 Grace Matters is the weekly radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, hosted by the Rev. Peter W. Marty.Primary Format :
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God in the Reclamation Business (Originally Aired May 15, 2005.) Forsaken city neighborhoods are not every pastor’s dream location for starting a church. But when you believe, like Pastor Wayne Gordon does, that God loves to reclaim forgotten people and worn-down neighborhoods, you’ve got all the inspiration you need.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Easter Sunday Broadcast.Hallelujah! He is risen. Jesus lives and resurrection hope beckons. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dark Despair, Bright Hope.Host Peter Marty joined by Kathleen Norris. Ms. Norris is the award-winning poet, writer, and author of The New York Times bestsellers The Cloister Walk, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, and The Virgin of Bennington. Exploring the spiritual life, her work is at once intimate and historical, rich in poetry and meditations, brimming with exasperation and reverence, deeply grounded in both nature and spirit, sometimes funny, and often provocative.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Music Intended for the SoulThere is no venue where Jonathan Rundman hasn't performed. Church basements, convention halls, coffee shops, college auditoriums, and church sanctuaries have all formed the backdrop for this talented singer and songwriter. Rundman is well known in the Christian community for his sound theology, his biblical depth, and his creative melodies. A brief taste of his character and life, as this broadcast includes, explains why Rundman is one for the faithful to know.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Love Down to the BoneThe subject of love never gets old, at least for Christian people who want to probe the endless depths of divine love. Sondra Wheeler, professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., has authored a book entitled What We Were Made For: Christian Reflections on Love. She joins this broadcast to explore the staying quality of God’s love, and the vulnerability that is required to love wellListen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Everybody Sharing EverythingNational Public Radio's broad listenership knows the name Tom Gjelten well. It is synonymous with reporting that is honest, insightful, and full of integrity. For more than 20 years Gjelten has been a foreign correspondent for NPR, serving in many of the world's most dangerous hot spots. To his work he brings faith and humility. He understands his life less as a profession and more as a calling. Truly one of radio's greats!Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Staying Power of FocusAllan Tibbels, host Peter Marty calls him an "urban renewal enthusiast". Tibbels and his all-White family moved into a thoroughly African American neighborhood on Baltimore’s west side. There he embarked with others on an ambitious effort to reverse the run-down image of "Sandtown," and to face the crime, poverty, and vacant housing problems head on. Tibbels literally rolled into Sandtown two decades ago on a wheelchair. His faith, courage, and resolve just keep onrolling.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LonelinessThe Native American community is often lost from our immediate consciousness. Don Johnson has an insider’s vantage point that we need to hear. This chaplain to Native American communities is also executive director of the Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots U.S. He joins the program to talk about many facets of life for Native peoples, including a spiritual loneliness.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Hard Look at Poverty for WomenChristine Grumm is president and CEO of the Women's Funding Network, more than 130 organizations devoted to assisting women around the globe. She is a change agent who goes after critical areas of need from combating poverty to achieving advances in health care, education and human rights. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website God's Forever Promises to AbrahamIn a world fractured by religious wars, Abraham could be something of a unifying figure. Twelve million Jews, at least 1 billion Muslims, and 2 billion Christians position the roots of their faith around his name. So who was Abraham? What were God’s promises to Abraham all about? Old Testament scholar Terry Fretheim is special guest on this edition of Grace Matters.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website God's Forever Promises to AbrahamIn a world fractured by religious wars, Abraham could be something of a unifying figure. Twelve million Jews, at least 1 billion Muslims, and 2 billion Christians position the roots of their faith around his name. So who was Abraham? What were God’s promises to Abraham all about? Old Testament scholar Terry Fretheim is special guest on this edition of Grace Matters.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Finding Release From HatredIt is not uncommon to hear divorced couples speaking admirably of their children's resilience in coping with their own separate lives. Whether it is overconfidence, guilt, or a desire to believe that one's own kids are exceptional in this regard. Author Elizabeth Marquardt calls much of it "happy talk"– talk that denies the very painful consequences that go with every divorce. Host Peter Marty reflects on the spiritual side of this pain.