Day1 Weekly Radio Broadcast - Day1 Feeds show

Day1 Weekly Radio Broadcast - Day1 Feeds

Summary: Each week the Day1 program, hosted by Peter Wallace, presents an inspiring message from one of America's most compelling preachers representing the mainline Protestant churches. The interview segments inform you about the speaker and the sermon Scripture text, and share ways you can respond to the message personally in your faith and life.

Podcasts:

 Fairfax Fair: Choosing to Be Captive or Free | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  The phone call came out of the blue. The men on the call, men whose son and daughter were married to one another, were cordial but not buddies, not pals. They lived in different towns: they led separate lives. If not for their young adult children, they never would have known one another. Jack initiated the call. His son was still just a boy. Yes, he was married. True, he could buy a beer, vote, and legally sign a contract, but he really was still just a boy, still growing up, still maturing, still growing into the man he would become. Or not. Or not, because Jack's boy, his son, had metastatic cancer. The boy, the young man, wanted to live - oh, how badly he wanted to live - for his wife, for their newly-born child, for the hopes he had for a house that someday would be full of children, for a house that would be a gathering place for his children's friends and neighborhood kids. But none of that was apt to happen. Jack's son was dying. Jack initiated the call that late afternoon. He was angry, very angry because his son had spurned his advice. Thunderstorms had crisscrossed the area the day before, the day Jack, Jr. was to return to the hospital. The boy - the young man - had elected for the couple and their son to drive back to the city instead of flying in Jack's light plane. The decision infuriated his father. The girl's father listened. Jack was unrelenting. He wanted the two of them - the two fathers - to confront their children together, to tell them how wrong their action was. The rant stretched on.

 Amos Disasa: The Water Will Hold You | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  When the water is still, it is easy to have faith in the captain of your life vessel. When the sound of the sea returns dead calm and the winds are blowing somewhere else, you may even excuse the captain of your vessel to take a nap. Nothing is happening here - the skies are clear - the sailing will be smooth for this journey - so go to sleep captain - we got this - you need your rest. But faith is a delicate thing. It has a tendency to escape and go into hiding right when we need it the most. When your heart is tugging you towards an uncertain future but where you are right now is cozy and comfortable. When the people who pay your bills expect something from you that your spirit isn't able to give. When your family is being ripped apart by the kind of quiet conflict that we are so good at hiding. When you lose a friend, maybe for a minute while they explore new interests that don't align with yours. When you lose a friend, maybe for a lifetime. In moments like this, when the sounds of the sea rise from their slumber with enough haste and violence to terrify experienced fishermen, and those of us that are just along for the ride...the faith that once gave us the confidence to send our captain to sleep can quickly disappear. In moments like this, the water which once suspended us above the darkness lurking below the surface of the sea now threatens to not hold us at all. We challenge ourselves to not let noisy distractions get in the way of God's voice. But what happens when the distraction appears to be an impending disaster, when the thunder rolls and lightning strikes?

 Amos Disasa: Is, Was, Is to Come | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  I have some friends that claim to not dream. I have other friends that keep a journal beside their beds so that they can record their dreams as soon as they wake up. I don't record my dreams in a journal because, well, someone might find that journal and read it. Most of my dreams are harmless, mundane variations of my real life. For instance, one time I had a dream in which I only wore red clothes. Hat, shirt, belt, pants, socks, shoes, everything was red. I was adamant in that dream about the particular shade of red I wore, and that red could only be found at one store. And the dream consisted of me annoying a bunch of people with this idiosyncrasy, and by the end of the dream, I lost all my friends. Could there be some truth buried deep within my unconscious regarding the color red? Maybe, but when I woke up, I didn't bother to explore that possibility, I just laughed and wrote it off as an absurd and impossible scenario. But not all my dreams are laughable. Some of them get a little too close to the truth. Recently, I had a vivid dream that included real people in my life and some unfortunate events that were my fault. The dream was so believable, that for a few seconds after waking up, I was in a state of panic and regret. I soon realized it was a dream, and I was relieved, even proud of myself for what I then knew I had not done. I resolved to tell no one and do nothing about the dream. When the recipient of the apocalyptic vision we call the revelation of John woke up, he had to tell someone, he had to record his travel to the heights of heaven in a dream journal and hope that someone would find it.

