As we continue in the season of Lent, Matt Inman reflects on how our faith intersects with our belonging [Romans 4:13-17].   Reflection What parts of your story might need to be honored more for you to feel a greater sense of belonging? What kinds of new conversations do you long for?  Who in your life do you trust enough to allow them to interrupt you?   Spiritual Practice Journal through these three questions.  Where have you felt loving connection with your parents/guardians?  Where might your parents have struggled to know how to love you? Imagine what acceptance and belonging might have looked like in those spaces. Conversation.  Have a conversation with a friend or a colleague about where fear of punishment finds its way into your faith, thoughts, relationships and dreams.   Resources Film: Billy Elliot 

Vox Veniae Podcast

A New Conversation

As we enter the season of Lent, Gideon Tsang reflects on what we need to remember about God’s goodness [Psalm 103:1-6].   Reflection What does it look like to bring your shame into the magnitude of mercy this week? How does it make you feel knowing God wants to satisfy your needs with goodness as long as you live?   Spiritual Practice Marinate in the vastness of mercy.  Where’s the furthest place you’ve been on earth?  Drop off your shame on a trip across the world.   Resources Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire Music: Only One (Kanye West)  

Remember Mercy

Gena Minnix reflects on the Transfiguration and what it means to allow Jesus to come alongside us in our fear and to trust enough to take a small leap towards authentic love [Matthew 17:1-8].   Reflection How is fear shrinking my perspective on God, myself, others, or what’s possible? What would happen if I allowed Jesus to come alongside me and give me a new perspective? What "leap" am I afraid of taking in my relationship with God?   Spiritual Practice Breath Prayer. “God, even though I’m afraid… help me choose love.” Breath Prayer. “Jesus I can’t, you can… I’ll let go.”   Resources Video: Yes Theory Bungee Jumping with Will Smith 

Facing Our Fear

Weylin Lee reflects on our spiritual growth and how we can tell if our faith is maturing or not [1 Corinthians 3:1-9].   Reflection What life-giving rhythms are we feeding ourselves to experience growth? Who do we view through a lens of rivalry and how can we look for the movement of God that’s stirring in us and them?   Spiritual Practice Craft a Rhythm of Life.  Select intentional rhythms and practices that are appropriate for your emotional development. Personal rhythms (scripture, prayer, generosity). Communal rhythms (liturgy, sharing resources). Missional rhythms (hospitality, neighbor, partnerships).   Resources Book: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Peter Scazerro) Rhythm of Life Podcast: Fresh Air (Bryan Stevenson) Film: Parasite  

Growing in Maturity

Judy Peterson reflects on the feminine Epiphany of how Jesus arrived and what it means for our ability to view our own bodies more charitably [Luke 1].   Reflection What would it look like for us to step away from the dualistic thinking that says we are either holy or sinful and instead simply acknowledge that sometimes we are just human and that's more than alright? Is it possible that the hidden, vulnerable or even shame-filled part of your life or story might just be the exact portal through which God wants to be delivered into this world? 

Delivered

Gideon Tsang reflects on what we might find in God’s home, which is us [Psalm 84].   Reflection How is God inviting you into yourself this week?  Where are you in your pilgrimage to find your own strength?   Spiritual Practice Reflect on how comfortable we are with ourselves.  Are you comfortable with yourself? What parts are you not comfortable with?  What parts are you comfortable with? Reflect on your pilgrimage.  What part of this pilgrimage are you on?  What is your valley? Do we trust that we’ll find springs in the valley?   Resources Video: Dave Chapelle at DC Improv Video: Space12 Move    

Close to Home

Jason Minnix reflects on how Jesus carries light to bring people into their calling [Matthew 4:12-23].   Reflection Where do I sense the light that seems too good to be true? How can I begin or continue to listen to my deeper desires?   Spiritual Practice Attending to the Light of Desire.  Are my desires being sacrificed for my habits, or are my habits supporting my deeper desires? Examine your habits over time to see if they help you realize your deeper desire.  How has way closed behind me?  Am I doing a bunch of good things, or am I getting closer to the best things to invest in? Take some time to look back and name some limits more visible now in the things that haven’t worked out. Ask someone you trust if they agree with your list of limits and sense of what you’re best at.   Resources Book: Let Your Life Speak (Parker Palmer) 

