Out to Serve: A Newman Church Podcast

“A Child Is Born”

Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%209%3A1-7&version=NIV] Believe it or not, friends, the good news of the scripture this week is that God, in all the ways we conceive of God, is seeking to be light for us in spite of everything that would drag us down. God, the creator has created abundant light in our nearest star that feeds all life on earth. God, the sustainer has created an inner light in each of us that we take pains to kindle and foster when it is suppressed. God, the power beyond us who so-loves-this-world that God finds expression in the lives of human beings that we call prophets and that we call Christ. God, the light within us that is our soul is a new dawn rising in our world. Whenever we read Isaiah, we are reminded that it is the nature of light to come to those who have lived in darkness. Did anyone see the northern lights this week?1 In a week when the lights of the aurora borealis were vivid in the night sky even this far south in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, we can take it as a good sign that unexpected light is closer than we might think, even in the darkness. The northern lights are caused when the sun emits an extra-large amount of energy called a solar wind. The earth’s atmosphere blocks most of the solar wind that reaches earth, but some of that solar energy gets in and transforms the molecules of the upper atmosphere, creating a dancing and glowing light display in the upper atmosphere. Light is all about transformation. And God is seeking transformation The words of the prophet Isaiah we just heard — namely, “that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” — served to reassure the descendants of Abraham in the seventh century BCE that there was hope even as their nation was in danger of being conquered by a stronger force. These words woke the descendants of Abraham up from the depths of their despair and offered an assurance that made their redemption and transformation possible. We remember from the past twelve weeks of scripture readings that a covenant, a promise from God, has been passed down through the generations — it was first made to Abraham and Sarah, and then Rebekah and Isaac, and the twelve sons of Jacob who went down into Pharoah’s Egypt, and then Moses and Miriam and Aaron brought them all back out again. And then the people of God’s covenant set up judges, and then kings to rule over them, and the kings failed to protect the justice and peace of the people, and empires came to afflict and disperse the people of the covenant — and even after all this, they find comfort in the words of the Prophet Isaiah whose ominous message is also one of hope from God. Even though it feels like they are living in a world that is being destroyed, dormant seeds and green sprouts are finding unexpected life and light at their feet. The people in darkness find a comfort that makes their salvation possible. In the birthing class that Grace and I have been taking over the past several weeks, the teacher talks about the benefits of practicing and preparing yourself for transformation. Her advice is broadly applicable for all parts of life. If you are afraid, and poised in your body for fight or flight, it is hard to take on postures and mindsets for transformation. So, the goal becomes how do we create the conditions of safety so that one can respond to the uncertainty of change and changing conditions with confidence. It’s no surprise that this advice works on a societal level just as well as it works for individuals. People who are always in the conditions of fear and hopelessness and scarcity have farther to go on the way to transformation and flourishing. The prophet Isaiah understands this — the people need food, healing, abundance, love, and protection, because without these things, transformation is impossible. Isaiah is a prophet who is engaged in the work of naming what is wrong with the world just one or two generations after the prophet Amos, who we read last week. Amos bemoaned the behavior of the comfortable and wealthy people in the northern kingdom and said the people had abandoned the pursuit of justice. Into the darkness comes Isaiah who says that God’s light will shine from the darkness, in the form of a coming child who will bring a reign of peace, and who will keep the people of Judah in the south from meeting a disastrous fate. This is a lot of pressure for Isaiah to put on a child who is still yet unborn. On this point, one of our first observations in the Friday morning Bible Study this week as we read Isaiah chapter 9 was that the scripture in verse six is the lyrics for Handel’s Messiah: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Christians sing Handel’s song during Advent because we hear in its words a potential foreshadowing of the birth of Jesus — a child in whom people experience an expression of God and who opens up a new era of peace. Advent begins on November 30th this year and will go until Christmas eve — it’s a season of stargazing and anticipation, the humble beginning of a new Christian year in the church calendar in a season of darkness. But Isaiah in this morning’s reading is not directly foretelling the coming of Jesus in seven hundred years; he is foretelling the immediate coming of a good king, Hezekiah, who will come to save his people from further harm from the Assyrian empire. Hezekiah will be responsive to the message of the prophets, and will pursue justice, and rally the people against their oppressors in a way that brings forth the best in the people. This is my hope for all of us, that we might enter this seasons of waiting and anticipation before transformation with the hope that seeds and green sprouts now dormant are also taking root with the hope of what the people of God will do together with our covenant hope. It has been done before. Our scriptures tell us it has been done before many times. May it be true for us too. Amen. © 2025 Newman Church. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------- Questions or comments? Contact us: Submit a form. [https://out2serve.org/2025/11/17/a-child-is-born/] 1. “Northern Lights Shine Over Boston, New England in Rare Show,” NBC Boston, November 11, 2025, https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/photos-northern-lights-visible-in-new-england/3843865/ [https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/photos-northern-lights-visible-in-new-england/3843865/]. ↩ [https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/21a9.png]︎

“Dreaming God’s Dream”

About ten years ago, a teenager who I’ll call Ben threw a brick through a window. One of Ben’s friends had taken a video of it, and soon the police from this suburban Boston town tracked it back to Ben and came calling to inquire and press charges against the teenager. Even before people in town knew who had thrown the brick and destroyed the window, there was widespread outrage in the town. The broken window, it turned out, had been part of a building that memorialized dozens of people in the town who had died in an accident. It seemed like everyone in town had a strong emotional connection to this memorial, and the broken window felt to them like a personal assault on a loved one. Vandalism charges in Massachusetts probably come with a hefty fine, perhaps some type of probation, maybe even a mark on a criminal record — but what’s perhaps even more impactful in a small town like this, an act of vandalism like this can result in a teenager being disliked and ostracized — and things like this have a way of festering into cycles of harm. This is where an alternative consciousness comes in. Twenty-five years ago a police chief and a restorative justice practitioner founded an restorative justice organization in Greater Boston. Restorative justice is a categories of practices and beliefs that believe that no person is expendable, and that people are capable of repair and forgiveness in instances of harm. The organizations has grown and grown such that dozens of police chiefs and district attorneys now divert criminal cases against teenagers into the organization’s restorative process. I was a volunteer restorative justice facilitator for for several years, and my partner and I were given Ben’s case. We met with Ben who took responsibility for what he had done. Originally, he had had no idea that the window was part of a memorial. He said that his friends had been throwing water bottles and tennis balls onto the roof as part of a game. And then he took things too far with the brick. It was a stupid thing to do. Over the course of many months, Carol and I accompanied Ben as part of a restorative process as he met with family members of people who were memorialized at the building Ben harmed — he told them his story of acting foolishly and breaking the window, and he listened to the stories of their emotion and pain after hearing about the vandalism. Ben also helped with the window repair and learned landscaping skills from a community member who volunteered to make the memorial space more beautiful than ever. The community got to appreciate Ben putting in time, making connections with community members, and apologizing to the people he had impacted. Something good and meaningful came out of something that otherwise might have divided and harm the town. Everyone got a second change to be their best self. A different way was possible. The people, together, nourished an alternative consciousness. This is the creative space where we meet the prophet Amos this morning. A prophet in the bible is someone who believes that a different way of living is possible and necessary. There are many prophets in the Bible — think Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Think Ezekiel, and Micah. Think Moses. Think Jesus. Amos just happens to be the earliest named prophet to have his words written down, and therefore is the oldest prophet in the section of the Hebrew Bible devoted to prophetic works. To be a prophet in the biblical sense means to evoke a public consciousness that is an alternative to the accepted dominant culture. Every prophet does this differently. Amos has a message for the descendants of Sarah and Abraham in the eighth century BCE — a time of prosperity for this group of people between being conquered and sent into exile by more powerful empires. Amos speaks emphatically to these comfortable people. Amos is a hearty shepherd from Judah in the south who travels to Isreal in the north to criticize the people for thinking that their worship is more important than the pursuit of justice. Again — Amos condemns and slams and lambasts the people of God for thinking that they could substitute worship for the pursuit of justice. Like all prophets, Amos critiques from a place of covenant and connection with the people — he is also a follower