Word of Life Church Podcast

<p>We're told that the Ethiopian Eunuch went to Jerusalem to worship. But this treasurer in the royal court of Queen Candace would not have been allowed to worship in the Temple. The Torah prohibited eunuchs from the entering the Temple. But Isaiah held forth a vision of a new kind of Temple where eunuchs would be welcome. When Philip preached the good news of Jesus, the eunuch discovered that he was welcome in the new Temple that is the kingdom of God.</p>

<p>Jesus said he was was the good shepherd who came to bring abundant life. He also said that those who came before him were thieves and robbers who came only to steal, kill, and destroy. Who were these bad shepherds? Jesus then said the sheep hear his voice, but they did not listen to the bad shepherds. Who are these sheep?</p>

<p>The kingdom of God is not heaven. It is not the church. The kingdom of God is the present rule of God in Christ on the earth through the church. It is where God is in charge and running the show. For those who enter into this kingdom and become kingdom-people God desires for them to live together in unity. In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul dealt with a growing division in the church between meat-eaters and vegetarians. In the end, Paul encourages them to stop judging and despising one another and instead work for the things that make for peace and mutual up-building, to be one as God himself is one.</p>

<p>The Emmaus Road disciples encountered Jesus on the road and he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. It's the same with us. We encounter Jesus on the road of our own surprising story. And we encounter Jesus in the bread of our shared sacrament. Story and Sacrament. We need both.</p>

<p>It’s high time that a morbid fascination with a supposed unalterable script of God–sanctioned–end-time–hyperviolence be once and for all left behind. A secret (or not-so-secret) longing for the world’s violent destruction is grossly unbecoming to the followers of the Lamb. We are not hoping for Armageddon; we are helping build New Jerusalem. We will not complete it without the return of the King, but we will move in that direction all the same. We refuse to conspire with the beasts of empire who keep the world confined to the death culture of Babylon. There’s always another Armageddon looming on the horizon, threatening to perpetuate the bloody ways of Cain and throw more Abels in a mass grave. But we are not to cooperate with that vision. We are to resist it. We are to anticipate a future created by the Prince of Peace through the very lives we live. We are to work in concert with Jesus Christ as he labors to repair the world.</p>

<p>Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, wanted to see the wounds of Christ. What he discovered was the flesh of the wounded God. He was not so much "Thomas the Doubter" as "Thomas the Revelator." The very wounds of Christ, the wounds Thomas touched, were wounds opening up a window into the glory of God.</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>The Gospel of Mark was the first of the four gospels to be written and its original ending was rather strange and quite abrupt. At a later date a longer and more satisfying ending was appended, but Mark’s original conclusion to his gospel narrative was simply this: “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” The End. But how can that be the end? It’s so sudden, so abrupt, so lacking in resolution or explanation. We’re left with three women fleeing from the empty tomb, trembling, astonished and speechless. It’s as if the film in the projector simply ran out and we find ourselves sitting in the theater puzzled by the unexpected ending. Why?</p>

<p>A Good Friday meditation on Jesus' trials, crucifixion, and burial -- a contemplative journey from Caiaphas' dungeon to Pilate's court, from Golgotha to the garden tomb.</p>

<p>The king approaches on Palm Sunday<br>Forsaking the glorious war horse<br>To ride a ridiculous peace donkey<br>Gentle as the wings of a dove<br>Inaugurating the reign of love<br><br>Conquerors come with hubris, blood, and violence<br>Riding stallions of famine, war, and pestilence<br>(They tell me Genghis Khan murdered all of ten million)<br><br>The Prince of Peace comes without breaking a bruised reed<br>Swords are now for plowing, spears are now for pruning<br>(I’ll tell you for a fact, Jesus of Nazareth killed nary a one)<br><br>If Hosanna praises rocket’s red glare: Weep over Jerusalem!<br>If Hosanna acclaims kingdom come: Let the rocks cry out!</p>

<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the source of much of animosity and fear in our world. Forming a Christian response requires much knowledge of the current complexities and history of that region. In the end, this highly political situation is about people, Israeli people and Palestinian people and as Christians we are not called to take Israel’s side, but to imitate Israel’s Messiah.</p>

<p>Since the foundation of the world (by which we mean the beginning of human civilization) there’s been something fundamentally and tragically wrong with the world. But we mostly accept it as normal because to us it’s just the way the world is. (Only the prophets offer a minority report.) The basic arrangement of the world is this: The strong dominate the weak. In the domination system, economic power, military power, and religious power are used to dominate the weak. This system guarantees privilege for a small elite and oppression for most. Those who control the treasuries, the armies, and the temples benefit from this system. In Judea in the time of Jesus those who controlled the treasuries, the armies, and the temple were King Herod (the King of Israel), Pontius Pilate (the Roman Governor), and Joseph Caiaphas (the High Priest). There is a reason why these three powerful men figure so prominently in the Passion story.</p>

