Pub Theology 4/2/24 — Who are you in this story?

Pete Trumbore • April 1, 2024

Last week was Holy Week, which means we’ve finally made it through the penitential season of Lent and into an Easter season of resurrection and renewal. But before we look ahead to the sunnier spring days approaching, let’s spend a little time reflecting on the week just past.

Holy Week starts with triumph and ends with triumph, but sandwiches a whole lot of tragedy there in between. Jesus with his disciples enters Jerusalem to the cheers and jubilation of the crowds on Palm Sunday. On Thursday he shares a final meal with his friends, who can’t be bothered to stay awake with him while he prays, and then one turns him in to the authorities for arrest. On Friday Jesus is dragged before a bloodthirsty public, tortured and executed while his friends ( save for the women closest to him) deny and abandon him. Then, finally, on Sunday comes the ultimate victory of the resurrection.

An article published at mbird.com describes the events described above as “whiplash week,” and I think that’s a really apt analogy. “Holy Week might as well be called Whiplash Week. We move from the joyful celebration of Palm Sunday, to the deepest despair of Good Friday, then back to the elation of Easter in quick succession. There is nothing mild or moderate about these events. The pendulum swings fiercely.”

The article linked to above, as well as this one which reminds us that while Jesus’ male disciples had gone off into hiding after the crucifixion, the women were still there on Friday and Saturday, getting things done, gives us an opportunity to find ourselves in the story of Holy Week. Who do we identify with, and which side are we on?

There are lots of options for us to consider. Are you part of the crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem, paving his way with palm fronds, cloaks on the ground, and shouts of joy? Or are you in the crowd calling for his blood at the end of the week? Or are you there for both? Are you Pilate, dodging responsibility and washing your hands of the whole messy affair? Are you with the disciples basking in the adoration of the crowds, or at dinner expressing shock that anyone would betray their master? Do you fall asleep while Jesus prays, then run for the hills when the soldiers show up? Or are you with the women, quietly getting things done while the men disappear, rewarded with the first glimpse of the risen Christ?

Who are you in the story? We’ll talk all about it in our conversation tomorrow evening, Tuesday April 2. Join us of the discussion starting at 7pm at Casa Real in downtown Oxford.

Pub Theology 11/10/26 -- Forgive and ...

By Peter Trumbore • November 9, 2026
First, and before anyone panics and despite first appearances, this is not a political topic. It just happens to stem from the words of a political figure. On Sunday evening, President Trump gave an extraordinary interview to the CBS program "60 Minutes." This interview came just days after his party suffered historic losses in midterm elections, and while the discussion did touch on that, and other issues, towards the end it swerved into an unexpected lane. Correspondent Ross Douthat, who while a writer at The New York Times wrote often about the intersection of faith and public policy (often from a conservative Roman Catholic perspective), asked the president whether he could forgive his political enemies if that was what it took to enter heaven. Trump, who described himself as "a religious person," nevertheless balked at the answer. Douthat pressed: "Mr. President, you have had the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in my entire lifetime, and you are telling me that before the judgment throne of God, you couldn't find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies? After all that's been given to you?" Trump responded: "Can I be honest? I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies, and I always will." To put it bluntly, Trump suggested he would rather hold onto his grudges and go to hell than forgive his enemies. Leaving politics out of it, how do you respond to this? How do you square this with your own experience? In order for us to be forgiven, must we forgive everyone we believe has wronged us? As Christians, or as people of faith more generally, do we have a responsibility to forgive others? Are there things for us that cannot be forgiven, even at the cost of our own salvation? Join us for the conversation tomorrow evening, Tuesday, Nov. 10, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Copy of Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday | November 8, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • November 8, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

All Saints' Sunday | November 1, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • November 1, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Pub Theology 10/27/26 -- 'Tis the season, spooky season!

