Luke 17:20-37

You can see that life you want on the horizon. But the more you chase after it, the more you exert control, plan, strategize, threat manage, self-preserve, rush, cling, and try...

The further it retreats. It slips out of your grip. It dissolves. It disappears and leaves you feeling empty and alienated.

Jesus says, "Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33)

What does this paradox mean for your life?

Credits & Sources:

Andrew Root, Kara Root, Hartmut Rosa, Justo Gonzalez, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Moises Silva, Craig Keener, N.T. Wright, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Alan Culpepper, Greg Boyd, Luise Schottroff, Eugene Peterson.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(10/18/25)

Luke 17:11-19

When life turns upside down sometimes we realize what we were taking for granted. We realize that there were things we treated as important that simply are not important. There are things that are important, but we treated them with little regard. It's strange how a crisis can take controversies, prejudices and polarizations that feel like they matter so intensely...and suddenly they do not matter at all.

What if you could live now the way you will wish you could have lived back then? And in the middle of all of this-what is the faith and salvation that Jesus sees happening within you?

Credits and Sources:

Greg Boyd, Tim Geddert, Joel Green, T. Omiya, David Garland, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Fred Craddock, Justo Gonzalez, Craig Keener.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(10/5/25)

Luke 17:1-10

Both Jesus and the Pharisees wanted people to change. They used the same tool to seek change. But they used that tool in opposite ways. That tool was table fellowship. The Pharisees withheld table fellowship as a means of changing people. Jesus extended table fellowship as a means of changing people. What does it mean to participate in the kind of community of change that Jesus created?

Credits & Sources:

Mark Baker, Moises Silva, Tim Geddert, Lewis Smedes, Brian Ross, Michael Card, Richard Rohrbaugh, Bruce Malina, Kenneth Bailey, Justo Gonzalez, Stephanie Rigg, Joel Green, Alan Culpepper, Jan Richardson, Fred Craddock.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/28/25)

Luke 16:19-31

What happens when you get so far inside of your own experience that you cannot see from someone else's perspective. Call it a funk, tunnel vision, an echo chamber. Whatever it is, their experience, their perspective, their needs become invisible to you. All you can see is your pain and what you want. They might as well be a million miles away. And the farther you go into the experience, the deeper and darker it becomes.

From time to time, this just happens to us. It does.

What does Jesus have to say? How does the Spirit work with us in these experiences?

Credits and Sources:

Craig Keener, Moises Silva, William Herzog II, Brian Zahnd, Eugene Peterson, Fred Craddock, N.T. Wright, David Garland, Clarence Jordan, Brad Jersak, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/21/25)

Luke 16:1-15

Figuring out your relationship to money, wealth, stuff, and things can be tricky. It's complicated!!! This episode explores some stories Jesus tells as a way of possibly helping you discern your own heart and desires related to income, money, wealth, stuff, and things.

Credits and Sources:

Ryan Shellenberg, Ched Meyers, Paul Trudinger, William R. Herzog II, Justo Gonazlez, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Craig Keener, Kenneth Bailey, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Donald Kraybill.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(09/13/25)

Luke 14:25-35

This episode tells Melvin's story. The story of a man who didn't know himself, who didn't know what he wanted, a man who's like was constantly zigging and zagging to chase approval and avoid threats.

Credits and Sources:

Roberta M Gilbert, R. Robert Creech, Steve Cuss, Robert Cialdini, Rodney Stark, Tim Geddert, Moises Silva, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, David Garland, Mark Baker, Edwin Friedman, Craig Keener, Alan Culpepper, Justo Gonzalez.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(08/31/25)

Luke 14:12-24

What do you do when you've invested yourself in a relationship. They signal that they'll be there for you, that you can count on them, they are on board with your project.

And then.....

Just when it counts the most, they are a NO SHOW. They give you a lame excuse. They prove that you are not as important to them as they acted like you were.

What then???

What do you do with your wounded love?

Credits & Sources:

Simon Carey Holt, Dan White Jr., Tim Chester, Robert J. Karris, Justo Gonzalez, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Kenneth Bailey, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Luise Schottroff, N.T. Wright, Craig Keener, Moises Silva.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(08/23/25)

Luke 14:1-6

This episode invites you to consider the parts of who you are that don't need quick fixes or simple solutions. They don't need a quick pat on the back. They presence that isn't going away. A knowledge that you aren't alone in this. You need held.

There are parts of who you are that have given everything they can give, but you can't overcome it. You need healed.

There are parts of who are that feel imprisoned by scripts and narratives that feel impossible to live up to. You need released.

Credits & Sources:

Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland, Brad Harper, Drew Harper, Steve Cuss, Don Riso, Russ Hudson, John DelHousaye.

Sermon by Aaron Carlson

For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org

(08/03/25)