As we return in person, we stand at a point between where we have come from and an unknown future we head to. Knowing how God has led us thus far is the way to know what lies ahead. It's the same God.
listen nowArvin & SueLynn Kim from @Way.of.the.Earth share with us about a concern for creation care that arose in seminary and led to pursuing a sustainable home in the high desert!
listen nowYou? Me? Who does God hold responsible for despoiling His creation?
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Louis Vayo shares about climate change and global justice; how his experiences in the Peace Corp changed him.
listen nowEconomist Louis Vayo joins us to share about his time in the Peace Corps and the effects of our pollution on the developing world.
listen nowWe have been created in connection, and God provides some guidance about how to live that way.
listen nowMK Cornett shares with us the impact of the fashion industry on the earth and the people living there!
listen nowGod's covenant includes commands to rest, to let animals rest, to let the earth itself rest. What does this say about a spirituality of sustainability?
listen nowIn the creation stories of Genesis, we see that stuff matters to God. Does this mean all dogs go to heaven?
listen nowJesus resurrected with scars; that's what makes him, and us, human.
listen nowWe are incapable of following Jesus, but he is still capable of surprising us so this thing may turn out ok!
listen nowAnybody can shout "Hosanna" but can you keep from shouting "crucify him" on Good Friday? It might not look like God is doing what you expect, afterall.
listen nowWaiting is hard; so is loving what you can't control. Clearly God is not controlled. Now what?
listen nowIn the desert, Jesus has to let go of a great many expectations and desires in order to receive the good thing God has for him. Expectations; they can be a real devil.
listen nowPay no attention to the man behind the curtain; he's funding the thing. A wholistic salvation must account for the disparity in wealth we see.
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Judging from what we see around us, you might think that a spiritual salvation and justice here and now are somehow opposed. In Christ both find their root of love.
listen nowThe evangelical churches in the US and the progressive churches here have different approaches and assumptions about the supernatural world. The overgrown apocalypticism of the US with its disastrous connection to politics is untenable, but so is Christianity that is essentially a progressive psychological exercise. Can there be space for a church that holds to the resurrection of Christ, strives for justice and accepts the validity of a fossil record? :)
listen nowNo one's faith stays the same, not personally, ethnically nor nationally. Faith changes and grows. How do you manage this growth? What should be replanted and what pruned? In Matthew, Jesus tells us that teachers in the Kingdom of Heaven must be able to find the treasures old and new for faith. We are thinking about who we are and what we believe using Richard Beck's label of "the post-progressive church." Does it fit? Who knows. Let's talk!
listen nowMonday is MLK Day. Will you be at a prayer breakfast? Will Jesus?
listen nowA weed with sturdy roots in nationalism and white supremacy has once again born fruit in our country. Though the name Jesus was invoked, there was nothing identifiably like Christ that day.
listen nowThere is understandable a great desire to get back to normal. And then you remember what normal hath wrought; an Epiphany.
listen nowHow do you explain Christmas? What does it do? A realistic appraisal of the holiday in the midst of a pandemic.
listen nowWe like to talk about the peace Christ brings at Christmas, but it really isn't a peaceful story. In fact it's hard to see through the commercial sentimentality of Christmas to what is real. But peace is real, it's just more disruptive than we think.
listen nowOn the eve of a momentous election, the most pressing question is whether or not the Church will be happy to embody the Kingdom of God as a viable alternative to the kingdoms of earth.
listen nowScripture is very clear about what to expect from leaders. At the doorstep of the promised land, Deuteronomy remembers..
listen nowCan God surprise you? That's the question facing a church that cherishes its surety. And God, in God's mercy, is brewing something new.
listen nowJesus provides a quick lesson about how to listen as he brings Bartimaeus to the center stage.
listen nowIs Jesus dead or alive? If we claim that Christ is alive and at work, what is Christ doing and how will it affect our future? Peter has some ideas.
listen nowReligion is so often used to control people, but Jesus puts for the different role, in which human flourishing has always been the goal.
listen nowThe call to love our enemies is at the same time a call to assert our own humanity. It is how we face of the question, "can love win?"
listen nowOn how to not to trust in the big, solid seeming things that run our lives, apart from God.
