Imago Scriptura

About Imago Scriptura

Faith, Photography, Beauty, Wonder, and some Sermons www.imagoscriptura.com (https://www.imagoscriptura.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Edward Goode

Category

arts · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 May 2025

Latest episode

22 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Jun 2026

   Room at the Table - See Something, Say Something

   This message is the third in our “Room at the Table” series. The first two were messages that were done in a way that was not conducive to sharing in a traditional audio format - they were more conversational and interactive. This week, based on the story in Luke 7:36-50 - the story of the unnamed woman anointing Jesus’ feet at the home of the Pharisee named Simon. It begins with “clearing some misconceptions” then the reading by our liturgist and then the sermon in full. As I note at one point, it is a wee bit longer than my normal messages but sometimes that just happens. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   1 Jun 2026

   Scout's Commencement Address

   Good afternoon friends! I am so grateful that you have welcomed me into your inbox and/or your Substack feed! It means so much to me! Yesterday in our service, we had a really unique guest “preacher.” My dog Scout shared a commencement address as we were honoring graduates connected to the congregation and also ordaining and installing our next class of servant leaders (elders and deacons). Our focus scripture was 1 Timothy 6:11-19 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%206:11-19&version=NRSVUE) and the message begins with my introduction but then shifts into me sharing what Scout told me to share. Here’s the full text and here’s a PDF manuscript of it (https://cdn.subsplash.com/documents/X4SWH9/_source/7ad0f239-8054-4ba0-bec8-c603cb5060af/document.pdf). Me The reading we just heard comes from the end of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, and the more I sit with it, the more it reads like part of a commencement address. Paul had been the teacher and Timothy the student. The two first met in a town called Lystra, and Timothy went on to travel with Paul on several of his journeys. But here, near the very end, you can feel Paul handing off the baton — sending Timothy out to go and do this church thing on his own. Now, full disclosure…not every line in this letter has aged especially well. But there is still a great deal of timeless wisdom in it. Some of it is wonderfully practical and down to earth — For instance, Paul lays out the qualifications for the people who serve as leaders in the church, which feels awfully timely on a day when we are ordaining and installing elders and deacons. And some of it is less grounded, more mysterious, dwelling in the deep things of faith. Which, again, is exactly what a good commencement address does. But it’s the ending that has really held my attention this week. In our English translation, it’s just nine words: “Take hold of the life that really is life.” so let’s dig into that. Just before our reading, Paul is contrasting two different kinds of “life.” He warns that the life built on wealth, privilege, power, and dominance is not the life God desires for us. It isn’t life-giving at all — it ends up destroying the person living it and everyone around them. And then he turns. But as for you, he says, shun all of this. And he describes a different life — one marked by righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. A few sentences later he adds: do good, be rich in good works, be ready to share. It’s the mirror image of everything he just warned against. And when we live in these life-giving ways, Paul says, we are taking hold of the life that really is life — a life we can hold onto, steady and secure. So what does this life really look like? I could stand up here for the next 10 minutes or so and share about it or we can hear from somebody who I think really lives it. so for the rest of the message, we are going to be hearing from someone who I think live this just about better than any human I know. Earlier this week, my dog Scout and I were out on one of our morning walks, and as she was greeting another person on the trail I and my guest preacher Was right there with me . What we worked out is that she’d tell me what to say, and I’d share it for her, here, in person. She knows that not everybody is comfortable with dogs and some people are allergic to dogs so she wanted to make sure that this was as welcoming a place as possible. So — to our graduates, to the elders and deacons we’ll ordain and install today, and to all of us — here is Scout’s commencement address. From Scout Thank you all for giving me this opportunity to share. I am fairly sure that there hasn’t been a message shared by a dog here at RJC before so I hope that this won’t be the only time that this happens. I am humbled that my human thinks that I live this kind of life. I don’t necessarily think about it that way, but instead I just try to live. So here goes on what that guy Paul shares (my human read it to me several times as I don’t know how to read yet… yet). First, behold the beauty. You humans move too quickly too much of the time. I cannot tell you the number of times my human tells me that we have to get going when I’m doing a big sniff. Yes there are times to get moving quickly (like when I get to chase a goose at the lake) . I know my nose sniffs things much better than your weird looking human noses but it is important to slow down and really take in a big sniff of a tree, a post, a plant, a spot on the ground, and of other creatures. There is so much that is