Speakeasy Theology

Here’s Sophia’s drawing! And a link to Hill’s poem: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

Raw, unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday.God is faithful, no doubt. But—as you surely already know—he takes his own sweet time in proving it. Advent, therefore, is a season of learning to rejoice in the time God takes to be faithful, a season of gladdening to the fact that God’s goodness toward us is always as much about our past as it is about our present or our future, and always as much for the sake of our fathers as it is for us and the sake of our sons. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

Raw, unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday.Advent is a season of waiting, a season of waiting on God. But of course God is already here, already acting—continuing to do what he’s always already done. This is the mystery at the heart of our faith: it is precisely because Christ’s work is “finished” in his death that it can and must take place at the right place and at the right time in our lives. So, Advent is not a season of waiting for God to begin to act or to be a better God. We’re not waiting for God to do what he’s up until now failed to do. Advent is a season of waiting for God and with God, a season of waiting on God in ways that open us more and more completely to the fullness of God, a time to learn to wait as God waits. And we learn that way of waiting by praying as Jesus taught us to pray, seeking in those prayers the changes that become possible only because of the unchanging goodness of God. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

Raw, unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday.How can we rejoice that Christ is “king” given all of the evils that have been done and all the goods that have been left undone in his name by those in authority? We can rejoice because it is Jesus who is king, no one else, and because his rule is true, fitted to our nature and accomplished not by violence but by gift. We can rejoice because through his death he made it possible for us to die to the lust for control, to make peace with our frailty and the impermanence of our way of life, and so to reign with him in gentleness, compassion, and absolute humility. So, as I tried to say last Sunday, when all the world is breaking apart, we can rejoice that Christ is crowning. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

Raw, unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday.Many of us fear the so-called “Second Coming,” the End of All Things, dreading what it will mean for us and for those we love. Virtually all of us have been taught to think of the End as an event that lies in the near or distant future—one more thing that will happen at some point on the timeline. But in truth God is nothing but good—infinitely better than good. And the appearing of God is not one more thing that will happen. God’s coming is already happening—even now, even here. Today is the Day of the Lord. And you are its light. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe

Unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday. These two widows—the widow who gives her last coins, the widow who gives her last cake—enact for us the truth of the cross, embodying the wisdom of the God of Jacob, and revealing the blessedness that belongs only to the poor in spirit. They teach us that the only way in which we can help anyone, including ourselves, including God, is by owning (!) the fact that all we have to give is nothing—and that this is the very best news, because our God, the God of Jacob, is, as the Psalm declares, the God who creates from nothing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cewgreen.substack.com/subscribe