Fooling with Scripture

Sermon preached (remotely) for First Christian Church of Fayetteville, NC, on Pentecost Sunday 2020. While the story of Pentecost is recorded in Acts 2, this sermon focuses on a passaged from the 12th chapter of Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

An examen prayer -- a way of reviewing your day or, in this case, your semester, with God -- which I recorded for my Barton College community at the end of the 2020 Spring semester. Two minute explanation and about 9 minute guided prayer.

A guided body scan for the Barton College Community during finals week -- and anyone else for whom it may be meaningful.

**If you or someone you know is in a crisis, help is available. You can call 1-800-273-TALK, or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat -- and more resources are available on my website at christonthepsychward.com/resources** This morning, I preached at First Baptist Church in Wilson, NC. My texts were 1 King 19:1-15 and Luke 8:26-39. I woke up this morning and realized the sermon I'd written wasn't what I needed to say. So I ditched it, and preached this instead -- on the tough topics of suicide, self-harm, and being the kind of church that's safe for people to share tough stuff in.

A sermon preached for St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Wilson, NC, on a snowy 2nd Sunday of Advent. The texts for this Sunday are Baruch 5:1-9 • Philippians 1:3-11 • Luke 3:1-6. My thanks to the Rev. Marty Stebbins for the invitation and the 30 or so folks who braved the snow for this morning's services!

I was invited to preach at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Fayetteville on Sunday, November 4, which was All Saints' Sunday as well as the Sunday before the 2018 midterm elections. My sermon was called "Showing Up," and was based on Exodus 1:8-22 and Luke 18:1-8. I was nervous to preach this sermon in this politically charged time. But this has been a year, and a week, of stepping outside of some of my comfort zones, and this felt like an important time to take a risk. I snapped the cover photo, of a rabbi speaking in front of the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, during a Poor People's Campaign rally this past summer.

This is a talk I was invited to share at the 2018 Summer Institute on Theology and Disability in Raleigh, NC. I've only included my talk -- this was followed by a rich conversation, but I didn't have a good way to record the whole thing and also wanted people to be able to speak without worrying about being recorded.

This is a sermon I preached on January 7th, the 1st Sunday after Epiphany, at Cleveland Park Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC. The scripture passages were Genesis 1:1-4 and Mark 1:1-11.

This is a sermon I preached in the chapel at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, on December 24, 2017. The texts are Isaiah 9:2-7; Hebrews 1:1-4; and Luke 1:26-38. The service ended with the lighting of the Christ candle and the reading of the Nativity story from Luke's gospel. The image is by Palestinian artist Zaki Baboun. Please pray for all those at the Clinical Center during this season, who are courageously volunteering their very bodies in the search for new cures for some of the world's most difficult-to-treat medical conditions.

I was honored to be invited to preach at Dumbarton United Methodist Church here in Georgetown for the 1st Sunday of Advent. This Advent season, Dumbarton's theme is "The Journey to Bethlehem." Each Sunday, they are reflecting on different characters we encounter as we prepare for the coming of the Christ. This first Sunday was focused on Elizabeth and Zechariah. Having some familiarity with the story, and given all that is going on in our national news at this moment, a sermon title immediately popped into my head: “Maybe Men Should Just Shut Up?” And while eventually I could not reconcile the irony of me, a cis white man, delivering a sermon with that title, I did think the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah affords us an opportunity to reflect on speech and silence. On the times when we are called to speak up, and the times we are called to step back. And on the spiritual discernment required to know which is which.

Live recording of Fooling with Scripture at the Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, NC -- July 14, 2017! This episode we're talking about Jezebel (in scripture) and the Jezebels (in the Handmaid's Tale), plus Lady Macbeth, harmful adaptation, steam valves, and violence in proximity to power. Featuring Pat Dupont and Leigh Finnegan-Hosey, with recording by Russ Jennings.

Leigh and David talk about the ubiquity of eyes in the Handmaid's Tale -- the Eyes of God, "Under His Eye," and plucking out the eye that offends. The third in a series on the uses and abuses of scripture in The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian sci-fi novel by Margaret Atwood and now a hit series on Hulu

In this episode of Fooling with Scripture, Leigh and David talk about Martha, Mary, and "Blessed are the Meek," with reference to family systems, double-binding messages, and the myth of the male breadwinner. Check it out!

In the first episode of our Handmaid's Tale series, David and Leigh look at the uses and abuses of scripture in the dystopian sci-fi novel The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, now a popular TV series on Hulu. In this episode, we look at some of the basics, like where the name "Gilead" comes from and what a handmaid is. We also talk about the difference between descriptive and normative texts and how the texts hint at a God who gives voice to the voiceless.

The second episode of Season 2 of Fooling with Scripture, in which we see what's surprising about the spectacular tale of the Ascension.

Fooling with Scripture is back for a second season! Hear exciting updates about David's book, the Wild Goose Festival, and an upcoming series with Leigh about The Handmaid's Tale!

If you're wondering where Fooling with Scripture has been, I talk a bit about that, as well as reflections on Ash Wednesday and what's coming up next.

The first in a Fooling with Scripture series focused on revelation -- the book of Revelation and the things being unveiled at this particular time in our shared history.

As we begin 2017, a look ahead to what's next with Fooling with Scripture, and a look back on some of what we've learned about the voice of divine foolishness in the poems, stories, letters, and stories that make up this thing we call the Bible

Special Christmas greetings from Fooling with Scripture, including a story I share every year because it's still the truest thing I've figured out to say about Christmas.

This bonus episode of the Fooling with Scripture podcast is about the longest night of the year, and the long nights that we experience as humans. It's got Isaiah, Mary's Magnificat, and new music by Pat Dupont.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode, the Advent edition of the podcast, is about waiting and not waiting. We'll focus in particular on a passage from the prophet Habakkuk.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture. This week's episode a hodgepodge of scriptural reflections on kings, power, judgment, and the subversive activity of court jesters.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture. This week's episode is the final in a series sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're in John 20, talking about scapegoats, breathing, and a couple of F words.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're back in the first chapter of John's gospel to talk about bodies, limits, and God's weakness.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're fooling with endings by taking a close look at John 21:15-19

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're focusing on John 2:1-11 -- in which Jesus rather famously turns water into wine -- and how "stewardship" can be more than a "church word" and politics can be more than yelling at each other. We're also introducing an awesome new theme song!

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're focusing on John 15 -- in which Jesus calls the disciples "friends" -- and how friendship might be a more helpful metric for Christian practice than church-y words.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is sponsored by Crossroads UMC as part of their "Faith Beyond Belief" series (everydaylifewithgod.org/faith-beyond-belief). This week we're focusing on John 1 -- words, the Word, and God being everywhere.

Welcome back to Fooling with Scripture! This week's episode is a sermon David gave for the Protestant Ministry service at Georgetown University. It's about hope and hopelessness, and it's based on a story found in Jeremiah 32.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this sixth episode, I respond to an emailed in question, go a bit more into the ideas of authoring and authority that I introduced last week, and share some stories about authoring from the gospels and my own life.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this sixth episode, I talk about authority, inspiration, and why I bother fooling with scripture, anyway (with reference to 2 Timothy 3:10-17).

A special bonus episode of the Fooling with Scripture podcast, with a full-length version of "God's Sleeves," aka the song that you've heard playing at the beginning and end of the first few episodes.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this fifth episode, I talk about the call to be healed in Mark 10:46-52.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this fourth episode, I talk about "Spooky Jesus" and the surprising, rather than spectacular, aspects of Matthew 14:22-33.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this third episode, I talk about Psalm 139 and angry prayers. I also follow up on a concept I introduced last week: the revelation, sometimes, is in the distraction.

Welcome back to the Fooling with Scripture podcast! Each week, we "fool with" a text of scripture to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. In this second episode, I talk about Acts 10, bacon dreams, prayer, and the revelation that comes with distraction.

The first episode of my new Fooling with Scripture podcast. Each week I'll "fool with" a text of scripture, to see what surprising inspiration and challenge it has for our world today. This week, we're talking about divine foolishness in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. Thanks for listening!