Dawning

Weylin Lee reflects on how are we invited to live a life of service that’s sustainable and connected to what God is doing [Isaiah 49:1-7].   Reflection If you listen to your life, what is it revealing about your calling? How might you live a life of service in more sustainable ways? Similar to light, in what ways are you simply revealing God’s love?   Spiritual Practice Personal Compass.  Use the image of a compass to reflect on your life.  Reflect on the four directions and what they each represent.  Allow your life to speak back to you and help you begin to discern your calling. (exercise link below) Centering Prayer.  Practice consenting to God’s presence and action.  Consider service from a second half of life framework.   Resources Book: Let Your Life Speak (Parker Palmer) Personal Compass Exercise  

Life of Service

Gideon Tsang reflects on the season of epiphany using the framework of order, disorder and reorder [Isaiah 42:5-9].   Reflection Who or what in life brings you alive? How might loss and disappearance bring you into yourself   Spiritual Practice Reflect on God’s Creation. Think of the tastiest food you’ve eaten. Think of something beautiful or breathtaking in creation. Look at yourself and think about your life. Say aloud “Mmmmm… so good” Reflect on Disorder. What part of your life do you feel stuck, like a prison?  What if our blindness, our darkness, our stuckness, is an important part of epiphany?  Reflect on Reorder.  Is your original beauty still blossoming? How might your original beauty continue to spring forth?   Resources Video: Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides Music Video: Smile by Jay-Z (feat Gloria Carter)    

Close to Epiphany

As we begin a new year, Jason Minnix reflects on how God’s language is generous enough to hold all of us and our experiences [John 1:1-9].   Reflection Have I found the language big enough to hold my journey now? Where is your darkness and light living now? (offer compassion to your darkness) What questions will shape your beauty in the year to come?   Spiritual Practice Look for generous language this week. Have you found language big enough to hold your journey now? Is our language creating new possibilities of inclusion for ourselves and others?  Consider how we relate to God. What’s alive in my journey? Where does my darkness live?  Where is the light?   Resources Video: The Office (12 Days of Christmas) Podcast: On Being (David Whyte)  

Generous Language

Chris Morton reflects on the hope that God is not finished with our growth and transformation [Acts 9:32-41].   Reflection What is unfinished in your life? What would you change if you invited God into that? 

Unfinished

As we continue in the Advent season, Jason Minnix reflects on the uncomfortable love of God through the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina [Matthew 1:18-25].   Reflection How am I being made vulnerable by the emergence of new life? Where do I sense the presence and absence of grace over this past year?   Resources Lectio Divina      

Advent: Uncomfortable Love

As we continue in the Advent season, Weylin Lee reflects on how we are invited to respond when our expectations of God don’t line up with reality [Matthew 11:2-6].   Reflection How can we practice curiosity around our unfulfilled expectations of God and our circumstances? Where and who are the margins in our life that we have overlooked? What expectations do we need to let go of?   Spiritual Practice Practice curiosity around your expectations.  Think of something that might be disappointing, frustrating, or confusing for you right now.  Reflect on how this disappointment might be tied to an expectation that we have of God. Be curious about the source of that expectation. Observe the margins.  Who are the people in the margins of our life?  How can we observe that God is already present in their lives?     Resources Film: It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood 

Advent: Expectations

As we continue in the Advent season, Jeff Chu reflects on how we are invited to experience and practice peace in the middle of the wilderness [Matthew 3].   Reflection What in your life needs to die? What are you trying to cultivate in your life this season?   Resources Book: Does Jesus Really Love Me? 

Advent: Preparing the Way for Peace

As we begin the Advent season, Gideon Tsang reflects on what we are invited to spend time on and what we can use this season for [Romans 13:11-14].   Reflection How can you rest in knowing that your awakening will find you in time without your own willpower? What parts of you are being made whole in this season of Advent?   Spiritual Practice Waking from sleep.  What parts of your life are still asleep?  What parts of your life are recently awakened?  What parts of your life are disorienting right now? Examining our wholeness.  What are our current exoskeletons?  What parts of us are learning to stand on our own, connecting to Christ in us, the hope of glory?   Resources Vox’s Open Letter Regarding ECC Vox Values Vox Homily on How to Apply Scripture    

Advent: Time

The work of the people. Our weekly rhythm of being together as a larger community to WORSHIP and CONFESS, to engage SCRIPTURE and PRAYER, to celebrate EUCHARIST, and to be sent back into the city with a BENEDICTION each and every week.

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Vox Veniae Podcast

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