Working The Lectionary

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine readings from The Gospel According to Mark for weeks 21 and 22 of the season of Pentecost. For Pentecost 21, they reflect on how a false idolisation of the poor and of poverty can justify exploitation through the ideology of hard work as an alleged signifier of human dignity; while for Pentecost 22, they examine how a self-serving misinterpretation of servanthood can facilitate harm in work - even within the Church. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working The Lectionary, your hosts, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne, examine a passage from The Gospel According to Mark, in which the disciples try to stop an exorcist who is not part of the disciple group from performing miracles in Jesus' name - and how Jesus' response and his injunction against placing obstacles in the path of others calls on Christians to reflect on the ways in which their own formation blinds them to God's movement in the world, including the world of work and economics.  Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne discuss readings for Pentecost 6 and 7 in Year B. They begin with Mark's account of Jesus' encounter with Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, and analyze how Jairus, stripped of all his socio-political importance and reduced to basic human need, is emblematic of the way in which modernity's construction of work victimizes even its "winners". In the second reading, the unbelief of the people symbolizes the bitter irony of our own age, in which cynical rationalism has led to belief in all manner of conspiracy theories and self-serving narratives that become the cornerstone of modernity's mythologies of self-autonomy and the moral value of "hard work". TRIGGER WARNING: This episode does contain some discussion of suicidal ideation. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine a reading from First Samuel for Pentecost 4, discussing how superficial interpretations of God looking "for the inner self" disguise what this text has to say about the injustices that are built into economic systems and the social hierarchies they create. For Pentecost 5, a pietistic reading of a passage from The Gospel According to Mark, in which Jesus calms a storm, are eschewed in favour of a closer examination of how this passage speaks into God's presence in the world and the injustices created by modernity's construction of work. TRIGGER WARNING: There is some discussion of self-harm and suicidality in this episode. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne discuss readings for Pentecost 2 and 3. For Pentecost 2, they examine how a reading from the Gospel According to Mark, in which the Pharisees attempt to dictate what the sabbath is and how it should be observed, mirrors the way in which economic ideology (and those who are its beneficiaries) attempt to dictate what work is and means in human life. In the reading for Pentecost 3, a text from The First Book of Samuel reminds us of the reality of judgement in God's response to the Hebrew people's desire to imitate the structures of abusive power, and how that judgement extends to those institutions - including the Church - which replicate these structures today. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne examine readings for Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. What does the ancient reading from Ezekiel tell us about our tendency to skip over the "bad stuff" and get to the bits we find positive and hopeful - and what does this tell us about our need to remember our involvement in the structures of injustice, and how those structures destroy covenantal relationships? The reading from the Gospel According to John likewise challenges our tendency to separate the personal from the political and thereby differentiate between "truth" and "facts" - and why it is disastrous for the church to divide the pastoral from the prophetic, the private from the public. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working The Lectionary, a reading from the Gospel According to John, in which Jesus responds to the request by some foreigners for a meeting, is utilised to examine the way in which the ideology of neoliberalism has become modernity's oppressive imperium. And just as the political and religious leaders of Jesus' time were co-opted by the Roman Empire to be the agents of its oppression, this reading examines how church and state in modernity have likewise been subsumed by neoliberalism to become agents of oppressive prerogatives - and how Jesus both commissions and challenges the Church to be the liberating fruit of Jesus' ministry instead. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne utilize readings from the Gospel According to John for weeks 3 and 4 of the season of Lent. For week 3, we examine how the violent Jesus who clears the Temple is God's response to the idolatrous corruption that makes what should be a means to an end an end in itself; and how this reflects the corruption of both the economic world and the world of work. For week 4, we reflect on the graciousness of God who, in the person of Christ and notwithstanding the corruption of the world, still makes God-self present to the world as an act of love; and how this act of loving presence calls the Church to do likewise instead of being co-opted by the concerns and measures of the ideology of success. TRIGGER WARNING: This episode does contain some discussion of self-harm, suicide, and work-related death. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, for Lent 1, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne consider how the flood narrative in Genesis is emblematic both of the destructiveness of humanity's construction of work and economy, and also of the graciousness of God who maintains relationship with humankind despite our wrongdoing. For Lent 2, they discus how the centrality in Paul's Letter to the Romans calls us to reconsider how modernity's construction of relationships through the contractual arrangements of work and economy mirror the violence of unjust power, instead of the relational commitment to graciousness and generosity available through covenant. TRIGGER WARNING: This episodes contains discussions of work-related harm and suffering, including mentions of suicide.  Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

