology of Reconstruction

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Ezra B - This Gives All of Us Hope

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Nehemiah A - The Cupbearer's Construction Crew

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Nehemiah B - Rooted in Reality

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Esther A - The Winner was Esther

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Esther B - An Orphan Girl Who Finds Her Voice

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Old Testament: Books of Poetry and Wisdom

Job A - He Decides to Serve God Anyway

Job, a great guy, loses everything. His friends say it's because of some secret sin but Job insists he's innocent and we the readers know that he is because we'...

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Job B - The Limits of Human Wisdom

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Job A - Why?

"Why do the innocent suffer? The book of Job is what happens when a creative genius explores that question. The rich Job, a man of deep faith, loses everything ...

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Job B - Hard Questions

"I don't like easy answers to hard questions. For many, sin causes bad things to happen. That's their easy answer to the hard question, ""If God is good then wh...

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Psalms A - 150 Different Songs

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Psalms B - When Words Escape Us

The good news of the book of Psalms is that we can know that it is okay to come before God however we are feeling. We can come in joy and celebration, with lame...

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Psalms A - The Original Hymnal

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Psalms A - Not All Rainbows and Snoopies

"I walk into a hospital room. I introduce myself and ask if they would like to speak with a chaplain. I sit, we chat, creating space for whatever pain, discomfo...

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Proverbs A - As Old as the Earth

We tend to know wisdom when we see or hear it. From a grandmother. An esteemed elder. A good story. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is a feminine figure of divi...

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Proverbs B - Infused with Wisdom

What is the good news of a tree? Or a cool summer breeze? What is the good news of the laugh of a child? Of the song the sparrow sings? The good news of the boo...

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Ecclesiastes A - Wisdom & Work

Qohelet. Ecclesiastes. Two words are fundamental in this book: wisdom and work. Elsa Tamez says: "We have in the book the affirmation of life in eating and drin...

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Ecclesiastes B - Utopian Horizons

The good news in Ecclesiastes is to obey God. And to obey God is to find wisdom in the passing things of life, living our lives fully. There is nothing more tha...

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Ecclesiastes A - This is Where You Go

Ecclesiastes is the outspoken friend who doesn't hold back. The story you win in an arm wrestle with a relative. The midwife who's done it all before. When you'...

Anna Spencer | 17 views | 3 years ago updated

Ecclesiastes B - Straight Up

The bartender asks, "How would you like it?" And this time just for once you say, "straight up". As if to say, "Do want the kid's version of the adult's version...

Anna Spencer | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Song of Songs A - Moments Dripping with Myrrh

With naked longing and urgent desire, the hungry lovers steal. Ravishing where the flock devours the pasture, and the table awaits the feast. Caressing on rock ...

Carol Howard Merritt | 15 views | 3 years ago updated

Song of Songs B - I Join Her Chorus

Her voice rings an octave higher, a rare pitch in this library of men. She forgot the naked shame of Eve. The Beloved belts out the body electric before we cont...

Carol Howard Merritt | 20 views | 3 years ago updated

Old Testament: Major Prophets

Isaiah A - The Most Significant Influence

Of all the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures, Isaiah is the one that most significantly influences the prophetic imagination of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the boo...

Sarah Griffith Lund | 63 views | 3 years ago updated

Isaiah B - God's Love is for Everybody

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. This is the good news according...

Sarah Griffith Lund | 66 views | 2 years ago updated

Isaiah A - These Two Worldviews

In Isaiah we see the coalescing of influences from both the histories of the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The heritage of the ...

Keegan Osinski | 75 views | 3 years ago updated

Isaiah B - A Promise or a Threat

In chapter 7, Isaiah's prophecy comes in the form of a child - a son whose name has a double meaning: God with us. Is this a promise or a threat? It is a comfor...

Keegan Osinski | 31 views | 3 years ago updated

Jeremiah A - There is No Peace

I am forsaken, abandoned at the end of all the paths of peace that were supposed to lead to me. You seek other lovers and the dreams of those dreamers tell lies...

Deb Avery | 58 views | 3 years ago updated

Jeremiah B - Because I Am

Because I am, when the walls lie in ruin, when all you are and all you have is lost in the rubble of destruction and grief, your city will be rebuilt. Because I...

Deb Avery | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

Lamentations A - We're Hoping For

Low point: What do you do when your holy city is destroyed? You turn to your artists and your poets. Because it's pretty terrible. It's pretty bad. And it's onl...

