BibleWorm

Feb 02 2025 100 ep. 64 mins 17

BibleWorm Podcast artwork

Getting to the core of the biblical text.

Religion & Spirituality

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Episode 625 A Centurion's Slave and a Widow's Son (Luke 7:1-17)

Feb 02 2025 63 mins

This week, we are reading Luke 7:1-17 – stories of two miraculous healings, both of which seem to focus more on the person who is well, who is concerned or bereaved, than on the person whose body is failing. What might that tell us about the nature of healing, or faith, or community? And of all the suffering one might alleviate, why does Jesus respond to these two cases? One, an

Episode 624 Sabbath Controversies (Luke 6:1-16)

Jan 26 2025 68 mins

This week we’re reading three stories of Jesus told in Luke 6:1-16. In the first two, Jesus is in a dispute with some Pharisees about observing the Sabbath. In one story, Jesus seems to claim authority over the Sabbath, given his identity as the Son of Man. In a second story, Jesus presses the boundaries of mercy, healing a man on the sabbath even though he is not in life-threate

Episode 623 The Call of Simon (Luke 5:1-11)

Jan 19 2025 62 mins

This week, we're reading Luke 5:1-11, a story of a miraculously large fishing haul. In the midst of stories of miraculous healing, why is it this one, about fishing, that launches Simon Peter into his discipleship? Is it because the miracle is so stark against the backdrop of his knowledge and experience? Is it because he has tools to help Jesus in this case, to partner with him? W

Episode 622 Jesus' Sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30)

Jan 12 2025 60 mins

This week we’re reading Luke 4:14-30, the story of Jesus giving his inaugural sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth. In the Gospel of Luke this passage serves as a kind of mission statement for the ministry of Jesus, which he envisions as fundamentally “good news to the poor.” This is a good measure, we think, for our own communities. To what extent is our work in the worl

Episode 621 John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus (Luke 3:1-22)

Jan 05 2025 69 mins

This week, we read Luke 3:1-22, a text that orients us first in all of competing political powers at play at that moment in history – and there are many! But then we simultaneously zoom IN to the personal and zoom OUT to the godly with the accounts of baptism. We wonder - Does something change in that ritualized moment, or does the ritual mark a shift that has already happened, o

Episode 620 The Boy Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52)

Dec 29 2024 65 mins

This week we’re reading Luke 2:41-52, the story of twelve-year-old Jesus left behind in the temple as his parents return home from the Passover celebration. We talk about the ways repeated rituals like that ancient Passover pilgrimage can open up space for new and profound encounters with God, opportunities to integrate one’s own life into the story of the Torah and into the li

Episode 619 Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-38)

Dec 24 2024 65 mins

This week, we read Luke 2:21-38. The baby Jesus has been born just a week prior, and our reading today is scaffolded by the Jewish rituals that surround his birth. We wonder about the role of ritual in our lives, and about the very different ways that Simeon and Anna, two individuals who seem very close to God indeed, navigate the passing days of their own lives – one in constant

Episode 618 Christmas Eve SPECIAL EPISODE (Luke 2:1-20)

Dec 17 2024 67 mins

On this special Christmas Eve episode we’re discussing the birth of Jesus as told in Luke 2:1-20. We talk about the imperial setting of this story, which takes place during the reigns of Augustus, Herod, and Quirinius but announces the good news of a different lord and savior who brings peace to all rather than to the few. We ponder the way that the message makes its way into the

Episode 617 The Annunciation of Mary (Luke 1:26-56)

Dec 15 2024 67 mins

This week we’re reading Luke 1:26-46, the annunciation of Mary and the Magnificat. In this biblical version of the Bechtel test, we find two women, Mary and her older relative Elizabeth, as the only two people on earth who know that God is in the process of upending the world. We marvel at the strength of young Mary, who doesn’t flinch when the angel Gabriel tells her she will

Episode 616 God's Spirit Is Upon Me (Isaiah 61:1-11)

Dec 08 2024 63 mins

This week, we read the beautiful and inspiring language of Isaiah 61 – a chapter that made us think about the work and the power of restoring human dignity. We saw in this chapter a call to care for both emotional and physical needs – to attend to people in their wholeness. We were reminded that once people remember their own beauty and dignity, they just might not need someone