PODCAST · religion
Deconstructing the Bible
by Jason Steffenhagen
This podcast attempts to spend more time asking good questions than providing simplistic answers. For too many people, the Bible has been used as a weapon or limited in how it speaks to what it means to be human. Let’s get curious about these stories. Let’s discover what God might be inviting us into.
Episodes
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Instant Mashed Potatoes, Tattoos, and Economic Justice | Reimagining Manna From Heaven
In this episode, Jason is joined by Pastor Steph to discuss Exodus 16 and the story of God providing manna (and quail) from heaven while the people are traveling in the wilderness. This conversation touches on sooooo many good topics... Economic Justice (and injustice) Scarcity vs. Abundance...
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Stairway to Earth | Reimagining Jacob’s Ladder
In this episode we look at the story of Jacob's Ladder (or the Stairway to Heaven) found in Genesis 28. Oftentimes, this passage could be used to show that heaven is above and earth is below and the goal is to get from the earth below to heaven above. But what if we look closely at what happens…
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Ripple Effects In Creation | Reimagining Noah’s Ark
The story of Noah and the Ark is a classic children's story from the Bible. We love the animals and the bravery of Noah and his family. We love the dove being sent out from the ark and coming back with an olive branch. And the story ends with a rainbow! Who doesn't love a rainbow?! But what…
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It’s Crouching At Your Door | Reimagining Cain and Abel
The story of Cain and Abel is one of the oldest stories in the Bible. What happens if we dive into the names of each character...how can their names teach us about what it means to be human? Let's move towards becoming more like Abel, while also holding some empathy for Cain. In this episode I'm...
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More Than A Rib | Reimagining Eve’s Story
Welcome to a new season of Deconstructing the Bible! In this season we are reconstructing children's stories. You know...those popular Bible stories about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, and more. So often our earliest conceptions of these stories have impacted what we know about God and...
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A Prayer for Ukraine on Ash Wednesday
We take a moment of pause from our current series to offer a time of prayer and reflection for the people of Ukraine. As it is Ash Wednesday, where we receive the ashes...reminding us of our mortality, we recognize the pain of death and loss in the midst of war. Ash Wednesday moves us into a…
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Deconstructing the Armor of God
In this bonus episode, we hear a sermon preached at The Well on Sunday, November 21st that wrapped up a series on the book of Ephesians. In this message, we unpack the Armor of God... the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness or justice, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the…
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Advent Peace | Not going back to the garden
Peace might not be as simple as you think. How might our lives change if peace was a more dynamic and complicated idea? If we explore how and when it is used in the Bible...and the context of some of the passages in which it is used...we might see that it has an amazing amount to teach us about…
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Advent Joy | Joy is more than what you think it is
We all know that JOY is more than an emotion. It's not happiness. But it's also more than a choice. Where does joy originate? Why is joy usually embraced or seen in the midst of challenges? How can I anchor myself in joy?
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Advent Faith | This might get boring
What does it mean to have faith when life is more mundane and slow? How can we learn from Mary's story...a story of deep faith...through a long and mostly lonely journey towards the birth of Jesus?
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Advent Hope | What we can learn in the dark
The first Sunday of Advent is the week of HOPE. And instead of starting in the gospels, we often are called back to the prophets. Why? What can the prophets teach us about Hope. Advent also starts in the dark. We don't have all the bells and carols and ornaments just yet. First we slow down and...
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Persistence is Frustrating! | The Parable of the Persistent Widow
Welcome to the final episode of season 2. We are looking at the parable of The Persistent Widow from Luke 18. There are lessons to learn...but there is also some frustration about the slowness of justice. Why doesn't it happen immediately? Why isn't it more sweeping? How does hope factor in?…
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How Can We Talk About Wealth | The Parable of the Rich Fool
In Episode 8 of Season 2, we unpack the parable of The Rich Fool from Luke 12. It seems fairly straight-forward. But is it? How do we unpack how we deal with wealth and power in a society that seems to put a premium on those things? What does it mean to have a rich relationship with God?
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The Unpardonable Sin | The Parable of the Divided Kingdom
What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? This verse has haunted me forever. But what is Jesus saying in Mark 3? In Episode 7 of Season 2, we explore this challenging text with the help of scholar Bob Stein, who's commentary on Mark was not only influential in understanding this text, but…
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Gaining Flexibility, Compassion, and Grace | The Parable of New Wineskins
The Old vs. The New. It's always been presented as a competition...but is it? What if Jesus isn't telling people to throw out the old patterns and the old practices, but instead is inviting the old to respect and recognize that God's Spirit is still up to something? What if Jesus isn't telling…
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This One Is Complicated | The Parable of the Workers in the Field
The Parable of the Workers in the Field from Matthew 20:1-16 is the focus of Episode 5 of Season 2 of Deconstructing the Bible. It could be a parable about God's grace...this always present gift of hope and love and belonging. No matter when we turn to it, no matter when we return to the good…
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Jesus Isn’t Messing Around - Are you all talk and no action? | The Parable of the Two Sons
In Episode 4 of Season 2, we explore the parable of the Two Sons. Jesus is challenging the authority of the political and religious leaders. They have missed the announcement and the invitation to participate in God's Kingdom. Instead, they are actively dismissing those who have been transformed...
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The Battle Is Not Against Flesh And Blood | The Parable of the Good Samaritan
In episode 3 of season 2, Jason dives into the parable of the Good Samaritan. To set it up, we explore a passage of the Apostle Paul about how our battle is not against flesh and blood, other people, but against the principalities and the powers. What could this mean? We also dive into Ephesians…
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What If You Get What You Want | The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 2. In this season we are looking at the Parables of Jesus...breaking them down to see how they disrupt the status quo and point us towards the upside-down Kingdom of God. In this episode we look at the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16.