The Real Reverends of New York City | 45 views | 3 years ago updated

Lamentations B - A Pissed Off People

Where is the good news in the book of Lamentations? Where is the good news in the saddest book of the Bible? The good news is that we can be a pissed off people...

The Real Reverends of New York City | 58 views | 3 years ago updated

Ezekiel A - The One Good Shepherd

Has God ever surprised you by doing the unexpected? In Ezekiel, God's people were in exile, feeling rejected by God. But God appears inthat unexpected place on ...

Tanya Marlow | 31 views | 3 years ago updated

Ezekiel B - The Unexpected Places

Do you feel excluded from the people of God? Ezekiel says, God is not confined by buildings. God's here with you, even in exile. Do you feel like you have no fu...

Tanya Marlow | 17 views | 3 years ago updated

Daniel A - The Dreams of Kings

The Book of Daniel tells the story of prophet and royal dream interpreter, Daniel. This apocalyptic text follows our friend as he makes meaning out of the dream...

Melissa Pace | 17 views | 3 years ago updated

Daniel B - Do You. Do God. Do Good.

The Book of Daniel reminds us that God has your back. Some wild things are going to happen in life, but with God, they're a little easier to get through. When D...

Melissa Pace | 20 views | 3 years ago updated

Old Testament: Minor Prophets

Hosea - God Did Not Come in Wrath

"The prophet Hosea offers us one of the boldest and most controversial metaphors for God in the Bible, controversial then and now. He compares God to a husband ...

Tom Boogaart | 31 views | 3 years ago updated

Hosea A - What Love is This?

Relational and marital imagery is used throughout scripture to depict the interaction between God and people. In Hosea we see the role of prophet and partner mi...

Jonathan Vanderbeck | 59 views | 3 years ago updated

Hosea B - Who is Gomer?

Who is Gomer? By all accounts she was an eset zenunim, that is, one who acts like a harlot, ordered to marry Hosea so that Adonai can make a point. Does that bo...

Jonathan Vanderbeck | 51 views | 3 years ago updated

Joel A - Gracious & Compassionate

Joel is one of the minor prophets. In it we find warnings for priests to put on sackcloth and lament. Typical of prophetic writings, there is alot of future ten...

Candace Simpson | 47 views | 3 years ago updated

Joel B - The Power of Disruption

I'm concerned with a God who is capable of destruction but my favorite part of this text is the demand that sons and daughters shall prophecy. Old men shall see...

34 views | 3 years ago updated

Amos A - God Is Pissed

God is pissed. And it's not so surprising when God is pissed off at Damascus, Gaza, Edom, Ammon, Moab. You know, those people. But God's anger, carried by Amos,...

Stacey Midge | 34 views | 1 year ago updated

Amos B - God Sees You

The anger of God is terrible news, and Amos is full of terrible news, if you are in power. If you are the judges or the religious leaders or the wealthy busines...

Stacey Midge | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

Obadiah A - A Servant

Obadiah was a Servant. A servant of God and Servant of King Ahab. He changed his religious view to Judiasm after a life as Edomite. Obadiah was a prophet (with ...

Ryan Henderson | 18 views | 3 years ago updated

Obadiah B - The Way We Serve

Obadiah teaches about the ancient art of being and living as a servant. To be a servant is grounded within the way we serve -- serving others, serving our commu...

Ryan Henderson | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah A - Go To Nineveh

"God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah runs away on a ship, God sends a storm, the sailors toss Jonah overboard. God sends a big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah ...

Ann Kansfield | 18 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah B - Divine Messengers of Love & Compassion

The story of Jonah demonstrates that God changes God's mind. What doesn't change is God's love and compassion. Jonah avoids doing what God tells him to do. He r...

Ann Kansfield | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah A - One of the Most Effective Prophets

Jonah is the story of a prophet commanded to deliver a harsh judgement from God to the people of ancient Nineveh. Jonah resists God's command and attempts to ru...

Amanda Quraishi | 16 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah B - The Futility of Trying to Resist

The book of Jonah is a narrative about human interactions with God's judgement and redemption. And the futility of trying to resist either. Through Jonah's expe...

Amanda Quraishi | 14 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah A - The Story of Jonah

"God says, ""Go."" Jonah says, ""No.""Jonah flees to Tarshish. He ends up in the belly of a big fish. God says, ""Go that way."" Jonah says, ""Oh, ok.""Jonah sa...

Jim Keat | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Jonah B - This God is Calling You

When God tells Jonah to do something, Jonah does the exact opposite. Jonah runs away -- away from God and away from what God is calling him to do. Jonah goes to...

