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The Social Jesus Podcast

The Bread of Life EPISODE 17

John 6:35, 41-51 “The kind of Jesus following that is only about managing fear of death is also convenient for those in positions of power who benefit and are privileged by unjust systems and ways of shaping our societies. Death-management-only Christianity leaves unjust systems unchallenged, unchanged, and thus untouched. This is why a heaven-focused version of Christianity is often promoted by people in power. They know that a Christianity that is other-world-focused leaves this world, their world, unchanged. Faith that has become mere death management is, ironically, death-dealing. Faith should first do no harm. It should call us to consider how we show up in our world while we are alive and inspire us to shape our shared world into a compassionate, safe home for everyone.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

CLEAN

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Resurrection as Injustice Undone

Resurrection as Injustice Undone

Luke 24:36-48 Whatever we make of the resurrection stories today, reading them through much more scientific lenses, we cannot ignore the fact that nowhere in these passages is Jesus’ death lifted up. The good news is that Jesus’ death had been undone! Whatever else we make of these stories today, their truth is that oppression and power don’t have to have the last words in our stories either. We can choose to keep going. The opposition doesn’t have to have the last word. Love can conquer injustice. Our stories aren’t over yet. For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Good Shepherd and a Socially Just World

The Good Shepherd and a Socially Just World

https://renewedheartministries.com For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Different Kinds of Christianity Produce Different Kinds of Fruit

Different Kinds of Christianity Produce Different Kinds of Fruit

John 15:1-8 “Today, it is no secret that many kinds of Christianity are failing to produce the kind of fruit that makes this world a better place. We can, if we choose, be a part of shaping a world that is just and safe for everyone. It will require change for some types of Christianity. And this change, difficult as it may be, in the end, will be worth all the effort it takes.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Loving One Another and Social Justice

Loving One Another and Social Justice

John 15:9-17 “Whatever we say about love, the Jesus of the gospels, and the Divine, these beliefs about love must transform us into more loving human beings. We can teach, preach, and believe in love, and still not let those beliefs become anything more than mental assent to ideas. We must choose to apply our beliefs about love not just to how we imagine God relates to us, but also to how we relate to one another! And we can’t love one another and not care about the things each of us suffers as a result of the way our society is shaped.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Sent to be Socially Life-Giving

Sent to be Socially Life-Giving

John 17:6-19 “Although we may be different, we belong to each other. What affects one affects us all. We either thrive together or decline and wither together. Humanity is far from homogeneous, but we are all still part of each other. Like it or not, our shared humanity connects us all.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Pentecost as Connectedness and Distributive Justice

Pentecost as Connectedness and Distributive Justice

John 15:26-27; 16:4-15; Acts 2:1-4 “In the synoptic Gospels and the book of Acts, we see a fruit of the Spirit included the restoration of social justice. In these stories, whether the Spirit is poured out on Jesus or his followers, it is evident in their profound concern for the suffering caused by societal structures.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Reuniting the Material and the Spiritual

Reuniting the Material and the Spiritual

John 3:1-17 “This division between the flesh and the spirit, between the physical, material world and the spiritual has born seriously destructive fruit throughout Christianity. The Jesus in the synoptic gospels did not separate the spiritual from the fleshly or material. He taught his followers how to navigate their material world by righting injustice, ending oppression, and offering healing alternatives to violence. That Jewish Jesus did not separate the spiritual and material to offer a path of escape from the material world. Rather he taught his followers how to lean into their material world in life-giving ways.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

The Sabbath and Social Justice

The Sabbath and Social Justice

Mark 2:23-3:6 “Are there times when we have interpreted our own Jesus following in ways that have become death dealing for our society? Is our practice of Christianity socially life-giving? Are we obstacles to those around us working toward a more just, safer, compassionate society with room for everyone or are we, like Mark’s Jesus, standing up to those obstacles and being conduits of love, life, and healing? Where are we in the way? How can we get out of the way and come alongside, choosing to recognize those working to make our world a safer place for everyone, and adding our energy and effort to their work?”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Labelling Social Justice as Dangerous