By Peter Trumbore • October 26, 2026
"From ghoulies and ghosties, long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us!" This very old folk prayer, which has been tied to both Scotland and Cornwall, used to hang on the wall of my childhood home, and it often comes to mind for me at this time of year. A little trivia -- the first known publication of this prayer was in 1926 in a volume titled "The Cornish and West Country Litany," but it is thought to be far older. That it can be traced to regions of the United Kingdom that are quite distant from one another may be a testament to its antiquity. Anyway, we're right up to the climax of what some call "spooky season," the weeks from the end of summer up until Halloween, which this year falls on Saturday. Apparently this idea of "spooky season" is a relatively recent development, becoming popular on the internet as a way to talk about stretching the adult of fun of Halloween from a single day of dress-up shenanigans to something akin to the more well-established holiday season we're now rocketing toward. This is a far cry from what I recall growing up, where more than a few of the local churches in our area very actively sought to discourage observance of Halloween, labeling it a pagan celebration of witchcraft, devilry, and superstition that was incompatible with being a good Christian. Of course that didn't really dissuade anyone. But with the holiday just a few days away, I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to talk about the nature of spooky stuff, ghoulies and ghosties, and other such things. So tell us, what do you love about Halloween? How do you mark it? Does anything give you pause? What do you think about this claim that you can't be a Christian and still participate in or enjoy Halloween? Finally, what do you make of that old Scots and Cornish prayer? What real fears do you think it reflects? And what might a modern version look like? Join us for the conversation tomorrow evening, Tuesday Oct. 27 starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost Sunday | October 25, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • October 25, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Copy of Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost Sunday | October 18, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • October 18, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Pub Theology 10/13/26 -- A series of quick hits

By Peter Trumbore • October 13, 2026
Some weeks inspiration hits and we stumble onto a single topic that has enough going for it that our Tuesday evening conversation revolves around it entirely. Some weeks, like this one, we take a different approach. Tonight, rather than chew on one big idea, we've got a couple of interesting, but generally unrelated questions to animate our discussion. We'll take them on one at a time, in no particular order, and see what develops. Nine years ago New Yorker cartoonist David Sipress drew a cartoon with this caption: "My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” Do you experience this tension in your own life, and if so, how do you deal with it? Are you more interested in buying things, or experiencing things? How far will you go to experience something for the first time? What is an example of that? Are you a thrill seeker? An adventure traveler? Something else? Lutheran pastor and writer Nadia Bola-Weber said this: "People don't leave Christianity because they stop believing in the teachings of Jesus. People leave Christianity because they believe in the teachings of Jesus so much, they can't stomach being part of an institution that claims to be about that and clearly isn't." What is your take on this? Do you agree with her? Why or why not? Podcaster Joe Rogan: "Jesus was born out of a virgin mother. What's more virgin than a computer? If Jesus does return, you don't think he could return as Artificial Intelligence? AI could absolutely return as Jesus." OK, is he off his rocker, or do you think he might be on to something? If all else fails, what's on your mind this week?  Join us for the conversation this evening, Tuesday Oct. 13 starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday | October 11, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • October 11, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Pub Theology 10/6/26 -- Finding peace, finding God

By Peter Trumbore • October 5, 2026
It escaped my notice, so perhaps it escaped yours as well. Back on August 31, the lauded poet, farmer, essayist, and deeply influential thinker Wendell Berry died at the age of 92, in the place he loved best, his farm in Kentucky. Over the years, several of our conversations have been inspired by or touched on Berry's ideas and writings. While Berry has influenced countless Christians through his poetry and fiction, he described himself as a "bad-weather churchgoer." In the preface to his collection of sabbath day poems titled "This Day," Berry explains it this way: "But I am a bad-weather churchgoer. When the weather is good, sometimes when it is only tolerable, I am drawn to the woods on the local hillsides or along the streams… In such places, on the best of these sabbath days, I experience a lovely freedom from expectations — other people’s and also my own. I go free from the tasks and intentions of my workdays, and so my mind becomes hospitable to unintended thoughts: to what I am very willing to call inspiration.." One of the things this quote brings to mind is how important the concept of "place" was in Berry's work and, more importantly, the way he saw the world and how he sought to live in it. Way back in 2017, we talked about the idea of place, with Berry as our guide. "Belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are your neighbors in it ..." This is a very small portion of Wendell Berry's "A Poem on Hope". In his poem, "The Want of Peace," reprinted in the illustration above, Berry writes: "I lack the peace of simple things. I am never wholly in place." So in our conversation this week we're going to revisit this idea of "place," of finding it, belonging to it, and perhaps losing it. There are many ways we can think about this notion. Where do we find peace? Where do we find God? Where do we find ourselves? Where do we find our people, or our purpose? Join us for the conversation tomorrow evening, Tuesday Oct. 6 starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday | October 4, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • October 4, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.