Getting to the core of the biblical text.
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Episode 601 The Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, & 3:1-13)
1:12:00
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This week we are back to the beginning, reading parts of the second story of creation and the story of the Garden of Eden as they are found in Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, 3:1-13. For stories that we’ve heard a thousand times, we had a lot of questions. Is there a relationship between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, in the story or in our own…
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Episode 557 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Resisting Ethnic Nationalism (Esther 3:1-11 and 7:1-10) REPLAY
42:53
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This week BibleWorm meets Queen Esther, winner of some biblical version of The Bachelor. We learn about the blood feud between the people of Haman and the people of Mordecai, and see the all too familiar trope that Jews - or anyone deemed an “outsider,” really - is a danger to the kingdom. We see loyalty without uniformity in action. And we see all…
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Episode 556 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Resisting the Patriarchy (Esther 1:1-22) REPLAY
42:22
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This week BibleWorm continues our summer series on the Forgotten Books of the Bible with a look at Esther 1:1-22, the story of the Persian Queen Vashti and her refusal to appear before the king. We discuss the fragile egos of the king and his courtiers who fear the capacity of women to say no. We talk about the power of the patriarchy and the lengt…
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Episode 555 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Reading Ruth Against the Grain (Ruth 1:14-18 and 3:1-15) REPLAY
43:36
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This week BibleWorm explores Ruth chapters 1 and 3, trying to imagine Ruth’s own perspective and calling out some of the ways that the book portrays painful parts of the immigrant experience. We see how the scene at the threshing floor plays on the worst stereotypes of Moabite women, and how Ruth’s beautiful statement of loyalty to Naomi also carri…
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Episode 554 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Making Ancient Israel Great Again (Ruth 2:1-20 and 4:9-17) REPLAY
42:37
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This week BibleWorm continues our summer series on the Forgotten Books of the Bible, with a look at the book of Ruth 2:1-20 and 4:9-17. We look at the way the book of Ruth challenges anti-immigrant sentiment in the time of Ezra-Nehemiah and in our own day. We discuss how the book lifts up the foundational contributions of Ruth the Moabite, whose pe…
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Episode 553 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Solidarity and Allegory (Song of Songs 5:2-9 and 8:5-10) REPLAY
42:08
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This week BibleWorm continues our study of the Song of Songs, learning more about the awesome and fearsome passion of our young lovers, and seeing the jarring ways in which the world around them - well, to be more specific, the men around them - seeks to control that passion. And in case you weren’t sufficiently challenged to read this as both erot…
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Episode 552 FORGOTTEN BOOKS The Joy of Sex (Song of Songs 1:1-12-2:6 and 7:1-13) REPLAY
41:22
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This week BibleWorm continues our summer series on the Forgotten Books of the Bible, turning our attention to Song of Songs 1:12-2:6 and 7:1-13. We wonder at the presence of erotic love poetry in the biblical canon and wrestle what it means for our understanding of bodies, sexuality, and God. We explore themes of sexual empowerment, invitation and …
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Episode 551 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Trauma Has Many Voices (Lamentations 3 and 5) REPLAY
42:23
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This week BibleWorm continues our study of Lamentations, meeting an individual survivor in chapter 3 and hearing the voice of the community in chapter 5. We raise up the differences between this individual man’s relationship to his suffering compared to what we heard from Daughter Zion last episode, and look expectantly to the communal voice to tel…
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Episode 550 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Trauma and Protests (Lamentations 1:8-22 and 2:10-22) REPLAY
42:37
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This week BibleWorm continues our summer series on the Forgotten Books of the Bible with Lamentations 1:8-22 and 2:10-22. Written in the wake of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, Lamentations presents the community’s response to trauma given in multiple voices. This week we look at the voice of the funeral singer, a bystander who …
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Episode 549 FORGOTTEN BOOKS For Everything There Is a Time (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 and 3:1-11) REPLAY
41:24
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This week, BibleWorm continues our look at Ecclesiastes, aka Qohelet, focusing on 1:4-11 and 3:1-11. We ask ourselves—is it really true there is nothing new under the sun. We look at that most famous poem “To everything there is a season,” and see exactly why you’d best not look at only the net total of life’s experiences. And we wonder what Qohele…
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Episode 548 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Everything is Mere Breath (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 and 8:16-9:10) REPLAY
42:22
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This week, BibleWorm begins our summer series on the Hebrew Festival scrolls with a look at Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 and 8:16-9:10. We discuss Qohelet’s idea that everything is mere breath and ask what it means to live in a world where nothing adds up to much of anything. We talk about the inscrutability of God and why good people often suffer while the …
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Episode 547 CREATION CARE Re-Creating the World (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
1:02:00
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This week BibleWorm concludes our summer series on creation care with Ezekiel’s vision of a river of life flowing from the temple as told in Ezekiel 47:1 –12. The prophet Ezekiel, writing from the devastation of the Babylonian exile, envisions a radical re-creation of the world that takes place when God’s glory returns to the Jerusalem temple. What…
