In this dialogue, Rebecca and Brandon delve into Christian history and ask the question: "What does the cross of Jesus say to us about violence, suffering, and sacrifice? "Thanks to Adam Barnard for producing the episode.Thanks to Ryan Newson and Mike Grigoni for the intro music.Excerpts referred to in this dialogue:But he was pierced for our trans…

In which we spend Trinity Sunday marking several moments of passage in our common life—a return to in-person gatherings, Molly's return, Ben's departure—with an extended conversation among our three co-pastors. Ben, Molly, and Rebecca reflect on what's unique, what's shifting, and what's next for Emmaus Way after a long pandemic year. A glimpse int…

By Emmaus Way

In which Emmaus Way commemorates a Covid-19 Easter under quarantine with a collaborative lyric video for Patty Griffin's "Love Throw A Line."By Emmaus Way

By Ben Haas & Joanna Cooper

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long, Charles Cleaver, & Jon Holt

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long & Rachel Kiel

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long, Charles Cleaver, & Jon Holt

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long

By Molly Wummett / Music: Neal Curran

By Brett Fox / Music: Neal Curran, Robert Thornhill

By Julia Riley / Music: Neal Curran, Ken Stewart

By Molly Wummett / Music: Sus Long

By Molly Wummett / Music: Adam Barnard

By Ben Haas / Music: Adam Barnard

In which we take time to (re)hear Revelation with fresh ears. Artist-in-residence Adam Barnard (with support from Mike Grigoni) presents a contemporary musical soundscape for selected readings from this otherwordly apocalyptic text, including Sufjan Stevens' "Seven Swans," Sam Amidon's "I See The Sign," Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down," and…

In which we dive into a new season on Time Revealtion. Molly gives us an overview of what Revelation's first audience might have heard in this apocalyptic text, and we begin working past "the racket of the rapture" to ask how Revelation invites us into ways of mystery, love, justice, upending empire, and hope. Adam Barnard—our artist-in-residence f…

In which we affirm, celebrate, and covenant together through the sacred acts of dedication and baptism for five of our Emmaus Way kids. Molly reminds us what it means to start (and end) with beloved, and Adam Barnard contributes music by Leonard Cohen, Hiss Golden Messenger, T Bone Burnett, Son Lux, and Bob Dylan.…

In which we finish our season on Creation by re-imagining how Genesis 3 fits into a broader creation narrative and the ways we engage creation here and now. Molly invites us to name how societal discussions (and assumptions) of Genesis 3 have been detrimental to creation. And also, how a different understanding of "the fall" in Genesis 3 might offe…

In which we follow our exploration of (Genesis) creation narratives into the artistic realm. Our artist-in-residence for this season, Mona Dowell, gives a live performance of her newly released album Open Spaces. Mona's artistic work offers a beautiful, haunting glimpse into the everyday work of re-creation in the world gifted to us, anchoring a ti…

In which we follow our conversation on Genesis 1 into wrestling with the second creation account of Genesis 2:5–25. Molly leads our dialogical wrestling with this narrative that so dramatically foregrounds humanity, and invites us toward more liberating ways to think about and be shaped by this second account. Artist-in-Residence Mona Dowell contri…

In which we delve into the first creation narrative of Gensis and all the accreted interpretations placed upon it. Through homily, historical context, literary theory, present day realities, and extended community conversation, we'll wonder together, "What if we've gotten this creation narrative all wrong? What liberating reality might actually be …

In which Molly, Ben, and Elizabeth report back on what we've heard during our summer of community discernment, and invite co-ministers into new dreams and new rhythms for our life together.By Molly Wummett, Ben Haas, & Elizabeth Efird

In which we conclude a summer of discernment about the future of Emmaus Way with an arts-based reflection on five words that capture what we've heard and what we're carrying forward. We ask where Eway has been a space to be confronted, captivated, obligated, liberated, and invited into new life. And—if our community exists to embrace a confronting,…

Nearing the end of our summer discernment on HOW we desire to be together in the season ahead, we return again to our community's formative text, the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35). Molly leads us in dialogue about how practice permeates this text, where belief bubbles up in it, and the ways practice shapes and expands belief in both the Emmaus Roa…

In which we take a pause in our summer conversation on HOW we are Emmaus Way together to breathe and reflect through music, arts, contemplative prayer, and dialogue. Individually and collectively, we listen for where this conversation is resonating with us and all that we bring into this community: our whole selves, vocations, relationships, and te…

In which continue our summer conversation around HOW we desire to be church together into reflection on what is uniquely ours to do as an Eway community in days ahead. Molly leads us in dialogue, and Sus Long, Charles Cleaver, and Adam Barnard contributes songs by Josiah Leming, Sara Watkins, Simon & Garfunkel, and Seth Woods.…

In which we continue a conversation on HOW we desire to be church together as Emmaus Way. Molly continues our cotraveling with Acts through observations from theologian Willie Jennings' around the Spirit and revolution. In particular, how do we hold the imminent, revolutionary work of the Spirit alongside the despair that often permeates our imagin…

In which we focus our theme for the year (Bearing Witness, Reclaiming Kinship) back on our community life together, asking: HOW are we committed to being together as Emmaus Way? Molly opens that conversation with a look at Acts 1:1–5, and the disciples waiting for Pentecost under the crush of empire. What are we waiting for, and how has that weight…

In which we wrap up our Eastertide conversation around the work of resident artist Marie Curran. Marie shares an artist statement around practicing resurrection and invites anew into a difficult question: How do we—a people more comfortable in the wrestling of confession—find a bodied, right-now place for ourselves within the ultimate absolution of…

