Staying at the Table: Curiosity over Defensiveness
This week we continued our series by tackling one of the hardest topics to bring into church: politics. Turns out Jesus was deeply "political" — just not in the partisan sense we usually mean. He challenged the unjust Roman empire and those who held power because of it, out of his concern for all. Through the healing on the Sabbath Jesus performs in Mark 3 and the Pharisees' defensive response to it, we explored Christ’s call to curiosity and openness both with others and ourselves. We acknowledged that in our current climate this call to curiosity in place of defensiveness is a difficult one to heed. We witnessed one person navigate that challenging territory as we turned to the story of country-music artist Jelly Roll, and had the chance to hear his own words as he sought to be faithful in the midst of these challenging and divisive times. If you missed it, it's worth catching the full message — and we'd love to hear your thoughts as this conversation continues beyond Sunday.
Here are links to things Pastor Clare referenced in her sermon yesterday, if you would like to dig deeper this week.
Scripture
Mark 1:14-15 — Here in Jesus’ opening words to his ministry in the Gospel of Mark, we see evidence that Jesus came to challenge the ways of the Roman empire, as he preached the good news of God’s kingdom.
Mark 3:1-16 — Jesus prepares to heal a man on the sabbath and sensing the Pharisees resistance and defensiveness invites them to practice curiosity. He is angered and grieves their unyielding hearts as he heals the man in their presence. They conspire with those who hold political power to destroy Jesus.
Pastor Clare turned again to Brené Brown’s book Braving the Wilderness. She shared Brené’s analysis of Bill Bishop’s 2009 book, The Big Sort.
Within the sermon video is edited footage of Jelly Roll’s opening monologue on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE from August 27th, 2026. As background, Pastor Clare also shared information related to Jelly Roll’s acceptance speech and press conference from the Grammy’s which took place earlier this year.