Scapegoating - 9/13/26 Service

A few weeks ago we said we don't have a clue what we're talking about when it comes to God, and you loved it, so this week we did more of that. We start with quantum physics (the thing everyone comes to church for), including time that passes at different speeds, gravity as a bedsheet and a bowling ball, and two photons that stay in sync across millions of light-years. Somewhere in there it turns out the smallest things we can detect aren't really things at all, they're relationships, and that might be the most interesting thing we've heard about God in a while. We land on the Trinity, the incarnation, and the idea that we're not chess pieces or born wicked, we're born wounded and invited into a love that heals. Heads up, your brain may melt, and if you're late for work this week, feel free to tell your boss present time is an illusion.

This week we held our Halloween service in costume, and Hannah preached as a traffic cone, which turns out to be the perfect outfit for a message about crying. We start with the surprising fact that humans are the only animals that cry from emotion (Hannah googled it to be sure), and then spend a lot of time on why we try so hard not to. Lamentations, Richard Rohr, and a very emotional trip down the grout cleaner aisle at Home Depot all make an appearance. Along the way we ask whether anger is really just the tip of the iceberg, and what happens when we go down into the grief underneath. Bring tissues, and remember that weeping may last all night, but morning always comes.

This week we got weird. We tackled evangelism! And we did it via a three-person message. Hannah and Jarrett were "blessed" to be joined by Stephen , aka, Pastor Chad. Pastor Chad is a very gentle, very cool youth pastor who teaches us HARVEST, the beach-tract method that has apparently saved 4,312 souls (the ones he wrote down at least).Hannah takes every letter and reclaims it, from hanging out with no agenda to tending the soil instead of counting the crop. We laugh a lot, we sit with some things that still sting, and somewhere in there we remember that good news is supposed to be good.

This week we did something we've never done before: Hannah showed up with no sermon at all and just talked. There was mold (aggressive mold, she would like you to know), a sick toddler, and an Airbnb with a pool, and somehow it all landed on the idea that nobody is doing everything, and that's not a personal failure. We get into why ‘just give yourself grace’ doesn't always work, what Richard Rohr means by forgiving reality, and why a plaque from Hannah's dad's bedroom wall might be the best sermon text we've had all year. Heads up, we pulled the audio from the livestream, so the very end gets a little funky when the band kicks in. Go take a nap after you listen (doctor's orders, okay, Hannah's orders).

This week we got ambitious and tried to cover three prophets in twenty minutes (we did not have time for all the context, but we tried). We're talking about unfinished prophets: Elijah, Jonah, and John the Baptist, three people God used who never quite made it all the way to the love, plus Job, who did.We look at what happens when passion, anger, and a really impressive miracle get mistaken for truth, and why God showed up for Elijah in a gentle whisper instead of the fire. If you've ever been told you needed to be right more than you needed to be loving, this one's for you. We're all unfinished, and honestly, that's kind of the good news.

Bonus episode from last week cause I didnt have time to postI forgot what it's about, so, enjoy whatever it is!

This week we're still on the Richard Rohr train, but one sentence sent us down a rabbit hole: any worship service that doesn't start with a sincere ‘Lord, have mercy’ needs to be very careful. So we did what any reasonable church would do and made everyone blink, then explained that light just traveled about 75,000 miles while they did it. We talk about 100 billion stars, a universe that is 96% empty space, and why none of this is a reason to panic (but also, a little panic is valid). Somewhere in there we land on the idea that we can look at the vast, incomprehensible universe with curiosity instead of fear, and that the God of infinite space is also the God of Bethlehem.

This week we took a break from Richard Rohr. We're talking about joy, and specifically about the sneaky idea a lot of us grew up with that God cares about our holiness, not our happiness, which somehow turned into feeling guilty for enjoying good pie. We dig into why joy is not something you earn by getting your life together first, and why Jesus told his disciples he wanted them so full of joy it overflows, even though he knew exactly what grief was coming for them. There is homework this week (we never assign homework): pick something that makes you happy and go do it, no permission slip required. If you have ever felt guilty for being happy, or felt like you needed your life to be more settled before you were allowed to enjoy it, this one is for you.

This week we're talking about scapegoating — yes, it's a real biblical thing, and yes, it does involve actual goats (Leviticus 16, if you want to look it up). We trace it from Yom Kippur all the way to the very human habit of blaming someone else the second things go wrong, which, if we're honest, is basically all the time. We dig into why the prophets always start by pointing at their own people instead of everyone else, why Jesus refuses to just swap out one group of villains for another, and what Hosea has to say about the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. It lands on a question we can't really get out of: not who's right, but what kind of people are we becoming. Fair warning, there's a decent chance you'll see yourself in this one (we definitely did writing it).

This week we're still on the Richard Rohr train, talking about "the remnant". Growing up, a lot of us heard that framed as an elite club, something to strive for and probably fail at. We take a hard look at why that's backwards: the remnant isn't proof of who's right, it's proof of how little it takes for God to keep showing up. We dig into why God tends to plant truth at the bottom, with the powerless, instead of handing it to whoever's already in charge (spoiler: power ruins things). And we land somewhere pretty simple. Our job was never to save Christianity or the world, just to actually enjoy God's love and pass a little of it along.