First Formation: Spiritual exercise for rank & file believers

😇 Epiphany 2

Readings: 📜Isaiah 49:1-7; 🎶Psalm 40:1-11; ✉️1 Corinthians 1:1-9; 🦅John 1:29-42. For full, free access, go to PewPewHQ.com/tfw/a-e02. Also, check out uswithoutThem, a podcast exploring the discography of mewithoutYou! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

😇 Epiphany 1

Readings: 📜Isaiah 42 :1-9; 🎶Psalm 29; 📜Acts 10 :34-43; 😇Matthew 3 :13-17 From the TRNG Room: How to Read Scripture Like You’re Still in the Field Bapti-piphany Sunday What is Epiphany Central Thesis/Theme: In this first episode of the Epiphany season, I explore what "epiphany" really means in the Greek imagination—a divine appearance when all seems lost—and why the lectionary's focus on Jesus's baptism matters for understanding how we begin our Christian life. I'm particularly interested in how baptism functions as a threshold moment, a vigil where we die to ourselves and are raised in community. This episode is also about my ongoing project to democratize biblical interpretation, taking it away from institutional gatekeepers and making it accessible to rank-and-file believers like us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

😇 Xmas 2

Readings: 📜Jeremiah 31:7-14 ; 🎶Psalm 147:12-20; 📜Ephesians 1:3-14; 📜John 1:1-18. For full access, go to pewpewhq.com/tfw/a-x02. In this episode, I wrestle with the growing tension I feel between Pauline Christianity and the Jesus I encounter in the Gospels. The Christmas readings this week force me to confront my discomfort with Paul's privileged position and philosophical approach versus Christ's radical accessibility to the poor and marginalized. I'm arguing that if we must choose between Paul's epistles and the Hebrew scriptures, I'd choose the latter—not to reject Paul entirely, but to prioritize the Christ of the Gospels and the story he fulfills over the institutional church-building project I see in Paul's letters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

😇 Xmas 1

Readings: 📜Isaiah 63 :7-9; 🎶Psalm 148; ✉️Hebrews 2 :10-18 😇Matthew 2 :13-23. Full, free access at PewPewHQ.com/tfw/a-x01 I'm launching a three-year project called Fighting Words, which transitions from my previous First Formation podcast into a broader exegetical work I call "the fighting word"—a military-centered paraphrase of the Bible for rank and file believers. This isn't just rebranding; it's federating biblical interpretation away from institutional gatekeepers and placing it in the hands of ordinary people who've lived real experiences. After six or seven years of daily lectionary work, I've identified simpler, more direct ways of reading Scripture that honor both the text's depth and the reader's intelligence, rejecting both Victorian-era conservative inerrancy and watered-down modern paraphrases that dull the Bible's sharp edges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

😇 Advent 4

⁠📜Isaiah 7⁠:10-16; ⁠🎶Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; ⁠✉️Romans 1⁠:1-7; ⁠😇Matthew 1⁠:18-25.  A distinctive six-part Hebraic formula—"You shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name X"—appears only twice in Scripture when spoken by a divine messenger: to Hagar about Ishmael and to Mary about Jesus. This pattern reveals how Matthew and Luke connect Jesus not just to Isaiah's prophecy but to the very first child born according to God's promise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices