Word of Life Church Podcast

<p>God is triune but Jesus gets a lot of attention because the Father sends the Son and the Spirit glorifies the Son. Jesus said that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come to glorify him. The work of the Holy Spirit is not to draw attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, but to draw our attention to Jesus. He does this by producing within us the fruit of the Spirit.</p>

<p>Ascension Day is easily the most overlooked holy day in the church calendar. In Western culture Christmas and Easter remain very prominent (even if commercialized). In the church Good Friday and Pentecost are still recognized as holy days. But Ascension Day has been almost totally lost. This should tell us something: We’ve lost the meaning of the Ascension of Christ. The gospel is the story of Jesus: Incarnation, Proclamation of the kingdom of God, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. If we fail to understand the Ascension, our gospel is incomplete.</p>

<p>The demonic seduction of accusation, empire, and propaganda (dragon, beast, and false prophet) always lead humanity to another bloody battlefield. Armageddon always looms. Yet hope abides. Armageddon is always a possibility, but never an inevitability. If we reject the ways of the beast and follow the way of the Lamb, Jesus will lead us away from the doom of Armageddon into the shalom of the New Jerusalem. Though the fires of destruction are always burning outside the walls, the Spirit and the Bride are always calling us into the city of the <a href="http://Lamb...and" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Lamb...and</a> her gates will never be shut.</p>

<p>The Book of Revelation may be the most important biblical text for American Christians right now, but only if we can rescue it from its egregious misinterpretations and learn to read it properly. Revelation is NOT a 1st century prediction of the geopolitical events of the 21st century; Revelation IS a prophetic critique of the idolatry inherent with economic and military superpowers. The overarching message of the Book of Revelation is this: Jesus is Lord and Rome, etc., etc., is not.</p>

<p>The eschatological vision of the Bible is the answer to our constant prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So at the end of the Bible we are shown a prophetic picture of the arrival on earth of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem; a garden city that embodies fidelity and justice.</p>

<p>“Jesus stands before a broken world and says, 'Come follow me.' He invites you to discover a beautiful life that lasts forever." - The Journey at Word of Life Church<br><br>A beautiful life is the kind of life that last forever.<br><br>A beautiful life is the kind of life that saves the world.<br><br>The most beautiful life is the life of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.<br><br>It is the beauty of Christ that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. It is the beauty of Christ that compels us to join with the Roman centurion at the Cross confessing “Truly, this is the Son of God.” <br><br>In the bleak landscape of our bottom-line, results-obsessed culture, may we find new life as we join Jesus on this journey of beautiful living.</p>

<p>From the beginning Jesus has been gathering together a flock, a community of people, who follow Jesus and believe his teaching, a community that would share his life, eternal life. The Journey at Word of Life is not a solo project. It is an adventure we share together with friends and also with people who we would not necessarily be friends without outside of our shared faith.</p>

<p>Following Jesus is something we do together, but it is a self-initiated journey. No one can walk this journey for you; it is something you determine to do. God does give his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our helper and companion. However, you make the daily decision to either cooperate with or work against the Holy Spirit. <br><br>We are each responsible for our own exploration of The Journey. We have the help of the Holy Spirit, but we also have the help of the collective wisdom of those who have followed Jesus before us. We have summed up much of this wisdom in what we call The Four Practices: awareness, learning, reflecting, action.</p>

<p>In a culture of consumerism worship is an act of holy rebellion. Worship is gloriously impractical—a royal wast of time. Because contemporary models of worship involve a band, a stage, and popular music, we are tempted to confuse worship with entertainment. Worship is not entertainment! Entertainment is evaluated on the basis of did we personally find it enjoyable. Worship is evaluated on the basis of did we give God the glory due his name.</p>

<p>April 8, 1966—fifty years ago today—Time magazine published its most iconic cover, asking the question that haunts modern man: “Is God Dead?” After the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima should we concede that Nietzsche was right in his provocative prophesy about Western civilization? Is God dead? This sermon is on the "Doubting Thomas" story. In his commitment to empiricism and the doubt it engendered, Thomas was a prefiguring of the modern age and the crisis of faith. Thomas was called “The Twin” (Didymus). He had the twin experiences of crippling doubt (“I will never believe”) and soaring faith (“My Lord and my God!”).</p>

