Faith Unscripted with Pastor Rich Hasselbach

discussing the meaning of Passover and Easter. It includes a discussion of the Shroud of Turin and what it tells us about Jesus and the Resurrection. 

Pastor Rich 

We are constantly tempted to division - to being opposed to the other. Yet God is ONE, and all life is one in God. Therefore, our path is not to fragmentation but to unification and gratitude. 

What should believers do as we approach the midterm elections in the US, celebrating Simchat Torah, and my meeting with Country Music star Tery Taylor, a most impressive young man. That and listener calls in this episode of Faith Unscripted. 

In this special episoce for the Jewish High Holy Days we discuss the meaning and importance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are important for all believers, and what we can learn from these beautiful commemorations of the New Year and the Day of Atonement respectively 

Being present to life is easier said than done. We are often so twisted by the past or worried about the future that we forget that we only live in the moment; we only live NOW. This and other topics are addressed in this episode of Faith Unscripted

The importance of kindness - to others and ourselves.

How Christians and other people of faith should engage in the debates and struggles of our times?. Believers must be involved in the world, but they must be engaged in a thoughtful and informed way. With so much spin and deception, how can we inform ourselves well enough to understand the issues? What do we need to know about the issues, and ourselves in order to be responsible in the public square? All this and more in today's episode of Faith Unscripted. 

While teaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus encountered a disabled woman. He spoke to, touched, and healed her when he saw her. The people who witnessed this healing praised God. The synagogue leader, however, criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. That leader, too, needed healing from his rigidity and legalistic thinking. He needed to reconnect with the Lord of the Sabbath and the meaning of Sabbath rest. (Luke 13:10-17)

"It is the Father's great pleasure," Jesus tells us, "to give us the Kingdom." God LOVES to give what is most important, and all we have to do is accept the gift, and value it more than the stuff we accumulate. We should sell that and give to the poor - we should, ourselves, in other words, be find great pleasure in being generous. Then we will treasure what is truly valuable, compassion. That is the treasure that lasts into eternity.  

"I have come to bring fire," Jesus tells his disciples, "and how I wish it were kindled." "I have not come to bring peace but division." With this warning, we must be prepared, be ready, and don't be afraid. We are not used to Jesus speaking about the division His message will bring, but he warns us that discipleship will not be easy. We can't expect our faith to make us popular; quite the contrary. The call of Christ invites us to follow him, ultimately to the cross. While it is demanding and it can be daunting, it is the only path to life and joy. 

On August 15th, Christians around the world celebrated the feast of the Assumption of Mary. What does that mean, and what is the significance of Mary for the Church and our spirituality? Today's episode explains the Assumption's meaning, a belief dating back to Apostolic times. But what does it mean for us? Why did Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist, write that Pius XII's declaration of the dogma of the Assumption was the most crucial religious teaching of the 20th Century? What does Mary teach us about being a faithful child of God? All this and more in today's episoce

Roxanne Watson received a lifesaving heart transplant 12 years ago. Since then, she has been a tireless advocate for organ donations, recruiting thousands of new donors. When Roxanne received her transplant, Roxanne received not only a new heart but a grateful one. She is thankful to Michael, her donor, and his family. She is grateful to God, the author of life, who gave her, through Michael, a second chance to live. Roxanne realizes that every day, every moment of life: is a gift.    

Greed is a terrible thing - it destroys families and it destroys lives. Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool is a cautionary tale for all who are simply good business people, but miss the bigger picture and the greater challenge of life. What makes a good business person a fool? Well, you can read the parable or listen to this podcast to hear what Jesus, and the entire Judeo-Christian tradition means by folly. 

What is our relationship with God? Who are we as we stand before Him, and how do we come to know the One before whom we stand? The sacred texts of the Judeo-Christian tradition answer these questions - or at least they point to an answer. God is the creator, the Lord, and sovereign of the universe he created by speaking it into existence. So majestic is the Lord that his name is unutterable. Pious Jews will never pronounce YHWH, the word God gave Moses when he asked the name of the One who spoke from the burning bush. "I am who I am." the Lord told him. He is the great "I Am." Yet Jesus teaches that the One who created the universe, the One who liberates the enslaved, can be addressed as "Father." We are in a tender relationship with God, who prefers us to think of him as Abba, Father. Our Abba longs to hear our voice like a human father loves to listen to the prattle of his children. All this and more, plus listener phone calls on this episode of Faith Unscripted. 

We hear, in Luke 11, that Jesus' disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray. They did not ask for a prayer to say but for teaching about prayer. Jesus teaches them to pray to God as "our Father." We are the images and children of the God who creates, rescues, and redeems. The essence of this prayer is relationship. The God who created the universe loves us with a father's care. This episode reflects on the Lord's prayer as found in Luke's gospel. 