listen nowHope is the necessary work of faith for people living under the rule of empires.
listen nowThe law Moses gives the Israelites at the doorstep of the promised land are more than just commands; Moses gives them a history. The power to narrate history is a great power, indeed. This is why we must remember clearly who we are and where we have come from as a nation if we hope to fulfill God's commandments and love.
listen nowPeter is hurt when Jesus asks him if he loves Him. And Jesus? He seems more concerned that Peter is loving people than how he feels in that moment, more concerned to invite Peter out of his old life again and back into the new normal for disciples. Perhaps there is a word here about how race is treated in the United States?
listen nowThe church is the United States, at least the majority church, has too often rushed to cries for peace and unity instead of justice. Is this the response God wants for his children? If there is not justice and no unity without peace, what then?
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Protest is a part of the church's discipleship. Protest against the powers of evil and white supremacy that set themselves against the Kingdom of God . A return to normal is not a response to oppression and suffering. *Message extracted from Sunday meetings on Zoom
listen nowOppression, systematic as well as personal, is rebellion against God. The majority church in the US has resisted this truth and we have arrived at this present moment. The question is put to us now, "How will you respond?" *Message extracted from our Sunday meetings on Zoom
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Every relationship, including with God, needs a good argument from time to time. Is your God big enough to handle it?
listen nowDan Gonzaga, board member and spiritual director, shares with us about God's love and blocks to intimacy.
listen nowDanny Cortez, of Estuary Space, shares with us how the greatest commandment, to love God and our neighbor, opens up the presence of God in the midst of loving all people.
listen nowPaul's speech in Athens is hauntingly gracious - he doesn't seem to work form the same kind of assumptions about God that churches often enact. His is a world contingent upon the very breath of God.
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Peter writes to a varied and indeterminate audience - what a strange audience to call a royal priesthood of God.
listen nowHealing is always disruptive. From economies to relationships - the healing Jesus brings is always disruptive.
listen nowThe New Year is off and running. Always running. When Jesus returns from the grave he finds the disciples running too. Gathered behind a locked door, Christ breathes on them and the church is off and running, too.
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What does it say about God that salvation begins anonymously, in a baby? In Luke's Gospel, only the shepherds are aware. Perhaps God's power is of a different kind than we think and no amount of bombs, bullies or bank accounts will bring about the Kingdom of God.
listen nowIf you're not looking, you'll miss it! Advent is a time to learn to look again, in new ways for the presence of God in the world!
listen nowAre things really getting worse? How should we hope in troubled times this advent. Psalm 73 sheds light on the subject.
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Talk about sex is necessarily talk about family, especially with the great concern for families these days. But what about everyone else? And what does Jesus say, anyways?
listen nowMostly, it's teenagers that have managed to figure out what the Song of Songs is really saying. And it is amazing. Come and hear a story about a woman allowed to posses herself in the Bible and the beauty of sex.
listen nowIs it wrong to desire? Remarkably the Bible does not seem to condemn desire; only choices, and historically the burden of those choices have been borne by women.
listen nowWhat does the NT say about sex? Well, that depends on how compelled you feel to immerse yourself in various 1st century cultures around the Mediterranean. Jesus recalls Genesis 2, though, a pattern of human relationship...but maybe not the way we like to think.
listen nowDoes the Bible offer a consistent sexual ethic? If so, what is it? We get down to brass tacks and answer the question of permitted sexual partners looking largely at Old Testament.
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There is great power, in the midst of chaos, uncertainty, defeat, to know that the Lord delights over us. His joy is a statement beyond the difficulty of our experience. A church discussion
listen nowWe must consider anew the most radical call of discipleship; friendship. More than success, esteem and romance, the Gospel is a call to love as a deep friend. When will the church learn?
listen nowThe Good Fight: Sometimes the most necessary thing is a vision of Kingdom of Heaven so that we have something to direct what we're fighting for!
listen nowWhen Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, He asks for something Nicodemus has no control over. But then, perhaps that's the point.