<p>On the evening of the resurrection Jesus appeared to his frightened disciples as they were hiding in the upper room. He spoke peace to them, breathed the holy spirit upon them, and sent them into the world. From that locked room on that first Easter the gospel message of Jesus has traveled around the world and down through the centuries launching billions of spiritual journeys.</p>

<p>The expression “the scales fell from my eyes” is an idiom for a sudden epiphany. Something that had blinded us is suddenly removed so that now we see the truth. This idiom has its origin in the story of Saul/Paul’s Damascus Road conversion. “Damascus Road” has also become an idiom for a sudden change. But the Damascus Road event and the scales falling from Saul’s eyes are not exactly the same thing. They’re related, but different. One is deconstruction, the other is reconstruction.</p>

<p>The first person to see the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene. When Mary first saw Jesus in the garden she thought he was the gardener. A logical mistake. Or maybe a prophetic mistake. Or maybe not a mistake at all. As the first seed of resurrection raised, Jesus is now the gardener of resurrection, cultivating new life in all who believe.</p>

<p>With the burial of Jesus the new tomb has become a new womb. On Holy Saturday we have nothing to do—nothing to do but to wait. Sometimes it’s a good thing to come to the end of all our striving and enter into a holy Sabbath. A Sabbath of waiting…resting…waiting. When the work is done and the seed is sown, there’s nothing more to do, but to rest and <a href="http://wait...and" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">wait...and</a> see what tomorrow will bring.</p>

<p>The conquering king on a majestic horse has become a universal symbol of power. The king astride the warhorse is an equivalent symbol to the king upon his throne. Which is why to this day in every capital city there’s always some dude on a horse. But Jesus did not ride a warhorse into Jerusalem. Jesus rode a donkey…a little donkey. The one who rode the little donkey in humility, peace, and gentleness, now rides the white horse with all authority in heaven and on earth.</p>

<p>The book of Job is a test in how well the reader can resist scapegoating a blameless victim. The key to the whole book is found in the first verse. Job was blameless. But most readers fail the test and end up at some point agreeing with Job's three "miserable comforters" and the most vicious accuser of all, Elihu. But Job was BLAMELESS! Can the reader remember this all the way through? Most readers cannot; eventually they side with the accusers—the satan. We are possessed!</p>

<p>Mary’s anointing of Jesus at Bethany should restrain us from being too quick to judge some act of artistic worship as an unwarranted extravagance. In an age of secular pragmatism all prayer and worship is seen as an extravagant waste, the greatest of all wastes—the waste of time. The secular pragmatist says, “time is money.” But the worshiper knows better. The worshiper knows that time is a gift from God, and that we have not properly appreciated God’s gift of time until we return the best part of it back to God in prayer and worship.</p>

<p>The tenth station in the Scriptural Stations of the Cross ends with this prayer, "We love you Jesus; by your wounds heal us." The wounded of Jesus indicates that the way of Jesus includes suffering. Jesus suffered to leave us an example and on the cross he bore our sins, suffering so we could die to sin and live the life of justice. The cross is the center of our faith. The cross is where we see God enthroned. The cross is where we see sin condemned. As we continue to trust God, the wounds of Jesus can heal us, over time, both body and soul.</p>

<p>Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son recast in a contemporary setting and told from three different perspectives. Robert's story, Mike's Story, and Lloyd's story.</p>

<p>Christ above <a href="http://me...Divine" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">me...Divine</a><br>Christ below me...Incarnation<br>Christ before <a href="http://me...When" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">me...When</a> Seen<br>Christ behind <a href="http://me...When" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">me...When</a> Unseen<br>Christ at my right <a href="http://hand...When" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">hand...When</a> I’m Strong<br>Christ on my <a href="http://left...When" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">left...When</a> I’m Weak<br>Christ all around <a href="http://me...Cosmic" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">me...Cosmic</a> Christ<br>Christ within <a href="http://me...Formed" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">me...Formed</a> within me</p>

<p>The way of Jesus is the way of peace and mercy. It’s what Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s what Jesus lived all the way to Calvary. It’s the practice of enemy-love and radical forgiveness. This road is demanding, but it’s the narrow path that leads to abundant life. The question we face today is this: Do we believe in Jesus enough to follow him in the narrow way that leads to life? The stakes are high. If by nurturing fear and clinging to self-interest we choose the way of anger and resentment, hatred and scapegoating, nationalism and militarism, it will lead us to hell…and it will lead us to hell every time. Right now the Church desperately needs to live up to its lofty calling to be a city set on hill shining forth the light of Jesus. America needs the Church to be a beacon of love and mercy illuminating the way of peace.</p>

