Working The Lectionary
Examining the World of Work through the Readings of the Weekly Lectionary
Episodes
Tuesday Mar 12, 2024
Episode 16: Lent 5, 2024
Tuesday Mar 12, 2024
Tuesday Mar 12, 2024
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.
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Episode 15: Lent 3 & 4, 2024
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Friday Mar 01, 2024
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.
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Episode 14: Lent 1 & 2, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
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.
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Episode 13: Epiphany 4 & 5, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
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.
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Episode 12: Pentecost 10 (with Robyn Whittaker/By The Well Podcast)
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
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.
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Episode 11: Pentecost 6 & 7, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
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.
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Episode 10: Pentecost 5, 2023
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
Tuesday Jun 27, 2023
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.
Friday Jun 09, 2023
Episode 9: Pentecost 2 & 3, 2023
Friday Jun 09, 2023
Friday Jun 09, 2023
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.
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Episode 8: Easter 2 & 3, 2023
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
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.
Friday Mar 17, 2023
Episode 7: Lent 4 & 5, 2023
Friday Mar 17, 2023
Friday Mar 17, 2023
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.