out there that you aren’t aware of but if you slowed down you might notice more. I think when Paul talks about righteousness and faith, a big part of that is slowing down to recognize where God is at work. One of my humans’ favorite movies is about a high schooler named Ferris Bueller and he once said, “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” While your noses don’t work like mine, some of your other senses are much better than mine - use those to really soak in the wonder that is this world and the people that God has put around you. There is so much mystery and wonder. Soak it in even if you can’t sniff it in. Second, pay attention to others. One of the things we dogs are awesome at is picking up on things that our humans don’t even know is going on. There are some dogs that have detected diseases in their humans before all your doctors have! But it is even in how we recognize that you are having a hard day and we try to get you to stop and rest and recover. It makes me sad when I am trying to send that message to my humans and they just keep on stressing when just sitting down on the couch and petting me for a few minutes will help them feel better. The other day my human was really cranky about something that happened and I just kept coming up to him and reminding him that I was there until he finally realized what I was saying. So we sat down together on the couch and the next thing that happened was that he woke up after about a 20 minute nap and felt better! Paying attention to others is something that Paul wrote to Timothy - to do good and to serve others. That Jesus guy knew what he was talking about when he said to look to needs of others before your own. Third, be gentle. I know not all dogs are gentle but gentleness is something that Paul tells Timothy is really important. I wasn’t always as gentle as I am now. My first few years I was pretty difficult and I snapped at people when they got too close to me when I was chewing a bone or something. Something I didn’t know then was that there were times that my humans were actually trying to help me not eat something I shouldn’t (although socks do taste really good). They were doing it because they love me. But I have grown to be very gentle and I think that’s important for you humans to do just like Paul tells Timothy here. There are too many humans who aren’t gentle and are mean, violent, angry, and take that all out on others in awful ways. I know they do it to dogs sometimes and also to humans and other animals and to all of this beautiful world. That Jesus guy was gentle and caring and when humans say they should be like Jesus, this is something that can easily be missed. This is what that love of Jesus thing is. One of my favoritest things in the world is when we are on a walk and a little human asks if they can pet me. Once I sit down my human says that they can and I just sit there and let them feel my soft ears or run their hands down my back. It means a lot to me when I hear other humans tell my humans how gentle and sweet I am. You humans can be this way as well. And last, don’t be afraid to share what you need. This isn’t really in what Paul tells Timothy here but there’s another place in the Bible where Paul tells Timothy to be sure to take care of himself and his sensitive stomach. Paul reminds Timothy that his needs are important as well. Yes we are supposed to look to others and serve others like Jesus said but we also need to be aware of what we need and be willing to ask others for help. I do this a LOT. I love getting scratches right on my back near my back legs. My humans call them “butt scratches.” I will come up to my humans and will turn my butt toward them until they start scratchng. It feels so good. I also know how to tell my humans when I need to go outside and when I’m hungry (although I don’t think they feed me as much or as often as I think they should). Sometimes when I am asking them to come sit with me on the couch it isn’t just got something going on for them but sometimes I just need someone to be with me. And I know there are times that I go even a bit more direct and poke my humans gently with one of my paws. But when you can’t speak human words, you’ve got to do what you can. Can I give one more? Have friends. My humans are my friends but I also have other friends in my house - a soft llama named Lugnut, an elephant named Sebastian, and a shark named Agnes (and there are a few others too). But they are friends too and they’re important to me. I sometimes get so excited when my humans come home that I will go and get one of my friends to show how excited we both are! But Timothy and Paul were friends too - they were important to each other. Paul writes to Timothy here because they cared for and loved each other. We dogs generally like to be in packs - we don’t like to be on our own. You humans sometimes think you can do it all on your own but you can’t. You need friends. We all do. God gave us one another. And in closing, you can send me my honorarium in milk bones… Thank you Scout. Good and wise words. Good girl. And here are a few pics of the stunning sunrise we had this morning. Wow. Just wow. Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,Ed A bit about subscribing. I don’t anticipate pay-walling any of my posts because I feel that this is a gift that God has given me to share. So subscribe for free. All good. If you do, however, want to help support my work, you can subscribe for $3/mo or $30/yr and for that you will receive my deepest gratitude that you trust me with your resources to continue to share these things. Thank you. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   14 Apr 2026