<p>G.K. Chesterton suggested that Saint Francis walked the world like the pardon of God. It’s an apt summary of the saint’s life. Francis embodied the grace of God as he walked the hills of Umbria barefoot in his patched brown habit and simple rope belt, preaching to birds and bishops. His life was a kind of performance art protest against the pervasive sins of thirteenth-century Italy — pride, avarice, corruption, and violence. Yet sinners themselves were drawn to Francis. How else do we explain why, in his lifetime, forty thousand people joined his rigorous order of radical Christianity emphasizing poverty, simplicity and humility? Like Jesus, Francis could uncompromisingly denounce systemic sin, while extending genuine compassion to the people caught in its pernicious web. To be a prophetic witness against systems of sin and a preacher of God’s pardon for sinners at the same time is the peculiar grace at which Francis excelled and to which the church is called.</p>

<p>Perhaps the most misunderstood and misused teaching of Jesus is his Olivet Discourse -- the teaching Jesus gave to his to his disciples on the Mount of Olives regarding the signs of "the end." The end of which Jesus is speaking is not the end of the world, but the the end of the Temple age. While the Temple establishment was plotting the end of Jesus, Jesus was prophesying the end of the Temple, the Temple establishment, and the Temple age. Jesus connected the demise of the Temple with the dawn of the Kingdom of God.</p>

<p>Patience is the heart of wisdom. Impatience is the essence of foolishness. When we demand “results” on our own timetable, we will most likely find ourselves out of step with the patient pace of historic Christianity. Impatient saints don’t exist. The saints have learned the secret of being patient with the world, with themselves, and even with God.</p>

<p>When we trust in Jesus, it does not guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen in our life. Evil, the destroyer of worlds is present in our World, but so is God, the savior of the worlds. In midst of suffering, we often have many questions about the goodness of God and the power of evil. What do we do with Evil? How do we respond when everything comes crashing down. Is there any hope to hold on to?</p>

<p>Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the world, but that we would be set apart while in the world. In answer to Jesus prayer, the tradition of Lent allows us to be present in, but separate from, the world. <br><br>We practice traditions like Lent and Ash Wednesday not because we are commanded to by Bible, but because we are invited to by the church. As we practice Lent, we find that it invites us to practice self-denial, gives us space to reflect and rethink, connects us with echoes from the past, creates contrast in our lives to prepare us for Easter, and ultimately it points us to Jesus.</p>

<p>On the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus and talked with him about the "exodus" he would soon accomplish in Jerusalem. This exodus is more than a euphemism for death. Just as Moses led Israel out of the empire of Egypt through a divine exodus, Jesus' cross opens the door for our exodus out of the empire of sin and death.</p>

<p>In announcing that God’s jubilee of liberation, amnesty, and pardon was arriving with what he was doing, Jesus omitted any reference to God exacting vengeance on Israel’s enemies. In claiming that Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus is claiming to be Jubilee in person. But the scandalous suggestion is that this Jubilee is to be for everybody…even Israel’s enemies. Jesus has edited out vengeance, and this gives us a key to how Jesus read the Old Testament.</p>

<p>Ours is an angry and vociferous age. We’re constantly subjected to the noise of charged political rhetoric — the wearying din of the culture wars. Too often Sunday morning can be little more than a religious echo of this same noise. But shouldn’t Sunday be a Christian Sabbath, a time to quiet our souls and receive the gift of silence? What if, instead of being another contributor to this clatter, our churches became a shelter from the storm offering respite to shell-shocked souls?</p>

<p>When God gave Israel the Law, God also gave Israel a calendar. Included in Israel's sacred calendar was the year of Jubilee when debts were canceled, slaves were freed, and property inheritance was restored. The Jubilee was a divine liberation from debt, slavery, and eviction. During Israel's exile Isaiah prophesied of a Spirit anointed person who would announce the restitution of Jubilee. Six centuries later in the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus announced that he was fulling Isaiah's prophecy by announcing the arrival of God's jubilee</p>

<p>"Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Those four words seemed prescient. I don’t want to make too much of what was probably just a happy coincidence, but those four words did speak to me. Echoes, silence, patience, and grace. These were things I needed. I needed to hear echoes from the past. I needed to practice more silence in the present. I needed patience with the future. I needed grace to tie it all together. Like the five words in 2004, these four words in 2009 meant something to me. Four words from the Foo Fighters on the train to Assisi." - Pastor Brian Zahnd, "Water To Wine"</p>