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Finding Release From HatredWayne Messmer has quite a story to tell. This professional singer and broadcaster was shot at point blank range in the throat one night during a bungled robbery attempt. His vocal cords survived, as did his life and spirit. Through an amazing act of courage and faith, Messmer later found his way to the prison where his assailant was doing time. What happened there is a testimony to the dissolution of hate when one understands life as a supreme gift of God.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Perplexity of ChoiceMost people will admit that we live in an age when a barrage of choices keep assaulting our lives. Bombarded by choice, we are forced continually to reevaluate our identities. We repeatedly must remember or figure out exactly who we are. Living in this confounded way rarely feels good. It fragments and divides up our lives. Catherine Wallace, a social historian and free-lance writer, joins this edition of Grace Matters to wrestle with the perplexity of choice in our modern world.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Your Relationship With MoneyIt is a strange phenomenon to equate happiness with having money, especially since having more money (at least beyond a certain point) rarely makes people more happy. Jacob Needleman has a philosopher's mind for thinking about the subject of money. Here is a program that gets to the heart of our relationship with money.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Refugee Named JesusRalston Deffenbaugh is a first-rate lawyer who understands the intricacies of immigration law. But more importantly, for the past 17 years, he has been president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a vantage point for getting inside the hopes and heartaches of refugees and immigrants around the world. In these times of contentious debate over how to handle immigration reform in America, Deffenbaugh has some wise and faith-inspired words to think about with special freshness about t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Christmas StarAccording to St. Matthew, the magi from the east were guided to the manger of the Christ Child by a star. That star, or whatever bright light may have appeared in the sky to guide these ancient astrologers, has fascinated believers and scientists alike for 20 centuries. David Levy, a lifelong astronomer, comet discoverer, and admirer of the night sky joins this broadcast for some pondering about the much talked about Christmas Star.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Conversation with Benedict of NursiaFor this final edition of a four-part Advent series with great saints of the church, host Peter Marty visits with St. Benedict (c. 480-c.547). Known for his famous “Rule,” a Rule that still guides Benedictine followers today with its teachings on humility, silence, and obedience, Benedict zeroes in on the holy reading of Scripture for this Grace Matters program. He spells out the critical value of hearing Scripture not only with our intellects but also with our hearts.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Conversation with Juliana of NorwichJuliana of Norwich, who is sometimes called Julian of Norwich (1342-c.1416), joins host Peter Marty for an imaginary conversation. Juliana possessed an unshakable belief in God despite several near-death experiences. Her profound insights on hope were gained from the conviction that one can never know true hope apart from suffering. Juliana’s faith is a testimony to the abundance of grace even in the most difficult periods of life.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Conversation with Hildegard of BingenIn the second of a four-part Advent series, host Peter Marty converses with another absentee guest - Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Our other Advent guests are now saints of the Church. In this weeks conversation, Hildegard of Bingen shares her vantage point of faith and her medieval life as an outspoken woman. She was an individual who mixed with popes and emperors, went on preaching tours and even authored a medical encyclopedia.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Meditation A Conversation with Maximilian KolbeIn the first of a four-part Advent series, host Peter Marty converses with different guests who could not be present for an interview. Each week, the conversation involves one of the great saints of the church. Maximilian Kolbe is this weeks guest. He is the Polish priest who voluntarily took the place of another prisoner at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp when Nazi commanders arbitrarily selected ten prisoners for forced starvation.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Sayings of JesusAfter spending a life immersed in scholarship with Scripture, Phyllis Tickle determined that faith and humility were often left behind among those who study the words of Jesus. She embarked on a thoughtful journey to analyze the different ways that Jesus of Nazareth typically spoke.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Lesson in HumilityEverett gets to teach about forgiveness, reconciliation and a host of other fascinating subjects. A personally tragic experience the murder of his mother in the mid-1990s caused Worthington to examine forgiveness in a whole new way. What he discovered was a fresh priority for the place of humility in shaping one's lifeListen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Responsibility for Your NeighborSince her childhood, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has made a point of trying to put other people first. As the eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, she assumed an early sense of responsibility for what it means to be civically engaged on behalf of those for whom the systems of justice do not work well. One-time lieutenant governor of Maryland, Kennedy Townsend has a marvelous way of letting her Christian faith inform her commitment to stand up for all.