   Stories in Stained Glass - The Jewish Faith of Jesus

   We have moved into symbols now with our stained glass windows and this week, we centered on two windows with symbols of the Jewish faith and focused on the Jewish faith of Jesus. Our scriptures came from Luke 3 and 4 - the baptism and the temptation of Jesus but could have included many more that showed clearly the Jewish faith of Jesus. A bit about subscribing. I don’t anticipate pay-walling any of my posts because I feel that this is a gift that God has given me to share. So subscribe for free. All good. If you do, however, want to help support my work, you can subscribe for $3/mo or $30/yr and for that you will receive my deepest gratitude that you trust me with your resources to continue to share these things. Thank you. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

4. 

   6 Apr 2026

   Stories in Stained Glass - Easter Morning - A Bar, a Diner, and a Garden

   Easter at ResoundingJoy Church - The passage was John 20:1-18 and we were continuing our series on the Stories in Stained Glass in our sanctuary. Interestingly, there aren't any stained glass windows that are "specifically" about Easter. So, take a listen and see where the sermon went. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

5. 

   31 Mar 2026

   Seeds and Palms - Stories in Stained Glass

   Sermon from ResoundingJoy Church on March 29 - Palm Sunday. Scripture was from Mark 4, the parable of the sower along with the Mark version of the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem story Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

6. 

   28 Mar 2026

   The "Lost and Found Parables" of Luke 15

   The "Lost and Found" parables of Luke 15 through the stained glass windows of ResoundingJoy Church. How do these three teaching stories of Jesus show us core truths not only about our own faith lives but also one of the core truths of God? Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

7. 

   2 Mar 2026

   Stories in Stained Glass - Jesus in the Nazareth Synagogue

   Stories in Stained Glass - Jesus in the Nazareth Synagogue from Luke 4. Reflecting upon why the people responded as they did to what Jesus shared along with how we do some of the same today (although it seems with less throwing off cliffs) Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   22 Feb 2026

   Stories in Stained Glass - The Baptism of Jesus (And our own)

   A reflection on Mark 1:1-11 centering on the baptism of Jesus and our own baptisms Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   11 Dec 2025

   Pop Culture Pastors Hour: “Will It Preach?”—Holiday Grab Bag Edition

   MaryAnn McKibben Dana (https://substack.com/profile/6991805-maryann-mckibben-dana) and I had a great conversation today - super fun as we let the fates decide what Christmas songs/shows/movies would be subjected to the question, “Will it preach?” We didn’t get through our entire list but we got to some of the ones that I personally was most excited to discuss. I could have done an entire conversation just on the episode of The West Wing! Anyway, I referenced this article from William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove when I was talking about A Muppet Christmas Carol - The Heresy of a God Who Hates Empathy (https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/the-heresy-of-a-god-who-hates-empathy?r=b8sra&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true) Also, the algorithm clearly knows what will get some hits - this was the first clip that was autogenerated by Substack…(this is only a screengrab) Here’s the full list of things we had in the spinner to possibly get into… Songs: * 12 Days of Christmas * Last Christmas * Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer * Santa Baby * My Favorite Things Movies: * Home Alone * Die Hard * A Christmas Story * Love Actually * Elf * Muppet Christmas Carol * Christmas Vacation * Nightmare before Christmas TV: * Carol of the Bells - Ted Lasso Christmas Episode * Rankin Bass Christmas Specials * In Excelsis Deo - West Wing episode Over the next month-ish, we are going to get into: * Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (date TBD, but sometime between Christmas and New Years) * Pluribus (Apple TV show) - we’ll be doing that sometime in early-ish January * Lord of the Rings! - Late January. The extended editions (which are, in my humble opinion, the ONLY editions) are being re-released in theaters in January! Woot! Forth Eorlingas! GPLHJ,Ed Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

10. 