Jim Keat | 12 views | 3 years ago updated

Micah A - Three Major Sections

The book of Micah has three major sections. In chapters 1-3 the prophet discloses judgement for the corruption and sin of his contemporary Israelite society. In...

Toy Adams | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Micah B - The Litany of Sins

Every year on Ash Wednesday the liturgy is full of talk about death, human wretchedness, and disobedience. Some folks might even leave the Lord's table, with as...

Toy Adams | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Nahum A - A Poem That Packs a Punch

The prophet Nahum's eponymous book, or rather, extended poem, packs a punch. The prophet denounces the wickedness of Nineveh and its Assyrian inhabitants, warni...

Kevin Wright | 15 views | 3 years ago updated

Nahum B - The Divine Arc of Redeeming Love

It's easy to suggest that the God presented to us in Nahum has an epic case of good cop/bad cop. But it's not as simple as that. Nahum tells us that yes, even t...

Kevin Wright | 18 views | 3 years ago updated

Habakkuk A - God is Present

"How long, holy one?" The opening line of Habakkuk is its theme. The Prophet cries out to God to explain the violence in the world. And God answers, enters into...

Wil Gafney | 42 views | 3 years ago updated

Habakkuk B - Watches, Cares, & Summons

There is good news in Habakkuk. It is to be found in God's presence, God's attentiveness. It is also to be found in the ministry and witness of Habakkuk, God's ...

Wil Gafney | 13 views | 3 years ago updated

Zephaniah A - From the Blues to Jubilant Jazz

This book just starts in a terrible place. It's like God forgot about Noah's rainbow, it's that epic. The prophet proclaims death, doom,destruction, and disaste...

Andy Kort | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Zephaniah B - Joy is a Verb

The word joy is used too many times in the Bible for me to count. We are to sing with joy, shout with joy, and dance with joy. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. In ...

Andy Kort | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Zephaniah A - The Day of the Lord

"A prophet who's name means "the Lord has hidden" stands up to the mic and declares to the people that the day of the Lord is near. Twenty three times in fifty ...

Steve Carter | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Zephaniah B - With Us & For Us

Zephaniah says the Lord God is with you and he is mighty to save. He takes great delight in you and rejoices over you with singing and he will quiet you and rem...

Steve Carter | 11 views | 3 years ago updated

Haggai A - Pilgrimage

"The name Haggai means ""pilgrimage"", and the book which bears this name was written in the 6th century BCE. Its brief two chapters encourage the faithful remn...

Brooklynn Smith | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Zechariah A - History, Prophetic, & Apocalyptic

In the post-exile world, Zechariah's prophecies address the frustration of the people. While the Israelites have been allowed to return home, the temple lies in...

Nate Pyle | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

Zechariah B - Because God Acts

More than any other book, Zechariah looks forward to the coming of the Messiah. Hope for the people is found not in a great conqueror,but in one who comes on a ...

Nate Pyle | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Malachi A - A Messenger is Coming

In the Christian Bible, Malachi is the last of of the prophets and the final book of the First Testament. For years and years and years the People of God hoped ...

Amy Lunde-Whitler | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Malachi B - God is Always Listening

God is always listening. Our world is getting warmer. The voices of the hateful - the racist, the bigoted - seems to grow louder, families are fleeing their hom...

Amy Lunde-Whitler | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: Gospels

Matthew A - The Gospel of Mountains

The Gospel of Matthew is the Gospel of Mountains. Jesus is tempted by the devil on a mountain, he preaches the beatitudes in a sermon on the mountain, he prays ...

Kerlin Richter | 299 views | 3 years ago updated

Matthew B - The Melodies of our Hearts

Matthew was formed by the Hebrew scriptures. When he tells us the good news of Jesus he uses the stories of his heart and of his people. He sings of the saving ...

Kerlin Richter | 104 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark A - Damn Near Shakespeare

The Gospel of Mark is the oldest of all the gospels. I love it because it's written by a regular person. It's original language is full of grammatical errors an...

Natalie Renee Perkins | 82 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark A - The Good News Goes Public

The Gospel of Mark reads like good news for Habakkuk's runner. The vision is made plain from his coming out of the river to his coming out of the stone tomb. An...

Michael-Ray Mathews | 47 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark B - Good New to the Community Organizer

The way Mark tells it, Jesus is a community organizer, Teaching principles that build and sustain powerful leaders and movements. Through repentance, we learn t...

