Living The Passion Of Jesus In Our Lives

Summary

This episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe explores the complexities of faith, particularly in relation to the passion of Jesus Christ during Holy Week. She shares how the themes of suffering, redemption, and personal growth are intertwined with the human experience of doubt and struggle. The conversation emphasizes the importance of community, self-acceptance, and the Church's role in navigating difficult times. 

Takeaways

-The pattern of Jesus's life reflects our own experiences.
-Holy doubts are a natural part of faith.
-Suffering can lead to spiritual growth and understanding.
-The Church should affirm eternal truths and foster community.
-God understands our flaws and is patient with us.
-Seeking God and nurturing our relationship with Him is essential.
-Being a good Christian is more about our being than doing.
-Living for love means making intentional choices in our lives.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Faith Conversations
01:27 The Passion of Jesus and Our Lives
03:51 Holy Doubts and Human Experience
07:03 Suffering and Spiritual Growth
11:01 The Church's Role in Difficult Times
13:11 Listener Questions and Personal Struggles
17:09 A Lighthearted Reflection on the Disciples

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time, many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.086)
Welcome friends to the podcast, Speaking of Faith. My name is DeDe Duncan-Probe. I'm the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in central New York, and we're going to be talking about our faiths today. I don't know where you are listener in your lives, but often we find it hard to talk about our faith because we've kind of lost the practice of how to do it, how to bring up our faith in a setting and share what it is we believe to be most true about ourselves.

and our lives in this world. And so this podcast is invitational. This is not meant to be trying to teach you a lot. It is to be about speaking about how we talk about our faith. And so you're invited to that conversation. Invite you to send your questions or comments, feedback, and especially if there is a topic you've wanted to talk about in your life and you're not really sure how to talk about it or you're trying to figure it out for yourself.

This is a great place for us to do some of that workshopping to practice so that when we're at work or out in the world or even in our homes or speaking with a trusted friend, we're able to put words to those things we believe most deeply in our lives. I'm joined today by Adam Eichelberger. He's our Director of Communications in the Diocese of Central New York. And today we're going to be talking about the passion of Jesus Christ.

It is Holy Week when we're recording this, but the message I want to talk about is the way in which the pattern of Jesus's life is echoed in our own. All of us are living our lives and fellowshiping and eating with friends and with people around us. And then there is that time where either persecution or we have a broken relationship or we've made a mistake or we have

really broken our promises. And there's a moment where we're called to lay down our pride or to apologize or to say we're sorry. Now with Jesus, of course, with a passion, when Jesus lays down his life and chooses to die, the laying down of his life is for the lifting up, the healing, the redemption of the world. For us, when we lay down our life, it's often for our healing and redemption.

Speaker 1 (02:26.232)
but not in a sacrificial way exactly like Jesus, of course, and maybe it is at times, but more dying to ourself that Jesus might live in us, that God might be present to us. And then when we've apologized, when we have acknowledged our own brokenness and our need for God's redemption, that renewal in our lives, that resurrected feeling of being renewed, of coming through that.

dark and difficult time. And I want to stop and acknowledge that I am not trying to be a heretic here, but I do want to make this connection because often we see the life of Jesus, the passion of Jesus as an historical reality, as a distant reality, as something that serves us. But often we're not really sure how to connect it with our lived life, with how we are called to live.

when Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me, that we are to follow that pattern of laying our life down in order that God may complete in us a good work. And part of that journey with Jesus involves the Garden of Gethsemane for all of us. Because another temptation I think that we have is when we doubt or feel afraid or are stopping on the precipice of a change or a difficult time.

And we want to wrestle with God. We want to feel that need to say with Jesus, if it be your will, let this cup pasture me. And what we often do is we look down on ourselves or we think, gosh, if I were a person who has more faith or if I just believe, I would never have these doubts. But there is such a thing as holy doubts. And to see those in Jesus himself in the gospels, to see Jesus saying, if it be your will, let this cup pasture me.

to see Jesus saying to friends who have betrayed and abandoned him, why couldn't you stay with me? I am praying, could you not stay with me in this hard time? The humanity of Jesus in that moment is so reflective of our own humanity. And listener, you may have a time in your own life when you felt so similarly to that, where you felt abandoned or alone or isolated or that no one really cared.

Speaker 1 (04:51.188)
And Jesus has that moment and what we can understand is this is a holy moment of questioning. It allows Jesus to go back to the God who is to his father and to be sent anew. For you and I when we have those what St. John of the Cross would say as a dark night of the soul when we have those moments we get to go back to God and say Lord did you really call me? Am I really supposed to do this?

