Where the Story Finds Us is a weekly sermon podcast from Rev. Anthony Spearhart, a gay ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ. Rooted in Sunday worship, these messages are shaped by scripture, story, Spirit, and everyday life — offering a sacred word of hope, grace, justice, and belonging. No matter who you are, who you love, how you identify, what you carry, or where you find yourself on life’s journey, this is a place to listen, wonder, and find our way together.
10/11/26 - "Learning to Live Free" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
12 Oct 2026
10/4/2026 - "The Story Fear Tries To Tell" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
28 Sept 2026
9/27/2026 - INSTALLATION SERVICE - “Sharing the Hum of Love” - Rev. Dr. Dave Long-Higgins
28 Sept 2026
9/27/2026 - “Into the Story Ahead” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Into the Story Ahead | Rev. Anthony Spearhart | September 27, 2026 God’s call rarely comes with a complete map. In Genesis 12, Abram is invited to leave what is familiar and step toward a future he cannot yet fully see. Jesus echoes that same movement in Matthew 28, sending the disciples out into the world with a promise: “Remember, I am with you always.” On a special Sunday in the life of Lakeview United Church of Christ, Rev. Anthony Spearhart reflects on covenant, trust, and what it means ...
20 Sept 2026
9/20/2026 - “Blessed Anyway” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Joseph does what is faithful—and still ends up in prison. His story challenges one of faith’s most persistent misunderstandings: that doing the right thing will protect us from hardship, rejection, or injustice. Sometimes faithfulness costs something. Sometimes people dislike us because we work for justice, advocate for those who are oppressed, or refuse to abandon the love to which God has called us. Drawing together Joseph’s imprisonment and Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes, this episode cons...
20 Sept 2026
9/13/2026 - “Where the Story Finds Us” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Stories do more than entertain us. They help us make sense of the world, restore order when life feels chaotic, and sometimes reveal truths we were not ready to hear any other way. From the stories of scripture to the stories carried through our families and communities, faith has always been shaped through telling, listening, remembering, and imagining. Jesus taught through parables—not by handing people simple answers, but by inviting them to enter a story and discover where it found them. ...
25 Aug 2026
8/23/2026 - “The Voices We Carry” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
We are shaped by more than the moments we can see. We carry voices, stories, wisdom, wounds, faith, and hope from those who came before us—and if we pay attention, we may discover that our ancestors are still present with us in powerful ways. Their words linger. Their courage resurfaces. Their lessons find us again at exactly the moments we need them. Drawing on the image of the “great cloud of witnesses” and the ancestral voices woven through Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson’s poem “faith jour...
16 Aug 2026
8/2/2026 - “Greater Things at the Table” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
A grandmother’s macaroni and cheese. Vegetables pulled from the garden. Exhausted disciples discovering breakfast waiting beside the sea. Few places carry memory, nourishment, joy, grief, and belonging quite like a table. Drawing upon the heart of a chef and gardener, this episode explores the many reasons we come to God’s table: for welcome, respite, remembrance, community—and sometimes even protest. Whatever has brought you there, perhaps the sacred invitation is simple: come as you are, an...
16 Aug 2026
8/16/2026 - “Woven Together” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
What does it mean to be truly present with one another when grief arrives and there are no perfect words to say? Beginning in a tender place of loss, this episode reflects on the quiet ways we carry one another—through presence, compassion, shared sorrow, and simply refusing to let someone stand alone. From there, the message widens into Paul’s vision of spiritual gifts and the many ways the Spirit moves through a community. Some gifts are visible, others are quiet; some lead, some create, so...
16 Aug 2026
8/9/2026 - “Too Bright for These Walls” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Church buildings matter. They hold baptisms and funerals, Christmas Eves and ordinary Sundays, generations of laughter, tears, prayers, and stories. But what happens when the light inside them refuses to stay contained? Through Micah’s ancient call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God—and Jesus’ images of salt and light—this episode challenges the church to move from simply saying “come to us” toward becoming neighbors who show up, listen, build relationships, and even sit a...
