by admin | Oct 23, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
10/23/2022 – All Religion is Small Religion When Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple, it is spoken to those “confident of their own righteousness.” I used to see this as a story addressing only the arrogant faith of...
by admin | Oct 16, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
10/16/2022 – Wrestling With God A story of two estranged brothers. A story of wrestling and redemption. A story of limping into a new life. Is this CJs favorite movie or a text in the Bible? The answer is both. Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube...
by admin | Oct 9, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
10/09/2022 – Frogs Don’t Eat Edamame IHow does Israel – whose defining story is God setting them free from slavery in Egypt – build God’s Temple using slaves, and produce priests and kings who commit injustice and abuse power? Today with help from a...
by admin | Oct 2, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
10/02/2022 – Unworthy Servants In our lectionary gospel text today, Jesus tells us we should think of ourselves as just unworthy servants when we fulfill our calling. This can feel uncomfortable to modern ears. What can CJ’s life as a competitive athlete teach...
by admin | Sep 25, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
09/25/2022 – Buy the Field With the Babylonian army about to take control over Jerusalem and all of Judah, God tells Jeremiah to buy a field. Why buy a field that is about to be unusable? How might this story be an encouragement for us today in 2022? Our services are...
by admin | Sep 18, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
09/18/2022 – The Parable of the Unjust Steward What can we learn from a shady steward who steals from his master twice … and gets commended for it? Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube channel (https://ekklesiaraleigh.org/youtube). Join us...
by admin | Sep 11, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
09/11/2022 – Demoting ‘The Greatest of These’ A tragic reversal has taken place in our political and religous lives. Where policy/positions used to be flexible and civility/virtue nonnegotiable, we now embrace the opposite. Virtue has been demoted …...
by admin | Sep 4, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
09/04/2022 – Time is Offensive With kids heading off to new schools, I have been thinking a lot about time and what it means to live a life of substance. What does the image of chaff and Jesus teaching on the cost of discipleship reveal about the subject? Our services...
by admin | Aug 28, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
08/28/2022 – Broken Cisterns What does a news story about traffic accidents, a news story about economic mobility, and a prophecy from Jeremiah teach us about how we live faithfully in a changing world? Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube channel...
by admin | Aug 21, 2022 | Homepage, Podcast
08/21/2022 – When One Thing Is Two Things Our lectionary texts today include two texts about the sabbath, but they couldn’t be more different. The heart behind what we do is as important as what we do. Our services are streamed every Sunday on our YouTube channel...