I don't want to do this, but if you call me, I'll do it. I can only do this if it's your will. That is a good check and balance in our lives to stop and acknowledge that what God is calling us to do is to surrender, to surrender to what God is wanting us to do is so important. And so we see that pattern in Jesus. And then we know that in the resurrection is the promise of God.

that nothing is lost that will not be found, a quote the poet, or Henry now is that with God nothing is lost or forgotten, that we are God's own. And so in this pattern of life, once we're going through the way to life and the way to fullness of life is not empower and prestige, empower over and subjugation of others, but rather our willingness to lay down our self-sufficiency.

in order that God's work may be done in us and that we may be raised up in the resurrection of a God that is eternal and calling us with eternal love. Now, these are very heavy weighty topics and you may be wondering, my gosh, that's a lot in that. And it is. How we live and how we respond to God calls us to that precipice of really surrendering all for God.

So Adam, invite you, as I'm talking about this really hard walking with Jesus through the passion, the suffering, the yielding to God's call, what comes to your mind or what springs to the front for you?

Speaker 2 (07:03.19)
One of the first things that I think about when I think about Jesus, especially when I'm considering Holy Week in the stories that we hear, especially as we kind of key in on Good Friday, is I think that sometimes I jump ahead to Easter and I don't focus in or I don't take time to meditate on the suffering of Jesus. I think that that's a kind of natural impulse for us because that's the hard part of living.

my faith. don't know about you, listener, but I think that's a hard part of me living my faith. So what does it actually mean to us to follow a savior who suffers? And how does that shape the way that we live and we love? Your thoughts.

Wow, it's such a good question. And listener, you may ponder in your own heart your answer to this. I know that there have been times throughout history since Jesus's time of thinking suffering is the way to spiritual growth. And at times that has been seen as you, know, whether it's with Silesias or fasting or, you know, subjugations or, you know, all the, yes, all the whips and all of it.

that that has to happen in order to become holy. I think that life itself produces enough substance for us. I don't think we have to go out of our way to find ourselves beat down by the world. But when we're facing something that is beating us down, when we find that we are struggling with something, and I want to acknowledge the words beating down, that for some of us, that's not a metaphor. Some of us have experienced physical harm from others.

And so I want to acknowledge if there's a triggering here for our listeners to please talk with a trusted friend and to seek counseling and help. When we're talking about laying down our lives with Jesus, we're taking up our cross, we're saying that in this moment in your life as you are, what would living for love look like?

Speaker 1 (09:10.38)
Maybe it would look like not insisting on being right in the argument with the friend or the neighbor or especially the relative. Maybe laying down our life for God's call means not seeking the prestigious happening, but rather spending time with people who have no power and lift and work and walking with them and raising them up. Our ability to suffer.

will only make us holy if it is a calling of God to be living in that moment of suffering with God. It is not something we go out and do to ourselves intentionally to harm ourselves or others, but rather that in the living of our lives, we can see that this suffering of this present time is both temporal and will end. The suffering of this present time is something that is redeemable by God.

Not that it means it's okay, but that God is so good that God can redeem all. And so some of it is about our hope that when something hard is happening, we still have hope. And some of it is about when something hard is happening, making those choices intentionally where we do the thing we probably don't want to do, which is to apologize, to acknowledge we may be wrong or to literally change our mind and do something new.

That's all really good. The other thing that I was thinking about as we are looking at Good Friday is this. Where do you, Bishop, see the Church being invited to walk the way of the cross, especially in difficult and uncomfortable ways? And I think this is really kind of apropos, especially with everything that's going on all around us. So where do you see us as the Church being invited to walk the way of the cross?

Wow. And listener again, I hope that you're thinking what would you say as an answer. You know, right now, everybody wants to be right. They want to look at somebody who's separated from them with partisanship, who voted for a different candidate, and both sides are looking at one another wanting to sort of fight over those things. I think the path for the church is to raise up that there are eternal truths, that there are these things to which we are called that are

Speaker 1 (11:31.006)
resurrection living truths, that we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, that we love our neighbor as ourselves. And so when we're in the midst of the living of our lives, to see that the church is called to affirm those eternal truths, we are not called to pick a side. We're not called to separate from other people. We are called to see in our enemy, a friend, in an enemy, the face of God.

And in these times, to both be compassionate to others and to be compassionate to ourselves. Some of our listeners have a very hard time forgiving themselves, nurturing themselves, or seeing themselves as valuable. So often people say, no, no, not me. Pay attention to them. I shouldn't need anything. But your breathing and your beloved child of God too,

Sometimes the hardest person for us to love is ourselves when we've made a mistake and so all of us are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength to love our neighbor as ourselves which means we first have to learn how to accept ourselves if we're ever going to accept another person.

That's so good and really important for us to remember. And it's almost kind of like Bishop, you had a little bit of, I don't know if you want to call it ESP or a little bit of inspiration from the Holy Spirit because we did have two listener submitted questions for this week.

that's fine. And for the listeners, we don't actually talk about this because we always think it's interesting to see what comes up. So we, I have no idea what these questions are. So go right ahead, Adam.

