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Sacred Unrest

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by Bruce Pagano II

13 episodes

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Podcast Overview

Therapist | Author | Bourbon Quaffer | Cheese Epicurean | Folding Chair Theologian | Podcast host | Doctoral Student 🎙️: Sacred Unrest (soon) & Folding Chair Theology 📚: Three Commands & Certainty Kills (coming 4/2024) 📝: brucepagano.com <a href="https://bpags2.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">bpags2.substack.com</a>

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4/17/2024

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Recent Episodes

July 27, 2025

Letter V: We Were Strangers Once – Immigration and the Kinship of Christ

To the beloved of Christ dwelling in a land of gates and walls, grace, peace, and conviction to you in the name of Jesus, who was once a refugee child and now reigns as the welcoming King.I write to you in the tension between memory and mercy.Memory, because we were once strangers.Mercy, because we are now the ones with the power to welcome.We are a nation built by migrants and shaped by exiles. Yet many in the Church have forgotten the scriptural heartbeat of hospitality. We have replaced the open table of Christ with gated communities of fear.Let us remember who our God is.The God of the sojourner.The God who walked with exiled Israel.The God who entered the world through the body of a poor, occupied woman.The God whose Son fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of an empire.To follow Jesus is to remember that He did not build fortresses. He built families.The Scriptures could not be clearer:“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deut.%2010%3A19&version=NRSVUE">Deut. 10:19</a>)“I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt.%2025%3A35&version=NRSVUE">Matt. 25:35b</a>)“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb.%2013%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Heb. 13:2a</a>)The ethic of the kingdom is not one of seclusion, but of solidarity. Not of exclusion, but of embrace.We do not preserve our nation by abandoning our neighbor.We do not protect our faith by locking our doors.We do not love our children rightly if we ignore the children sleeping on concrete at our borders.And yet, too often, we have baptized nationalism and mistaken it for faithfulness.We have:* Elevated security over compassion.* Prioritized policy over presence.* Whispered prayers while ignoring people.This is not the way of Jesus.Jesus did not come to draw lines around citizenship; He came to tear down dividing walls (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph.%202%3A14&version=NRSVUE">Eph. 2:14</a>). His kingdom is not bordered by race, language, or legal status. It is defined by love that reaches across every man-made barrier.In the economy of God, the refugee is not a burden but a mirror.The migrant is not an invader but a neighbor.The stranger is not a threat but an image bearer of the divine.So I ask you, Church:* Will we be found welcoming Christ when He comes to us in unfamiliar skin?* Will we open our hearts and homes, or fortify our walls and fears?* Will we remember that the bloodline that matters most is the blood of Christ, poured out for all?This is not about politics; it is about people.It is not about borders; it is about belonging.In our cruciform life, we are not merely called to be safe. We are called to be faithful. And faithfulness means love in action, not just belief in theory.Hospitality is not charity; it is Christianity.So, may we repent of the ways we have rejected the Christ in our midst.May we renew our commitment to a kingdom that knows no stranger.May we welcome as we have been welcomed; extravagantly, undeservedly, and without hesitation.For that is the way of Jesus.Grace and peace to you from the One who makes strangers into family,Bruce This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://bpags2.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">bpags2.substack.com</a>