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Episode 546 CREATION CARE Covenant and Creation (Leviticus 26:3-32, 34-35, 40-45)
1:10:45
1:10:45
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This week, BibleWorm continues our series on Creation Care, with Leviticus 26:3-22, 34-35, and 40-45. It's a text that presses the question – what happens when we lose track of the fact that we are part of magnificently interconnected system, and begin to imagine that we can – or even that we must -- function on our own? How does the anxious produc…
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Episode 545 CREATION CARE Bless the Lord, O My Soul (Psalm 104)
1:08:00
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This week BibleWorm continues our summer series on creation care with Psalm 104, a profound text celebrating the magnificence of creation, which brings joy not only to the human heart but also to all creatures, from the birds in the trees to Leviathan in the deeps of the sea. We even see the celebratory nature of God, who whisks about on the clouds…
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Episode 544 CREATION CARE God's Stream Full of Water (Psalm 65)
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This BibleWorm continues our summer series on Creation Care with Psalm 65 and special attention to the water. This psalm brings together scenes of prayer and silence, of humans and of nature, and of a God who is the orientation point for all of it. It made us wonder: What if we could see ourselves, for a moment, as almost like a sibling to the wate…
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Episode 543 CREATION CARE From the Whirlwind (Job 38:1-38)
1:09:00
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This week BibleWorm continues on in our summer series on creation care with Job 38:1-38 in which God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, reminding Job of the beauty, grandeur, and complexity of nature that is beyond human understanding. Where humans were said to have “dominion” over the world in Genesis 1, in Job 38 humans seem almost irrelevant—God …
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Episode 542 CREATION CARE In the Beginning (Genesis 1:1-2:4a)
1:10:00
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This week BibleWorm begins our summer series on Creation Care with “the” Creation text, Genesis 1. For such a familiar text, it sure did open up a lot of questions for us. How should we think about our place so late in the proverbial line-up – what does it mean to us that God has already issued a commandment directly to the animals before we are he…
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Episode 541 The Gifts of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-13)
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This week BibleWorm concludes the Narrative Lectionary cycle with the Pentecost readings, Acts 2:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-13. We talk about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which empowers the original disciples to speak in languages they don’t know, calling them outward from the culturally homogenous group to enter into the cultures and langua…
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Episode 540 The Resurrection of the Body (1 Corinthians 15:1-26 & 41-47)
1:06:30
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Today BibleWorm reads from I Corinthians 15:1-26 & 51-57, a section of Paul’s letter that is focused unwaveringly on bodily resurrection. It seems this was one of harder aspects of the faith for the people of Corinth, and it is a tough one for many modern readers too. But Paul insists that you have to believe the impossible thing, the thing that go…
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Episode 539 The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
1:03:45
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This week BibleWorm reads Paul’s famous discussion of love as given in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. It’s not every day that Bobby and Amy talk about Paul’s letters and find ourselves in full agreement that Paul is in fact right. But both our Jewish and Christian traditions can fully affirm what Paul says here—that love is the one undeconstructible realit…
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Episode 538 Unity in the Cross (Acts 18:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 1:10-18)
1:07:45
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This week BibleWorm reads Acts 18:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, our introduction to the city of Corinth, a busy port city with all kinds of diversity and disparity ... almost like an ancient Las Vegas. And here in this city, Paul tasks the budding church with finding a way to profound unity. Speaking to a people that seem prone to latch on to the …
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Episode 537 The Church in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9 and 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)
1:05:15
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Today BibleWorm reads from two different books in the New Testament. We hear about Paul’s visit to the community in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9 and then read from his letter to that community in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. As we read about the struggle of those early days for that budding church community, we wonder, what does it take for someone to th…
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Episode 536 The Disciples' First Miracle (Acts 3:1-10)
1:00:15
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This week we’re continuing on in our post-Easter readings with the story of disciples’ first healing, as told in Acts 3:1-10. On their way to the temple one afternoon, Peter and John encounter a man who was born without the ability to walk. Not having any money, they heal him in the name of Jesus, then take him into the temple where he leaps and pr…
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Episode 535 Waiting for the Spirit (Acts 1:1-14)
1:00:44
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This week BibleWorm begins not only a new book but a new kind of book in the New Testament – we move from a gospel to the Book of Acts with Acts 1:1-14. We love seeing what the author lays out for us as the sort of “season recap” at the beginning – what parts of the Jesus story are most pressing for us to hold close for this next chapter? And truly…
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Episode 534 Easter without Jesus (Mark 16:1-8)
1:01:15
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This week BibleWorm reads the story of the first Easter as told in Mark 16:1-8. In this most challenging version of the Easter story, we never encounter the resurrected Jesus. Rather, a young man in white tells the women to go to Galilee where Jesus will meet them. It’s strange not to see Jesus on Easter, but isn’t this the way we mostly live our l…
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