The Good News From The Gardens Podcast

11/17/24 | The Sky Is NOT Falling!

Gifts of Love: The Sky is NOT Falling!
Mark 13:1-8
In this text…the disciples are distracted by big buildings, and Jesus dismisses the buildings grandeur and assures the disciples of their collapse. Rightfully so, they are concerned about this calamitous occasion. Jesus does not offer comfort, but ratchets up the mayhem, assuring them that there will be more chaos to come. However, in the last verse Jesus finishes with this, “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” In this broken world, anything that is good is going to be met with disruption and difficulty. In the meantime, till Christ comes again, how do we handle life’s proverbial valleys? We live spiritually and emotionally grounded in God. Listen to this scripture and message for a hope-filled perspective on life ahead for us all.  
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11/10/24 | Gifts of Love: Peanut Butter Cups and a Mile High Meal with Mother Theresa

Gifts of Love: Peanut Butter Cups and a Mile High Meal with Mother Theresa
Mark 12:38-44
Jesus reports to us from the temple. While there, he rails against the scribes' accumulation of wealth and opulence at the expense of widows, and their inauthentic giving. In contrast, he lifts up a widow. A victim of the broken and unjust system. Jesus points out that she places the equivalent of 1/64 of a day’s wage in the temple treasury. Essentially nothing. A negligible amount for the treasury, but all that she had to live on. Join us this Sunday as we contemplate what giving and living out of a sense of abundance looks like, when sometimes all signs point to poverty. 
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11/03/24 | Poll Your Emotions

All Saints Sunday: Poll Your Emotions
John 11:32-44
Through the story of the raising of Lazarus, we experience Jesus accompanying us in our sorrow, and we believe that in Christ the power of death will be defeated. In and around the death of Lazarus, Jesus managed to keep it together in a situation that questioned his ability and sincerity, was stressful, and grief-laden. Like Jesus, how might we be led to check our anxiety and stress levels. How might check them at the cross? As saints of the present we are called to be spiritually and emotionally mature when it comes to death, and loss. We do what we do today because of those who have gone before us, and the future of those who are watching us. Have a listen of this message if you would like some perspective on what to carry with you to the polls and into God's world.
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10/27/24 | The Upside Down Kingdom: Where the Blind Can See!

The Upside-Down Kingdom: Where the Blind Can See
Mark 10-46-52
His name is Bartimaeus. He is the son of Timaeus. He once could see, but is now blind. We don’t know why he is blind. He almost went unseen by Jesus while begging at the city gates. People tried to stifle his pleas for Jesus mercy. Jesus stopped what he was doing and called for him. Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replies, “To see again.” Jesus replies, “Go; your faith has made you well.” In this message we consider what it is to have our eyes opened for Jesus.
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A Prayer Service For Grace-Filled Civic Engagement

This Contemplative Prayer Service for Grace-filled Civic Engagement was prepared by the Just Love Team of the Florida Bahamas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for their 2024 Fall Conference on Ministry in September of 2024. It has been modified with permission for this podcast. You will hear 14 voices in this prayer service. Our ages are 10 to 96 years young! We are  U.S. citizens, and legal guests of this country. We are a people of different political views, cultures, and ethnicities. We are a part of the many voices that make up the body of Christ, just as many voices make for the great country we live in.
You are invited, to find a space wherein you can join the voices you are about to hear. This may be by yourself on your patio, or deck. It may be in your car as you commute to work. It may be in the quiet of the beginning or end of a day. Or perhaps that space is physically with others. Gathered together, you reflect openly, offering one another a space for reflection on what grace-filled civic engagement looks like to one another. With those on this podcast, or in the company of others, listen with each other. Faithfully ponder the life in Christ we are called into together. Be challenged together, but be hopeful together. One more thing to note, there is a healthy dose of silent space embedded within this prayer service. Use that time and space to listen to what the creator of time and space may be saying to you. 
All biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version translation.
Works cited include:
The draft statement for Faith in Civic Life, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
Government and Civic Engagement in the United States: Discipleship in a Democracy, A Social Message published June 24th of 2024 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
What Luther Says, Volume 1.
Luther’s Works, the American Edition.
A transcript of this podcast, with detailed citations can be found at pbnativity.com under the service and outreach dropdown menu. 
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10/20/24 | The Upside Down Kingdom: Where the Least Are Greatest

The Upside Down Kingdom: Where the Least Are Greatest
Mark 10:35-45
This week in Mark, Jesus receives a request from James and John. They wish to sit at the right and left of Jesus when in his glory. Jesus wastes no time and setting these two glory hounds straight. Glory is reserved for those who seek glory, exaltation, freedom, and life abundant for those whom it is evasive. In addressing his disciples Jesus said this, “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Listen to this message, and unpack Jesus', uncomfortable but poignant language of what it means to be a servant and slave to one another.
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101324 | Hurricane Jesus

The Upside Down Kingdom: Hurricane Jesus
Part 3 of 4 series from the 10th chapter of Mark 
Mark 10:2-16
Jesus is questioned by a rich man about how he can go about inheriting eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, then he will have treasure in heaven. Then, he can follow Jesus. Jesus then doubles down on his disciples and tells them that riches in this age comes to those who forgo all relationships if they follow him. These are difficult words to hear in the aftermath of two horrendously destructive hurricanes in less than two weeks. Many people have lost possessions and persons. This text is more than just being separated from our “stuff”, this teaching of Jesus is about our spiritual self- awareness. Jesus is cautioning his followers and us to not let worldly possessions define how we relate to one another. For how we relate to one another is ultimately how we chose to define our relationship with God. Join us this Sunday at 9AM as we unpack a timely message about the  relationship between our spirituality and our stuff. 
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100624 | The Upside Down Kingdom: All Are Blessed

The Upside Down Kingdom: All Are Blessed
Mark 10:2-16
The Gospel of Mark is a tough one this week. Biblical interpretation is at the center of Jesus being questioned by Pharisees. It is for us as well. In this Gospel passage there appears to be unsettling language from Jesus about marriage, divorce and a woman’s freedom in first century Holy Land. Using children as an example, Jesus flips the conventional understanding of who is in line with God, and who is not. Join us this Sunday at 9AM as we encounter a text that has long been used to oppress and shame, when in fact, that is not what Jesus was up to at all. 
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092924 | Powerful Prayer

A Faith That Works: Powerful Prayer
Part 5 of a 5 part series in book of James
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
 
The conclusion of the Book of James gives advice to the early Christian community about the power of prayer and the necessity of confession of sins. In Mark, the disciples are concerned about a person who is casting out demons in Jesus names. Prayer and healing. Healing and prayer. They are inextricably linked. In prayer we call upon God to address something our Christian sensibilities deems as needing tending to. When we pray we exercise our understanding (faith) that God will address a person/situation as God’s wills. All are called upon to be vessels of healing and prayer. Listen to this message if you wish to ponder the many benefits of prayer to yourself and God's people.
https://nativitylutheranpbg.com/
 

092224 | The Good Life

A Faith That Works: The Good Life
Part 4 of 5 part series in book of James
James 3:13
Mark 8:27-38
Mary Winsor shares her year in Mexico City at a migrant shelter through the (YAGM) Young Adult in Global Mission program and a story of shared hope and joy. This followed by a message on a verse from James and a passage in Mark that zeros in on the human condition. James decries selfish ambition and calls on the community to live in wisdom, and in Mark Jesus corrects the selfish ambition of the disciples and gathers them around himself, who is servant of all and the Wisdom of God. Listen to this podcast and hopefully be all the wiser in knowing how the "good life" is born out of community centered in serving the needs of others.
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