Michael-Ray Mathews | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark A - No Time to Lose

"In the gospel of Mark we meet a Jesus who conveys a great deal of urgency. The word ""immediately"" is used 40 times in Mark's gospel. Jesus is always doing th...

James Martin | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

Mark B - Jesus Understands You

"The good news in Mark's gospel is that Jesus understands you. You meet not only the fully divine son of God who performs miracles but also a person with real l...

James Martin | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Luke A - The Prodigal Son

The message of Jesus proclaimed in the gospel of Luke is best summarized by a parable that only appears in Luke: the prodigal son. We are all one family and tha...

Daniel Brereton | 33 views | 3 years ago updated

Luke A - Radical Love

The gospel of Luke is an orderly account of the of the disruption of the order of the day. From the birth of the Son of Man to the burning hearts on the road to...

Jacqui Lewis | 36 views | 3 years ago updated

Luke B - The Meaning of Grace

I love that Jesus liked to kick it with sinners. When we lose our way, and we will, we serve a God who will come to find us like a shepherd looks for one lost s...

Jacqui Lewis | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

John A - Largely Unique

The Gospel of John is largely unique because John himself was so unique. He's the only one of the original twelve disciples that lived a full life and wasn't ma...

Daniel Hill | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

John B - Love One Another

"A reader will not have to look far or hard to find the central theme of the book of John. The apostle John refers to himself repeatedly as the one that Jesus l...

Daniel Hill | 29 views | 3 years ago updated

John A - Life in Color

It's less like a story and more like music. The Gospel of John rings key words like bells: light and darkness, life and truth, bread of life, living water - the...

Emily Scott | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

John B - Children of God

In the beginning was the Word. Jesus is a living picture of what God has been trying to say. Light, not darkness. Love, not hate. Compassion, not exclusion. For...

Charles and Josephine Berghoef | 25 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: Acts

Acts A - The Earliest Days of the Church

The book of Acts chronicles the earliest days of the church. It's in Acts that we find the dramatic story of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends upon the people...

Megan Snell | 127 views | 3 years ago updated

Acts B - The Same Holy Stream

In Acts, there's in-fighting among the Jesus followers about how big God's grace really is--does it really extend beyond the Jews-- even to the Gentiles? The Ap...

Megan Snell | 124 views | 3 years ago updated

Acts A - Be The Church

The Holy Spirit shows up. There is confusion. People speak in other languages. There is fear. They fight. They love. They are the church together. The book of A...

Heidi Carrington Heath | 107 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: Paul's Epistles and Hebrews

Romans B - We are God's Children

"The book of Romans in thirty seconds or less: the simple letter to the Jesus followers living in and around Rome of the first century was not intended to be th...

Doug Pagitt | 89 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians A - The Most Problematic Church

The Corinthian church is probably the most problematic church that we see in the whole New Testament, more problems than any other. But what lies at the heart? ...

Jim Brownson | 67 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians B - The Importance of the Body

If there's one thing about First Corinthians that calls us to the center of the gospel it's the importance of the body. The Corinthians envision a kind of spiri...

Jim Brownson | 46 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians A - Resurrection in Our Brokenness

Paul's first letter to the Corinthians encapsulates grace. Paul begins with the positive truth about God - who he is and his sovereignty - but then speaks hones...

James Prescott | 83 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Corinthians B - Grace: Confronting the Truth

Grace always confronts the truth of who we are - both darkness and light - our worst mistakes, and the reality of how much we are unconditionally loved by God. ...

James Prescott | 59 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Corinthians A - Paul's Most Intimate Letter

Second Corinthians: it is probably Paul's most intimate letter. It's really Fourth Corinthians because Paul refers to a couple letters that he's written to the ...

Tony Jones | 21 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Corinthians B - The Whole Ballgame

"Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians three seventeen. That's the whole ballgame.""The whole ballgame is "Two Corinthians three seventeen," that where the sp...

Tony Jones | 29 views | 3 years ago updated

Galatians A - Eyes to See & Ears to Hear

For Paul, when it comes to the covenant, Gentiles get in and stay in by the Spirit alone. The Galatians had abandoned this train of thought. Thinking they didn'...

Darryl Schafer | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

Galatians B - You've Got to be Kind

"God dammit, you've got to be kind." God bless you, Mr. Rosewater. Kurt Vonnegut gave us a gift when he wrote you into the pages of our lives. It took you eight...

Darryl Schafer | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

Ephesians A - Responding in Faith

Paul is dead. The church is growing. Jesus hasn't returned. Rome still reigns. Against this backdrop one of Paul's associates wrote a letter. It doesn't address...

