Ep. 108 - Justin and Dave take a detour today into Psalm 25. They talk about the origin and forms of the Psalms and how they might related to daily life. Plus there's an exciting announcement about a new online congregation open at lightofthespirit.church!

The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. 
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​Churches misuse the name and concept of the devil all the time. Pastor Dave opens the book on our misunderstandings about Satan.

Ep. 107 - Jesus goes up to a mountain, becomes dazzling, hobnobs with Old Testament legends, gets spoken to from the sky, and then tells people not to talk about it? What's up with that? Justin and Dave revisit the Transfiguration in Mark, Chapter 9.

The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. 
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We are quickly closing in on a year since the world as we knew it changed out from under us due to a global pandemic. Throughout this year we have ridden the ups and downs of ever changing recommendations and restrictions to how we live our daily lives and how we interact with others. We have lived the ups and downs of mental and emotional exhaustion brought by living through a pandemic. Finding many moments when we feel like we have nothing left to give. The past few weeks I have been in one of the low spots on the rollercoaster of pandemic life. My cup feels empty. Many days’ motivation has been hard to come by. I am sure many of us have had these moments, especially throughout the last year. This year has been a marathon and we are running out of adrenaline to keep going and make it to the end. Right now it can often feel like our plates are full trying to do everything, yet our cups are empty. So what can we do in these moments to help fill our cup again?

One of the things I find most helpful when I am in the midst of these moments is connection with community. Connecting with friends and family, with people who help fill my soul. Living alone through the pandemic has been challenging at times. Yet, we are people made for community. We need connection with other people to help us through our low moments. Even Jesus didn’t go through it alone, but relied on community in his moments of need. This Sunday we hear from the Gospel of Mark (1:9-15) about Jesus’ baptism and temptation. As Mark tells it, when Jesus is baptized the Spirit descends and proclaims him as “Beloved,” then Spirit immediately drives Jesus out into the wilderness. Out into the desolate terrain of beasts and nothingness. Out to the place of the tempter for 40 days. Jesus goes from the high of baptism and doves descending, to immediately being cast into isolation and desolation. But here is where we must pay attention to what Mark tells us in the last part of verse 13. While in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, while in the midst of the wild beasts, Jesus was also waited on by angels. In a moment of isolation and temptation, of being in the full experience of his humanity. God sent angels to care for, and deaconess to Jesus. We see that even Jesus needed angels to wait on him in his wilderness, even Jesus couldn’t go through it alone. 

This can be a reassuring image for us as we face our own times of wilderness. When we are caught in the midst of the chaos of our own lives, in the midst of the temptations of society, of trying to fit the mold society says we need to, to look or act or be a certain way. In the midst of isolation, in a time when connection is so hard, yet so important. In the midst of grief, as we come to terms with so much loss all around us due to a global pandemic.

As we sit in the wildernesses of our own lives, the story of Jesus’s time in the wilderness can be a reminder to us. It is a reminder that we cannot and we Do Not go it alone. We were created into community, in the image of God, of the Trinity, the three in one. And in Baptism we were baptized into the community of faith. Into a promise that we will never be isolated, that God will be there because we are “Beloved, children of God.” In the Baptismal promise there is also a call to the gathered community, to be the affirmers of community. We are called to be community, and to serve others. We are sent into the chaos and wilderness of the world filled with the Holy Spirit, as a reminder that we are not alone in our wilderness, in our moments of feeling empty and alone.

May we be reminded today that even Jesus experienced wilderness and isolation, but he did not go it alone, he had angels to wait on him. And neither do we go through our moments of feeling empty and broken alone. We have angels around us to serve us, and deaconess to us through those moments. May we be made more aware of the angels in our lives as we go through our wilderness journeys.
 
Prayer: "The Adventure of Community, a prayer from Iona": by Fiona Barker
God who walks with us the adventure of community, remind us of your constant presence.
When we are full give us the strength to bring light to others.
When we are empty comfort and renew us.
When we need challenge teach and stretch us.
And when we need rest provide a stopping place on the way.

Blessings,
​Sara

​Some holidays are fun, others strange, but they all serve a purpose!

Ep. 106 - Justin and Dave go DEEP between the lines of the healing stories in Mark, Chapter 1. Grace unrolls over us all, but how can we recognize it and trust in it, especially when it's hard and it seems like Jesus has moved on to another town?
The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. 
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​Nobody thinks they own God, but we sure spend a lot of time acting like it. Pastor Dave talks about the ways our cultural and institutional church biases betray us.

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​In this episode of Parenting with Spirit, a podcast about faithful parenting, Whitney Springston and Pastor Dave talk about helping children cope with loss and disappointment. When is it time to ride to the rescue and what are the boundaries on our parental role, or our child's response when the world hurts them?

​Ep. 105 - You've heard of Jesus casting out the unclean spirit from Mark 1, but have you heard the whole story? Justin and Dave discuss the dangers of lasering into a single part of any text, plus discuss authority, cosmology, annoying pastors, and Star Wars.

The Geek and Greek podcast is a show where two reverends talk honestly and clearly about faith, Christianity, scripture, and life. 
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Follow us at GeekAndGreek.com!

You may or may not know that I am passionate about regenerative agriculture. I grew up on a farm, and as the saying goes you can take the girl off the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the girl. But, this passion doesn’t just come from my experience growing up on a farm, it is also deeply rooted in my faith. Our first calling as human beings is to care for the earth and the creatures that God created. In Genesis 2 God creates the human creature from the dust of the earth, the adam from the adamah. God put the human creature in the garden to till it and to keep it. The Hebrew word translated “to till” can also be translated “to serve.” The human creature’s first task of service is to the earth, to the soil, to the very dust it was created from. To till it and keep it, to preserve it and watch over it. Well my friends, we have not done a great job living up to our task of tilling and preserving the Earth. As we have industrialized, our systems of production have taken on a use and abuse attitude. Our relationship with creation, with nature, with the plants and animals around us has become one of dominion and control. How can we work to restore right relationship with creation?

I recently read the book “Coming Home to Earth,” by Mark Brocker, which was recommended to me by a deaconess friend. In his book Brocker talks about how it is our loss of love for the Earth and acts of neglect toward the whole Earth community that has brought us to where we are. We need to return to a love for Earth and all it creatures and rediscover community with creation. Waking up to our kinship with the created world. That we are all created parts of the kin-dom of God. Seeing the plants and animals around us as our neighbors and treating them as such. One of the points Brocker makes over and over throughout the book is that we need to extend our view of Gods commandment to love. The greatest two commandments are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as our self. Brocker argues that love of Earth/creation should be added to that group. What would it be like to treat the earth and all its inhabitants, human and non-human, with love?
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One on the many things that I underlined in the book was a section where he talked about agriculture. He mentions that “agriculture” is not “agribusiness” and the industrial production of food, “agriculture” means “cultivation of land.” Brocker says, “To engage in agriculture entails living on the land, caring for the soil, collaborating with neighboring farmers, and giving thanks for the fruits of the land. The tendency of agribusiness is to exploit the land until it wears out.”  

This is what we have done. We have become disconnected from our call to care for the soil to tend it and preserve it. We have let our focus become production without a care for what happens to the land and its inhabitants because of it.

So how do we move toward love of the Earth, toward loving our neighbors, including those that are plants and animals? It starts with recognizing a personal connection to the environment, to a place. We care more about things we have a personal connection to, so to care for the Earth we need to have a personal connection with it. When we have a connection to even just a specific piece of creation we can then connect to the bigger picture.
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There is much more that could be said about the environment and our role as people of faith, but hopefully this helps to start you thinking. How can we work to love the Earth and all of its community?