Humans yearn for purpose. This is not a strictly religious passion. You don’t solely learn about a need for purpose from a pastor or a Sunday School teacher. There’s something far deeper in the soul that says, “there most be more to this life.” That voice is part of how God wired us to seek out our calling, and what Jeremiah 1 connects us to is that we’ve had the purpose laid out by God from the beginning. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy tease out the often convoluted way that we come to our Godly purpose.

Nehemiah captures this wonderfully hopeful moment in the history of God's people. They landed themselves in exile because of their own behavior, but now, they're back. They rebuild Jerusalem, and in chapter 8, gather around and recommit themselves to God's law. It's an image of God's grace playing out on a national scale. They've been given this second chance. Pastor Trey, Pastor Scott, and Stacy dive into why they needed this chance, what they did with it, and what we can do with ours.

As John tells it, turning water into wine isn't just a miracle of Jesus, it's his first public revelation of his glory. It's a miracle rooted in joy, celebration, and community. It paints a picture of Jesus as a person who met people where they were and sought to bring them together. This looks distinctly different from how a lot of Christianity operates in the modern day. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott attempt to point us in this more Christ-like and joyous direction.

The Magi get their own Christian holiday, Epiphany, and that in some traditions is almost as big as Christmas itself. They are the first Gentiles to bow down and worship Christ, and they even get to play in a role in keeping the Christ child alive. Just like Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and the City of Bethlehem, they signify that some different is happening here. The people who should be excited. the hierarchy in Jerusalem, aren't. Instead, a band of outcasts, Gentiles, unwed mothers, and ordinary folk welcome a savior for all. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy invite us all to join this same band of misfits.

Of all the texts covered on this show, we keep coming back to John 1. Even trying to present a wide variety of texts, inevitably, we find ourselves back to John’s opening words laying out the big picture of who Christ really is. All scripture matters and can tell us something about faith, God, and ourselves, but in a book of important words, John 1 contains some of the most important. It gives us the most explicit explanation of who Christ is and why that matters so much. It’s a thesis statement for the divinity and grace giving sacrifice of Christ.

What must it have been like to raise the Messiah? Luke gives us the only insight into that, and in it, Christ looks remarkably human. It's the story of a 12 year old boy who freaks is parents out by not being where they expect him to be. It shows the human Jesus learning, growing, and already showing signs of what is to come. It's a reminder that even for Jesus, life is a journey. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott examine that the joy that comes in this snapshot of a young savior.

If the Gospel of Luke was a musical, Mary gets the opening number. It's not just that she gets the first long speech, but that what she says sets up all that is to come through Luke, Acts, and beyond. The Magnificat is all about God fulfilling God's grand promise to set things right, and she phrases it in the past tense. The show has started, and because it's started, we can be confident how it will end. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy sing Mary's praises as the exemplar of our own faith.

Bethlehem looms large in the Christian imagination. Especially if you only go to church a couple times a year, it might be one of two city in the Bible that you can name, but in the reality of first century Judea, it’s just a small farming town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It’s the City of David, but that didn’t make it rich or important. So, why is the Savior born there, as Micah foretells? Maybe, God values something more than early greatness. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy talk through what this wildly different value structure can mean for us.

The birth of Jesus upends everything, and one man was chosen to be the herald of that: John the Baptist. John got his own herald: his father, Zechariah. This work of heraldry declares that John is indeed important, but it's because of what Christ will do and how he will witness to it. Zechariah's song is also a song of realized hope - the child that he had hoped for and the savior that he has been awaiting. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, Pastor Scott, and Stacy show how this song can become our song as well.

A fig tree blooms. Summer is coming! We are so programmed to think of the end of the age as something terrible, but Christ describes it as momentary disruption followed by summer (not winter). We celebrate this kind of incoming age every year. Christ's life was its own apocalyptic event. It ended an age and brought in a new one. Pastor Trey, Sister Brandy, and Pastor Scott examine how we are better off in this age than we were before, and what that might mean for the age to come.