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Mustard Seeds And Leaven | The Parables of Jesus are Subverting the Status Quo
Welcome back to Deconstructing the Bible. This is episode 1 of season 2! In this season we are exploring the parables of Jesus from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In this episode we set the stage by talking about what IS a parable and HOW that impacts what we can learn from it. We then...
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70 x 7 | What if forgiveness is about power?
It's so easy to be resentful and bitter, to want payback. People give us reasons to be this way almost every day. And it's enticing to enjoy the power and the position that being unforgiving holds. But Jesus expects something different. What does it look like for forgiveness to be a way of...
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The Scapegoat | How Jesus upends the scapegoat mechanism, moving us towards a ’we’
In Leviticus 16, the people of Israel are taught to use a scapegoat as a symbolic act of relinquishing their sins and receiving forgiveness. As beautiful as this mechanism was, it was only a step towards true spiritual maturity of loving one's enemies and being transformed by the power of God's...
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Polarization and Proximity | What would it look like if we moved towards one another with empathy?
It's obvious that the political climate is polarized. It's cliche to even mention it or use that word. But how do we move towards wholeness? The story of Israel can help us recognize how we have more in common with one another than we think. And when we can see ourselves in one another we develop...
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It’s All Sacred | What if Genesis 3 is the final act of creation?
It goes without saying that the past 18 months have been hard. Whether you are a parent, someone who lost a job or a loved one, or someone who experienced an immense amount of loneliness in 2020, this has been a tough season. A racial reckoning and call for reconciliation and justice has been at...
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Knowledge vs. Participation
What does it mean to believe? What would it look like if we saw belief and salvation a little differently? In this episode we talk about how the acquisition of knowledge is important, but can sometimes be a crutch for a transformed spirituality. BUT, when done well, knowledge can propel our faith...
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Halakah, Hata, T’Shuva (Law, Sin, Repent) | Seeing important words as trajectories
Halakah, Hata, T'Shuva (Law, Sin, Repent) are Hebrew words found throughout the Bible that shape how we believe and the way in which we believe. In this episode, we take a deeper dive into how these terms could be translated and how that translation can impact how we navigate relationship with…
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Identity Development | Understanding how the combination of crisis and commitment impacts who we are becoming
In Episode 9, Jason walks us through James Marcia's Identity Development Model to better understand who we are and how our faith is shaped in different seasons of our life. This model is predicated on levels of commitment and levels of crisis or curiosity.
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Faith Development Theory | How we develop impacts how we read the Bible
In this episode, Jason explores James Fowler's faith development theory from the book Stages of Faith (book link below). At each stage of our development we engage the Bible differently. As faith becomes our own (stage 4), we sometimes need to read the Bible with different lenses as we explore…
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Stephanie Spencer Invites Us To Wrestle (part 3)
Assoc. Minister Jason sits down with Stephanie Spencer, founder and director of 40 Orchards, a non-profit that invites people to explore the Scriptures in community through the practice of midrash. She is a kind friend and an incredibly smart and gifted Bible teacher. This episode is part 3 (the...
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Stephanie Spencer Invites Us To Wrestle (part 2)
Assoc. Minister Jason sits down with Stephanie Spencer, founder and director of 40 Orchards, a non-profit that invites people to explore the Scriptures in community through the practice of midrash. She is a kind friend and an incredibly smart and gifted Bible teacher. This episode is part 2 of…
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Stephanie Spencer Invites Us To Wrestle (part 1)
"AHHH! This is the episode that I've been waiting for!!" Assoc. Minister Jason sits down with Stephanie Spencer, founder and director of 40 Orchards, a non-profit that invites people to explore the Scriptures in community through the practice of midrash. She is a kind friend and an incredibly…
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The Hebrew Scriptures | How we look at history
In Episode 4 of Deconstructing the Bible, we look at the Old Testament (or the Hebrew Scriptures) and how it has traditionally been constructed and taught. When observed as simply Israelite history (as most Christian traditions have done), we vastly limit what the text can teach us. But, when...
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The Beginning and the End
In Episode 3 we ask two questions.... What is the beginning? What is the end? Knowing where the story began and where the story is headed can help us navigate the middle...where we all find ourselves. It can also help us hold onto hope when Justice and Love seem so far from our reality.
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Midrash | How we read, interpret, and find meaning in the Bible
In Episode 2, Associate Minister Jason Steffenhagen explores different ways of reading, interpreting, and finding meaning in the Bible. Often, we've been told to read what the Bible says, to understand a singular meaning, and to apply the teaching in a singular way. But what if there are other…
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’Deconstructing’ the ’Bible’
Welcome to Deconstructing the Bible! In this opening episode, Associate Minister Jason Steffenhagen explores what is meant by 'deconstruction' and 'Bible'. This foundation will help us understand the direction for this podcast.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This podcast attempts to spend more time asking good questions than providing simplistic answers. For too many people, the Bible has been used as a weapon or limited in how it speaks to what it means to be human. Let’s get curious about these stories. Let’s discover what God might be inviting us into.
HOSTED BY
Jason Steffenhagen
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Deconstructing the Bible have?
Deconstructing the Bible currently has 35 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Deconstructing the Bible about?
This podcast attempts to spend more time asking good questions than providing simplistic answers. For too many people, the Bible has been used as a weapon or limited in how it speaks to what it means to be human. Let’s get curious about these stories. Let’s discover what God might be inviting us...
How often does Deconstructing the Bible release new episodes?
Deconstructing the Bible has 35 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Deconstructing the Bible?
You can listen to Deconstructing the Bible on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Deconstructing the Bible?
Deconstructing the Bible is created and hosted by Jason Steffenhagen.
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