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Preacher: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

Texts: Jeremiah 6:16 & Matthew 11:28-30

When the world shouts from every screen, how do we stay awake to suffering without burning out our souls? We open with Jeremiah’s call to “stand at the crossroads” and pair it with Jesus’ invitation to the weary, building a roadmap for people who want to be engaged, faithful, and sane in a noisy age. The result is a practice-based approach to balance: hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, but add Sabbath so your heart can hold both.

We trace how notifications, social media, and AI-driven feeds hijack attention and push our threat-biased brains into overdrive. Drawing on psychological insights about doomscrolling, anxiety, and decision fatigue, we explain why information overload makes everything feel urgent and trivial at the same time. Then we pivot to hope: ancient rhythms that protect empathy, restore nuance, and make our activism more effective. Rest is not retreat; it is training. Limits are not laziness; they are wisdom.

Along the way we share two sticky models for daily life. First, Brene Brown’s household check-ins—How much do you have today?—which turn love into logistics and prevent resentment. Second, the sentinel meerkat, a simple picture of rotating vigilance so everyone gets to eat, sleep, and play. Apply those patterns to families, teams, and congregations: share the watch, schedule digital sabbath windows, and trust your circle to tap you only when it truly matters. We close by reclaiming rest as a spiritual discipline that honors our design and fuels sustained, compassionate action.

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Presenter: Rev. Dr. Kit Schooley

A vineyard without hedges. An angel who sounds like Christ. A slave who weeds beyond the brief and is named co‑heir with the son. We dive into The Shepherd of Hermas, a wildly popular early Christian text from Rome that many congregations cherished but the canon ultimately set aside. Across visions, mandates, and parables, Hermas wrestles with a problem the young church felt in its bones: how do ordinary people live free of sin after adult baptism is treated as a final crossing?

We start with the history—how the text spread in Greek, why its silence on Jesus’ name and the resurrection puzzled later readers, and what that reveals about the concerns of communities between 100 and 150 CE. Then we unpack the famous vineyard story, mapping its characters and symbols: the master’s absence, the faithful slave, angels as stakes, sins as weeds, commandments as dishes sent from the feast. By setting Hermas beside Isaiah’s lamenting vineyard and Mark’s violent tenants, we trace a striking evolution from failure and rejection to formation and hope. No tower. No hedge. The field lies open, and holiness looks like patient work that blesses others.

Along the way, we explore why Hermas nearly made it into the New Testament, how Eusebius and Athanasius shaped the canon and the Trinity debate, and why this “wordy” book kept winning hearts anyway. The payoff is both historical and practical: a window into Rome’s pro‑Israel posture and a template for spiritual growth where obedience, initiative, and generosity confirm our calling. If you’re curious about early Christian literature, canon history, or how moral life takes root in community, you’ll find a rich guide here.

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Presenter: Rev. Dr. Kit Schooley

A fragile manuscript, a private room, and a challenge that still stings: who gets to speak for Jesus when the records are broken and the crowd isn’t there to witness it? We unpack the Gospel of Mary against a Hellenistic backdrop where God is distant, matter feels suspect, and the soul struggles upward. Instead of a public miracle at Galilee, we hear a small circle wrestling with inner revelations, missing pages, and a mission that might stall before it starts.

Mary steps forward to interpret a post-resurrection conversation, sketching stages of ascent that sound more like shedding burdens than climbing a neat ladder. Andrew and Peter push back, questioning her credibility and the idea that Jesus could favor her insight. Levi (Matthew) answers with a sharp correction: if the Savior deemed her worthy, who are we to reject her? That moment reframes the episode from a gendered squabble into a strategy session for a young movement: stop piling on rules, stop gatekeeping spiritual status, and carry the message into a skeptical world. We connect these sparks to wider currents—anti-legalism, the break from Jewish norms, and the swirl of heterodoxy and orthodoxy that shaped the canon.

Across the hour, we trace why private texts struggled for acceptance, how early ascetic demands set impossible bars, and what “no new laws” meant for communities trying to grow without shrinking the table. Mary’s tears anchor the stakes: authority, trust, and the future of the mission. If you care about women’s leadership in the early church, the politics of canon, and the practical craft of evangelizing across cultures, this conversation opens a rare window into second-century tensions that feel uncomfortably current.

If this episode resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves early Christian history, and leave a review with your take: who should we trust to interpret Jesus today?

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