The Way

In a dog-eat-dog world, what do you do if you have unexpected success? Do you tell all your friends and family about it? Do you throw a party? Do you go out for a night on the town? In our world, we want to celebrate success. We give ribbons and trophies to our kids, and, at work, we have employee-of-the-month programs. Additionally, we expect raises and promotions for our career successes. Perhaps the last thing success does, is prompt us to see our own brokenness. But, this is what happens when Simon Peter has the best fishing day of his life. He realizes he’s a sinner. Tune in to today’s program to see how Simon Peter’s repentance leads to the greatest calling of his life and how his example just might help us find our calling as well.

Today’s gospel reading is a hard one to digest. Jesus tells us, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” The implication is that you have to be crucified with Christ. After all, that’s what happens when you pick up the cross. The last time I checked, there aren’t any appointments for crucifixion in Minnesota, so what does it mean for us today? Tune in to find out.

Credit scores mean everything to us. They allow us to buy homes, cars, and even work at particular jobs. If you have a bad credit score, though, functioning in society can be very difficult, if not impossible. The ancient world had credit scores too, though they called it “honor.” But, their scores weren’t determined through spending habits. Instead, they were born with their score. But, in today’s Gospel, Jesus offers them a way to get the best score possible. Tune in to find out how and whether we too can get better credit!

Last week, we saw a vision of the Kingdom, a world in which the king grants forgiveness and commissions us to do likewise. This week, we get a deeper look into what it means to be a citizen of this Kingdom. As we’ll see, it means rejecting the values of this world and adopting the values of the Kingdom. It means reorienting out relationship to power and sticking it to the man! Tune in to find out how, exactly, Jesus calls us to do this.

Last week, the US government announced that they are going to forgive up to $20,000 worth of federal student loans for millions of people. Some people are overjoyed, but others are angry. They say, “It’s unfair. Why should their debts be forgiven when mine weren’t?” This goes to show that forgiveness is scandalous business, especially when judged by the values of our culture. But, as a preacher friend of mine wrote on Facebook, that’s the point the Bible is making. Forgiveness is what the Gospel is about, that’s what the Good News is. It’s how the Kingdom is made present, and how our broken world is healed and transfigured. Tune in to this week’s podcast to learn more about how forgiveness helps manifest the Kingdom in the here and now.

For the third week in a row, the disciples are challenged to teach the Gospel. But, we aren't surprised to see them strike for the third time. Their trust continues to waver and Jesus mocks them for it by telling them that if only they had the faith of a mustard seed, they could move mountains. Huh? I’ve never seen anyone’s faith move a mountain. What does Jesus mean? Well, if we properly understand what Jesus is saying, I think we’d all realize that we have, indeed, seen mountains move. Tune in to learn how you too can move those mountains.

When we’re reading scripture, we have to learn to look beyond the surface meaning so that we can see the teaching embedded within the text. The disciples had to learn this the hard way. When Jesus told them to feed the people, they only thought of physical bread. And, when they were told to go out into the world, they became scarred of a storm. What they didn’t realize is that bread is more than bread, and storms can be faced when they put their trust in Christ. The question for us: will we be like the disciples and waver in our faith, or will we be loyal to the commission given to us by our Lord and walk the Way?

There’s an old joke that goes, “You can call me whatever you want, just don’t call me late for supper.” In my lifetime, I’ve been called a lot of things—some of them good, some of them bad. But, perhaps the strangest thing I’ve been called is salt, which is precisely what Jesus calls us in chapter 5 of Matthew. Why would he call us salt? What does he mean by it? And, how does it impact our journey of walking the Way? In today’s episode, we explore this strange name-calling incident and learn about offering ourselves up to God.

As Americans, we like choice. We want to chose what we do, how we do it, and when to do it. Included in all of this is education. When it comes to college, we want to chose what to study and who’s going to teach us. But, as we’ll see in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus bucks this tradition. He doesn’t let Simon, Andrew, James, and John chose him. Instead, he choses them. In today’s episode, we’ll see how Jesus’s calling of his disciples is a journey into death and exile. We’ll also see how the “Calling the Disciples” is best represented, not by an image of fisherman in a boat responding to Jesus, but by the Descent into Hades icon!