    4 Dec 2025

    Pop Culture Pastors Hour: A Charlie Brown Christmas

    The trilogy is complete! Here’s the video of our conversation about the Charlie Brown Christmas Special! We covered a lot - from how people experience this time of the year, commercialism and capitalism, the power of sincerity, and of course the incredible music from the show! We did mention this reflection from Winn Collier at several points throughout And finally, MaryAnn McKibben Dana (https://substack.com/profile/6991805-maryann-mckibben-dana) and I will be back at 11am ET next Thursday (12/11) with our Holiday “Will it Preach?” Grabbag conversation! Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

11. 

    22 Nov 2025

    Pop Culture Pastors Hour: KPop Demon Hunters

    Here’s the video of MaryAnn and my conversation about K-Pop Demon Hunters and the power of shame and the greater power that happens when we move beyond it. We dig into the messages in the songs and jump into connections to original sin, original goodness, moving beyond judgmental distinctions, and lots more. And you’ll hear MaryAnn talk about how her ipad made her head look big (which it actually didn’t). You’ll also see Scout in the background! Next one is this wednesday at 10a - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving! Get your jelly beans, popcorn, pretzels, and toast! Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

12. 

    29 Oct 2025

    Pop Culture Pastors Hour: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

    Happy Halloween everyone! MaryAnn and I had a great conversation about spooky season in general and specifically about The Great Pumpkin! Enjoy! Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

13. 

    4 Jul 2025

    Schrödinger’s Hope - Staring Down into the Night Sky

    First off, MaryAnn McKibben Dana and I had a great conversation in our Pop Culture Pastors’ Hour about the wonderful 2006 film, Stranger than Fiction. You’ll find the video of it here (https://maryannmckibbendana.substack.com/p/pop-culture-pastors-hour-stranger) if you would like to take a listen/watch. More of those to come in the coming months - Battlestar Galactica, Station Eleven, and Arrival for sure. Ok - so Schrödinger’s Hope... If you aren’t familar with the philospohical/scientific concept of Schrödinger’s Cat, click here for wikipedia’s overview (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat). In sum, it is a question of whether a cat in a box is only alive when it is observed to be alive. But if it is not observed, then it is simultaneously alive and dead. Got it? Anyway, my weird brain went to Schrödinger when I heard this from Joanna Macy in this week’s OnBeing conversation about Grief and Hope. ...we are called to not run from the discomfort and not run from the grief or the feelings of outrage or even fear, and that if we can be fearless to be with our pain, it turns. It doesn’t stay static. It only doesn’t change if we refuse to look at it. But when we look at it, when we take it in our hands, when we can just be with it and keep breathing, then it turns. It turns to reveal its other face. And the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world. When we refuse to look at it...This is a statement that speaks to so much. It speaks to grief - if we refuse to acknowledge our grief, it isn’t that it goes away but it will (as a counselor friend of mine once put it) come out sideways. This refusal to look also applies to the ways that people ignore the ongoing realities of injustice that have been there, are still here now, and in fact are getting worse in so many ways across our country. One of the things about Jesus that I adore is that he never looked away. He didn’t look away from the persons with the skin diseases that others avoided. He didn’t avoid the woman from Samaria at the well, but instead engaged her in honest conversation. He didn’t look away from the woman who touched the hem of his robe. He didn’t ignore the religious leaders who were criticizing him. He didn’t look away from anyone. His followers seemed to pick up on that because there’s a beautiful story in Acts 3:4 when a paralyzed man calls to Peter and John for help. Rather than just keep walking, verse 4 says that “Peter looked intently at him...” Another way to translate it would be that Peter fixed his eyes on this man. He didn’t look away. And then the Spirit did a miracle through him and John and healed this man. It is so much easier to just look away though whether it is looking away from people, from situations, from injustice, or from our ouwn pain and hurt. Note what Macy said, “It only doesn’t change if we refuse to look at it.” When we look at it, it can begin to be transformed and healed. When we look, not only is what we are looking at have a possibility of being changed, but maybe even more so, we are changed. In this change, hope can emerge. I was originally going to center on a photo from a dinner a few weeks ago in our house where our son (who was in Spain the last few months) made an amazing tapas dinner for us all. I texted a dear friend who lived in Spain for many years about the dinner but didn’t send the photo and his reply was, “Pics or it didn’t happen!” The “pics or it didn’t happen” felt a bit like the Schrödinger’s Cat - or in this case Schrödinger’s Tapas...Here’s the photo But then there was Wednesday morning walking across the same bridge where I photographed the railing with the spiderweb a few days ago. I was walking across while the sun had come fully above the horizon and I saw something that just stopped me in my tracks and I also suggested to several others walking by that they should stop to look as well. The video above is what I saw and what I invited others into. (note that I have edited the video to black and white to help bring a bit more clarity to the video) What it felt like to me was that I was looking down into the night sky. The glimmers on the surface of the water (from bugs, dirt, something else?) looked like stars and constellations and the mist looked like quick moving clouds across the sky. But for me to experience that moment, I had to not only see it but I had to be having my eyes, heart, and mind open as I walked. I couldn’t be absorbed into something on my phone or lost in listening to music or a podcast. I needed to be open to observing and beacuse (at that moment) I was open to seeing, I saw this moment and in my joy I invited others into it. Now in this case, just as with our tapas dinner, even if there weren’t pics/video, it did happen. The tapas were made (and they were amazing). The “looking down into the night sky” moment happeneed even if I wasn’t videoing it. But because of not only personally seeing but also sharing, others have been invited in. Hope emerges. Here are a few other photos from the lake (and a road near it) the last few days... Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,Ed PS - Scout’s big shadow she casts...its funny how my shadow sort of blended with her front legs’ shadow... A bit about subscribing. I don’t anticipate pay-walling any of my posts because I feel that this is a gift that God has given me to share. So subscribe for free. All good. If you do, however, want to help support my work, you can subscribe for $3/mo or $30/yr and for that you will receive my deepest gratitude that you trust me with your resources to continue to share these things. Thank you. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

