Jesus, Justice + Mercy: Bold faith, radical love and justice for the church
Jesus, Justice & Mercy
Bold faith, radical love, and justice for the church.
Welcome to Jesus, Justice & Mercy — a podcast for Christians who sense that justice matters but feel the tension between Jesus and much of what they see practiced in the church.
If you’re wrestling with inherited faith, questions that don’t have easy answers, or the growing gap between the Gospel and the world we’re navigating, you’re not alone.
I’m your host, Kristen Brock, rooted in the church and committed to following Jesus with honesty, courage, and compassion. Each season, we engage Scripture, history, and lived experience to explore the intersections of faith, justice, and discipleship. We talk about race, trauma, power, civic responsibility, and the ways faith has been both a source of harm and a force for healing.
Whether you’re deconstructing, rebuilding, or simply learning to ask better questions, this is a space for thoughtful reflection, faithful wrestling, and a faith shaped by justice, deeply rooted in Scripture.
Jesus, Justice + Mercy: Bold faith, radical love and justice for the church
The Advent of Justice: Peace that Disarms
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Advent Week Two centers on Peace, but not the thin, polite version we often settle for.
Kristen guides listeners through Isaiah 2:1–4, where peace is not the absence of conflict but the reshaping of violence into nourishment. Isaiah imagines a world where people choose formation over fear, learning new instincts that unmake the cycles of harm.
From there, we turn to Joseph in Matthew 1, often overlooked, rarely celebrated as the first person in the New Testament to embody this peace. He holds legal and social standing, yet chooses mercy in the dark, before he understands the full story. This is power used protectively, not defensively. Peace in practice, not just intention.
Then Kristen widens the lens to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose nonviolent resistance demonstrates what peace looks like when it transitions from private choices to public witness. Drawing from Letter from Birmingham Jail, we hear King’s challenge to “negative peace,” the kind that avoids tension instead of confronting injustice. Peace shaped by Jesus is something entirely different: disciplined, courageous, and unwilling to mirror harm.
This episode is trauma-aware at every turn, naming how our survival brains often override our desire for peace. Isaiah’s formation language reminds us that peace is something we learn, unlearn, and practice, not something we magically feel.
Finally, Kristen offers two concrete Advent practices to embody peace this week:
Peace is never just the absence of conflict.
It’s the presence of courage, truth, and love that refuses to harm even when harm would be easier.
KEY SCRIPTURES and more
- Isaiah 2:1–4 – Swords into plowshares
- Matthew 1:18–25 – Joseph’s mercy
- Selections from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
- Poem "Peace at the Door", author unknown
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN (episode highlights)
- The difference between biblical peace and cultural “niceness.”
- Why Isaiah 2 calls for dismantling harm, not avoiding conflict
- How Joseph became the first peacemaker of the New Testament
- How trauma shapes our instinctive responses and why peace must be learned
- How Dr. King’s disciplined nonviolence embodies Isaiah’s vision
- Two practical ways to practice peace this Advent: repair and protection
For women who stayed small and called it faithfulness : a reading list to start finding your way back. Get it here!
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- Wrestling with faith and justice and not sure where to start?
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Here’s to a faith that tells the truth, refuses silence in the face of harm, and follows Jesus all the way into healing and justice.
RESOURCES:
Holy Disruption: Reclaiming a Justice-Rooted Faith course info and interest list
Justice Coaching options!