This past Sunday was Fathers’ Day in the United States. This is a day we set aside to recognize the important role that dads play in our lives. But, on this day of all days, we read this from the Gospel, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Yet, at the same time, the Bible also tells us to, “Honor our father and mother.” Is Jesus opposing Moses? Did Jesus really mean what he said? Today, on The Way, we look at how the gospel message disrupts our lives and forces us to make some tough choices. We’ll also take a look at how that choice might just disrupt our family lives!

The Ascension of our Lord is often overlooked. It always falls on a Thursday, and, in our society, that makes it hard to celebrate properly. However, Ascension is an important feast: it looks backwards and forwards at the same time. Looking back, the Feast of the Ascension reminds us of how the Old Testament wrote about Christ’s suffering and rising. So, we shouldn’t have been surprised that Christ did, truly, rise from the dead, in the flesh no less! Looking forwards, we anticipate the gift...

This week, we witnessed the tragedy of yet another school shooting. It’s clear that there’s evil in the world doing its worst. However, Jesus is working to birth “new creation”—one in which evil has been stamped out. The Good News is that we are all invited to be a part of this new world. The only requirement is that we must drink “living water” and be “born from above.” How does this happen? Through an encounter with the scriptural Christ. Tune in to hear about two different encounters, and find out if they are able “see” as Christ asks them to.

Sometimes, it feels like life is a battle for power. Unfortunately, it also feels like when someone gets power, it goes to their head and all sorts of bad things happen and people get hurt. Yet, Jesus challenges our human power with authority that was given to him by his Father. When Jesus does this, what happens to the paralytic? How does society react? Tune in to find out!

This past Sunday, we remembered both Joseph of Arimathea, who asked for the body of Christ, and the Myrrh-Bearing women, who went to the tomb to anoint the body. Both these stories are a test of sorts The real question is: did they pass the test, or did they fail miserably? In today’s episode, we find out who walked the Way and who didn’t.

What does the Kingdom look like? How does it treat people. Have a listen to St. John's homily and find out!

Life, in general, is full of ups and downs. But, what happens when our spiritual life is also full of ups and downs? Is this normal? Should we expect this? Or should we be concerned? Today, we learn about the “desert” experience and how we are firmly anchored in place.

At the midpoint of Lent, Orthodox Christians are reminded of the journey they’re on: the Way to resurrection by Way of the cross. As a part of this mid-Lent celebration, we sing a hymn about that cross which goes, in part, like this: “Save, O Lord, Your people and bless Your inheritance, granting victory to the faithful over the enemy …” But, if you know Greek and you’ve seen the original hymn, you know that this hymn is purposely mistranslated! There’s something hidden. Today, we’ll discover what this hymn actually says, and we’ll learn a bit more about how the meaning of the cross was purposely flipped for early Christians.

On the second Sunday of Lent, the Orthodox Church celebrates St. Gregory of Palamas, a 14th-century bishop of Thessaloniki. St. Gregory taught that God is truly present in the world, especially through silent prayer. Also on this Sunday, the Orthodox Church also reads the Gospel passage about the paralytic who is lowered through the roof of a house so that Jesus can forgive his sins. But, what does the celebration of St. Gregory have to do with this paralytic? As we’ll see in today’s episode, walking the Way is not only about understanding the connection between the two, but it's about living in trust.

On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we remember the Triumph of Orthodoxy over Iconoclasm. Many of us like to celebrate this event by parading around the church holding our icons. We imagine we’ve won a great victory for truth over lies. But, how, exactly was this victory won? Does it look like other victories? Is is the same sort of victory that the Emperors won in battle? As we dig into this celebration, we may be surprised by our discovery, and how we’re supposed to walk the Way in light of this “triumph.”

Our world is built on credit, which is, essentially, building a life on a mountain of debt. We go to school and accumulate school debt. We graduate and buy a car. Now we have a car loan to pay off. If our job doesn’t support our lifestyle, we don’t hesitate to build debt on our credit card. When the time comes, we look to buy a house and we go deeper in the hole with a mortgage. And, if you’re like most Americans, you’re probably in debt due to medical costs. While there are ways out of debt, there is one debt that St. Paul says is acceptable. In fact, it’s the one debt we need in order to walk the Way!