27 Jul 2026
7/26/26 - "Keep Plussing" - Rev Anthony Spearhart
Walt Disney called it “plussing”—the belief that something alive should never be treated as though it has nothing more to become. With a kaleidoscope sitting in the pastor’s office as guide, this episode turns that idea toward something surprisingly powerful: the language we use for aging, God, gender, justice, and one another. From the mysterious Hebrew name of God to the many languages of Pentecost, each turn of the lens reveals something that was there all along. Perhaps faithful language ...
21 Jul 2026
7/19/2026 - “Still Uniting” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
The United Church of Christ was born when different streams dared to flow together—but some of those streams were ignored, marginalized, or asked to disappear along the way. From the forgotten Afro-Christian roots of the UCC to the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the church, this episode wrestles with the difference between unity and uniformity. Jesus prayed “that they may all be one,” but perhaps being one was never supposed to mean becoming the same. Nearly seventy years later, the river is...
21 Jul 2026
7/5/2026 - “The Table Comes with Extensions” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
There is something almost magical about what happens when a dining table is pulled apart, another leaf is added, and extra chairs appear. Suddenly there are more voices, more laughter, more stories—and sometimes more healing than anyone expected. Beginning with Isaiah’s invitation to the thirsty and Jesus’ banquet where the guest list keeps expanding, this episode explores extravagant welcome as more than letting someone through the door. Because sometimes belonging asks us to move our own ch...
21 Jul 2026
7/12/2026 - “Play It!” - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Every Friday afternoon, Walt Disney would summon the Sherman Brothers into his office and ask for one particular song: “Feed the Birds.” Why that song? Standing inside Walt’s actual office decades later opens a doorway into a bigger question about the stories we return to because we cannot afford to forget what they teach us. Woven together with Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, giant sequoias, and the UCC’s understanding of covenant, this episode explores collaboration, community, and holy interdependen...
28 Jun 2026
6/28/26 - "We Shall Not Be Moved! Rooted in Love, Justice, and Affirmation" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
What does “welcome” actually mean when someone has spent years wondering whether the church could ever truly want them? On Open and Affirming Sunday, the image of a tree planted beside living water becomes a fierce vision of faith: roots growing deeper not so the church can remain safely planted, but so love can reach farther. From Cincinnati Pride to Lakeview’s own ONA covenant, this episode moves beyond rainbow banners and open doors toward a welcome that is public, courageous, embodied—and...
22 Jun 2026
6/21/2026 - "Prophets, Pauses, and Possibility" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
A rainbow banner at a Pride parade. Peter praying on a rooftop. An ancient prophet declaring that God is doing a new thing. And, unexpectedly, The Lion King. This episode asks what may be one of the most important questions a faith community can ask: if God is still speaking, are we still listening? Moving through Scripture, discernment, silence, and the courage to have our old certainties interrupted, it imagines prophecy not as predicting the future, but noticing where the Spirit is already...
22 Jun 2026
6/14/2026 - "The Work We Were Made For" - Rev. Anthony Spearhart
Every great story needs a beginning, and this one marks the first Sunday of a new pastor and congregation learning to write theirs together. Around the communion table, amidst Great Danes, roller coasters, baseball, beaches, Disney, and a glimpse into the summer’s “Pastor’s Playbook,” the question becomes surprisingly serious: when Jesus looks upon a hurting world with compassion, what does Jesus ask the church to do about it? This is an invitation to notice where love is needed—and discover ...
22 Jun 2026
4/19/2026 - "Look Again" - Pastor Anthony Spearhart
Sometimes what we thought was gone is simply waiting to be recognized differently. Through a deeply personal story, a familiar song, and the disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, this episode explores resurrection as something more mysterious than returning things to the way they were. When life changes the picture we expected, perhaps faith asks us not to look harder—but to look again.
11 Jun 2026
5/3/2026 - "Held in Awe, Sent in Love" - Pastor Anthony Spearhart
On a final Sunday at St. Paul UCC, this message stands in the tender space between holding on and letting go. Beginning with the mystery of awe and the ways our bodies seem wired to recognize the sacred, the story travels through prairie roots, poetry, calling, and the strange truth that sometimes loving a place faithfully means allowing it—and ourselves—to enter a new season. A farewell, yes, but even more, a blessing: honoring what has been while trusting the Spirit with what comes next.
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