The Bible as One Story: Recent Episodes
Brandon Witwer
hosted by the Anglican Parish of Christ Church Calgary at Elbow Park, this podcast explores what it means to read the bible as one story composed of multiple acts. Brandon Witwer, rector at Christ Church, takes us on a journey inspired by theological writers such as N.T. Wright and Peter Enns.
Jesus invited his disciples to get away to a quiet place where they could rest from ministry. Adam reflects on how God does not ask us to give our best efforts (and burn ourselves out doing so), but to give ourselves, just as we are.
This Sunday, we looked at what John the Baptist can teach us about the peculiar way that people of faith ought to protest what is broken and unjust in the world.
On Palm Sunday 2024, Rev. Adam Bedford discusses exactly how "triumphant" is Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. In this last week before Jesus' passion, Adam encourages the listener to reflect on a God who is not violent in the face of violent, but chooses to "absorb" violence.
Homily/Reflection by Chelsea Mak, Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Religion at Emory University.
A reflection from Rev. Brandon Witwer on February 11, 2024. Transfiguration is a confirmation from God that Jesus will suffer and die. Jesus' transfiguration is an invitation to our own deaths and our own resurrection as we make space for God through the preparatory nature of Lent.
Adam explains why John the Baptist is the emblematic saint of Advent: John gives us a clue as to our preparing the way for the Christ.
Rev. Adam Bedford invites us to postpone, push back, and wait during this Advent. In the waiting, we ask, what kind of powerful intervention are we looking for; what kind of God are we looking for?
Taking his cue from the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), where that particular master "reaps where he does not sow," Rev. Brandon Witwer wrestles with the idea of an entrepreneurial master and then a master who exceeds our concepts of generosity. Brandon asks how we might take risks, if our God had gifts beyond measure in store for us.
How shall we live now in light of Christ's coming? Rev. Adam Bedford explains early Christians' shift from an emphasis on immediacy to looking to the future of Christ's coming. Adam extols us: "Let our hope come up and shape our present being." Instead of nostalgia, we are shaped by our futurity.
Exodus 33:12-23
33:12 Moses said to the LORD, "See, you have said to me, 'Bring up this people'; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
33:13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people."
33:14 He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
33:15 And he said to him, "If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.
33:16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth."
33:17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
33:18 Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray."
33:19 And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, 'The LORD'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
33:20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live."
33:21 And the LORD continued, "See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock;
33:22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
33:23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
Adam expounds on the text of Philippians. The heartbeat of the book of Philippians is the hymn of Christ's self-emptying and return to glory. This hymn marks a journey for all believers to travel from humility to working for justice and equity.
Rev. Brandon Witwer discusses Jesus, on the way to Jerusalem, healing the blind man. Brandon wonders how often we miss God's healing in our lives, and exhorts us to be thankful, especially on this holiday of thanksgiving.
Text: Matthew 20:1-16. A great reflection on our penchant for just desserts and blind fairness, from Rev. Adam Bedford.
Sermon by Rector Rev. Brandon Witwer on September 17, 2023. Brandon describes the difficulty of being hospitable to those who are just a little different than we, and offers St. Paul's answer to the difficulty.
Gary Mak, Lay Pastor of Family Ministry at Christ Church, speaks on family stories, mystery, and mastery in Romans 11,
Sermon by Rev. Brandon Witwer on June 14, 2023. Rev. Witwer reflects on the evolving interpretation of Romans 5, especially verse 8: "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us." In view of our provincial election and political climate, we are called to love others the way that Christ loved us.
Sermon by Rev. Clara King. Dr. King will be preaching the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. In this message, she unveils what it was like for the disciples to witness Jesus' acting the slave and washing their feet.
Sermon by Rev. Robert Pynn on Apr. 2, 2023 on the nature of power, the biblical synonymity of leader and servant
Rev. Brandon Witwer plays out the Parable of the Talents: what it meant for the Master's servants to take a risk with his money; the Master's penchant for risk and reward; and Christ Church's deficit spending in light of the parable.
Sermon by Rev. Adam Bedford, March 12, 2023, on Jesus's radical vision of God's hospitality as written in the Matthean text. Adam's homily responds to Matthew 22:1-14, the parable of the wedding banquet, in which a king sends slaves to invite guests to his son's banquet, some of whom pay the invitation no heed and continue going about their own business, and others who kill the slaves sent with the message. The king is enraged, killing the murderers and burning down their city.
Rev. Robert Pynn expounds on the mysteries of Christ's transfiguration, mysteries which followers of "The Way" carried with them, mysteries borne by Moses as he descended Sinai, mystery that changes how we as Christians see the world.
Rev. Brandon Witwer offers a playful exploration of Jesus' parables in Matthew 13:24-43. Parables remind us that, in the driest seasons of our lives, God is still hard at work as the woman kneading yeast in to our lives. Father B's challenge to his audience: listen to the parables again with all of our imaginations, letting them speak to "those who have ears to hear."
