Chapters:

Introduction 00:00 - 04:26

Meet Karen Keen 04:26 - 09:38

The Bible Beyond Prooftexting 09:38 - 13:25

The Bible As Life-giving Word of God 13:25 - 19:51

Conscience and Contemplation 19:51 - 33:15

Christlike Acceptance in the Church 33:15 - 38:23

Karen's Book Recommendation and Gratitude 38:23 - 48:02

Reflection, Gratitude, and Closing 48:02 - 59:07

Resources Referenced and Recommended:

By Karen Keen

Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships

The Bible and Sexuality

Discussed During the Episode

Brown Church by Robert Chao Romero

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

About Our Guest

Karen Keen is a theologian, spiritual director, and author whose work focuses on biblical interpretation, spiritual formation, theology, and Christian ethics. She is the author of several books, including Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships and The Bible and Sexuality. Her writing is known for combining rigorous scholarship, pastoral sensitivity, and a deep commitment to Christian discipleship. Learn more about Karen on her website: https://karenkeen.com/

While renewing his driver’s license online, Marcus Halley lingers over a question about updating voter registration which sparks his exploration of Christian faith, voting rights, and how to live faithfully without surrendering the gospel to partisan identity. Drawing on his religious upbringing, family stories, and political formation in college, he argues that voting rights are primarily about human dignity. The Church's work in our time is to form disciples marked by courage, humility, compassion, and justice. In a moment shaped by January 6, weakened Voting Rights Act protections, and eroding democratic norms, he urges moral witness rooted in love rather than fear.

00:00 DMV Question Sparks Pause

02:25 Roots in Black Struggle

06:33 The Bible Is Political

12:03 Why Voting Rights Matter

19:55 Returning to the DMV Question

21:57 Gratitude and Farewell

In this episode of Everyday Liturgist, Marcus Halley interview Cameron Nation, Canon for Vocations and Community Engagement in the Diocese of Alabama. Together they draw the wisdom of Rowan Williams, Marcus's experience of public discernment in the Western Massachusetts bishop election, and Cameron's experience cultivating leaders in Alabama to reflect on the church as a prayerful community of mutual discernment and grace-filled giftedness. They discuss discernment as ongoing, communal, and transformative, not mere decision-making, and critique consumer approaches to ministry. The episode closes by reframing vocation as learning “to be” and reflect God’s love and joy rather than chasing happiness, inviting the question: “Who would you have me be?”00:00 Introduction

03:15 Meet Cameron Nations

04:40 Interview with Cameron Nations

08:00 Discernment is about clarity not ordination

17:40 What Discernment Means

21:39 Discernment and Discipleship

28:14 Universal Christian Vocation

35:48 Young Adults Seek Meaning

42:36 Gratitude and Closing

45:23 Reflection

53:00 Closing Gratitude and Blessing

Leslie Odom, Jr.'s "I Surrender": https://youtu.be/V26iETMaj8E?si=NlH99PdhdAlq5hw4

00:00 Introduction

01:55 How do I develop a spiritual life?

05:58 Howard Thurman’s “Seed Upon The Wind”

11:22 Tilling the Soil of Spiritual Possibility

12:11 Gratitude and Final Blessings

00:00 Introduction

01:24 Sermon: Easter and the Christian Life

14:34 Reflection

20:59 Gratitude Practice and Final Blessing

00:00 Introduction

03:28 Sermon: I am the Resurrection and the Life

14:52 Reflection

20:24 Closing Gratitude and Final Thoughts

Dean Andrew McGowan's Substack, "Andrew's Version": https://abmcg.substack.com/

Marcus Halley shares a Lent sermon from St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church (New Haven) on Jesus as “the light of the world” in John’s Gospel. He links the woman at the well (Photini) and the man born blind to the idea that true sight is spiritual insight. He argues that darkness is not the absence of God, drawing on Barbara Brown Taylor’s contrast between unrealistic “full solar” spirituality and a “lunar” spirituality that accepts seasons of doubt, fear, and uncertainty while trusting God remains present. Against war, political violence, and other heavy recent news, Halley says the light that shines in darkness helps us name suffering, perceive God at work, and join that work through prayer, and acts of solidarity and compassion, remembering we are never alone.

00:00 Introduction

01:26 Sermon: Walking in the Darkness

14:33 Reflection

18:31 Closing Gratitude and Final Blessing

In this episode, Marcus introduces an extended Everyday Liturgist conversation with Allen Wakabayashi, chaplain at the Episcopal Church at Princeton, prompted by Allen’s Living Church article “Where Are the Young People?” Both reflect on what students teach them with their diverse backgrounds, deep questions, a hunger for meaning, and the need for a non-performative community where it’s safe to be broken, ask hard questions, and mature beyond Sunday-school faith. The episode closes with Allen’s gratitude for continuing to “walk with Jesus” amid chaos and frustration, and Marcus’s reflection that faith must be allowed to evolve through loss, death, and resurrection, asking whether the church can create a container for transformation, reengage tradition with integrity, and live a vibrant faith that changes people from the inside out.

00:00 Introduction

05:08 Conversation with Allen Wakabayashi

45:40 Take-aways, Learnings, and Challenges

50:17 Closing Gratitude and Blessing

"Where are the young people?" in the Living Church: https://livingchurch.org/commentary/where-are-the-young-people/

Meet Fr. Allen, Chaplain at the Episcopal Church at Princeton: https://www.ecpton.org/clergy-staff

In this episode, Marcus Halley reflects on Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent as a call to cultivate focus and attentiveness in a chaotic, distraction-saturated world. The word “behold” (which appears twice in Matthew’s Transfiguration story) is more than seeing—it requires contemplation, stepping back, leaning in, and having “the eyes of our hearts enlightened.” Using Peter’s misunderstandings on Mount Tabor—wanting to build tabernacles and missing that Jesus is the tabernacle and that Jesus’ mission includes making people walking vessels of God's glory—he connects the Transfiguration to the true humanity found in Christ alone. Marcus critiques the “attention economy," warning that it is designed to yield outrage, anxiety, dehumanization, and confusion rather than wisdom. He invites listeners to resist distraction during Lent by learning to truly behold God, others, and the world.

00:00 Introduction

03:26 Sermon: Behold (Last Epiphany 2026, St. Paul's Church)

19:10 My Lenten Practice: A Plan to Focus

20:40 Closing Gratitude + Blessing

"The Birth of the Attention Economy" by Jake Lundberg (The Atlantic): https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/07/the-birth-of-the-attention-economy/683727/

In this episode of Everyday Liturgist, Marcus dives into a student's tough question on the morality of violence and the bigger themes around love and making a difference in the world. This conversation shaped the sermon he gave at St. Peter's Episcopal Church (which has been modified for this podcast) which explores the overwhelming presence of violence and cruelty in the world, the power of God's enduring love, the impact of living with compassion, and how God uses ordinary people to make a difference.

00:00 Question: When is Violence the Moral Option?04:40 Some Centering Moment by Howard Thurman06:37 Sermon16:17 Closing Thoughts, Upcoming Conversations, and Closing Gratitude

"Why I Am Not a Pacifist" by C.S. Lewis - https://www.42rulesforlife.com/why-i-am-not-a-pacifist/.

"Discernment" by Marcus George Halley - https://substack.com/home/post/p-174913767

What does Jesus's baptism mean for us? Divine solidarity. God chooses us even when we don't choose God.

What would make the Magi journey thousands of miles to see an infant? A king? A story, one that promised to reshape everything they, in their wisdom and knowledge, had come to know about the world.

Read the Bible in ONE Year! BibleProject | One Story That Leads to Jesus: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/63058-bibleproject-one-story-that-leads-to-jesus

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Eiren Caffall's All the Water in the World

Herman Melville's Moby Dick

Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents

Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water

Robert Farrar Capon's The Man Who Met God in a Bar: The Gospel According to Marvin

Have questions or comments? Email them to me: everydayliturgist@gmail.com.

Have questions? Email them to everydayliturgist@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the Everyday Liturgist newsletter on Substack.

Have questions? Email them to everydayliturgist@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the Everyday Liturgist newsletter on Substack.