Lectionary prep with jokes and grace.
Same Old Song pairs quick church-room comedy with close attention to Sunday readings. Its conversations move from Lent, Easter, and Holy Week texts toward plainspoken claims about grace, forgiveness, sin, resurrection, and ordinary church life.
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Same Old Song is a lectionary conversation with the feel of two church colleagues thinking out loud before Sunday arrives. It is brisk. The show opens with jokes about internet glitches, intro music, church deadlines, Lenten discipline, travel plans, conference logistics, or the sheer absurdity of reaching another episode milestone, then it usually tightens around the readings. Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith keep the talk grounded in scripture, but the energy is not academic in a sterile way. They care about what a preacher can say. They also care about the person in the pew who is exhausted by effort, guilt, grief, conflict, or the pressure to become spiritually impressive. Again and again, the readings are pulled toward grace. That is the show’s center of gravity. Peter’s preaching becomes a word about forgiveness for people who know they have acted against their own values. The resurrection becomes historical hope rather than seasonal sentiment. The story of water from the rock becomes a picture of God providing before the people stop complaining. David’s anointing becomes less about hidden greatness than about God’s choice working through unlikely people. Lent, Easter, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, baptism, repentance, sin, death, and pardon all appear as ordinary working material for church speech. The hosts can be playful, but the theological claims are not flimsy. They are especially alert to self-salvation, moral performance, and religious polishing. A sermon, in this world, should not mainly flatter human striving. It should announce Christ for people who have run flat, failed again, or discovered that their hearts are not as tidy as they hoped. Same Old Song stands out because its humor and directness sit so close together. One minute there is a joke about bacon, taxes, beanies, or church bureaucracy; the next minute the conversation is naming death, forgiveness, and the peace of God with real urgency.
Made for: Best for preachers, church staff, and thoughtful Christians who want Sunday readings handled with warmth, humor, and a strong gospel emphasis.
What sets it apart: The show feels less like a formal Bible lecture and more like a living sermon workshop, where banter, church instinct, and grace-centered theology keep sharpening one another.
Join the Rev. Jacob Smith and the Rev. Aaron Zimmerman each week as they break down the lectionary texts for the coming Sunday with Gospel insight, a few (in)appropriate cultural references, and a heart for the sufferer in the pew—and the pulpit. All in a half an hour or so. Lectionary readings here: http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Audio production by TJ Hester
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Same Old Song makes lectionary study practical by pairing close reading with candid discussion of grace, guilt, forgiveness, and preaching.
Same Old Song turns the coming Sunday's lectionary readings into a working conversation between Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith. Their method combines close biblical interpretation with practical attention to preaching, repeatedly bringing difficult passages back to grace,…
Palm orders overdue? Aaron and Jacob offer your sermon notes a less bureaucratic kind of hope.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
An Easter conversation about the grace that finds people still running through the night.
Same Old Song's third Sunday of Easter conversation opens with episode 402 and a passing joke about one day reaching episode 420, then turns toward the harder pastoral question: how Easter's finished grace can be received when the season still feels hurried and overcharged.
Peter's message meets human guilt with a resurrection that death cannot contain.
Same Old Song treats Peter's message as a reckoning with the distance between knowing what is right and still choosing otherwise. Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith stay close to listeners troubled by their share in choosing death over life, then place that guilt beside the…
An Easter episode on resurrection as history, peace reaching the nations, and forgiveness meeting damaged lives.
Same Old Song uses Easter Sunday and its 400th episode to frame the resurrection as history with peace still moving outward. Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith follow Peter's witness in Judea and Jerusalem toward Cornelius, where Gentile inclusion sharpens the point that God shows…
A warm sermon-prep conversation finds fresh pastoral weight in David's overlooked beginning.
The fourth Sunday in Lent begins with palms, parochial reports, a repaired stove, and a beanie that briefly gives one host a passing resemblance to The Edge.
A warm, wandering Lent conversation finds grace arriving before anyone has put life in order.
Same Old Song frames the third Sunday in Lent around grace that moves first, before anyone has become especially composed or deserving. The discussion travels from Israel's thirsty complaint in Exodus to Paul's claim that Christ died for the ungodly, then carries that thread…
A loose sermon-prep conversation finds Philemon's grace pressing hard on status, belonging, and control.
Same Old Song reads Paul's letter to Philemon as more than a personal appeal. In Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith's hands, it becomes a test case for what grace does to status, ownership, and unequal standing.
A retreat-room lectionary conversation turns confession, communion, and resurrection into a sturdy word about grace.
Same Old Song's first-Sunday-in-Lent installment treats sermon preparation like a retreat-room conversation about the promise that God is near.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
Daily Scripture with pastoral urgency.
Jacob Smith and Aaron Zimmerman discuss the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Lent from Deuteronomy 26, Romans 10, and Luke 4.
Rev.
Co-hosts Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith discuss the lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent, focusing on the theme of God with us and the challenges clergy face leading up to Christmas.
Two hosts discuss the third Sunday in Lent, share personal updates, and promote the Storymakers Sunday school curriculum in Mexico.
Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith introduce the Easter 3 episode of Same Old Song, discussing their need for rest and hope in the gospel.
Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith introduce the Easter 2 episode of Same Old Song, announce the 400th episode contest winner, and discuss the new intro music.
Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith celebrate 400 episodes of Same Old Song, a lectionary podcast, on Easter Sunday, discussing God's grace.
Aaron and Jake celebrate their 400th episode approaching Easter Sunday and announce a contest for listeners.
Two hosts discuss the fifth Sunday of Lent, focusing on the raising of Lazarus, and share personal updates on their Lenten disciplines and experiences of wonder.
Same Old Song co-hosts walk through the lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 (Samuel secretly anointing David while Saul is still king), Ephesians 5:8-14 (walk as children of light; 'sleeper awake'), and John 9:1-41 (Jesus heals a man blind from birth on the Sabbath).
Same Old Song covers the Lent 3 Year A lectionary readings — Exodus 17:1-7, Romans 5:1-11, and John 4:5-42 — for preachers preparing Third Sunday in Lent sermons.
Jake and the host discuss Lenten themes and promote a pilgrimage to Turkey and Greece following St.
Co-hosts Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith discuss the lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent, reflecting on the theme 'God With Us' and the challenges clergy face leading up to Christmas.
Co-hosts Aaron Zimmerman and Jacob Smith introduce the lectionary podcast for Pentecost 13, discussing the end of summer and the start of the church program year.