of God. Amos is one of these people. But when he sees them hiding behind their wealth while at the same time turning a blind eye to the struggles of the people around them — Amos calls out their misbehavior in the most minute detail. The prophet channels the voice of God, saying: “I hate and despise your festivals,     and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.” Which is their worship. “Take away from me the noise of your songs;     I will not listen to the melody of your harps.” God concludes with perhaps the most remembered words in Amos: “But let justice roll down like water     and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” The prophet Amos doesn’t provide the alternative vision. He is the wrecking ball. He leaves the building of an alternative world to others. Perhaps he leaves the building of an alternative world to us. In my own life, I’ve seen alternative consciousness made at Communities for Restorative Justice. I’ve seen alternative ways of living made in schools and in politics and in churches. Friends . . . in our own world and time, I think the equivalent of our prophet Amos has already come. We are aware that another way of living is possible. We’ve woken up to the climate crisis; we’ve come to understand the nature of a mental health crisis; we’re seeing crises of hunger play out. We’ve seen the festering cycles of harm play out in our society for vulnerable people at the expense of those who could intercede. It’s relatively easy to help one person like Ben; it’s harder to create an alternative consciousness for a whole society. But I would propose that the prophets teach us that a new world is only built one person at time, and to take heart that the process is exponential. In our time there is a force that would have us forget our history and give up our hope. In this context, a community that is rooted in sacred memories, and stories, and radical hope is a threat to the dominant force — and thank God that it is. A church that is grounded in worship and justice has something important to offer. This is our moment. We are on the journey of alternative consciousness. Together we believe that another way is possible. Thanks be to God. Amen. © 2025 Newman Church. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------- Questions or comments? Contact us: Submit a form. [https://out2serve.org/2025/11/10/dreaming-gods-dream/]

“God Is Still Speaking”

Sxripture: 1 Kings 19:3–13 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%2019%3A3-13&version=NIV] As I mentioned in today’s welcome, today is All Souls’ Day, sometimes also called in a celebratory way the Day of the Dead. It is a day of intentional celebration, in the face of the uncomfortability of loss — this is a way we invite God into the cracks and wounds and heartaches of our lives, by setting time aside to embrace celebration and discomfort together. In 2010, I lived in New Orleans for a few months. Having spent my whole life up to that point in New England, New Orleans was a whole new world. Different music, different weather, different art, different traditions. And because it was only five years after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, a whole new world was being assembled and reconstructed in New Orleans — yet the uncomfortable signs and symbols of loss and death were everywhere. There were the spraypainted circles still on many houses that indicated that the house had been checked after the storm and what had been found there. There were hospitals and high-rise buildings that had not been part of the recovery and sat there crumbling with trees growing out of the windows. One of the things I discovered by accident by walking around the city was the fact that the street artist Banksy — one of the most famous artists of the twenty-first century — had traveled to New Orleans only a few years after Katrina — and in the altered cityscape he had created fifteen or so pieces of graffiti art in the midst of abandoned buildings and ongoing rebuilding. One Banksy piece depicted a young girl looking up to discover that her umbrella above her head was the source of a downpour, drawing attention to the failed effort to protect people during the hurricane. Another showed a boy using an orange life-preserver as a swing. Another showed looters in uniform taking televisions out of a building. Banksy and other local artists bringing a source of creative joy and critical commentary into a places of loss was a transformative act. We know this type of story from the Gospel tradition too. The power of Jesus was the power of his healing spectacle in a time of suffering. The more he healed and helped, the more people who followed him; the more people he revitalized to new life, the more people believed in his positive impact; the more people who were fed by him, the more people who went forth to feed others. There is a growing sense in the Gospel story of Jesus that he is something that people increasingly want to be a part of it. The same can be said of the prophet Elijah at the beginning of this morning’s scripture reading. He is coming off an amazing spectacle where he had triumphed over the followers of a rival God to YHWH, proving in many ways that YHWH was a God one would want to be a part of — YHWH was a source of strength and direction. So why, we might wonder, is this reading about Elijah’s suffering and sadness? This is a familiar story in scripture — it begins with Elijah