July 20, 2025

Letter IV: Beloved and Included – Christ and LGBTQ+ Image Bearers

To the beloved of Christ in every orientation and identity, grace, peace, and affirmation to you in the name of Jesus, who dined with the excluded and embraced those pushed to the margins.I write to you not as one above the fray, but as one grieving the harm done in Christ’s name, and as one bearing witness to the Spirit still moving in the lives of those the Church too often refuses to see.You are loved.You are wanted.You are not an issue. You are an image bearer.Too long have we traded Christ’s command to love for cultural gatekeeping. Too often has the body of Christ amputated its own members in the name of theological purity. But Jesus said, “By this everyone will know you are my disciples: if you love one another.”He did not say, “if you agree perfectly,”or, “if you fit the mold,”or, “if you hide your story.”He said love. And not just any love: His kind of love. Self-giving. Embodied. Unconditional. Faithful to the end.Let us remember how Jesus welcomed.He did not guard His table with doctrine.He did not use Scripture as a weapon to exclude.He did not flinch at scandal or shame.He embraced. He healed. He listened. He stayed.And He is still doing it, often through the very people others try to cast aside.To our LGBTQ+ siblings: Many of you have endured rejection, distortion, and trauma at the hands of a church and churchgoers more committed to preserving power than honoring your humanity. You have been told that acceptance must come at the cost of your authenticity. You have been offered theology without tenderness, and orthodoxy without belonging.This is not the way of Jesus.Christ-like love never demands that people erase themselves to be embraced. It never makes conformity a condition for communion. The incarnation itself, God taking on flesh, was a declaration that all flesh matters, and that all who bear it are called to walk in dignity and divine love.So let us ask:* What kind of gospel have we preached if it crushes people before it calls them beloved?* What kind of holiness do we promote if it excludes those seeking God in truth and vulnerability?* What kind of church are we building if it cannot make room for the diversity God has woven into creation?Jesus was clear in His teachings that the final word is not the old law but this new love. He gave us the interpretive key:“<a target="_blank" href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2013%3A34-35&version=NRSVUE">Love one another as I have loved you.</a>”In that light, all theology must be reexamined.All assumptions must be humbled.All traditions must bow to the Christ who still bends down to wash feet.This is not a call to abandon Scripture. It is a call to read it again, through the lens of Jesus, who is the full revelation of God’s heart. And when we do, we find that love is not the exception to holiness. Love is holiness.Beloved Church, there is no revival without reconciliation.There is no holiness without hospitality.There is no kingdom without kinship.So, may we move toward those we once pushed away.May we listen before we speak.May we love without disclaimers.To our LGBTQ+ siblings: you are not on the fringe of God’s heart. You are at its center. Your presence, your gifts, your lives are not a threat to the church; they are a blessing to it.And to those still wrestling, still questioning, still afraid, let love be your teacher. Let Christ be your lens. Let inclusion be your starting point, not your reluctant conclusion.For that is the way of Jesus.Grace and peace to you from the One who names you Beloved,Bruce This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://bpags2.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">bpags2.substack.com</a>

July 13, 2025

Letter III: On Freedom and the Body – The Sacred Gift of Agency

To the beloved of Christ in a nation divided by fear and control, grace, peace, and holy discernment to you in the name of Jesus, who set the oppressed free and honored the bodies He came to dwell among.I write to you with the trembling conviction that we must reclaim what it means to honor the image of God in one another, not just in spirit, but in body.The church has often spoken as though salvation were only for souls, forgetting that God put on flesh. That Jesus did not bypass the body but entered it. That His healing touched lepers’ skin, blind eyes, bent backs, and hemorrhaging wombs.The Incarnation declares this truth: Your body matters to God.But in a world, and often, a church, so hungry for control, we have begun to speak of bodies as property to be managed, rather than sacred temples to be respected. We have traded reverence for regulation.Let us remember what Jesus did with power.He did not seize control of people’s choices.He did not shame the vulnerable into silence.He did not legislate morality into the hearts of the broken.He offered dignity.He made space.He extended freedom.“Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.”Freedom is not license, nor is it coercion. It is the sacred space in which love, repentance, and growth can happen.To follow Jesus is to protect that space, not invade it.Beloved, this letter is not a call to abandon ethics. It is a call to anchor them in compassion, to affirm that bodily autonomy is not the enemy of faith but its soil. For God does not coerce trust or love, God cultivates them in freedom.And yet, too often, the church has fought harder for control than care.We have shouted “truth” without listening to the pain.We have weaponized life while ignoring the lives of those already here.So let us ask ourselves:* Have we reduced the body to a battleground for theological debate?* Have we overlooked the trauma wrapped in every ethical dilemma?* Have we upheld the law while abandoning the wounded on the roadside?Jesus told us what to do:Bind their wounds.Sit with them.Love them as He loved us: without condition, without control.This is not a debate about abstract morals. It is a call to embody mercy.And mercy does not demand allegiance before it gives aid.Mercy does not shame someone for needing choices in impossible circumstances.Mercy shows up and says, “I’m with you. God is with you. And you are still loved.”Church, we must be honest: the witness of Christ has been trampled by our obsession with control.But the way of Jesus is not coercion.It is invitation.It is grace.It is presence.If we truly believe in the Spirit’s power to transform, then we must stop trying to do by force what only love can accomplish.So, may we honor the sacredness of each person’s story.May we resist the urge to dominate what we do not understand.May we defend the dignity of bodies as Christ did, by laying down our power and not asserting it.For that is the way of Jesus.Grace and peace to you from the One who took on flesh and gave it for our freedom,Bruce This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://bpags2.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">bpags2.substack.com</a>

13 total episodes available

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What is Sacred Unrest?: Therapist | Author | Bourbon Quaffer | Cheese Epicurean | Folding Chair Theologian | Podcast host | Doctoral Student 🎙️: Sacred Unrest (soon) & Folding Chair Theology 📚: Three Commands & Certainty Kills (coming 4/2024) 📝: brucepagano.com <a href="https://bpags2.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">bpags2.substack.com</a>
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 8 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.

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