Bethany Stolle | 16 views | 3 years ago updated

Ephesians B - Down Religion

"For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. For w...

Bethany Stolle | 14 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians A - The Imprisonment of a Leader

Paul is in prison and, having received help from the church in Philippi, he writes a letter to these friends, who probably understood his circumstances the same...

Kate Rae Davis | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians B - Love Remains

Paul models the practice of narrating his own life into the ongoing story of God's salvation of the world. He teaches the Philippians to do the same, and throug...

Kate Rae Davis | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians A - This is Philippians

Philippians. A letter of encouragement, of rejoicing, of rebuke, of reminder. Reminding us that the God who rules the cosmos isn't a domineering dictator but a ...

Brandan Robertson | 30 views | 3 years ago updated

Philippians B - Have This Attitude

Have this attitude. The attitude of Christ. Although he is God, he does not exploit his position of power and privilege. Rather he empties himself, coming to se...

Brandan Robertson | 21 views | 3 years ago updated

Colossians A - Where the Treasure is Hidden

"So here's a secret treasure map. X marks the spot: you. God is as close as your breath, as at home within you as your very own voice. The word for this "within...

Troy Bronsink | 33 views | 3 years ago updated

Colossians B - Take the Plunge

"Ok, take the plunge. The treasure's not at the surface. It's underneath. If you try to read Colossians with those dull insider/outsider glasses then you'll be ...

Troy Bronsink | 27 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Thessalonians A - Act Like Jesus

Paul wrote this love letter to his new friends in groovy Thessalonika. When he first met them they were pleasure-chasing, in-it-to-win-it N-O-N-E Nones. Then th...

Molly Baskette | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Thessalonians B - We'll Never Be Alone Again

When we're living for ourselves, gobbling up pleasure and running like hell from pain, despair is always nipping at our heels. But the good news is: we don't ha...

Molly Baskette | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Thessalonians A - Faithful & Steadfast

In this letter, Paul writes, I'm grateful for you, Church. You have been faithful and steadfast even in the face of terribleness. And yet not all is terrible. B...

Melissa Meyers | 64 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Thessalonians B - We Belong

Everyone needs a little encouragement now and then. We all want to be reminded that we're not alone. Sometimes when we're surrounded by critics and antagonists,...

Melissa Meyers | 32 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Timothy A - Dear Timothy

Paul as an apostle writes young Timothy who is leading a church and is way in over his head. He gives him instruction on where he failed early in his ministry a...

Lane Severson | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

1 Timothy B - The Side of Love

You aren't going to be perfect. But the love of Jesus is perfect. Always error on the side of love. Love everyone in the Church like Christ loves them. He loves...

Lane Severson | 24 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Timothy A - This Letter is for Us

One could say that 2 Timothy is the final word from Paul in Scripture. Sensing his end drawing near, Paul writes to Timothy, his spiritual son, with some final ...

J Robert Eagan | 31 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Timothy B - More than Simple Orthodoxy

The Messiah Jesus, David's descendant, was raised from the dead - this is Paul's gospel. But, the gospel is more than simple orthodoxy, isn't it? The gospel is ...

J Robert Eagan | 59 views | 3 years ago updated

Titus A - A Wound of Scripture

The epistle to Titus is the Donald Trump of Holy Scripture, full of brash insults, dehumanization, and ethnic slurs. It is authoritarian, demanding obedience an...

David Henson | 35 views | 3 years ago updated

Philemon A - The Emancipation for All

"Paul writes this teeny tiny letter to Onesimous, who is characterized by slave language. But! Then Paul writes the following in verse 14 of the letter: "But I ...

Robin Henderson-Espinoza | 12 views | 3 years ago updated

Hebrews A - Long Ago

"Long ago." These are the words to the dramatic opening of the letter to the Hebrews, words that invoke the drama of creation, the drama of worlds, the drama of...

Mihee Kim-Kort | 34 views | 3 years ago updated

Hebrews B - You Are Not Alone

You are discouraged and weary, says the writer of Hebrews. You are carrying the burden of whole worlds, new worlds, new ways of being. You are traveling on a ro...

Mihee Kim-Kort | 25 views | 3 years ago updated

Romans A - All from Adam

The book of Romans in thirty seconds or less: It has been the call of God for humanity to live integrated, open, and free from the earliest Israelite culture th...