<p>Beware of simplistic and formulaic explanations of the Cross. We cannot easily know the mystery of how the crucifixion of Jesus Christ saves the world. We readily confess it, but that does not mean we can glibly "explain" it. The Bible does not give us a simple, formulaic explanation of the Cross. What the Bible does do is give us a myriad of metaphors about the Cross. One of the most mysterious metaphors of the Cross is Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. Jesus, in his late night conversation with Nicodemus, chooses to use this strange story to depict his crucifixion and the saving effect it will have on the those who look upon it in faith.</p>

<p>Friedrich Nietzsche said, "a long obedience in the same direction" is what makes "life worth living." And as was so often the case, Nietzsche was right (even if he was wrong on the most important questions). If it's true that it's a long obedience in the same direction that makes life worth living, there's no better example of this than the life of Jesus. Jesus' life can quite accuarately be described as a long obedience in the same direction. And what was the "same direction" of Jesus' "long obedience"? It was toward the will of the father. Jesus' long obedience in the same direction was not the pursuit of happiness or the drive for success—it was a revelation of the Father's will.</p>

<p>What Jesus did in the Temple the day after his arrival in Jerusalem during the Feast was not a “cleansing” of the Temple, but a prophetic protest of the Temple. It was creative and dangerous prophetic theater—not a sudden loss of temper. Jesus wasn’t cleansing the temple for it’s continued use, Jesus was protesting Temple corruption and predicting its destruction. This is why following his protest, Jesus spoke with disciples about the signs of the end—the end of the Temple the Temple age. In so doing Jesus was preparing the way for a radically new kind of Temple.</p>

<p>The hope for the world that I see is where lust for dominance is replaced by love and where lust for vengeance is replaced by forgiveness. The hope for the world that I see is the Jesus way of choosing the cross by refusing the deathtrap of recycled revenge. The hope for the world that I see is where the rage of Achilles is neither glorified as heroic, nor satisfied in retaliation. The hope for the world that I see is where the rage of Achilles is named and shamed as the curse of Cain and extinguished at the cross. The hope for the world that I see is where the disciples of Jesus don’t just watch in admiration as Jesus carries his cross, but practice an imitation of the same kind of cross-bearing forgiveness. This is the kind of Christianity that is not a chaplain to the status quo, but the catalyst for authentic change.</p>

<p>When Jesus first foretold his death, Peter rebuked him saying, "This will never happen to you." Jesus retorted with, "Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus then went on to teach his followers about the necessity of cross-bearing in discipleship. This is one of Jesus' most important teachings. Now imagine this: The Apostle Peter imprisoned in Rome in AD 64 on the eve of his crucifixion. What might Peter say to us about taking up the cross in order to follow Jesus?</p>

<p>Lent is a time for us to revisit, retell, and relive Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, suffering, and death. As we recall the crucifixion we cannot help but ask, "Where is God?" It is this question that seems to haunt us, especially in times of suffering. Could it be that in these moments when God feels so far way, he is actually closer than ever? Could it be that when we are at the end of our rope, we are blessed?</p>

<p>As we journey through the Christian calendar—through Advent to the Christmas Incarnation, through Lent to the Good Friday Crucifixion and the Easter Resurrection—we need to take the humanity of Jesus seriously. For if we fail to do so, if we allow the deity of Christ to eclipse the real humanity of Jesus, the whole gospel story collapses into kitsch and becomes a sentimental caricature lacking in substance, and this will never do. A good test for how seriously we take the real humanity of Jesus is how we view the wilderness temptation. Was it a kind of parody or was it a real temptation? Was Jesus just an actor in play where the outcome was always certain? Or was Jesus truly enticed by the dark side? What I have discovered is that there are hidden aspects of the gospel story that will burst to life if we are willing to look deeply at Jesus and His Temptations.</p>

<p>Is sin more like a speeding ticket or suffering from the flu? If we treat sin merely as an infraction of a law, and forgiveness as a legal pardon of that infraction, people tend to continue in sin. Jesus reveals sin as deeper than mere acts of moral infractions. Sin is a sickness and it has corrupted and infected everything. Jesus saves us from our sin, both personal sin and systems of sin, by healing us, freeing us from sin, as we practice confession and repentance.</p>