<p>Why would the pastor of a large and successful church risk everything in a quest to find a richer, deeper, fuller Christianity? In Water To Wine Pastor Brian tells his story of disenchantment with pop Christianity and his search for a more substantive faith.<br><br>“I was halfway to ninety—midway through life—and I had reached a full-blown crisis. Call it garden variety mid-life crisis if you want, but it was something more. You might say it was a theological crisis, though that makes it sound too cerebral. The unease I felt came from a deeper place than a mental file labeled “theology.” I was wrestling with the uneasy feeling that the faith I had built my life around was somehow deficient. Not wrong, but lacking. It seemed watery, weak. In my most honest moments I couldn’t help but notice that the faith I knew seemed to lack the kind of robust authenticity that made Jesus so fascinating. And I had always been utterly fascinated by Jesus. What I knew was that the Jesus I believed in warranted a better Christianity than what I was familiar with. I was in Cana and the wine had run out. I needed Jesus to perform a miracle.” –Brian Zahnd</p>

<p>Original blessing is more original than original sin. Jesus is the new Adam who leads humanity back to original blessing. The community of the baptized belong to the new humanity to which God says, "You are my beloved sons and daughters, with you I am well pleased."</p>

<p>"Magi from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he...?" -Matthew 2:2<br><br>Two thousand years ago magi from Persia came to Jerusalem seeking the one born King of the Jews and asking, "Where is he?" What about modern magi? What about 21st century seekers? What about those who in some way believe Jesus is important, but don't quite know where to find him. If asked by modern magi, "Where is he? Where is Jesus?" -- what should we say? Here are five responses:<br>1) At the right hand of God.<br>2) Among the suffering.<br>3) Among the baptized gathered in his name.<br>4) With you. Always.<br>5) In the bread and wine of communion .</p>

<p>One of the most unique things about the religion of the ancient Hebrews was the prohibition against making images of the Divine. The two things all ancient religions had in common were sacrifice and images. Israel shared sacrificial rites similar with other religions, but they prohibited the creation of sacred images. Israel had a correct instinct that to make an image of God is to misrepresent God. Israel was taught by God that they didn’t know enough about God to make an image of God. So Israel had a Torah, but no icons -- no representative images revealing what God is like. But then something wonderful happened! The most wonderful thing of all happened! The Word, Wisdom, Logos, Logic of God became flesh…a baby…a human being! Who is Jesus? The perfect icon of God. The exact imprint of God’s nature. With the coming of Christ we have a new way of knowing God!</p>

<p>Losing Jesus. Finding Jesus. Rethinking Jesus. This is how we make spiritual progress. This is the only way we make spiritual progress! We think we’ve got Jesus figured out. We think we know the crowd where Jesus can be found. We think we know where we can always locate Jesus. Then one day…he’s not there! And we have to go searching for him. “Seek and you shall find.” But when we find Jesus after losing him, he’s…different. That’s when the rethinking (repenting) starts. It’s the only way we make spiritual progress.</p>

<p>Jesus came into the world at the intersection of beauty and pain. Christ was born on the fault line of our most intractable conflict. O little town of Bethlehem… A city today where the beauty of Orthodox icons and olive wood Nativity sets collides head on with the brutality of teargas canisters and rubber bullets. Hope and horror in the House of Bread.</p>

<p>As Christians we will either be a people of joy and peace or else will belong to the crowd of fear and rage that is so vocal in our day. In an age of fear and rage we are called to be a people marked by joy and peace. One of the scandalous things about the early Christians to the Roman mind was their apparently absurd joy. Despite the fact that the early Christians were often persecuted, they were characterized by an unmistakable joy—not a glib and superficial happiness, but a deep and abiding joy.</p>

<p>Advent is the season where we prepare for the birth of Christ. We don’t just prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ (decorate, shop, bake, etc), but we actually prepare for Christ to born into our lives in a new way. Thus Advent is the season where we do work to keep Christ in Christians.</p>

<p>We are presently in a time of great darkness. The darkness of hate, bigotry, violence, and vengeance threatens to sweep over the world. But in this darkness a light shines -- the light of Jesus. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied about Messiah, saying that he would, "give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide us to the path of peace."</p>

