God’s Acre on the Go

God’s Acre on the Go Podcast, from The Congregational Church of New Canaan and hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen Chapin Garner, features weekly sermons and reflections from the church’s pastors, exploring biblical themes and their relevance to contemporary life. This podcast is for anyone seeking spiritual growth and thoughtful engagement with Christian faith, particularly those interested in exploring how faith intersects with everyday experiences and challenges.

God’s Acre on the Go is a religion podcast hosted by Stephen Chapin Garner, with 100 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Stephen Chapin Garner hosts God’s Acre on the Go, a religion show with 100 episodes published.

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  Episode #923

  Rules for Life

  Oct 4, 202623 min

  Why does God give us rules in the first place? In Exodus 20 , God gives the Ten Commandments to a newly liberated people learning how to live in relationship with God and with one another. Some prohibitions exist because they protect something precious. The commandments protect relationships that God deeply values. Pasted markdown Centuries later, when Jesus is asked to identify the greatest commandment, he reaches back into the Hebrew Scriptures. From Deuteronomy: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. From Leviticus: love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus does not introduce love into an otherwise loveless Old Testament. He reveals the love that was there all along. Pasted markdown But biblical love is more than affection. It involves loyalty, faithfulness, commitment, and action. That makes Jesus’ rule wonderfully simple—and extraordinarily demanding. In difficult meetings, family arguments, disappointments, financial decisions, political disagreements, and encounters with people we simply do not like, we can ask one question: What does love require of me now? We may not need to memorize hundreds of laws. Jesus gives us two commands demanding enough to occupy an entire lifetime: Love God. Love your neighbor.

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  Episode #922

  The Serpent Savior

  Sep 27, 202622 min

  What if the thing you fear might destroy you could somehow become the place where healing begins? In Numbers 21:4–9 , the Israelites are attacked by poisonous snakes in the wilderness. God gives Moses a strange instruction: make an image of the very creature they fear, raise it on a pole, and tell the people to look at it. Those who look toward the serpent live. Centuries later, Jesus draws upon this disturbing story in John 3:14–17 : “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The cross—an instrument of humiliation, suffering, and death—becomes Christianity’s great symbol of salvation and life. Chapin explores the unsettling Christian conviction that sometimes something within us must die before we can become fully alive. Not because suffering is good, but because God can work even through loss, failure, disappointment, and the things we most fear. Resentments can die. False identities can be shed. Old ambitions can loosen their grip. We can become freer to love, forgive, reconcile, and give thanks. And the invitation is surprisingly simple: Look to Jesus. We do not need to understand everything before healing begins. We turn our gaze toward the One who was lifted up—and trust that God can bring life even from the places that look like death.

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  Episode #921

  Recipe for Relationship

  Sep 20, 202623 min

  In Exodus 16:2–36 , the Israelites have escaped slavery in Egypt only to find themselves hungry in the wilderness. God responds by providing manna, bread from heaven that appears each morning. But the manna comes with unusual instructions: gather only what you need for today, trust that more will come tomorrow, and when the Sabbath arrives, rest. God is doing more than feeding Israel. God is forming a people. After generations of living according to Pharaoh’s demands, the Israelites must learn a new way of life. They must discover that the God who liberated them can be trusted to provide. But the manna also raises another, more surprising question: Can God trust them? That question reaches us as well. Can we trust God when tomorrow is uncertain? And can God count on us to love, forgive, share, welcome, tell the truth, seek reconciliation, and use what we have been given for the sake of others? The Christian life becomes a sacred rhythm: God provides; we trust. God instructs; we obey. Grace and response. Provision and command. Trust and obedience—two simple ingredients in a relationship with God that can sustain us through every wilderness.

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  Episode #920

  Sacred Stillness

  Sep 13, 202623 min

  In Exodus 14:10–25 , the Israelites find themselves trapped between Pharaoh’s approaching army and the sea. There is no apparent way forward, and going backward is impossible. Into their fear, Moses speaks an extraordinary word: “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.” Stillness can be especially difficult for competent people. We are accustomed to identifying problems, making plans, and finding solutions. Those abilities are gifts—but they can also tempt us to believe that every problem is ours to solve. Sacred Stillness explores another dimension of faith: learning when to stop trying to create an opening and instead watch for what God may be doing. Sacred stillness is not passivity. The Israelites could not part the sea, but once God opened the path, they had to walk through it. From the Red Sea to the silence of Holy Saturday and the empty tomb of Easter morning, Scripture tells of a God who makes a way when human possibilities have been exhausted. Sometimes faith means acting. Sometimes it means waiting. Wisdom is learning the difference.

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  Episode #918

  Love in an Open Field

  Sep 6, 202618 min

  What good is faith if it never changes what we do? That is the question James presses in James 2:14–18 . When someone is hungry or without adequate clothing, kind words are not enough. For James, faith is not simply something we hold or profess; it becomes visible in the choices we make and the ways we respond to the needs of others. In “Love in an Open Field,” Kelly Antonson reflects on returning to Mission Waco and remembering an earlier visit to the land that would become Creekside Community Village. At the time, it was simply an open field. But Mission Waco had listened carefully to people experiencing homelessness, learned what was actually needed, and allowed what they believed to shape what they built. The story of Tisha offers another expression of the same kind of faith: paying attention to the people around us and doing what we can with what we have. James does not ask us to solve every problem or meet every need. He asks whether the faith we claim is changing how we live. The invitation is to notice where need comes close, to listen well enough to understand it, and to allow our faith to move us from good intentions toward faithful action.

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