As we begin this Lenten Journey, we meet many suffering people along the way. We also encounter so-called benefactors with eloquent words about their suffering and occasionally a Good Samaritan who actually does something about it.

Join us this week as we begin this journey together, and reflect on how we are invited to be with those who are hurting in our world today.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

"God does not make the mountains to be inhabited. We ascend to the heights to gain a broader vision of the world below. But we do not stay there. We do not tarry there. The streams begin in the uplands, but they descend quickly to gladden the valleys below" (Henry Drummond, Scottish theologian)

As we descend the mountain into the dark valley of the Lenten season and journey with Jesus toward the cross, we must not leave behind the vision of God’s glory. Instead, we are called to carry that light with us — to embody God’s love in the valleys of pain and suffering along the way.

For further reflections on the transfiguration, listen to this week’s sermon here.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Reconciliation and Liberation Story is an
alternative seventh story embodied by Jesus. It
contrasts sharply with the six dominant narratives of the first century and all of human history. In Luke 19, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. He laments her refusal to
embrace the way of peace and foresees the inevitable destruction caused by these other stories.

This week in worship we shared in table conversations around how we are tempted into the six stories of domination, revenge, isolation, victimization, purification and accumulation and what steps we can take to live into the seventh story marked by the unconditional love of Christ for all.

Join us as we finish the seventh story and take some time to reflect on these questions for yourself. How are the six stories of the world impacting your life and how will you live into the Seventh Story this week?

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Accumulation Story tells us that the most important thing in life is the accumulation of wealth, and that great wealth comes with great power. Tragically, the effectiveness of this story is built into the very fabric of our consumer capitalist society. As more and more wealth and power is concentrated into the hands of a smaller and smaller few, the rest of the population is discarded as essentially disposable. Workers are treated as commodities to exploit as they labor endlessly for less and less in return.

Jesus shows us another way, a way of generosity and care for the poor and vulnerable rather than the exploitation of those who already have so little. As he says to the disciples in Matthew 19:23, it is hard indeed for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. With great wealth comes great responsibility, a basic truth that our world seems to have all but lost.

Join us as we reflect on the ways Christians have resisted this accumulation story throughout the centuries and how we might be called to do the same in our own time.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Victimization story tells us that there is no hope. It fills us with a spirit of fear and ultimately leads to hatred and bitterness. While it is understandable for those who are truly oppressed to feel this way, Jesus reminds us that the injustice we face does not define us. Even in our suffering, we are blessed because God sees us and loves us. The truth is that God always takes the side of those who are truly oppressed.

Join us as we lament together the injustice in our world and lean into our call to rise above the victimiztiaon story and lean into a story of hope, mercy and love. Let us stand in the gap for those on the margins, that they may truly experience the love of Christ through us.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

The Purification Story essentially claims that some of us are better than others. When we begin to view those who are “different” in some way as a problem to be solved rather than equal members of our human family, we reject Jesus’ call to inclusion, diversity and compassion. Jesus spent most of his ministry with those who were considered impure and unwanted by society. How can we who follow him ignore or even celebrate those who would continue to scapegoat those who don’t fit the image of what a “good Christian” or a “good American” should look like?

Join us this week as we look at the Purification Story and the ways we are called to tear down the barriers between us and them.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

For me personally, the isolation story is perhaps the most tempting of all. The idea of holing up in a mountain cabin and tuning out the chaos of the world sounds more and more appealing with every news cycle. It is a story of separation and escapism, as if we could somehow create our own little fantasy world where all the other stories that tear us apart could somehow not follow us.

Rather than separation from the world, Jesus calls us to engagement as salt and light. From the very beginning we were created for relationship.

Join us this week as we look at the Isolation Story and Jesus' call to engage a darkened world with the light of his love.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa

In a nation built on stories of revolution, it is difficult to imagine a reality where fighting back against those in power over us is not the norm. Yet we see over and over throughout history that every time someone usurps power from another out of a spirit of revenge, they become the oppressors until someone else rises up and seeks revenge on them.

How can we break this cycle of violence and revenge? Could there be another way?

Join us this week as we look at the Revolution Story and Jesus' call to non-violent resistence instead.

Series is based on the book, Corey & the Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren.

Podcast Intro recorded by Ariana Sefa