<p>Jesus is the true and living Word of God. Jesus is what the Law and Prophets point toward and bow to. Jesus is what the Old Testament was trying to say, but could never fully articulate. Jesus is the perfect Word of God in the form of a human life. God couldn’t say all that he wanted to say in the form of a book, so God said it in the form of Jesus. Jesus is what God has to say!<br><br>The Law and the Prophets were the lesser lights in the pre-Christ night sky. They were the moon and stars. Israel could grope forward by their dim light; the Hebrews could navigate through the pagan night by these constellations. In a world of stygian darkness the moonlight and starlight emanating from the Torah and the Prophets made all the difference. Moonlight and starlight.<br><br>But with Christ morning has broken! The new day has dawned! The sun of righteousness has risen with healing in its rays! Now the moon and the stars, Moses and Elijah.</p>

<p>What is light? God’s love in the form of photons. What is water? A liquid expression of God’s love. What is a mountain? God’s love in granite, so much older than human sorrow. What is a tree? God’s love growing up from the ground. What is a bull moose? God’s love sporting spectacular antlers. What is a whale? Fifty tons of God’s love swimming in the ocean. Why is there light and oceans and trees and moose and whales and every grain of sand? Because God is love—love that seeks expression in self-giving creativity. Unless we understand this we will misunderstand everything, and in our misunderstanding we will harm creation, including our fellow image-bearing sisters and brothers. Existence only makes sense when it is seen through the lens of love. At the beginning of time there is love. At the bottom of the universe there is love. Admittedly freedom allows for other things too—from cancer cells to atomic bombs—but at the bottom of the universe it’s love all the way down. Cancer cells and atomic bombs will not have the final word. At the end of all things there is love. When the last star burns out, God’s love will be there for whatever comes after. In the end it all adds up to love. Love never ends.</p>

<p>Faith Life Weekend Session 5<br><br>Seven centuries before Christ the poet-prophet Isaiah spoke of a day when God will do something wonderful for all nations on Mount Zion. (Isaiah 25:6–7)<br><br>God will turn the universal burial shroud into a universal table cloth—funerals will be turned into feasts.<br><br>God will swallow up death forever—the end of that dark specter that threatens to make life meaningless.<br><br>God will wipe away every tear. Can the terrible tears of every Good Friday catastrophe be redeemed? Yes!<br><br>God will give the whole world a feast to celebrate the conquering of death.<br>Jesus spoke of this as “eating and drinking in the kingdom of God.”<br><br>God intends to save the world, not by ballots or bullets, but by a table.</p>

<p>Faith Life Weekend 2015 Session 4<br><br>The earliest Christian communal meals (the center of church life) were patterned after the Roman banquet, and were thus familiar to everyone. But the Christian banquet differed from the Roman banquet in four very significant ways…<br> <br>1. Who was honored. (Not Jupiter, not Caesar, but Jesus Christ.)<br><br>2. What kingdom was celebrated. (Not the Roman Empire, but the Kingdom of Christ.)<br><br>3. How participants were seated. (Men, women, slaves, landowners, all together, all equal.)<br><br>4. Who was the host. (Though there was a sponsor, the true Host was Jesus—it was the “Lord’s Supper.”)</p>

<p>Faith Life Weekend 2015 Session 2<br><br>As a child Mephibosheth was let down by a loved one; as a result he was crippled for life. But the story finds beauty when Mephibosheth was called out of the wastelands and seated at the king's table. Have you ever been let down by a loved one and it left its mark on you? Have you ever been hurt by those who were supposed to help you? Did it crippled you? Do you limp through life, still suffering from old wounds? There is hope! This is the story Mephibosheth -- a broken man called to the king's table.</p>

<p>Faith Life Weekend 2015 Session 3<br><br>A Moveable Feast is best known as the memoir by Ernest Hemingway. But the term actually comes from the liturgical calendar. A moveable feast is a feast day without a fixed date, like Easter. In this sermon A Moveable Feast is used to describe the ministry of Jesus. In the Gospels Jesus moves from meal to meal, feast to feast, announcing and enacting the kingdom of God. Jesus ministry truly was and is a moveable feast!</p>

<p>Session 1 of Faith Life Weekend 2015<br><br>The Jewish Passover and Christian Communion are both feasts of liberation. The Jewish Passover and Christian Communion are both meals of memory. At both meals—Passover and Communion—a story is told. Exodus and Good Friday. We are the stories we tell. We are what we remember. Our feasts shape our identity. To be Jewish is to remember the Exodus. To be Christian is to remember Good Friday. Jesus establishes his liberating kingdom in the heart of domination systems and undoes them from the inside out.</p>