Working the Lectionary is back! Your hosts, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne have been away for a while, but they return in a new calendar year and a new lectionary year to discuss readings for Epiphany 4 and 5 2024.  For Epiphany 4, Brendan and John ponder the message about prophetic ministry from Deuteronomy 18 and what it might mean both for a church all-too-often co-opted by capitalism's metrics of investment in future profitability; while, for Epiphany 5, they discuss Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 9, and its message of liberation from economic ideology's demands for compliance and what it means to be a community of faith in the world today. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license.  A NOTE ON THE AUDIO: Unfortunately, our primary recording technology malfunctioned during the recording of this episode, and we had to rely on backup technology to produce this episode. We have done our best to clean up the audio file, but it is of lesser quality than usual. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne are the guests of our colleague, Rev. Associate Professor Robyn Whittaker and the By The Well podcast as we discuss readings from Genesis and The Gospel According to Matthew through the lens of work and economy.     Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne explore a reading from The Gospel According to Matthew for Pentecost 6, and discuss how Jesus' invitation to rest in him also challenges us to re-asses how our assumptions and conventions prevent us from seeing God's liberating grace in the world. For Pentecost 7, a reading from Genesis becomes the lens through which they examine the sometimes harsh realities of human existence and how the truthfulness of openness to those realities sets us free to be other than who we all-too-often are. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license.  A NOTE ON THE AUDIO: Unfortunately, our primary recording technology malfunctioned during the recording of this episode, and we had to rely on backup technology to produce this episode. We have done our best to clean up the audio file, but it is of lesser quality than usual. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley discuss the troubling reading from Genesis in which Abraham obeys a command to sacrifice his son, and examine how human complicity with the structures of abusive power perpetuate violence and injustice at home, in the church, and at work. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

After a brief break, Working the Lectionary is back! In this episode, your hosts John Bottomley and Brendan Byrne will be exploring Pentecost 2 and 3 through readings drawn from The Gospel According to Matthew. For Pentecost 2, we'll examine how Jesus' calling to Matthew was also a calling into healing, which in turn calls the Church into a ministry of healing for the wounds inflicted by the world of work. Pentecost 3 finds us exploring Jesus' injunction to the disciples to give without payment what they have received without payment, and what this says about the Church's status as a beneficiary of colonialism and its failure to speak prophetically into the "helpless and harassed" realities of work. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley examine readings for Easter 2 & 3. In Easter 2, we reflect on how the Gospel According to John's account of Jesus' gracious response to Thomas' fear-fueled bravado liberates us from the tyranny of pretense that we are not vulnerable and wounded, which capitalism's profit motive and competition-saturated workplace culture impose upon us; while for Easter 3, a reading from the Gospel According to Luke provides the basis for discussing how the Church can care for those who are wounded by work as well as bring its pastoral reflections out of the sphere of private contemplation into the public world of work. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley reflect on a reading from 1 Samuel (Lent 4) and how God's commissioning of Samuel to anoint a new king points to God's sovereignty in moving oppressive systems toward new ways of being; while for Lent 5, a reading from Ezekiel articulates God's presence - even in the life-denying realities of work - and the divine re-shaping of those realities despite appearances to the contrary. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working The Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley discuss how a reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans contrasts the death and violence implicit in the creation narrative of capitalism contrasts to the life-giving grace located in faith in God as the moving force of creation; and how Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman reflects and critiques the demonization of those deemed to be losers under capitalism's violent competitive ethos. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this week's edition of Working the Lectionary, we'll explore the famous - indeed, infamous - reading from Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7, in which the alleged "tempting" and "fall" of humanity occurs. In doing so, we'll examine how our assumed knowledge of this text has perpetuated injustice across millennia...and how our continued assumptions about the "inevitability" and "necessity" of modernity's construction of work and economy continues to blight our lives today. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley reflect on Psalm 40 and its detailing of the presence of God in the world, including the world of work and the "daily grind"; they also examine Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians and how it speaks into the historical realities of colonialism and the possibility of reconciliation between First and Second Nations people by modelling leadership and equality that is grounded in our shared human vulnerability.  Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license. 

In this Episode of Working the Lectionary, your hosts Brendan Byrne and John Bottomley examine how the violence portrayed in the "Massacre of the Innocents" reflects the violence implicit in modernity's construction of work and economy; as well as a reading from The Acts of the Apostles that points toward the manner in which restorative justice can heal the harm experienced in the modern work environment. CONTENT ADVISORY: This episode contains discussions of self-harm and suicide that may be upsetting or harmful to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Theme music: Work Undone by Pearce Roswell. Available through Epidemic Music. Used under license.