​Ep. 112 - Some Greeks come to see Jesus to learn from him. He gives them, and the crowd WAY more of an answer than they were looking for. The indelible centrality of John, Chapter 12 takes center stage in this week's podcast.

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!

​God's wisdom isn't human wisdom, nor are God's insights always easy for us to hear. Like the Greeks and disciples in John 12, we ask for one thing and often end up getting something different!

Ep. 111 - You'd think John 3:16 would be the easiest verse in all scripture to talk about. Not so much. Justin and Dave explore the words behind the words of the Bible's most famous passage, lamenting the ways it's been misused.

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

This week marks one year since all in person gatherings and activities as Shepherd of the Valley were suspended. This past year has brought many moments of chaos and uncertainty as we have navigated life through a global pandemic. I often refer to riding the rollercoaster of pandemic life, riding the ups and downs that this year has brought. There are times when the chaos of it all can feel overwhelming and it is hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel. When we are in the midst of the chaos it can be hard to find moments of peace and calm, but when we find or make time for those moments it can make a world of difference.
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Recently my car was in the shop for an appointment that was going to take about two hours. The shop was close to a little bakery that I walked over to and got a cup of coffee and a scone. I then sat at a table outside in the morning sunshine to enjoy my scone and coffee while reading a book. As I sat there reading, enjoying the morning sunshine that made it almost warm outside, I was stuck by the amount of birds chirping. There was a chorus of birds greeting the day and I just wanted to sit there and enjoy it as long as possible. I remember thinking to myself “I wish I could start every day like this.” Enjoying a cup of coffee, a good book, and the blessings of nature. Starting my day with that moment of peacefulness set not only my day, but my whole week in an upward direction.

Last weekend I made my second attempt to go on a snowshoeing adventure at a Park n’ Ski area north of Idaho City. This adventure was much more successful than my first attempt where I spent more time digging my car out from being stuck in the not plowed parking area than snowshoeing. This time the weather was gorgeous! The loop I was on had quite an elevation increase, but the view was just amazing. I paused many times as I was going to take in the beauty of the sky and the mountains and the snow (and to take breaks because it was a lot of work). There was one spot, and I don’t recall why that spot was different, that I stopped and was just deeply struck by the peace of the quiet stillness of the snowy forest. It was one of those moments that is almost hard to put into words. I just stood there soaking in the peace around me wishing I could bottle it up and bring it back to the busyness of life. Wishing I could bring a little bit of that quiet and stillness back to the noisiness of Boise. You don’t always realize how noisy your surroundings are until you experience the quiet of somewhere else.  

For me nature is usually a place where I find a sense of peace and calm, and often a place where I connect with God. But in the busyness and chaos of life it can be easy to forget to connect with the places and things that bring us peace. I didn’t realize how much I needed to sit and enjoy the sounds of birds greeting the morning until I was literally doing it. I feel like this is what often happens. We are going along keeping up with our long to-do lists and schedules filled to the brim, forgetting how important it is to sometimes press pause. Many times we stumble upon these moments, which makes me wonder how many of these moments we might miss when we are too focused somewhere else to look up and see the beauty around us. It sounds a bit weird to say schedule in moments of peace, but our lives revolve so much around schedules sometimes that is the only way to get moments of peace and calm in the midst of the chaos of life. To find the things that help us find a sense of peace and to make sure we aren’t forgetting to find those moments throughout our weeks.
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I pray that you can find moments to pause the chaos and to notice. To see where there are moments of peace and calm all around us if only we look up and see. 

Blessings,
​Sara

​We often turn to scripture for easy answers. Texts like John 3:16​ show us that it's not always that simple, and that our easy answer might leave out someone else's reality.

Ep. 110 - Jesus goes WWE, tipping over tables and spilling all kinds of things on the floor. Justin and Dave ask what made the most gracious guy in history so upset and how that affects our view of church today.