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Eugene Hung, the Feminist Asian Dad on social media, walks us thorugh a two part discussion about what the #MeToo movements means, and means for Epic. (NB, Part #1 is not available)
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It is no stretch to imagine a God who judges good and bad, but it is almost unimagineable that people would love without knowing such a god. Or is it?
listen nowA widow who can not get justice straight away is too familiar in our world, and is a vivid analogy for prayer. But is prayer, in the end a competition to outlast God? Can you wear down the God of creation?
listen nowMaybe Henri Nouwen has ruined us for the Prodigal Son? More than story of return, though, it is a story of a hunt; God on the prowl!
listen nowThe Kingdom of God will corrupt you if you let it, and you will be spoiled for the world.
listen nowThe parable of The Wheat and the Tares presents two problems for us: how to listen as modern readers, and figuring out just where in the story we fit. Why would Jesus need to tell this story to his disciples in the first place?
listen nowThis little known parable, about a man who tends a field, fills the gap between the parable of the sower and the mustard seed. It also introduces a gap between our obedience and results. Would it motivate or chasten His disciples?
listen nowIn the Parable of the Mustard seed, Jesus turns his listeners hope for the Kingdom of God upside down by describing it....as a weed? What does it look like to live in this Kingdom of Weeds?
listen nowJesus compares the Kingdom of God to a treasure in a field. While it is clear the treasure is valuable, what is not so clear is the kind of behavior Jesus expects, or perhaps that we expect he expects of us. The two characters are a lot more adventurous than we give them credit for.
listen nowJesus is alarmed his disciples do not understand the parable of the sower. Why? What is it Jesus is concerned his disciples might miss about the kingdom of God in Mark 4?
listen nowWhen Jesus proclaims the good news, the Gospel, he does not proclaim we should invite him into our hearts for forgiveness. Instead, Jesus comes proclaiming the good news is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But how is this mysterious kingdom he proclaims present? We begin by looking at Mark 1.
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"Above all else," says Proverbs, "guard your heart, for all you do springs from it." In this time of reflection we consider what fruit our hearts have produced and discuss two changes that must happen for us as a church to pursue healing.
listen nowWhat will our pursuit of justice look like going forward? We discuss four questions for the new year.
listen nowHow will our church community grow in Christlikeness? It will require an intention to hold one another accountable with grace; truth and connection together. We need to talk about new ways of being community together.
listen nowAfter a difficult season, who will we choose to be as a church? How will we live into our value for community, justice and healing in both familiar and new ways? Join us for our 6 week journey of prayer and discussions together as we try to discern together what God is saying to us.
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Before the curses, before leaving the Garden of Eden, shame weilds its powerful hand. How do we free ourselves from shame?
listen nowMost thinking about salvation is black & white - but we are born into a gray situation. What does salvation look like in a messy world?
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In Hagar, we remember the the promise of the God always come to us in our messiness. Where else could it?
listen nowSometimes all there is to do is chase away the buzzards as you wait for God's promise.
listen nowAbram saves his nephew lot. As he returns home he is met by two kings; the King of Sodom and the King of Salem. Abram is faced with a decision about making his name great or receiving the good things in life as a gift.
listen nowIn Genesis 13, Abram and Lot separate; Lot choosing the better portion. Only a good promise from God allows Abram to make such an offer to his nephew, and God responds.
listen nowThe promise God makes to Abraham has no "ifs" in it, just a command to "go". That's kind of how it works, I guess.
listen nowAbraham's life was first a life of promise from God. It's story perfect for our own journey into understanding the steadfastness of God's blessing.
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Epic celebrates 20 years of Rev. Doi as our founding pastor.
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As we say goodbye to Rev. Doi, what new things might God be calling us to? How can we hold on to the things God has previously told us to embody and listen for the new? How will we faithfully draw out treasures, old & new?
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The Rev. Doi announces his transition and what it means to follow the God of change.
listen nowWhat difference does the resurrection make? At first, it wasn't clear, but then Jesus showed up and things came in to focus.
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Lent is a time to choose Jesus as a matter of practice.
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The 10 Commandments have a context: God delivers.
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Belonging: it is the fruit of healing and community, and it is always messy. In Luke 5, we see Jesus minister belonging and healing to a leper in the midst of problems, not after them!
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