After Deconstruction: New Wine & New Wineskins
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
What are we to do when the tradition that taught us to ask “what would Jesus do?” no longer reflects what Jesus showed us in his life and teachings? Deconstruction. Decolonization. Reconstruction. For many people of faith, these three words mark the moments when they realized the religious beliefs embedded in their childhood were at odds with their experience of God as Divine Love. Those three words could also describe how the disciples experienced Jesus’ teachings, which challenged parts of their religious traditions. www.TheLoftLA.org
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God Doesn’t Have Favorites
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Join guest preacher Everest Harvey in The Loft as we wrap up our sermon series on hospitality and explore what it means to create home for every person in God's community. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Making A Place for Hospitality
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Because we practice hospitality as a core part of our faith, we work to make the our spaces more welcoming. This requires us to pay attention to how people experience our homes and our churches, in hopes that they will be places characterized by love and generosity. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Hospitality With God
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
How does greed or emptiness get in the way of offering hospitality to God? And what can we do? We welcome Rev. Dr. Diana Holbert, our Minister of Care, to The Loft this week as Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter has been home battling Covid. We invite you to keep him in your prayers as he continues to recover. www.TheLoftLA.org
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We Are Strangers Who Welcome Strangers
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Throughout his teaching and ministry, we encounter Jesus as a vulnerable guest, a needy stranger, and a gracious host. Jesus both welcomes and needs to be welcomed. In this way, when we are hospitable to the needy stranger, we do so with the awareness that we may be showing hospitality to Christ. And when we receive hospitality from a stranger, they give it knowing that they may be showing hospitality to Christ too. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Hospitality As Spiritual Practice
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
In ancient times, hospitality was regarded as a pillar on which the world's moral structure rested. It is an important theme in scripture, central to the gospel story. In the New Testament, we encounter Jesus as a vulnerable guest, a needy stranger, and a gracious host. The teachings of Jesus enrich and challenge our modern definitions of hospitality, inviting us to see it as a spiritual practice. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Queer Callings & Responses
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Song of Mary and the Song of Hannah remind us that God’s call to prophecy, service, and leadership is not limited to cisgender men. The songs of Elsa, a character whose story is decidedly queer, suggest something similar. Reading these stories together can help us understand how essential it is to respond to our calling. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Baptized Into A Found Family
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The Bible tells us that when Jesus was baptized, he heard a voice from heaven declare, “This is my Son whom I dearly love.” In the story of Jesus' baptism and temptation, we see the triumph of vulnerability over toxic masculinity and the beginnings of a found family that can survive temptation and thrive as their authentic selves. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Drew Back the Curtain
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
Even before he was immortalized in musical theater for his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (TM), Joseph's story has so many points of connection with the experiences of Queer folx. Come "draw back the curtain" and hear his story again. Lofter and drag performer Elliot Handloser joins Pastor Molly this week for a second week of our Pride month "We Have Always Been Here" series. www.TheLoftLA.org
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Now You See Me
The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form
The way we read the Bible is filtered through the lens of our experience. Our interpretive lens determines what we do and what we do not see. This Sunday, we begin our Pride month sermon series by learning how a queer hermeneutic can help us to see what has always been there. www.TheLoftLA.org
info_outlineThe Holy Spirit is the implanted hope that continuously moves us to practice living the Christian life, the Way of Jesus. One function of this movement towards God is that we are restored to a right relationship with God by grace and through faith. When we choose to go with, rather than against, the momentum of our souls, we step into the Divine flow of love that restores our love for our neighbors and ourselves.
www.TheLoftLA.org