Labelling Social Justice as Dangerous

Mark 3:20-24 “The Beelzebul controversy makes me think of how certain Christians have feared the women’s liberation movement, opposed the abolition of slavery, or are still opposed to making our world a safer place for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer/questioning. I think of how certain Christians are opposed to political movements attempting to make our world safer for children by passing background checks for firearms. The number one cause of death of school age children in the U.S. is not library books or drag queens, but mass shootings. Certain Christian leaders seek to inspire fear among middle class people about programs to have the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes to fund more programs for the poor and disenfranchised. This story serves as a warning and helps us consider whether we are genuinely using the wisdom of Jesus’ teachings as we assess the work and progress of those presently shaping our world into a safer, compassionate, just home for everyone.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Hope Despite Appearances

Hope Despite Appearances

Mark 4:26-34 Just as we don’t have to understand how seeds work in order to plant the seeds, we don’t always have to understand how our world is going to be put right to take the first steps in reshaping it. Many times, the road to justice is made as we travel it. How justice is achieved from the modest beginnings of grassroots movements is often a path with twist and turns that surprise us and could not have been predicted. There is mystery in how our combined justice efforts combine with others’ justice efforts to create something that is often greater and more beautiful than the sum of all its parts.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

When the Wind and Waves Threaten Justice

When the Wind and Waves Threaten Justice

Mark 4:35-41 It seems like, no matter what area of justice we are working for, whenever we take three steps forward the winds and waves push us two steps back. Working from of a place of love to make our world a more equitable place continues to mean facing winds and waves from those who benefit from an inequitable world. This week’s reading is for those presently facing winds and waves. It reminds us that there will be storms, there will be winds, there will be waves that threaten to sink us. This passage doesn’t promise that these won’t be part of our story. In fact, they remind us that they most certainly will. Yet the disciples weren’t alone in the boat. And neither are we. You’re in the right story.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Mark 5:21-43 It initially looks like this story will affirm the social assumption that if we take care of those considered less than in our society then there won’t be enough for everyone else, assuming life is a zero-sum game. But then this story takes a sharp turn. This story ends up teaching us how to practice a preferential option for the marginalized of our society. Placing the synagogue leader next to the woman in this week’s reading affirms practicing a preferential option of the marginalized in general. Then, by placing the woman alongside this little girl too, the story calls us to reject specifically preferences practiced within patriarchy.For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Embracing our Dependency

Embracing our Dependency

Mark 6:1-13 “Is our Christianity all about getting to heaven and saving our own individual soul? Or does following Jesus call us at the very first to be concerned with someone’s present material need? The very first test for someone who encountered one of these original twelve was not how they responded to a gospel presentation on Jesus’ death, heaven or hell, or whatever gospel topic is too often the soundbite version of sharing Christianity today. The very first test was how would this person respond to someone on their door step with no bread, no money, and no extra clothing.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Jesus Following and Social Justice

Jesus Following and Social Justice

Mark 6:14-29 “Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes states, ‘When you start with an understanding that God loves everyone, justice isn’t very far behind.’ For those endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings, not being concerned with matters of social justice is a failure. It’s a failure to love. It’s a failure in our Jesus-following. It may derided by those who have something to lose from making our world a more just home for everyone. That’s okay. To believe in a gospel of love means to be about justice because justice is what love looks like in public.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Transcending and Escaping or Engaging and Transforming

Transcending and Escaping or Engaging and Transforming

John 6:1-21 “A focus on transcending this world comes from John’s gospel. But as Jesus followers, we must allow ourselves to be confronted by the fact that that focus has not always produced good fruit. The synoptic gospels admonish us as Jesus followers to engage our world, to transform it, to work alongside others working to shape our world into a home for everyone, a home where everyone has their needs met, a home that is safe, rooted in distributive justice, and founded on compassion and the recognition that each of us bears the image of the Divine and is part of one another.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

Not Spiritualizing the Material

Not Spiritualizing the Material

John 6:24-35 “There is no reason to pit the saving of souls against social justice work. Saving bodies is just as much a part of the Jesus tradition as savings souls is. In fact, in the synoptic gospels, social justice engagement is a requirement for genuinely following Jesus.”For more go to renewedheartministries.com

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