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

This past year has taught us a lot about how to be in community with those around us in new and different ways. And at times it has shown us some examples of how complicated and difficult it can be to be in community with other people. A year ago when the world as we knew it changed around us due to the pandemic, my job at Shepherd of the Valley shifted a bit in its focus. Working as a youth director my usual tasks of youth group, Faith Formation, and other youth and children’s ministries were suspended and moved online as possible. Then, as an almost Deaconess, I was tasked with managing our outreach ministries, for the first few months of the pandemic this became my main focus. How were we reaching out to our community? How could we help support our neighbors through this different and challenging time?
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As we thought about ways to reach out to the neighborhood around our church one of the things that was brought up was about all the children now home from schools. From this conversation was born the idea of a snack bag ministry. Making bags of snack available for anyone to come by and pick up. We started sending a Monday Outreach email to the congregation detailing the snack bag ministry we were starting and other ways they could reach out to support those around them. We put out a bin to collect donations for the snack bags, and also a bin to collect donations for Interfaith Sanctuary and the Food Bank. The snack bags were put together with an assortment of snack items, usually cereal, granola bars, fruit cups or fruit snack, crackers, and whatever else may have been donated in a given week. After our initial few day test run in mid-April we decided to make the snack bags available 24/7. To help get the word out about them we sent out a mailing to about 300 neighbors in the area directly around the church, and posted the information on Nextdoor. As time went on we started having snack bags picked up faster than donations were coming in to fill them. We could see that the need was there.

A small group of church members got together and stated to think about more sustainable ways to continue this outreach ministry. Some of the group had heard about the mini pantry movement (a spin on the Little Free Library movement) and they decided that they wanted to build a Little Free Pantry for SOV. One of the main mottos of the little free pantry movement is “Give what you can. Take what you need.” This movement is about neighbors helping neighbors, neighbors nourishing neighbors. We launched our Little Free Pantry in September, and it has proven to be an important ministry. The flow of items through the Pantry has shown us that there is a need in this area for something like this. We have had notes left on the pantry in thanks for it, that it helped someone make it to the next paycheck when they had to choose between gas to get to work or groceries. Words of thanks from those who lost their job or were laid off and found themselves in need of assistance. We have volunteers who come by a few weeks to clean/sanitize the pantry and restock with our stock of donated items. They have also shared stories of people who have stopped by the pantry when they were restocking and who shared their appreciation. 

The gift and the challenge of this ministry to our neighbors is that there are times when in a day, or sometimes in less than a day, the pantry will go from fully stocked to empty. The joy is that we have been found and are providing a space for neighbors in need of a little assistance. The challenge is that it can be tempting to wonder in these moments if people are taking advantage of the pantry. Yet, we are called to practice radical trust. Part of the power of this little free pantry movement is that it is generally anonymous. There are the few moments where we have an interaction with someone coming to drop off or pick up items from the pantry, but generally people can come by knowing they don’t need to interact with anyone. There are no expectations and no strings attached. We are called to love and serve, and that is what we do. 

In this year that has put distance between us in more ways than one, there have also been many ways that it has brought us together. Ways that it has brought communities together. People who have checked in with neighbors who they know live alone, or who used signs in their windows to check in with each other. People who have stepped up to help in big and small ways. This is what it means to be in community with our neighbor, that even in an unprecedented year we still have found ways to connect and support each other. I pray that our Little Free Pantry can continue to be a place for neighbors to support neighbors. 

Blessings,
​Sara

​Why was Jesus so mad about the money changers in the temple? It probably had little to do with money and everything to do with one of the oldest sins in the book.

We’ve all been there. We raise our children hoping they’ll pick up something about God and follow in the footsteps of our faith. Then they drop the bomb: they don’t believe the same way we do. In one of the most important episodes of Parenting With Spirit, Pastor Dave talks about how to respond and how we, as parents, might re-frame our assumptions about faith to make room for people other than ourselves…including our own children.
 
www.buzzsprout.com/1104131/8109480
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