Doug Pagitt | 38 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: General Epistles

James A - A Letter, A Warning, A Plea

What's the book of James? It's a letter to those who feel scattered, two-faced, pushed-down, or taken in by empty promises... It's a warning to succumb to these...

Josh Lunde-Whitler | 91 views | 3 years ago updated

James B - Agents of a New Age

Sorry Reformers, but the distinction between faith and works is a false one. Faith is an active participation in the Reign of God, a tree firmly planted in the ...

Josh Lunde-Whitler | 63 views | 2 years ago updated

1 Peter A - A Little Problematic

There's a lot of reasons to look at First Peter sideways - what's this about slaves obeying harsh masters because Jesus, or women not braiding hair because auth...

Andy Meisenheimer | 62 views | 3 years ago updated

2 Peter A - Four Basic Takeaways

There's four basic takeaways in this letter: First, we are reminded that we have already been provided with everything needed to partake in the divine nature, t...

Callid Keefe-Perry | 62 views | 2 years ago updated

1 Peter B - If Only He Knew Paul Better

It may be possible to squint hard and see the good in First Peter, but I like to imagine is the stuff Peter said to Paul in the infamous tiff they had in Antioc...

Andy Meisenheimer | 58 views | 2 years ago updated

2 Peter B - What is Right

We are called to partake in the divine nature, to be caught up in that holy power and experience of freedom. And to exercise that freedom in the vision of what ...

Callid Keefe-Perry | 25 views | 3 years ago updated

1 John A - A Series of Stark Contrasts

1 John is a letter to the Christians the elderly apostle calls his "little children". As he thinks about his own death, he worries about their faith, and presen...

Jon Marlow | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

1 John B - In the Flesh

The Bible says that we're body, mind and spirit - but sometimes it feels like we're being told our bodies don't matter, or are something to be ashamed of. In co...

Jon Marlow | 29 views | 3 years ago updated

2 John A - A Practical Puzzle of Applied Theology

In just thirteen verses, Second John provides a practical puzzle of applied theology. The Elder writes to a house church rejoicing that they are living in the t...

Brian Robert Campbell | 16 views | 3 years ago updated

2 John B - This is Good News

In Second John, as in our lives, finding the Good News isn't as hard to do as it is to figure out what to do with it. The Elder rejoices that the people know th...

Brian Robert Campbell | 23 views | 3 years ago updated

3 John A - Whoever Does Good

In the letter of Third John a church leader who calls himself "The Elder" writes to his friend Gaius. He praises Gaius for the way he has shown hospitality to t...

Matt Richie | 45 views | 3 years ago updated

3 John B - Profound Acts of Love

Third John reminds us that profound acts of love can be hidden within simple gestures of hospitality, a kind of hospitality that is desperately needed in a cult...

Matt Richie | 113 views | 2 years ago updated

Jude A - Hey Jude

Hey Jude, You are a short, ferocious, simile-filled letter about some people who are infiltrating the church. We don't know exactly what these people are up to ...

Mandy Meisenheimer | 3 years ago updated

Jude B - This is Wrong

The church exists to extend the love of Jesus to the weak, the poor, the young, the old, the down-and-out, and the powerless. But it doesn't always work out tha...

Mandy Meisenheimer | 26 views | 3 years ago updated

New Testament: Revelation

Revelation A - Stubborn Hope

The Revelation from Jesus Christ to everyone caught in the thicket of empire, persecution, and death; everyone who hopes for equality, plenty, and life: the tim...

Keisha E. McKenzie | 70 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - Good News for the In-Betweeners

This is for the in-betweeners, living between everyday oppression and world peace, the now-is and the is-to-come, in that dry space where nothing is certain. Re...

Keisha E. McKenzie | 116 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation A - May It Be So

"In John's wild vision he sees Jesus dressed like Caesar, speaking to seven illegal churches. And the heavens are torn open and God is in his sacred court. Jesu...

Kent Dobson | 52 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - Come Quickly

"The book of Revelation is not a crystal ball to the future. It is a mythopoetic vision of what is already happening. We face an apocalypse of our own making, w...

Kent Dobson | 70 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation A - Come, Lord Jesus

Revelation is about the New Testament's central conflict: the lordship of Christ versus the lordship of Caesar. In nine visions John describes a God whose power...

Diana Butler Bass | 67 views | 3 years ago updated

Revelation B - There is Hope

Revelation seems to depict a violent God who rejoices in wrath. It is frightening and not life-giving. But there is hope; hope from the bottom. John was a victi...

Diana Butler Bass | 33 views | 3 years ago updated