Jesus grew up a pious Jew among faithful Jews, keeping the Law of Moses and following the traditions of His people. We are witnesses of our faith in Christ, which means we must stand apart from the world's values. As Jesus was a healer, so must we heal others by practicing generous forgiveness. I hope you will find this episode of Faith Unscripted, the Podcast, a blessing. 

If we want to do what Jesus would have done in any situation in life that confronts us, we must first know how to live as Jesus lived. How did he live? The Gospels tell us clearly: Jesus was prayerful; he lived with kindness and compassion for the least, the vulnerable,  and the marginalized. Jesus was generous: he gave his life to save us. This episode reflects on how Jesus lived in the hope that it will inspire us to be more like him,

Knowing what we should do at any moment requires us to understand who we are. Agere sequitur esse, the Latin saying goes: what we do flows from who we are. Discernment is critical to our self-knowledge, which, in turn, guides us in our life choices. In this episode, I hope to deepen our understanding of the tools of discernment available to us as believers and as disciples (students) of Jesus. Christians are also frequently persecuted in places where they are in the minority. Two such places are Egypt and Nigeria. Recently, these countries have been deadly attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters. How are we to respond? We must respond both by raising our voices in protest and prayer.  

What makes us who we are? How does our "hard work" contribute to our successes and failures? Do we make ourselves, or are we made by the circumstances of our lives? What is our God-given purpose? We reflect on all of this, plus some great callers and conversations in this episode of Faith Unscripted. 

Martha was a doer. When Jesus came to her home, she wanted everything to be just so! She cleaned, swept, cooked a fine dinner, set a beautiful table, and prepared the guest list and the seating arrangements. It was a lot of work. Meanwhile, Mary, her sister, sat at Jesus' feet, drinking in every word the Master spoke. It didn't seem fair to Martha that Mary wasn't helping with all the work, so she complained - to Jesus! "Can't you tell her to help me!" Martha lost focus on her guest and on making things perfect for him; now, she was a victim. Jesus would have none of it, though. He told her that her sister had chosen the better part in his gentle rebuke. Of course, Martha could choose that too, but returning her focus on the One who came to her home not to be served but to serve by bringing light, peace, and salvation. What can we learn from all this about our focus on the One that is necessary?

A listener recently asked about the problem of evil: why does a good God allow good people to suffer, and conversely, why do evil people prosper.? One of the best answers to this set of questions is the one found in the Book of Job. Job is part of the Wisdom Literature found in the Hebrew Bible. In it, we see Job, a man we know to be just and godly because the author has told us this about him in the book's opening paragraphs. But Satan (the accuser) asks God if Job is good because he loves God or because of what God has given him. God believes in Job, and to prove a point, takes away Job's wealth, family, and health and leaves him with nothing but his question:: Why? The answer God ultimately gives Job is also essential to us as we struggle with the problem of evil in our own time.     

NASA's new telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, allows us to look deeper into the Universe than ever before. What does it teach us? We see more, but do we see more deeply. In Psalm 19, David, the Poet King of Israel, reflected on the heavens as he saw them thousands of years ago. His insight is still fresh and beautiful: "The heavens declare, "he wrote, "the glory of God." So they did in David's time, and so they do today. Before the mystery and the majesty of the "heavens," we can but stand back in wonder and awe. Today's show reflects on the Heavens declaring God's glory and more, plus our callers. If you have questions you'd like to have addressed on the show, please leave a comment in the comments section of the blog, and I'll address them on the next broadcast. Thanks and blessings, Pastor Rich   

What must I do to inherit eternal life; who is my neighbor, and how big is God? These are seemingly simple questions. To test Jesus, an expert in the law asked Jesus the first two questions. The great pastoral theologian Henri Nouwen was asked the third question by Megan, the four-year-old daughter of Nouwen's friends, the Christensens. In response to the lawyer's questions, Jesus gives us the parable of the "Good Samaritan," one of the most beautiful and challenging stories in the New Testament. Nouwen's response to Megan illustrates the parable, and all these questions, as well as the parable, challenge us to live into God's compassionate, boundless love. 

The Declaration of Independence was 246 years old on July 4th, just a few days ago. The men who wrote it gave us not only a magnificent political document, they showed the courage of people desperate for liberty. We must never take their sacrifice for granted, nor forget that the fight against tyranny is never over; it requires the courage of each successive generation to preserve the liberty they won for us. They relied on the providence and guidance of God, and so must we. We must also understand how precious life is - from conception onward. And what is this liberty for which they risked so much? Far from being the license to do as we will, it is the freedom to follow the will of God. Finally, we will never find happiness if we pursue it for ourselves alone. Happiness is found only by losing ourselves in compassion for others. 