Sermon by Family Ministry Director, Gary Mak. Gary has a Master of Divinity from Ambrose Seminary, and years of experience pastoring children, youth, and young adults.
A Sermon on the fourth week of Advent by the Very Reverend Robert Pynn. Rev. Robert Pynn was born in Toronto and received his higher education in Boston Massachusetts earning his graduate degree at The Episcopal Theological School in Harvard University. He has lived and worked in Ottawa, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia. Since moving to Calgary, Alberta in 1977 he has served as Archdeacon and Dean of the Anglican Diocese as well as Prolocutor of the church's highest national body. Throughout his career he has inspired and helped found many social programs, including Homefront and FaithLink. At a 2006 awares ceremony Dean Pynn was called "the heart and soul of the Domestic Violence Sector." He is presently the Chair of The Trinity Place Foundation of Calgary where he helped initiate and integrated response to the abuse of seniors. Much of his poetry and contemplative reflections have been used by service agencies and read at their Board meetings and gala events. Robert Pynn has received many awards including: The Spirits of God Outstanding Agency Volunteer Award from the United Way; the Alberta Centennial Medal; the Jerry P. Sellinger Community Builders Award; and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has published two collections of poetry: Lifelines and Writing the Wind.
Rev. Brandon Witwer helps us laugh at the apparent improprieties and the uncomfortableness of the Book of Esther. He points to the fact that the historic church has wrestled with the issue of whether the book ought to be scripture. In the same way, Esther helps Christians to wrestle and wait given the apparent absence of God, to wait with "pregnant" hope during the season of Advent.
Chelsea Mak is a Doctoral Candidate in the study of the Hebrew Bible, having completed her Master's degree focused on the prophets with a thesis on the vision of ecology in Habbakuk. Chelsea Mak breaks down the chapters of Habbakuk for our audience, noting the prophet's indictment against God. God had promised to rescue his people from oppression under Assyria but instead brought further violence through Babylon, his chosen "savior." At the end of the protest, Habbakuk somehow continues to stand for hope in God's faithfulness, as in the most-known verse, "but the righteous will live by their faithfulness."Similarly for us, Advent makes this movement from absence to presence, from our holding God accountable to hoping in the Christ. Thus Mak's refrain repeats the RCV's: "The Christ came, the Christ comes, and the Christ will come again."
Rev. Brandon Witwer speaks the message of Isaiah, finding congruence between its fundamental question, "Where is God in the world [during Assyrian Exile]," and the message of the gospel, where the Christian messiah in Jesus says "You are the salt of the earth." Week 9 is a week to present the Messiah to the world, as we the listeners represent Jesus and find God in us, all while dispersing ourselves like salt into the various corners of life.
Why do people buy flowers? Dr. Reimer explains the nature of the Hebrews' sacrifice in the temple. Giving a gift or sacrificial animal to God can become transactional, especially for those with power and means, but Micah 6 reminds us that God wants us to worship him through the image (or idol) God has chosen: other human beings. Dr. Reimer concludes: "Stop bringing flowers; start doing the right thing... the images of God will be in your life all week, waiting for you to pass on God's love and mercy."
Rev. Brandon Witwer walks the church through the series of covenants God has made with the ancient Hebrews, leading eventually to the church's understanding of Baptism.
Father Brandon Witwer, Rector, compares the modern church, in its diminishing power and prestige, to the episode of the Israelites receiving the Ten Commandments. He concludes that the church is called to occupy a place on the margins, a position from which it can draw a diverse group to itself to enact equity and justice in society.
Rev. Witwer, Rector of Christ Church Calgary, discusses the Doctrine of Discovery and the biblical text of Exodus referenced by the Pope. on the morrow of the Canadian Day of Truth and Reconciliation. He notes, "we are not Israel, we are not the underdog... [who] co-opt God as the warrior God. Brandon refers to Dr. Ray Aldred's understanding of "reconciliation" as "closing the gap" between qualities of life and points to an on-going push for Indigenous police as a way to reform the penal justice system.
Rev. Brandon Witwer, rector of Christ Church Calgary, explains the trajectory of the biblical narrative through the promise given to Abram in Genesis 12.
Rev. Brandon Witwer, rector of Christ Church, explains the sweep of the story up to, and immediately following Noah's Ark. Because God floods the earth, God grieves for the creatures, the people, and the earth, even as God works to draw them together to flourish.
Rev. Robert Pynn draws on Paul Tillich, and sculptural art to understand Jesus' (inappropriate?) avowal in Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple."
Rev. Brandon Witwer introduces the Narrative Lectionary, which the parish will use over the next two years to make sense of the Bible (as one story!). Rev. Witwer follows N.T. Wright in describing Scripture's narrative arc in five "Acts": Creation (calling of Israel), Fall, Call of the Prophets, Christ (using the Gospel of Matthew), Church (this is the Act of the story we are living out right now!)