Episodes
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The Jesus Deepfakes: Fire Insurance Jesus
The next installment in our current sermon series: The Jesus Deepfakes! Join the Zao Digital Commons on Discord here!
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The Jesus Deepfakes: Introduction
Welcome to our new sermon series: The Jesus Deepfakes! This intro is a conversation between Pastors Jonah and Cameron. Join the Zao Digital Commons on Discord here!
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Lie #5: God Wants More of God, Less of Me
The next installment of our current sermon series: Lies I Learned In Church
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Lie #4: We're All Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
The next installment of our current sermon series: Lies I Learned In Church
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Lie #3: God is a Divine Flock Camera
The next installment of our current sermon series: Lies I Learned In Church
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Lie #2: Your Heart Is Untrustworthy
The next installment of our current sermon series: Lies I Learned In Church
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Lie #1: Deconstruction is a (Modern) Problem
Welcome to our new sermon series: Lies I Learned in Church!
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Dare to Dream, Dare to Win
Sermon by Dr. Cameron Overton, Executive Pastor at Zao
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Not Slow, Patient
This June and July, we're featuring sermons from the vault in our harbor gatherings! New content will be coming in August. This sermon was originally preached on October 1, 2023.
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A Tale of Two Creations
This June and July, we're featuring sermons from the vault in our harbor gatherings! New content will be coming in August. This sermon was originally preached on September 15, 2024.
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We're All In This Together
Guest sermon by Chris Chapman
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Protest Sunday
On Palm/Protest Sunday, how do we join Jesus in gathering people power to stand up against the violence of empire?
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Lent: From Distraction To Intention
When we allow our attention to be scattered and commodified, we find ourselves investing our time, energy, and even worship on things we didn't choose. How do we lay down the idols we've created as a culture, and cultivate and attentive intention where we choose what we love instead of being…
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Lent: There Your Heart Lies Also
In a world where numbing out sometimes feels like the only way of getting by, what does it mean to be fully alive? Spend the next 40 days of Lent with the Zao community fasting from distraction, dissociation, and detachment, and moving into a faith of intention, embodiement, and devotion.
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Basics: From Death To New Life
We can't understand the teachings of Jesus without the cross and resurrection. Beyond individual salvation, what does that move from confrontation of empire, to death at the hands of the state, to resurrection in glory teach us about what it means to be free - for all of us to be free?
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Basics: Because We Have Each Other
Jesus knew about scarcity - he was teaching in a desert, after all. But trust, surrender, and abundance were central to his teachings. How can we be open handed with what we've got, trusting that giving it away is the only way we all get what we need?
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Basics: Turn the Other Cheek
One of Jesus's most famous sayings, "turn the other cheek," seems to have gotten lost in the modern "christian" nationalist agenda of vengeance and retribution. What did Jesus actually mean by that, and how do we embody it as faithful Jesus followers without getting absolutely crushed? Turns out...
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Basics: Pray in This Way
The Lord’s Prayer/Our Father is central to many Christian traditions and practices, but what does it really mean?
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Basics: Love God and Neighbor
We’re kicking off a series focusing on the core tenets of Jesus’s teachings. Amid the rise of Christian nationalism and Christofascism, it’s more crucial than ever that we have clarity on what it truly means to follow Jesus. We’re starting with what Jesus identified as the foundation of all other...
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Power that Gives Hope
Sometimes it’s hard to remember what the Christmas season is about and why it’s supposed to be so meaningful to us as Christians. But we can also see how the life and ministry of Jesus provides hope in the face of the domineering power of empire. Guest sermon by Chris Chapman
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The Room Where It Happens
A Christmas Eve message from Pastor Jonah.
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A Subversive Geneology of Incarnation: Zerubbabel
This Advent, we’ll be deep-diving on some of the more unexpected or obscure ancestors in Jesus’s gospel genealogies, linking them with the four themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Today is Advent Week Three: Joy. Our focus is on Zerubbabel, who found joy with his community by building...
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A Subversive Genealogy of Incarnation: Judah
This Advent, we’ll be deep-diving on some of the more unexpected or obscure ancestors in Jesus’s gospel genealogies, linking them with the four themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Today is Advent Week Two: Peace. Our focus is on Judah, as we look at his gradual process of being reforged...
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A Subversive Genealogy of Incarnation: Tamar
This Advent, we’ll be deep-diving on some of the more unexpected or obscure ancestors in Jesus’s gospel genealogies, linking them with the four themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Today is Advent Week One: Hope. But not the soft-focus, candlelit kind of hope we so often hear from the...
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Wicked
On opening weekend of Wicked: For Good, we're reflecting on those throughout history who have been labeled "wicked" for opposing empire and fighting for a better world. When we are called "wicked," how can we recognize our connection with those movements of resistance past and present?
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Be Still
It's easy to feel alone. How can we learn to be still and connect to the reality that God is always with us?
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Abiding in Connection
Pastor Jonah is back! When our nervous systems are continuously activated by the dangers and injustices all around us, what intentional practices can we cultivate to keep coming home to community, connection, and the love of God?
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Remember Who You Are
As we seek to push back on the powers of empire, it can be hard to know where to start. There are so many causes and movements that are worthy of our support, but we can only do so much as individuals. Let's remember that we aren't meant to do everything, but to discover who God uniquely made us…
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Heartburn Hermeneutics
What do you do when everything you thought you knew collapses? And what does it mean to start over? This week we explore the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, as we learn to listen to what our bodies can tell us about what is true and who to follow. Guest sermon by Tamice Spencer-Helms
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The Sacred Art of Cherry Picking
One thing progressives and conservatives undeniably share is this: we all cherry-pick the Bible. It’s an unavoidable reality that we gravitate toward certain passages and stories while overlooking or even rejecting others. If that’s the case, then the question isn’t whether we cherry-pick — but…
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Grieving Is Holy
We live in a world that simultaneously gives us reason for immense sorrow and tells us to constantly stay positive and look on the bright side. It can be hard to look at the state of the world and have hope, but is that the whole point? What if our faith found room for both honest grief and…
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Testimony Sunday
God speaks through all of creation. In this special sermon, hear the voice of God as told by community members Bryan, Kian, and Liz: how God is showing up in their lives, how God invites them into transformation, and how God's love changes everything.
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Is It All Rubbish?
Many of us have become disillusioned with more conservative, fundamentalist expressions of the Christian faith. After we deconstruct, it can be challenging to find new practices and expressions that suit what our faith looks like now. What theologies and beliefs are you still holding on to that…
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Shaped for a Purpose
This Sunday we reflect on Jeremiah’s image of God as the potter and we as the clay, discovering how God reshapes us with intention to live as vessels of justice, mercy, and hope. Guest sermon by Rev. R. Ellen Rasmussen
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A Different Kind of Movement
An exploration of Jesus’ work with his followers to build a rich, relational, liberatory movement. Guest sermon by Mark Fraley