Speaker 2 (13:11.064)
first one comes from a listener named Monica from Utica. So hello, Monica. Hi, Monica. She actually asks, sometimes I feel like I'm failing at being it. And I'm to use air quotes here for you listeners as she did. Good Christian, especially when I struggle with my temper or my anger, or I don't seem to be able to make it to church here and there. Does God get frustrated with me the way that we get frustrated with ourselves?

Monica, that was such a good question. And so, and right now all the listeners, we're all relating to that so much because we have this ideal in our head that we're gonna be like the super patient person in the group and that we're gonna be like the, you know, always generous person. And then we start driving a car and we realize we're not, you know, I don't think, I think God is eternally patient. It's not like God doesn't know who you and I, who we are.

God knows us and God understands that we are failed, flawed human beings, which is why we have Jesus coming to us, why we have the gospels teaching us how to live. And notice with the gospels, I forgot to mention this, but notice that for the gospels, so much retail space in the gospels is taken up with how Jesus lives and the actual passion and death and resurrection.

are very short in comparison to all that Jesus is teaching us. You know, to give a cloak, know, the cup of cold water and if someone asks for your cloak, you give them a share. I mean, Jesus, the gospelers, they're very interested in how we live. And so for us, Monica, God knows those things about us. But I think when we can be compassionate and realize that God is with us,

That's a really good point.

Speaker 1 (15:01.718)
Yes, being a quote, good Christian can seem like there's a task list, but more importantly than a task list is our relationship with God, with ourselves and one another. Our seeking God pleases God. Our wanting to know God pleases God. And we need community to really understand and be part of what God is doing because our faith is communal.

So the forgiveness we can offer ourselves when we don't make it to church, but also the encouragement. We're not going to church so we can tick a box. We're going to church because when we go, it helps us the next week. It makes our life better. We find a source of comfort and strength. So my suggestion to all of us, Monica, which I'm so grateful for your question, is instead of seeing a good Christian as something to do list,

to rather seeing a good Christian as a be-list, that it's about our being. So if we've stayed home to create space for prayer, when we're at church to be attentive to how God is and our experience of God there, that we're growing in our faith each week. And when we have a temper to hand that over to God and say, Lord, I need to deal with my fear. Because often when we have a quick temper, it's because we have a lot of anxiety,

and fear and uncertainty in our lives. And we may need to slow down and pay attention to our sense of safety so that our tempers can be more, well, temperate. And so I appreciate the question. That's a great one.

Our second question for this week, going from Utica up to Watertown. Ben is wondering, and Ben is obviously following along with the liturgical year of the church and been paying attention to the podcast. So shout out to you, Ben. And this is more of a fun one bishop. It's more of a thought experiment. So Ben wants to know if the disciples had had iPhones during Holy week, what do you think they would have posted?

Speaker 1 (16:48.182)
All right.

Speaker 1 (17:09.752)
pictures of trees. think during Holy Week, know, the disciples were, I mean, first they'd have pictures of the Last Supper, certainly, but it wouldn't be, they would have missed the point a little. You know, the disciples are trying, but they're kind of tired. I mean, they're, you know, they fall asleep and then Peter, and I think their expectations of Jesus are always off. They're expecting Jesus to suddenly bring in a government and take over and sort of rule or something.

And then you have Peter who's like, no, no, you know, if you know, you're not going to suffer, we'll make sure of that. So I think the disciples are a little bit day late and a dollar short in all of this. And then, you know, after the crucifixion, when they're hiding in the upper room, they wouldn't have been posting anything. They actually would have turned their phones off and had the roaming turned off because they would have been trying not to be found, except for Thomas, the zealot Thomas, who I love to talk about because Thomas was in it.

to win it. I mean, he's not in the upper room. He's out doing something, but he's not hiding away. And he even says a few chapters earlier, he wants to go with Jesus to Jerusalem that he may die with him. So Thomas is on a different page. But what they would have been posting is a great question. I think they probably would have been looking up, you know, health preferences for how to get out of town at one point. And then of course, after the resurrection, then they would have been posting.

look what God has done and just going out just as they did trying to understand this thing. And to not forget, some of them would have been posting about fearful. Where'd the body go? What's going on? my gosh. That's a great question. And to think about it, what do you think they would have been posting about listener? And what would you hope they would have been posting? Well, dear friends, blessed Holy Week to you. As you gather with those you love to celebrate the triad of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday.

Holy Saturday or Easter, depending on what church you're going to. I pray that this week with intentionality, we would know the path of Jesus before us, that we would see within our own lives that path of redemption and grace playing out where we are invited to lay down our lives for God and to take up the healing and redemption and resurrection God offers to us. May you know you're loved. May you be a blessing and

Speaker 1 (19:36.286)
know that you are blessed and I look forward to speaking with you soon.