 Susan Crowell: The Transformative Power of Grace | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  When I was fifteen years old, I began working at a little country restaurant in a neighboring town. I wore a gingham apron with matching kerchief to cover my hair and I spent the evenings refilling tea and water glasses, visiting with the dinner guests, and taking care of their needs. I loved the job, and I thought that I was pretty good at it. Everything changed when the manager informed me that the girl who was hired to wash dishes wanted to work out front and that the two of us would be alternating our jobs every other day. I was to wash dishes? Something I didn't even do at home! I was appalled at the perceived injustice. Because I could not stand the thought of washing dishes for five hours each evening, I quit. Several weeks later I began working as a Nursing Assistant at a skilled nursing center a few towns away. I took the job without fully understanding the requirements. Instead of washing dishes, I washed people! My primary responsibility was to bathe and care for the personal needs of the patients assigned to me. I changed bed linens, refilled water pitchers, fed meals, and provided for the patients in my care. God used this experience to chip away at the pride, hypocrisy, and arrogance in my life; to teach me a lesson in humility. God didn't want me washing dishes. God wanted me washing people. God used that experience of caring for the personal needs of the sick, infirmed, and elderly to begin transforming me into the person God intended me to be.

 Rob Lee: Nevertheless, She Persisted | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  I am surrounded by strong and empowered women. My grandmother was president of the North Carolina Garden Club and has mingled with the likes of British royalty. My mom has her doctorate in nursing practice and my wife Stephanie is a force to be reckoned with in her own right. One of my closest friends is a woman named Palmer, who I'm certain be bishop as soon as she's out of seminary. All these women have shown me that while I may not always fully understand the persistence that women have to have in a patriarchal world, I can nonetheless appreciate and learn from it. The persistence of women through the ages in spite of men getting in the way is no surprise to me in today's Gospel text. What is surprising to me is Jesus' initial response to the persistent and empowered Canaanite woman in our narrative today. Initially, we could just laugh this off as an issue of geography. The Jews have been squabbling with the Canaanites since before anyone can remember, and maybe that is why Jesus doesn't want to stir the pot. But Jesus is the epitome of pot stirring, he loves to get things going in the world, and in this particular situation, Jesus initially gets it wrong. Now, before you call me a heretic and tune me out, perhaps this is Jesus' human side coming out, perhaps Jesus had a rough day and found himself with someone yelling at him. But, nonetheless, this signals a turn for Jesus, a turn for Jesus like we all have, a self-realization that our reality may not be the only reality that is important at this particular moment. Perhaps this persistent Canaanite woman is preparing Jesus for what's ahead and the road that Jesus must take.

 Monty Knight: The Sacred Sound of Silence | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  In the 19th Chapter of I Kings, the ancient Hebrew prophet, Elijah, is having a proverbial "nervous breakdown." He's depressed. So depressed, in fact, he wants to die. "It is enough," Elijah wails, "O Lord, now take away my life." (v.4) Perhaps you've heard this plaintive lament sung by the baritone soloist in the oratorio by Felix Mendelsohn, a marvelous musical composition that bears Elijah's name. In the previous chapter of this portion of Hebrew scripture, which is set in the 9th century B.C.E., some 900 years before the birth of Jesus, in that primitive account Elijah is engaged in a classic cultic confrontation with the prophets of Baal, the most prominent of fertility deities among the ancient Canaanites, Israel's sworn enemies. Though greatly outnumbered, Elijah has emerged victorious, prompting the wicked Queen Jezebel (dominant, controlling wife of the weak Israelite King, Ahab, and a devoted Baal-worshipper herself), to announce her intent to have Elijah killed. So, Elijah - here in 1 Kings 19 - he's running for his life. If he is frightened, he is just as exhausted. Being afraid: it can wear you down - if not out! Not surprising then, Elijah falls asleep. "Under a broom tree," the Bible says. When he awakens, an angel explains to Elijah that he needs something to eat and to drink. Which, dramatically, God provides for Elijah in a jug of water and some freshly baked bread that appear before him. Some years ago, I received a phone call from a clinical staff member at a nearby psychiatric hospital. This person knew me from my having conducted, for a number of years, a pastoral care and counseling seminar for local clergy at that hospital. It seems a woman patient in their facility had been hospitalized due to a psychotic episode. And she was refusing to eat, claiming that it was God, no less; that indeed it was God who was telling her to engage in that particular hunger strike. So - assuming my "pastoral authority" perceived at least by the person requesting my services - I was asked if I would meet with this patient to see if I could talk her into eating something.