Luke tells the story (10: 1-24) of how Jesus sent out 70 disciples as an "advance team" to every town and village he was about to visit on his journey to Jerusalem. His directions were as clear as they were unusual: they were to take nothing for their journey. They were to take no toothpaste, shampoo, shoes, or money; instead, they were to rely solely on God and the hospitality of the people they would meet on the way. Jesus warns that they were going among a world full of wolves as lambs. Lambs are gentle creatures, and they are defenseless. While Jesus is the Lion of the House of David, he was also the "Lamb" who, we hear in Revelation, has won the victory and sits on the throne. Jesus' disciples (and we are among them) will bring in the harvest of souls that Jesus told us is ready, not by being like the world, but by being like the Lord. Only then can we bring peace and healing, and only then can we proclaim with credibility that the Kingdom of God has drawn near.  

Life is a gift, every moment of it, and we live life in moments - in the present. The past is history, and the future is not yet ours (and may never be), but we love NOW. How can we best appreciate and life this precious gift of life. How can we be "present" to the moment, and thus see the wonder in it. We discuss this and, in advance of US Independence Day, we also discuss the blessings of our liberty and the brave men and woman who risked all to create this one nation under God.  

When Jesus "sets his face toward Jerusalem," he is focused unflinchingly on his mission. He is to go to Jerusalem and reveal God's amazing love by being lifted up - on the cross, at his resurrection, and in his ascension back to the Father. As Jesus' disciples, we too are asked to set our faces on our mission: to take up our cross daily and be living examples of the self-gift of God. There is a cost, though, as Deitrich Bonhoeffer warned. "When Christ calls a man," Bonhoeffer wrote, "he bids him come and die."That is our call - to die to ourselves daily as we take up our crosses to follow Jesus on the way. 

This episode includes a discussion of a tragedy on the Palisades Parkway and what we can learn from it. We also discuss the importance and power of prayer.  

In Luke's Gospel (8:26-39), Jesus makes his first incursion into gentile territory in the land of the Gerasenes. Immediately upon stepping ashore, he met a man so disfigured by his evil that the man was barely recognizable as human. Yet an encounter with Jesus transformed him into his right mind, his proper self, and a witness to God's love. What did Jesus do to bring about this amazing healing?   What can we learn from this story of God's transforming love? 

Today, we broadcast from Pella, IA, from the Reformed Church in America's General Synod. So today, we talked a bit about the General Synod about Pella (a beautiful Iowan City) and the question that the General Synod asked of itself and the RCA: What would God have us do? How do we discern, as individuals, the path God is calling us to travel. That and more on today's episode., 

What does it mean to be "human," and how do we best care for the human person that we are? Our bodies are temples of God's spirit, and that temple must be honored by tending to our mental acuity: by reading, thinking, reflecting, and exploring. In a world of spin, we need to "think for ourselves." Our spiritual health also needs care, which we accomplish through prayer, meditation, and reading sacred texts prayerfully. Finally our bodies need our attention. We have to think of food as nature's pharmacy and eat what is good for us, not what tastes good to us. We need to exercise, and that's more than just walking the dog. And we need to care for our social being by gathering with others in worship and other groups that form the network of our communities of friendship and association. 

What does the story of Pentecost mean to us today?. First, we are temples of the Spirit.  Through us, the spirit continues the work of Christ.  God is at work in every moment of every day through the face of the earth,

In this episode we discuss the importance and solemnity of Memorial Day, a day when we remember those who "gave their last full measure of devotion" in the service of their country. We must never forget their sacrifice, nor the precious life that each of those heroes gave to preserve and protect our nation. But we must also be cautions of those who would rush the nation into wars, of adventure and nation building. This is also the feast of the Visitation, commemorating the visit of Mary to her older cousin Elizabeth when both were with child (Mary with Jesus and Elizabeth with the Baptist). What is the meaning of the visitation for us? Finally, we discussed the meaning of both the Jewish fest of Pentecost (Shavuot) and the Christian feast of Pentecost that we will celebrate this coming Sunday.  

In the early church, the Ascension was an important day, a reminder that Jesus' mission was only complete when he returned to the Father and brought our humanity into the eternal presence of the Father. It is a reminder that the absent one is present to God and has sent us the gift of the Spirit, which IS the power of God within us. The message of the Ascension is to wait prayerfully for the action of the Spirit within us, to remain with expectation, for God will act in God's own time and in God's way. And then, empowered with the Spirit, OUR job is to witness Jesus and the Good News. 

What does it mean to be a person of faith in the world? A faith-filled worldview sees God as the Creator and sustainer of all life. He is the author of truth; we are not. He establishes an immutable moral law that we must follow or break to our detriment. Learn more in this episode of Faith Unscripted.