In which our Eastertide resident artist Marie Curran invites us into another lovely and resurrection-haunted essay: the Prologue from Jessie van Eerden's The Long Weeping. Holding it up against the otherwise resurrection practices introduced the previous week, we look for our place within it's bracing directive: "Don't waste time on water that is n…

In which we continue our Eastertide wrestling with the challenge of embracing resurrection in the midst of a world better tuned to the opposite. We seek wisdom and learning from several voices practicing a surprising, bodied, here-and-now resurrection, and ask ourselves “What kind of resurrection is this?” Adam Barnard intersperses the proceedings …

In which our resident artist for Eastertide, Marie Curran, join Molly in guiding us into conversation about becoming a people who practice resurrection. Through the lens of Marie's written work, we ask what it means to claim resurrection—the ultimate absolution—in the here and now of a world that is both very joyful and deeply messed up. Neal Curra…

In which we revel in the joy and thanksgiving of Easter, and a love that overcomes death and darkness in the fleshiest of ways. Molly offers a homily on grave clothes left behind, and the verve and vulnerability Jesus' resurrection offers us as bodied people. Sus Long closes out her Lenten artist residency with a full band in tow, featuring songs b…

In which Molly continues our Lenten meditations on absence. This time, we turn to the absence of voice, through the narrative of Zechariah in Luke 1. We use our usual dialogue to communally reflect on the absence of voice, but also wade into the presence and possibility of silence.By Molly Wummett

In which we turn our Lenten reflections toward the absence of convention. Molly leads us in dialogue around Ruth 1, and living in the unexpected grief and possibilities an absence of convention may foster. When we find ourselves (like Ruth and Naomi) living outside the comforts of convention, what fills that space? Sus Long—our resident artist for …

In which we turn our Lenten meditations on absence to a lack of order and control. Ben guides us into dialogue around the Plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7–13), and we wonder what to make of a God who disorders their own created order. When we find ourselves living amidst the absence the opens in circumstances beyond our control, what fills the space? Whe…

In which we begin a Lenten series reflecting on the absences in our lives and world, and what's left behind in the space they open up. Molly launches our conversation with the story of Jesus in the Wilderness (Luke 4:1-13), and asks: When we don’t have power (or refuse power as Jesus did), what fills that space? What becomes more present in the abs…

In which we mark Transfiguration Sunday by diving into the bewildering text that inaugurated it. The mountaintop transfiguration of Jesus before his disciples falls on the last Sunday of Epiphany, before we enter into the season of Lent. So we're given a mountaintop experience to wrestle with before we enter a season of wilderness, of absence. As a…

In which we wrap up our Epiphany kinship series with a dive into Luke 6:27–38. Molly invites us into this text of (enemy) love that seems impossible to process and imperative nonetheless. A love so complex that Nadia Bolz-Weber remarks of it: "I hate that this is God’s economy. That the salvation of my enemy is tied up in my own. Which is why I som…

In which we turn our Epiphany examination of kinship to the Sermon on the Plain and beatitudes of Luke's Gospel (Luke 6:17-26). Ben (via Molly) urges us into the "blessed are's" and "woe unto's" of this text with attention to the friction they suggest re: our attempts to reclaim kinship. Tim Carless contributes a superlative setlist of Jackson Brow…

In which we follow the Epiphany lectionary into the outset of a new and reorienting kinship for Simon Peter and his fishermen colleagues (Luke 5:1–11). Crowds are taught, fish are caught, and fishermen become fishers of men. Ben continues our kinship conversation by inviting us into what this familiar story of transformation and abundance offers ou…

In which we join Jesus in the Nazareth kickoff to his ministry (Luke 4:14-30), and look at the complexities of kinship upon returning home. Molly invites us into the truth captured by theologian Catherine Keller: “We are indelibly marked by our past…we do not exist outside of our relationships. We become who we are only in relation: we are network …

In which we continue an Epiphany series on kinship, and dialogue on why reclaiming kinship feels so challenging. Molly invites us to consider Martin Luther King’s legacy, and reflect on why some (or all) struggle to believe King’s that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” We also hold that aga…

In which we delve further into our Epiphany series on Gospel texts revealing Jesus' identity as Immanuel, God with us. Molly invites us into the story of Jesus' baptism in Luke 3, and asks where we feel akin (or not) to this text. And also, how a God in human form confronts and informs our ways of being in kinship. Our own Neal Curran contributes m…

In which we begin our walk through Epiphany—the festival of the revelation of Jesus—alongside gospel texts that reflect on Jesus’ identity as Immanuel, God with us. beginning with the revelation of the great star that the Magi followed. Molly leads us in dialogue around the Magi in Matthew 2, and we consider what epiphanies might be arising in our …

In which old Eway friend (and long-time Director of Religious Coalition for a nonviolent Durham) Marcia Owen stops in to speak into Bearing Witness amidst violence. We ask ourselves what it means to be faithful within the growing normalcy of mass violence in our public spaces. Grappling with our own fear and lament, how do we walk faithfully among …

In which Rhody narrates her own decision to bear witness to, and sustain kinship with, the kids of Emmaus Way. Drawing on her experience growing up in a wonderful congregation in Virginia, Rhody guides us into conversation on what it means to bear witness across generational and familial lines within our church. We read the Lukan genealogy of Jesus…

In which our long-time friend Tim Carless helps guide us into a conversation on Bearing Witness amidst our own considerable unknowing. After so much exposure to confident speaking about/for God, what different space might a posture of unknowing open for encountering God in our world? Ben guides a conversation in dialogue with pieces of Tim's life a…