fearing for his life — think of Moses fleeing Egypt when he finds out people know he murdered an Egyptian; think of Mary and Jospeh with Jesus fleeing Bethlehem when they find out Herod has ordered the death of newborns; think of Jacob fleeing from his enraged brother Esau. We already know this story of Elijah in some sense, from its familiarity in scripture — it embodies the fact that life can be fragile and uncertain. Elijah experiences desolation — the dark night of the soul. In the desert, underneath the broom tree, he asks God to, quote, “take away his life.” One commentator says, Elijah “is utterly at the end of his own courage.” In a sense, this reading about Elijah is a story of aftermath. Like, if they made a Marvel Superhero sequel movie about everyone having to clean up and process the mess everyone made in the previous movie. This movie about Elijah would follow the superhero from the heights of his achievement into the quiet context of his recovery and doubt about what he has done. In this superhero story, Elijah has been a superhero for God, and after his big show, his big battle, his big success — he has just lost his nerve. He has fled south seeking safety, goes as far as the last settlements, and then goes a day farther into the desert. This is a world where YHWH’s rule is more immediate and powerful than the rule of the Kings. In a book of Kings, the monarchs look foolish and ineffective — their decisions end in absurdity and chaos, whereas God in the story is powerful even when just showing up as a small voice. This voice of God is just enough to nourish the prophet Elijah, to resuscitate his resolve, to make him the focus of the story as opposed to the stories of the Queens and Kings. Sometimes a spectacle is what we need to get through something difficult: Jesus’s ministry was a spectacle; Banksy’s art in New Orleans was a spectacle; I even remember when my father was in active ministry, he once preached a sermon while doing a head-stand — I don’t remember what the sermon was about or why he was standing on his head, but I will never forget the event. But God in scripture is not a spectacle. God sometimes calls prophets like Elijah to make a splash and grab the people’s attention. But more often than not, God shows up in our quiet vulnerability. This reading ends today: A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart, but God was not in the wind. An earthquake shatters the earth, but God was not in the earthquake; Likewise God was not in the fire. But God was in the strange small whisper that Elijah heard and inspired him to keep going. Friends, in this season of monumental happenings, in this season when we remember the losses we have experienced, help us to look beyond the spectacle to find God abiding with us in the quiet beyond the active world. In this way we’ll take part in the dance of God’s creation from death, back into life. May it be so. Amen. © 2025 Newman Church. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------- Questions or comments? Contact us: Submit a form. [https://out2serve.org/2025/11/03/god-is-still-speaking/]

“Water to Wilderness”

This morning we have seen the power of covenant in action. A covenant is a promise to God and to each other to act, and think, and dream, and be ourselves in certain ways in community. In the covenant of baptism for infants, parents and godparents make promises on behalf of the children who are too young to make promises for themselves, until a time (usually in high school, or a confirmation class) that those young people have grown into an age of decision-making and they can affirm and choose to make the Christian covenant promises for themselves. The baptism covenant includes the promises of living a life of Christian discipleship, following in the way of Jesus, working against the powers of oppression and evil, showing love and justice in all things, and witnessing to the word and work of Jesus. It’s a beautiful tradition to take part in. Here in Newman Church over many years and seasons of life I have seen Christian disciples made and lives changed. I’ve seen kind people who are smoothed in the spirit like stones made soft by the sea — people who commit themselves to living lives of devotion to causes and communities who transform the world for the better inspired by the love of Jesus — people who become spiritual guides and friends to the new people who walk through these doors looking for something new, and looking to begin a spiritual journey. The tradition of Jesus, taking part in the Holy Spirit, with the help of God and each other — I feel lucky to be a part of it. Why do we do this? What is the purpose of making covenants, like in baptism, and marriage, and church membership? I’m always wary when the answers to my questions seem to come from my high school chemistry classes. I love biology and chemistry and physics, but have never mastered the finer points of any of them. But perhaps the difference between the covenants of our faith, and the everyday promises that we make to each other is like the difference between covalent and ionic bonds. When atoms have charges that are balanced by another atom them encounter, sometimes their electrons are shared. If I’ve lost you in that sentence, have no fear — I’m with you. I’m going to bring us all back together in just a moment. When atoms form ionic bonds, it means that one atom transfers an electron or electrons to another atom — they are bonded through the act of giving. But in a covalent bond, two atoms find a comfortable balance by sharing the same electron or electrons — it becomes an active part of both atoms. I think our faith covenants are like covalent bonds. If we can give an electron to God in the form of an intention about our own lives through baptism, or church membership, or other acts of discipleship, God will take part in this intention with us because we are bonded — through the promise we find a neutral balance with which to approach the world “with the help of God.” These words — “with the help of God” — make the covenant easier to carry. Through covenant, we take part in God; through covenant, we can do things that are otherwise impossible. Since September here at the church we have been on a journey through the Bible — week-by-week in worship. We started with the creation story in Genesis — with God jumping into action to establish a beautiful home for life to thrive in the vast expanse of space. God later made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would become a people blessed by God — that through faith they could walk together. God was active through the covenant bond. We saw that covenant passed on through the generations, through Rebekah and Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant was strong enough to send the descendants of Abraham into Egypt to avoid dying of a famine, and it was strong enough to draw them out of Egypt when the site of their salvation because a place of oppression. God was active through the covenant bond. We saw how the covenant found expression when God called Moses and Miriam and gave them the confidence to act courageously. God was active through the covenant bond. We saw the covenant tested when the descendants of Abraham were facing famine again during their travels in the wilderness. But God was active through the covenant bond. And we saw the covenant change with the prophet Samuel and the shepherd boy David who defeated the behemoth Goliath. God was active through the covenant bond. We have learned a lot about God’s covenant with humanity. Again and again, God is faithful to the covenants of God’s people — even if it’s not in the easiest or most efficient way, or the way we might hope. We also see the covenant active in Jesus’s baptism in the Gospels too. From the waters of baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus is baptized by his cousin and a new covenant of is established between God and humanity through Jesus. We ask the Holy Spirit to help connect us to Jesus’s baptism when we perform baptisms today — and through this connection we take part in Jesus’s new covenant again every time a baptism happens. All we have to do to find the right balance through this covalent bond is to live a life of discipleship. This is easier said than done — and it feels like no coincidence that Jesus goes from his own baptism into the wilderness for forty days — from water to wilderness — as if to prepare himself for the wonderful things that are about to begin. A covenant is not a promise that we know how it ends, or that all will be well all the time. It’s a promise that no matter what comes, God and the community of Christ will be with you always. As the baptism prayer says, the promise of the gospels is made not only to us but to our children — meaning the next generation, with whom we are tied in many ways. So for all the generations past, and all the generations to come, we are united through this covenant bond. Thanks be to God. Amen. © 2025 Newman Church. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------- Questions or comments? Contact us: Submit a form. [https://out2serve.org/2025/10/29/water-to-wilderness/]

“Kings and Prophets”

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16: 1–13 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2016%3A1-13&version=NIV] The boy Samuel of last week has become the kingmaker this week. On a weekend here in the United States when many gathered to make a public witness against monarchy in the United States, there seems to be a resonance that our planned lectionary scripture reading today begins with the end of Saul, the first monarchical leader of the Israelites in the Biblical book of Samuel. God asks the prophet Samuel to get ready to anoint a new leader, because Saul has acted badly. The story we read today is the narrative of Samuel finding Saul’s replacement as leader — this leader ends up being the smallest, youngest, mildest, meekest great-grandchild of Ruth and Boaz, named David. I should say that everyone only sees David as the smallest, youngest, mildest, and meekest because that is his outward appearance. Like Cinderella who wasn’t initially invited to try on the shoe, or the boy Arthur who wasn’t invited to try to pull the sword from the stone, David wasn’t even brought before Samuel because he was just a boy who kept sheep. But everyone will learn that David is powerful in small ways that people don’t appreciate — until they do. In our public imagination, this boy David is the original underdog. You can tell me if I’m wrong, but I think there’s something in human nature that celebrates when a less powerful individual or group triumphs over a much stronger adversary. I’m an East Providence Townie through and through, but I can tell you that when I saw the little Westerly High School football team outscore East Providence School back in September by almost fifty points, there was something in me that felt a deep respect. One of the most known Bible stories in the world today is the story of David and Goliath. This small, young, mild, and meek shepherd boy David chooses to enter into single combat against the behemoth Philistine warrior Goliath. King Saul (who is on his way out) tells David that the boy should put on big bulky armor, as if to say that he needs to act according to a certain set of proscribed rules. But David has trained in a different school of thought. He has spent years defending his sheep from large animals by perfecting the skill of projecting high-velocity rocks at the heads of wolves and bears, etc.. If we think about it this way, David is powerful in a very small and useful way, and we might even feel bad for Goliath as David approaches him. Goliath, this slow mighty warrior with a big sword and clunky armor really never had a chance against a skilled hig-velocity rock slinger like David. This is the context of world that God enters to dethrone King Saul and bring his blessing onto a small, young, meek, mild child who is actually more prepared for what is expected of him than anyone really knows. And so God, who understands and engages the world differently from the way we do, asks Samuel to take up his horn of holy oil and anoint the boy David. The unexpected anointing of David is a model for Jesus, and it’s a model for all of us as well. Jesus was an unassuming person in his world — a manual laborer, who spent time in study and prayer, and who didn’t participate in the military or power struggles of his time . . . until he did, in an unexpected way. Jesus was a teacher who gathered followers by the promise of being a community of healing and love . . . his strength was not the traditional type of Goliath — it was an inner strength of David, his skill was his spirit; his skill was his ability to work with others; his skill was approaching the world with love and generosity when the world was throwing up obstruction after obstacle to love. His revolutions was a quiet people powered movement that caught the eye of empire and Rome and which led to the powerful needing to remove this itinerant Rabbi who was the center of the people’s hope. We live in a time that feels like obstructions and obstacles to love are prevalent . . . and we’re looking and hoping for the center of our hope. The struggle to put ends together is real. The societal social net that we’ve built in order to care for our collective health, collective housing, collective nutrition, collective security, collective education, collective hope . . . it’s frayed and fraying. One storyline in the Bible says that King Saul came to power after the people of the idealistic tribes of Israel cried out for a King to rule over them. They thought that a monarch was a status symbol, and a sign of their complexity and readiness to transition from a nomadic to an established people. The Israelites in their request for a King, changed the fundamental nature of their society, and lost the people-centered and covenantal-centered power of their identity. Becoming a king later changed the young, small, mild, and meek David too. The nimble liberator became encumbered with power, and failed to hold himself to the high bar that God had set for him. And God had to call another prophet, Nathan, to tell David that he had lost his way and God would not abide with him any longer. In the United States, each period that we call a time of advancement has also come with both a change of society and a change of spirit. In our revolutionary period it was a change of spirit called a Great Awakening, when religious fervor in the colonies showed the people that a change of religion was possible, and that a change in government was probably possible as well. The struggle was that the destructive practice of engaging in human slavery was holding flourishing back. In the Industrial period of the nineteenth, a second Great Awakening came when a spiritual revolution swept the young nation, and helped lay a groundwork for a liberatory movement that ended in a civil war. We are in a time of great change, seeking a sign for a spiritual movement of love, like the one initiated by Jesus thousands of years ago, to sweep through our world. Perhaps it needs to be initiated by meek and mild folk like us. I feel like every week the question of whether I and we are up to the challenge of community ministry comes to the forefront, and each week I and we get to decide and choose yes again, and renew our commitments with the help of God to take part in this care-of-souls business. Like Samuel and David, to clean up the messes made by Kings. The care of souls requires a rock-slinging nimbleness, and we’re trying to get better at it every week . . . we care for others because we want others to help us with the care for the soul of others, and together we can be part of the ever-growing revolution of the soul. Sometimes the widespread care of souls is called an awakening. Sometimes it’s called a Jesus movement. Sometimes it’s called the right thing to do. And sometimes it’s the only thing left to do. And with the help of God who calls prophets to anoint unexpected leadership, I hope we will be a part of it. Amen. © 2025 Newman Church. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------- Questions or comments? Contact us: Submit a form. [https://out2serve.org/2025/10/20/kings-and-prophets/]