Jesus promised that he would not leave us orphans.  He promised to send "another paraclete" to teach us all things, remind us of everything Jesus taught, and give us the peace that only God can provide. What does this gift mean for us? How do we listen to the "other paraclete?" which is the one like Jesus who will be with us while Jesus is absent? The Holy Spirit is the One who lures us to the Father in Christ; he guides us toward our best future and to the Kingdom of God.     

Recently, there has been terrible violence in the U.S., much of it racially or politically motivated. What can we do to counteract this hateful trend? First, we must recognize that God created all the people in his image. Then, we can reject the voices of division and acknowledge that we are all one: brothers and sisters of the God Jesus called Father. Finally, we can pray for peace, especially for the people whose hearts are so full of hatred that they kill innocent strangers in the service of their warped ideas.   

Jesus gives his disciples more than just a new commandment in John 13; he gives them an example of how love in practice looks. He loves His own, loves them to the end, and loves them no matter what. He loves them by serving; he loves them by feeding; he loves them by preparing them for life when he has been "Glorified" and is no longer with them. The love Jesus requires of his disciples (us) is a healing, life-giving share in the life of God Himself. 

In John 2:22-30, Jesus is in the Temple during the Dedication celebration (we know it as Hanukkah). Those who surround Jeusu ask him to tell them plainly whether he is the Messiah. He responds by telling them that he has ALREADY been quite clear about who he is, but they haven't believed him because those around him are "not of My sheep." What does this exchange mean for us today? Who are among "His sheep?" Are we, and if so, so what? When we are His sheep, we know who we are because we understand who He is. Believing in Jesus has ramifications for how we live our lives and see the world.  

This episode discusses Mothers' Day and the importance of our mothers. Then we discuss the possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade and its significance. Finally, the show considers how important it is for Christians to be engaged in the community's life, politically and otherwise. 

At the end of John's Gospel, Jesus again shows himself to his disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. At first, those disciples had difficulty recognizing him - they were fishing, and he was about a hundred yards away on shore, cooking. When they came ashore, they were afraid to ask him who he was; they KNEW it was the Lord but somehow needed to be reassured. Then Jesus took Simon aside and three times asked him: "Simon son of John, do you love me?" After Simon answered yes to each question, the Lord said, "Feed my lambs;" Tend to my sheep;" Feed my lambs and my sheep." What was Jesus asking of Simon in this exchange, and what does he ask of us? , 

This episode discusses the importance of people of faith in the public square. What is the relationship between religion and political debate and action?  

A reflection on John 20: 19-29. On the evening of the first day of the week after Jesus' death, his disciples, such of them who hadn't gotten out of town yet, were huddled in a locked upper room, hiding for fear that the ones who killed Jesus would come after them next. Suddenly he is in their midst: not the broken body of a resuscitated corpse, but the glorious body of the one who Lives. And he tells them to be at peace - he brings them peace: not the world's peace, but God's. And he sends them to do what he did; he tells them that they MUST forgive lest unforgiveness prevail on earth. What does all that mean for us? I hope this reflection from the first Sunday after Easter will shed some light on the answer to that question, 

Today we discuss healing prayer, the love of God as manifest in our pets, and the second half of the program discusses the Holocaust as we prepare to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day. Where was God? And what can we learn as we look back and remember? And remember we must, lest history repeats itself!

Special Holy Week Edition

The meaning of Easter for Jesus and us. How the experience of the risen Lord on the first day of the week after his Crucifixion changed the lives of his small band of followers, and how they changed the world. By risking their lives and everything, they had to proclaim that the One who died is also the One who now lives. 

A discussion of the meaning of Holy Week to Christians 

What is the meaning of Holy Week for us today? As we celebrate the last week of Jesus' life, the Church invites us to reflect on the Passion of the Christ. Our salvation comes at an enormous price! What can we learn from the story of the Lord's suffering and death? We may want to avert our eyes, but the story of Christ's passion is at the heart of the Gospels. It reveals God's love for us while also reminding us of our value in God's eyes and the importance of each moment of life. 

In John's Gospel, the week before Jesus' death, we hear about a dinner held in his honor at the home of His friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. At the dinner, Mary took a pound of aromatic nard perfume worth a year's wages (in today's dollars, it was worth more than $100,000) and poured it over Jesus' feet, anointing him and drying his feet with her hair. That was a fantastic display of love, but was it wasteful? Jesus didn't think so, and neither do I. That gift of love challenges us to be extravagant in our love of Jesus. 

In this wide-ranging show, we discuss how to handle a fender-bender, the efficacy of healing prayer, and the importance of using time well (it is, after all, precious).