 Barbara Lundblad: Who Will Feed Them? You. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  When Matthew wrote his gospel, he didn't put in any titles. Neither did any of the gospel writers. But now Most Bibles have added titles to help us find things we're looking for. In my Bible, the title of this section of Matthew is "Feeding the Five Thousand." But that's wrong! Here's what the text actually says, "And those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children." Matthew is the only gospel writer who adds those last words, "besides women and children." So, how many would that be? Did most men come with their wives? That would mean at least ten thousand adults. If each family had two children, that would bring the total to 20,000 or more if they had large families. Of course, we'll never know the exact number. It's hard to estimate the size of a crowd - just think about the arguments over crowd size at the president's inauguration in January. Were there more people than at the last inauguration? Were there more people at the Women's March the next day? Even aerial photographs couldn't settle the arguments. So, we can't blame Matthew for rounding off the total to five thousand men, besides women and children. As this story begins, Jesus has gone off by boat to a deserted place after hearing that his cousin John the Baptist has been beheaded. He wanted to be alone. But, when people heard that Jesus left by boat, they hurried around the lake on foot. When Jesus got to shore, his solitude was gone. But he didn't get back in the boat and turn around. He had compassion on the crowd, curing the sick who came to him. As the sun sank lower in the sky, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and it's getting late. Send the crowd away so they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." That seemed like a thoughtful, compassionate suggestion, but Jesus had a different idea. "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." Are you kidding? The disciples knew they couldn't feed all these men, besides the women and children! Maybe they had brought just enough for their group - five loaves and two fish. "Bring what you have to me," Jesus said. Then he told the people to sit down. He didn't ask for validation of income. He didn't ask the men if they were working. He didn't scold the women if they too many children. He didn't ask if they were from Galilee or if they were foreigners. Isn't that just like Jesus? He didn't seem to have any standards. Except, need.

 David Beckmann: How God Can Use Us to End Hunger | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  In these two little parables from Matthew 13, Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven starts with little things - a dad helping his child learn how to write her name, someone really listening to her friend, a group of people getting together to solve a problem. God uses little things to do big things. Jesus talked about leaven: it takes half a teaspoon of yeast to make two big loaves of bread. And he said that our loving God uses our faith, even if it's just a little bit of faith - the size of a mustard seed - to move mountains. That's been the experience of Bread for the World, the Christian advocacy movement that I lead. We organize people and churches of all stripes across the country to influence Congress on issues that are important to hungry people in our country and around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people in Bread for the World's network contact their members of Congress, usually by email or phone. It's a simple act. You wonder whether your email is going to make any difference, especially when the evil we're trying to counter is as daunting as hunger in America or even world hunger. But we have learned from experience that members of Congress of both parties do listen to people back home. Almost two decades ago now, a young mother in Birmingham, Alabama, Pat Pelham, was saying her morning prayers and suddenly felt called by God to help Africa. She had no idea how she could do that, but her minister suggested that she get involved in Bread for the World. She and several other people in her church connected with their member of Congress, a conservative Republican named Spencer Bachus. Many of the poorest countries in the world were at that time struggling with impossible debts. Bread for the World and other church groups were urging debt relief, and Spencer Bachus chaired the congressional committee that would need to approve U.S. participation in international debt relief.

 Susannah Davis: To Weed or Not to Weed | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  To weed or not to weed, that is the question. I've never really been a weed puller. My mother is a weed puller by nature. She can't walk around the yard without bending down to pull a couple of weeds along the way. If you're sitting on the porch visiting with her, she has a hard time simply enjoying the moment, because she is looking around at all of the plants on the porch - she's looking at the ends of those little shoots to see if she can pick them off and make room for new growth. I think it's in her DNA. I have always felt strongly about leaving the weeding to others, until one long weekend of re-sodding the yard for a second time. Now I pay attention to those weeds. I have turned into a weed puller of sorts. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the weed and the newly planted grass, between the weed and the hopeful flower on the other end, or the weed and the wheat. Jesus' parable for today reminds me that I am not alone in my uncertainty. Jesus is on an agricultural-allegorical story telling tear in the 13th chapter of Matthew. And he's got plenty to say and we, at least I, along with the disciples are in need of some explanation. He tells us about the farmer who plants the good seed, about the enemy who plants the weeds - or the bad seed. Darnell is the technical-contemporary term for this bad seed. It's a nightmarish kind of weed - as it grows up, it looks just like the wheat - the two grow together and it's hard to tell the difference between them.

 Joe Evans: More Than a Moral Lesson | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  In this Scripture Lesson, as is the case with much of the book of Genesis, there is a moral lesson, but there's also more than a moral lesson. We Christians know all about stories with morals - we strive to be moral people and to pass our morals down to our children - and in a sense, this Scripture Lesson serves a moral purpose for a moral lesson here is clear enough. On the surface, there's a good guy and a bad guy - and most children in Sunday School will be able to tell you that Jacob is the hero and so he must be the good guy, Esau is the bad guy, and you shouldn't do what Esau does. That's how moral lessons work. What then does Esau do? Esau is desperate, and desperate people are willing to take desperate measures, and desperate measures lead to all kind of desperate circumstances. He's famished he says - and maybe you know what it's like to be famished, if in only a temporary way. There was a commercial on television not long ago featuring comedian Tina Fey. She's in the check-out line of the grocery store, a common enough place to be hungry, and as so many of us do she grabs a bag of what's available and without looking at its content she stuffs a handful into her mouth, only to find that it's potpourri. So, don't go into the grocery store if you're famished. That's a good moral lesson - because Esau was famished he traded his birth right for a bowl of stew, and if you go to the grocery story famished, then you'll fill your shopping cart up, and those candy bars will look better than they would usually in that long check-out line, or worse, you'll wind up eating potpourri.

 Joe Evans: The Invitation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  June has just passed, and June for a preacher is a wonderful month and also a busy month because of weddings. Last month there were two, one here at the church, but the big change for me was that this June, for the first time, I began to relate to the father of the bride more than anyone else. Last year I looked at the groom and found it so easy to empathize. I'd look to my left and feel for the young man who looked so nervous, almost ready to tip over, but this June for the very first time I saw that young groom, and with either of our daughters in mind, I saw that young groom as a predator. Those fathers walking their beautiful little girls down the aisle, cherishing these last few seconds looking so sad that their cheeks hang down like bloodhounds - it was this June that I could feel in the pit of my stomach their sadness. Now of course there is joy on your daughter's wedding day - but it was this June that I could finally empathize with my father-in-law who supposedly went and bought a revolver on a whim the same summer I started dating his daughter. Yes - fathers see the young man looking at their daughter and they see King David looking at Bathsheba. The young man looks like a predator and his daughter is the prey, but let us not forget how it really was. Even now I look back on asking Sara out on our first date and I know that what I was experiencing was nothing close to confidence nor was it joy. The Song of Solomon would not have described me, as I was no gazelle leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. In fact, rather than leaping or bounding, my legs were jelly, my teeth were clenching, I was probably very sweaty, and my stomach was tightening with the true pain of being in love with someone, knowing the risk involved in letting that person know how you feel.

 Kenyatta Gilbert: Pinocchio Prophecy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The story of Pinocchio is a fictional, allegorical tale about what it takes to become a real boy. In fulfilling the wish of his woodcarving father Gepetto, Pinocchio, the wooden marionette protagonist, is brought to life by a blue fairy, who appears waving her wand over the wooden puppet. She says, "Wake, Pinocchio! Skip and run! For your owner needs you!" Pinocchio blinks his eyes and raises his wooden arms, and says, "I can move! I'm a real boy!" But to this assertion the Blue Fairy soberly replies, "No. You have life, but to become a real boy and be of use to your maker, you must prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish." The plot is uncomplicated. Pinocchio is tested by a series of encounters with unsavory characters that mean him no good. He's caught in a series of character maligning circumstances that put his integrity to the test. A memorable tale for sure, but the most remembered aspect of the storyline is that Pinocchio doesn't handle stress very well. For when under pressure, he dithers, exaggerates the truth, or flatly tells lies, and each time he tells a lie his nose grows. Unsurprisingly, the moral of the story is that if you tell lies, you will find yourself bereft of moral integrity. The same is true for persons in ministry leadership, who more often than not find themselves under serious pressure to perform, pressure to have the right answers, pressure to satisfy unrealistic expectations and meet bottom lines. The temptation to succeed at any cost is a real temptation.