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Avoiding an Itsy Bitsy LifeThe life of a refugee is never easy. Fleeing persecution or life-threatening circumstances in ones own country to find a home elsewhere is next to impossible. Post 9/11 jitters and restrictions in America make the U.S. even less open to immigrants and refugees. Along comes Stormey Denise Burroughs, a young single mother and social worker in Michigan. She takes it upon herself to become the loving foster mother to four teenage boys from Burma.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Congruent LifeDeere and Co., a global giant in agriculture, forestry and construction. Deeres CEO, Bob Lane, is the mover and shaker behind much of this companys global expansion. But for all of the airplane miles Lane travels, he is still a very grounded individual. His Christian faith is what keeps him grounded. It is a faith that centers on cultivating the fruits of the Spirit and appreciating the undeserved character of grace.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Honesty and Chronic IllnessTo live with chronic illness is to live with the reality that one day can be good and fulfilling while the next may be excruciatingly painful. Physical suffering is not fun for anyone. Among the more valuable tools in the equipment box is honesty. Retired professor Stephen Schmidt is guest on this edition of Grace Matters to discuss faith and his journey with chronic illness. It is a journey whose high points have been marked by honesty.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Concern For Broken ThingsCraig Rennebohm is a chaplain who works the streets of Seattle, ministering to mentally ill people. Many of them are homeless. Rennebohm knows what he is doing. He has firsthand knowledge of chronic mental illness and a commitment to advocate for the welfare of those whose minds do not function as they would wish. In this edition of Grace Matters, host Peter W. Marty explores his own up-close experience with a mentally ill brother, and what it means to trust in a Lord.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Practice. Practice. Practice.Within 24 hours of the Nickle Mines, PA., shooting that killed five Amish girls in October 2006, the whole world knew of the tragedy. What captivated the most public attention, was the amazing capacity of the Amish people to forgive the killer and serve his family. Donald Kraybill, co-author of the book Amish Grace, joins this edition of Grace Matters to explain how honest forgiveness of the Christ-like variety can only be forged over a lifetime of practice.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Just Doing My JobBrad and Libby Birky are owners of an extraordinary restaurant in downtown Denver - SAME Caf. There are no prices on the menu; there is no cash register. Patrons pay whatever they can or are willing to pay, even if the payment means an hour of kitchen labor washing dishes or cutting vegetables. For those curious about a venture created So that All Gods people May Eat, this edition of Grace Matters is a "Do Not Miss."Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Person Through Other PersonsThere is a craving for community in our world, and people are struggling to fulfill that need. We may be well connected electronically, but this is hardly the same as being emotionally and spiritually connected. Peter Benson is the president of Search Institute, a nonprofit organization providing leadership and resources for the promotion of healthy children, youth, and communities. He is the guest on this edition of Grace Matters.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Share the JuicesBruce Weber is a winning NCAA basketball coach. His unselfish style has shaped the lives of talented young men who need more than just good dribbling technique in life. For the last five years he has led the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinoisk, including a trip to the Final Four in 2005. Webers faith life is an active one, connected with his local Lutheran congregation. Listen in to meet an individual who enjoys taking the needs of others to heartListen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is Your God Big Enough?Rabbi Brad Hirschfield joins having experienced his own incursion into the world of "being possessed by one's religion." Hirschfield has made a sudden and dramatic turn in his faith journey. Today he is an important voice for people of all faiths who want to re-examine their most strident assumptions that put other people down.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dangers of Religious TotalitarianismAre you tired of trying to make sense of why certain expressions of religion irritate you so thoroughly? Meet Eboo Patel. Eboo Patel is an articulate man of faith who is founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core - an organization devoted to advancing religious understanding and respect. Chances are good that what is bothering, or even infuriating you, is what Patel calls "religious totalitarianism."Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Part II: Relationship in PrayerAward-winning author Philip Yancey returns to take a close-up look at the shape of prayer. If you have ever wondered what difference prayer can make in your life, this program is for you. With program host Peter W. Marty, Yancey covers the whole terrain of prayer. He explores that without some genuine hunger on our part to be in God's close company a meaningful prayer life may never evolve.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Part I: The Magnanimity of GracePhilip Yancey, popular author and reliable spiritual guide, outlines both the reliability and the unpredictability of grace. He walks listeners through a love we had not counted on and a kindness we may not think we deserve.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Faith in Science, Faith in GodAmong the top tier of scientists in the world, there is Francis Collins. Having mapped over 3 billion letters of the human genetic code, Collins is an articulate spokesperson for the glories of science. But he is also a person of deep faith who is not shy to speak about the place of God in biological science. Collins offers a clear-headed way for understanding the beauty of science and one's reading of the Bible.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Retrieving Our JewishnessIf Christians are not careful, we have a dangerous tendency to view the Bible as an exclusively Christian book. Wayne-Daniel Berard, professor and author, who was born of a Jewish parent and adopted by a Catholic family, practices his faith today as a Christian and a Jew. He calls on Christians to explore "with open heart and mind" the Jewishness not only of Jesus but of themselves.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gaining Clarity and InsightSpiritual discernment is a big deal. It is the practice of wisdom. It is that capacity for detecting an insight into the character of another person and into the preferred ways of God. Join us as J. Brent Bill, a retreat leader who has authored the book, Sacred Compass, shares with us the importance of living with discernmentListen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blessed DeadlinesThe voice of Charles Osgood is as familiar as any in broadcast journalism. Radio host of the "Osgood File," and anchor of CBS "Sunday Morning," he is a veteran in the industry. Juggling long hours and balancing radio and TV, he knows the importance of keeping a deadline. Our challenge is to see these deadlines more as a blessing than a curse.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nonviolence as a Way of LifeIf anything takes our breath away in this world full of events we cannot control, it is violence. Nothing cuts to the core of our peace of mind and joy for life like violence. What can we learn from Jesus that might direct us to a better way? Terry Rynne, founder of Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, walks us into the difference between active and passive nonviolence.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Holy LaughterThose who follow the tennis world in the mid-80's know the name Andrea Jaeger. Following a career-ending injury, she engaged in a refocus of her life. Now an Anglican Dominican sister who devotes everything to kids who live with life-threatening diseases. Its quite a life mixing tears, laughter, and a whole lot of fulfillment.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kid Dropouts: An Adult Problem"It's not a kid problem," he tells us, "It's an adult problem." Bill Milliken is founder of the organization Communities in Schools, an agency that connects community resources with students who need attention and care. This program highlights the poverty of relationship that many live with, and what it means to believe in another person the Jesus way.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Breath, Bone and BodyEverybody seems to have their own definition for spirituality. Rodney Clapp out to reclaim an important place for a more physical spirituality that refuses to ignore the body. In all of its messiness and confusion, the body can be a home through which the Lord of creation, incarnation, and resurrection goes to work.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Facing the Big Question of LifeDr. Timothy Johnson is not afraid to ask the big questions of religion and science. As both minister and physician, he is intrigued by the interplay of two worlds that many people find hopelessly at odds.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Good SoilChristian faith that does not grow in an individual is not a living faith. Such lifeless or immature faith is certainly not a resource to rely on in the crises of life. Host Peter Marty explores the strange phenomenon of growing many dimensions in our lives as we age, but leaving our faith presuppositions and knowledge at the third grade level. Jeremy Langford, a communicator for the Jesuit community in Chicago, is guest on the program.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inside Out. Upside Down.The most extensive preaching we have from the lips of Jesus is recorded in Matthew's Gospel account, "The Sermon on the Mount." Jesus opens this sermon not with command but with blessing. Martha Stortz, professor of historical theology and ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, helps us navigate these blessings of Jesus.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Religious IlliteracyStephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University and author of the book Religious Literacy, has conducted an interesting study of religious literacy in America. What he has found is that while many people have a deep faith and a gut sense of spirituality, their Biblical and religious knowledge is very scant. Join us for this discussion.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Rhythm of the Christian LifeAccording to Holy Scripture, God built rhythm into the universe. Work and rest were meant to be fair players with one another. Something happened to this rhythm along the way, however. Rest got bumped to the periphery and work assumed center stage. Author and minister Wayne Muller reflects on how effectively we keep and do not keep the Sabbath commandment. Host Peter Marty looks at the distinctive rhythm of the Christian life.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | |