We tie up various loose ends and respond to some outstanding questions after leaning into the discomfort of talking about suffering for the last month. (Art: "Sorrowing Old Man At Eternity's Gate" by Van Gogh)
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Vince & Hayley respond to a grab bag of questions about suffering and the tension of alleviating vs embracing. (Image from the Center for Action & Contemplation)
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The Bible is everywhere in Western culture, in all of its beauty, and in all of its problematic imagery. Vince suggests some options for feeding life-giving applications of the Bible, and starving terrorizing applications of the Bible.
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Psychological growth often involves leaving behind coping mechanisms from our past that used to protect us but now harm us. Spiritual growth often involves doing the same with religious coping mechanisms. Seeing this process through requires an ability to look back at our past selves with compassion rather than disdain.
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One tension it feels we must hold to live life well is (on one side) pursuing ideals, and (on the other side) choosing to embrace what is true right now and maybe can't be ideal. Hayley and Kyle discuss how to do that well without losing our minds or succumbing to cynicism.
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With help from BLC’s Maria Santillan, we consider how, in the same way microaggressions reinforce systemic racism in America, spiritual microaggressions in church settings reinforce systemic marginalizing of people whose family or culture don’t pre-dispose them to understand or be able to navigate American churches. Our church considers this a fight for equity — for the important perspective of church outsiders, like Maria, to be valued in spiritual conversations.
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Vince and Kyle continue the conversation of “Believing in God when bad thing happen” with a mailbag podcast responding to comments and question from last Sunday’s discussion.
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Just like our favorite fantasy stories and myths, Jesus’ message of the “Kingdom of God” is an invitation to us to leave our ordinary worlds, and step into a bigger reality that is outside our comfort zone and includes threats and danger, BUT will transform us into all we’re meant to be if we stay the course.
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Overly-simplistic or overly-certain interpretations of why some headline tragedy or horror occurred hurt people. In Luke 13, Jesus responds to two tragic headlines of his day with humanity and with solidarity shown to those most affected by the suffering. Vince unpacks what we can learn from Jesus here both in terms of how we respond to others’ suffering, and how we respond to our own suffering.
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Vince shares about the unique impact friendships in a spiritual context have had on him. And various leaders in the church share about ways Brown Line Vineyard can help you connect with other people in spiritual community this fall.
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