 Robin Wilson: Rise Up | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  Besides a bunch of college history professors, who in recent memory talked about the American Revolution until the musical "Hamilton" hit Broadway? In this Tony-Award-winning hit, a gloriously diverse cast uses rap, hip hop, jazz, r&b, ballads, and more to share the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton with the 21st century. We learn of his tragic childhood, his gifts with the spoken and written word, his passion for justice and revolution, and his human frailties. We hear how he created our federal financial structures and how he made many enemies over the years with his fearlessness in speaking up for the causes in which he believed. Throughout the play, Hamilton is held in contrast with Aaron Burr, another intelligent rising star with many gifts, but a man who refuses to speak out for what he knows is right.  Burr continually waits to see where the majority of society will land on important issues. He refuses to take a stand, refuses to help those who are on the side of good, refuses to lead. Burr waits so long to side with the revolutionaries that he is snubbed repeatedly by George Washington for his lack of courage and character. Aaron Burr gets excluded from the key decisions that help win a revolution and shape a young nation, and he never gains the respect by those who embrace Hamilton for his bravery and willingness to speak up, even in the face of a powerful British government, loyalists all around, and a fledgling movement.

 Robin Wilson: The Future Harvest | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  "I want my children to have an easier life than I've had. I want them to have every opportunity to seek education, adventure, and to see the world when they are young. But I really want them to come home and settle down near me eventually, get a secure and profitable job, have a nice normal family, if there is such a thing, and provide grandchildren whom I can entertain and spoil as I grow old next to them." These frightened words, from a parent whose child was feeling a calling to ordained pastoral ministry, were heartfelt and almost mournful. This parent feared that life as a pastor would mean a life of economic uncertainty, hard work without weekends off, and the continuous criticism from church members that life would bring to her daughter. If parents were honest, this would be the wish of most of us: to protect our children from any form of potential pain. We want safe, easy, predictable lives for those we love. After a certain age, most of us want safe, easy, predictable lives for ourselves as well. We, who live comfortable, safe, secure lives believe the idea of Jesus and the fluffed-up lessons that we recall from the ghosts of sermons past about a vague concept of loving God and loving neighbor, but we have no desire to go meet people who are physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually ill and to bring about God's healing. We will proclaim the good news of the kingdom when we pass the peace to each other in the pew, but we do not want to go minister to the crowds of incarcerated prisoners, the scores of senior adults in nursing care facilities, or the troubled youth living in group homes. And part of us secretly sympathizes with the parent who fears what it means for her child to feel called to make her life's work about serving the least, the last, and the lost in the crowded fields of this world.

 Eric Barreto: In the Beginning and In the End | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

  In the beginning, God created the world. In the beginning, God drew order out of chaos. In the beginning, God breathed life into every living creature. In the beginning, God crafted and made the world. In contrast, it seems like we as a people want to tell a very different story. It sometimes seems we are committed to leading the world back into chaos, that we would rather commit ourselves to recreating the world in our distorted image: an image punctuated by pollution and war and domination. We sometimes seem determined to create a world characterized by death and loss instead of the miracle of life and breath and goodness and the flourishing of all living things. In the beginning, God created the world. And, yet, in the end, we seem driven to dismantle the world. In the beginning, God rested. And, yet, in the end, we are opting for the chaos God held at bay as an act of grace, love, and power. The ever-present specter of war, the threat of climate change, the exploitation of our natural resources, the harm we do to one another: these are theological problems. In our efforts to enhance our comfort and ease our work, we have mistaken what is good with what is merely advantageous for a narrow us. Our ravaging of natural resources reveals our arrogance. We think that the world's water and air and many precious resources are due to us, that they are a recompense we have earned by the sweat of our brow or the ingenuity of our efforts rather than gifts from God meant to enhance the life of all not just the extravagance of a few. We have turned the world upside down, we have served the forces of destruction, and in the end, we have declared them "good."

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