Vox Veniae Podcast

What comes to mind when you think of Christ’s power? On the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Christopher Mack examines the armor of the oppressive Roman Empire, and how it was reimagined as strength for creative nonviolent resistance in challenging and tumultuous times. [Ephesians 6:10-20]   Reflection How might you practice pivoting toward God’s Peace in this season? What does it mean to experience God’s Peace without detaching from challenges around you? How might we creatively embody God’s Peace for our loved ones? For those marginalized?

When you think of wisdom, what do you usually think of? On the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lilly Ettinger sees in Wisdom not boredom, over-spiritualizing, or dry asceticism, but joy, celebration, and a way of seeing clearly. Wisdom is an invitation to really live. [Proverbs 9:1-6]   Reflection How does the imagery of Wisdom building a house and preparing a feast invite me to live this week? How do the metaphors of Wisdom resonate with my understanding of spiritual nourishment and growth? What does the invitation to “Leave your impoverished confusion and live!” (The Message) mean for me? Resources Quote: “We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.” -9th Step Promises, Big Book AA Quote on Hospitality: “We make sure we always create space to welcome others” -Lilly Ettinger

How much do I look to God as I try to discern what is true and good? On the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Kimberly Culbertson acknowledges that to speak the truth requires us to wrestle with our practice of discernment, rather than outsource it to others. [Ephesians 4:24, 29] Reflection What stops me from engaging the practice of discernment? What stops me from speaking the truth? How can I lean into community as I practice discernment? Resources Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept that there are things I do not know, The courage to speak the truth I do know, And the Wisdom to know that even what I think I know today may seem wrong tomorrow.”  –Serenity Prayer revised by Kimberly Culbertson

What are the ways we might impose our own priorities onto Jesus and fail to see him for who he really is? On the tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Nic Acosta reminds us to acknowledge our own biases, how we project them onto Jesus, and how God’s generosity is active among those we consider to be wrong . [John 6:1-15]   Reflection What do I find when I engage with Jesus as presented in the Gospels? How might our cultural and political biases be keeping us from seeing Jesus clearly? How can we be gracious and generous even toward those who misrepresent Christ?

How many of us feel an incongruence throughout liturgy, questioning if we really believe the prayers and psalms passing through our lips? On the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Vanessa Maleare breathes life into our incongruencies around faith and life by inviting us to make space. [Matthew 14:13-21]   Reflection What space are you craving? What beliefs are you wrestling and contending with? What nourishment are you lacking and who might you ask for what you need?   Resources Book: A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity by Debie Thomas Book: Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner Book: Feminist Prayers for My Daughter: Powerful Petitions for Every Stage of Her Life by Shannon K. Evans

When you feel joy… how do you know?  On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Gena St. David, delves into the relationship between joy and grief and points us to how embodying joy can be an act of sacred resistance. [2 Samuel 6:14-19] Reflection When you’re experiencing joy what do you sound like?  When your body feels joy, what do you notice? When you want to share joy, what does it occur to you to do? Resources Book: This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley Article: Why Michal Rightly Despised David, Womanists Wading In The Word by Wilda Gafney https://www.wilgafney.com/2018/07/12/why-michal-rightly-despised-david/

In a world bent on dividing and condemning, how might we listen to and seek reconciliation with the complex song our whole life is singing?  On the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Christopher Mack seeks illumination on the intimacy shared between David and Jonathan, and what it teaches us about loving ourselves and loving our enemies. [2 Samuel 1:23-27]   Reflection What part(s) of your life and story do you struggle to welcome or find wholeness?  Where have our interpretations of scripture  reinforced problematic, or unjust understandings of ourselves or others? How can we embody God’s good news to ourselves and others? Resources Book: Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times by Tom Horner  Book: The Love of David and Jonathan: Ideology, Text, Reception by James E. Meredith Book: Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte

How might your life work differently when you can feel in your body the joy, safety, and pleasure of which the psalmist writes?  On this Pride Sunday, Amy Wolfgang encourages us to feel the embodied confidence of God beside, before, and within our being. [Psalm 16:8-11]   Reflection How can our community go before and beside those in fear of their call to embodiment?  Who in your life deserves their flowers? What would today be like if you knew that God rejoices in your body? Resources Video: Writing The Funeral of Cecilia Gentili at St. Patrick’s Cathedral NYC https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxUxJAq0_SHZ-vpIv62DizFhX6Ozu-TVch

How might our faith community speak about God in a way that is inspired and inspiring?  On the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Kimberly Culbertson reminds us to exhale as we prepare to leave behind our old narratives to embrace the new God is forming among us and through our mutual work. [1 Samuel 16:6-12]   Reflection Who do you say that Jesus is?  How might the Spirit be asking you to see as God sees? What lenses might you need to set down? What might God be asking Vox to see, embrace, and become in this season? Resources Book: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg Book: This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

How can we overcome the adversity of our divided times without losing a radical love for those on the other side? On the third Sunday after Pentecost, Christopher Mack notices parallels between anxieties about political leadership in the time of Samuel and our own. He offers practical tools for how to co-create understanding and connect across differences. [1 Samuel 8:4-9, 19-22 ].   Reflection Where might you acknowledge your own understanding as partial and incomplete?  Have you experienced co-creating understanding with someone? What might it look like for you to take one step closer to someone important to you, who you disagree with this week? Resources Book: I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán Video: Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides by Geoffrey L. Cohenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shqgkOTeS6U  Video: How to Understand and Be Understood by Dr. Ruchi Sinha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU7Dg8VP3dA