<p>When I was in Bethlehem the week before Advent I was given two beautiful icons. I was also given two other "souvenirs"—a spent tear gas canister and a used rubber bullet. Jesus was born in Bethlehem—at the intersection of beauty and pain, on the fault line of our most intractable conflicts. This is where salvation comes into the world. O little town of Bethlehem—where the beauty of Orthodox icons and olive wood carvings collides with the brutality of tear gas and rubber bullets. This is the birthplace of Jesus. To speak only of the icons is too sentimental. To speak only of the tear gas is too cynical. When we read of Bethlehem in the Bible we find both the adoration of the magi and the slaughter of the innocents. Hope and horror, beauty and brutality. The Incarnation is the matrix of salvation, and thus we commemorate it in the beauty of art. But Jesus was not born into the beatific scene of a Nativity icon—Jesus was born into a war torn world where paranoid despots dispatch death squads and where tear gas and rubber bullets litter the streets. Or to say it another way, "The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:5).</p>

<p>The season of Advent is about anticipation, preparation, and longing. Anticipation because something has been promised by God. Preparation because we must prepare the way to participate in the promise. Longing because what has been promised matters—the salvation of the world. During Advent we practice the Christian virtue of patience as we learn to wait on God.<br><br>Jeremiah 33:14–16 is one of the great Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. It was given by Jeremiah 400 years after David and 600 years before Christ. The prophecy says that a king will come from the line of David who will be the righteousness (covenant faithfulness) of God. This anointed king is how God keeps the promises he has made to Israel. The distinguishing characteristic of this king is that he will establish justice. In other words, Messiah will bring salvation by setting the world right.</p>

<p>As followers of Jesus we are called not to avenge ourselves, but to "leave it to the wrath of God," because vengeance belongs to God; God will repay. We know God's vengeance is not an eye-for-an-eye justice, so what can it mean? The wrath of God, often connected to God's vengeance, is a metaphor pointing us to God's judgment. What we call the "wrath of God" is what evil looks like in the light of the love of Christ. God will repay those who have done evil, but God's judgment is tempered with mercy.</p>

<p>The Christian mind is the mind of Christ where we are enabled by the Spirit to think as people in Christ. The danger of not developing a Christian mind is the potential to be cut off from the life of God. We have the mind of Christ and we have the ability to work with the Spirit in cultivating a Christian mind that is humble, renewed, active, and maturing.</p>

<p>Since Cain Killed Abel the human family has been longing for justice. <br><br>Following in Israel's legacy of longing, Isaiah paints a picture of the plans and purposes of God to save. He reminds the people of God to tarry. In the midst of suffering, when the light of the future seems to flicker and fade Isaiah beckons the people of God to keep waiting. For there is one coming that will set all things right. He is not coming to condemn the world, but to save it.</p>

<p>Hope has been the theme of the people of God since the beginning. <br><br>Hope is essential to carry on. In those times that everything seems lost we hold to hope. We hope that what has been lost can be found, what has been broken can be mended, and what has been destroyed can be rebuilt. Does what we hope in matter? And what happens if our hope becomes misguided? Will God's faithfulness to save, heal, and redeem still reach us in our misguided hope?</p>

<p>There are monsters in this world, but the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not one of them. Yes, there are monsters. We have an imagination for monsters because we know of their existence. Venomous and vicious beasts were a daily peril for our earliest ancestors. Volcanoes and tsunamis can swallow whole cities. Hurricanes and tornados roar from the heavens, leaving hell in their wake. Epidemics of disease are lethal predators taking their pitiless toll. Worst of all, there are monstrosities of men — conquerors and warlords, tyrants and despots — galloping across history like ringwraiths bringing conquest, war, famine, and death. We can imagine monsters because we have met them. But the living God is not one of them. Not the God who Jesus called Abba.</p>

<p>In forty years of following Jesus these are my four most significant discoveries:<br>1. Jesus Is the Light of the World<br>2. The Christian Life is a Journey<br>3. The Kingdom of God is Everything<br>4. God Is Like Jesus</p>

<p>Paul writes to the deeply flawed church at Corinth and calls them saints—which is theologically correct, but also, if you know about those Corinthian Christians, a bit hilarious. We are called saints in Christ. Which is a lovely thing to call sinners trying to follow Jesus. We are saints—holy ones. But we’re also sinners…and we live in that tension. Those of us following Jesus are pilgrims trying to make progress toward sainthood. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Saints are sinners who kept going.” We are sinner-saints pressing on to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus.</p>