14. 

    23 Jun 2025

    What's Next for Pop Culture Pastors' Hour

    So here’s MaryAnn McKibben Dana (https://substack.com/profile/6991805-maryann-mckibben-dana) and my conversation from today - just a brief one introducing our next round of Pop Culture Pastors’ Hour conversations. Our next will be the 2006 Will Farrell / Emma Thompson / Maggie Gyllenhaal / Dustin Hoffman / Queen Latifah film, Stranger than Fiction (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1). MaryAnn and I will be re-watching it and then discussing it on Wednesday, July 2 at 1:00pm ET. It is an absolutely tremendous film with an incredible depth to it. We encourage you to watch it ahead of time (available to stream pretty much anywhere) and we’d love to have your thoughts before then or in the chat that day! Later in the summer, we’ve accepted challenges from each other to watch some favorite shows. I’m going to watch Station Eleven (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10574236/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1) (streaming on HBO) and MaryAnn is going to watch the Battlestar Galactica miniseries (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314979/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_battlestar) from 2003. We don’t have dates for those conversations yet but look for them later in July. We may also sneak a few other films in there (one with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner potentially) so watch for those. See you next week for our STF conversation! Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy, Ed A bit about subscribing. I don’t anticipate pay-walling any of my posts because I feel that this is a gift that God has given me to share. So subscribe for free. All good. If you do, however, want to help support my work, you can subscribe for $3/mo or $30/yr and for that you will receive my deepest gratitude that you trust me with your resources to continue to share these things. Thank you. Get full access to Imago Scriptura at www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe (https://www.imagoscriptura.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

15. 

    30 May 2025

    Pop Culture Pastors Hour! Andor Wrap-up and Rogue One

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16. 

    14 May 2025

    Pop Culture Pastors Hour! Andor Season 2 Epsiodes 7-9

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