At the meeting place of faith and doubt, pop culture and church tradition, theology and small talk, four friends gather for conversation. Join Natalie, Sarah, Erica, and Steve for weekly episodes of Crazy Faith Talk!
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Which readings from the Scriptures do we hear on Sundays, and how are they chosen? What are the advantages of having a set schedule of readings determined long in advance, and what are the advantages of having the preacher or worship leaders select texts? How do we keep ourselves honest and hear the whole of Scripture, while also hearing things in their contexts? These are the kinds of questions…
Some church folks have grown up memorizing older forms of English in prayer and scripture, like the "thy" and "thine" of an earlier era in the Lord's Prayer, and others are more used to modern translations and wording, whether in translations, prayers, or songs. So how do we decide when to use one version of a text and when to use another? Is older always better, or should we always embrace the…
In a new series here on Crazy Faith Talk, we're going to take a look questions related to our ways and patterns of worship--how and why we do things in our various traditions, how we consider frequently asked questions, and what the pros and cons of different choices are in our worship life. In this first episode, we'll take a look at whether categories like "traditional," "contemporary," or…
The apostle Paul mentions struggling with something he calls "a thorn in the flesh" and also a "messenger of Satan." But when he had prayed repeatedly for it to be taken away, God's response was "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness." So what is Paul talking about, and how do we make sense of this story--and the times in our lives where we struggle and the sources…
In a particularly puzzling story from the book of First Samuel, King Saul consults a medium in the hopes of conjuring the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel for advice before a battle, even though he had just recently outlawed such magic-related practices himself! What is this story trying to tell us--is magic real? Is this really supposed to be the ghost of Samuel? What happens to us when we stop…
The book of Genesis tells the difficult story of Abraham nearly sacrificing his son Isaac to God, and yet we are left to guess how Isaac felt about all of this. How old was he in the story? Did he understand what was happening? How did this incident affect his understanding of God, or his relationship with his father? And what are we supposed to do with a story like this? Join us for another…
The biblical book of Jonah ends with an unanswered question: shouldn't God care about a whole city full of people (not to mention animals!), even if they are unworthy and wicked in Jonah's eyes? While many people know the first part of Jonah's story, with the great fish that swallows him, or even know about God's miraculous plant that grows up overnight to shade him, it's really this final…
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus casts out a "legion" of evil spirits from a man living in Gentile territory on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, and then he sends him back to his life, family, and community whole and well, to tell everyone what God has done for him. But... whatever happened to this unnamed man? Did he and Jesus ever cross paths again? How do we live with the open-ended nature of his…
In a well-known (but textually curious) story, a woman who had been caught in adultery is brought to Jesus by an angry crowd of religious leaders, asking him if he supports their plan to stone her to death. Jesus' response is strange at first--he starts writing in the dirt with his finger! What's going on in this story, and why don't we know what Jesus was writing? This is where our conversation…
Jesus seems clear in the Gospels that his followers are called to love their enemies and to refuse to answer evil with evil, even forbidding his disciples from using their weapons to protect him in the garden on the night of his arrest. The rest of the New Testament has a profound sense of non-violence as well. But what do we do about the accounts of violence and warfare in the Old Testament, and…
The Gospels and the rest of the New Testament speak pretty clearly about the Christian hope of resurrection from the dead, while the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is a good deal more ambiguous. Sometimes those who die are said to be "gathered to their ancestors," or "go to the grave" or to be in "Sheol," which is depicted as a realm of the dead. Sometimes there is the imagery of life beyond death, of…