<p>In the New Testament we’re not given just one Gospel witness to Jesus, but four. Each of the four Gospels introduce Jesus’ public ministry in a different way and from a different location.<br><br>Matthew: Reissuing the Torah as the Sermon on the Mount.<br>Mark: Casting out a demon in the synagogue in Capernaum.<br>Luke: Announcing the Lord’s favor in the synagogue in Nazareth.<br>John: Turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.<br><br>In each case this establishes a particular emphasis of that Gospel.<br><br>Matthew: It's time for a New Torah.<br>Mark: It's time for the overthrow of Satan's kingdom.<br>Luke: It's time for God's favor upon the world.<br>John: It's time for the everlasting feast to begin.</p>

<p>Jesus’ whole ministry consisted in announcing and enacting the kingdom of God. In his three year ministry Jesus never said or did anything that was not toward the end of announcing and enacting the kingdom of God. He did this by preaching, giving parables, healing the sick, casting out demons, forgiving sinners, and by performing a table practice of radical hospitality. During these three years Jesus was training twelve disciples to be the core of a new kind of community he was forming around himself; he called this community his church. The church is the community of baptized Jesus followers who seek to live the kingdom of God, by which we mean the reign and rule of God over the nations through Jesus Christ.</p>

<p>We are hurled into life without warning. First we are <a href="http://not...then" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">not...then</a> suddenly we are! Waiting in the wings a script is thrust into our hands and we're shoved onto the stage of life. It's a script of family, nation, language, culture, and religion. We have no say in the matter. We are simply handed the script. In our fourscore sojourn we are expected to stick to the <a href="http://script...and" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">script...and</a> then die.<br><br>But there is a great secret. There is an alternative. There is a counter-script.</p>

<p>We speak of Peter as making the first formal confession that Jesus is the Messiah, and it’s appropriate that we do so; it’s our tradition and Peter was pre-eminent among the disciples. But… A year and a half before Peter’s confession (and upon just meeting Jesus) Nathanael calls Jesus the “Son of God” and the “King of Israel." Both are titles for Messiah. And Nathanael does this all because Jesus saw him under the fig tree. What’s going on? I suspect it’s more than just Jesus’ minor miracle of a word of knowledge about Nathanael’s whereabouts. It’s not just that Jesus knew where Nathanael was when Philip found him, but what Nathanael was doing when he was under the fig tree in Bethsaida.</p>

<p>We all want to be loved and feel like we belong. This is a common human experience. Those who experience love and belonging are those with a sense of worthiness which is connected to how a person responds to the love of God. If we respond to the love of God with open-armed acceptance, we experience the life of God. If we respond to the love of God with rejection, we experience what could be called the "wrath of God." God loves and is love. He invites us to respond to his love with love and find ourselves becoming people of cruciform love.</p>

<p>At his baptism the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a <a href="http://dove...not" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">dove...not</a> an eagle. The eagle was the representative bird of the Roman Empire. As a symbol of power and might eagles were affixed atop Roman military standards. Hawks and doves, then as now, are symbolic of war and peace, violence and gentleness. Empires have long adopted eagles and lions as their emblems -- birds and beasts of prey. Furthermore, Roman religion believed that an eagle in flight over the Caesar (who bore the title "Son of God") was a sign of divine pleasure -- the gods were "well pleased." That Jesus was identified as God's beloved Son by a dove and not an eagle is very instructive, deeply subversive, and absolutely beautiful. Put simply, the Holy Spirit is a dove, not a hawk.</p>

<p>We live in a secular age. Secularism as a way of ordering society (pioneered by Hume, Voltaire, Paine, and Jefferson) has prevailed in Europe and North America. Secularism carries the sense that nothing is truly sacred; heaven, if it exists, is far away; God, if God exists, should be restricted to the private realm; religion (or spirituality) should be an expression of private individualism. So how do we rebel against the secular spirit of the age? Not through anger, protest, or confrontation, but through an emphasis on Christian Prayer, Story, and Sacrament.</p>

<p>"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." -Matthew 2:12<br><br>After the Magi found and worshiped Jesus, they returned to their own country by another way; not the way they came.<br><br>A real encounter with Christ will not leave us unchallenged or unchanged. Once we see Jesus as the true King, we have to journey through life BY ANOTHER WAY. We cannot remain the same.</p>

<p>As I sat in openness with the Spirit I felt three things about Word of Life Church in the coming year.<br><br>A Coming together.<br>A fresh sense of community.<br><br>A move toward the contemplative.<br>The final move away from consumer Christianity.<br><br>A willingness to be radically other.<br>Because accommodation to Babylon is no longer an option.<br><br>To sum it up in three words, we're trying to be Cohesive, Contemplative, Alternative.</p>

<p>One of the boldest claims a Christian can make is that Jesus is the light of the world. Christians don't mean this as a cheap religious cliche or as a bit of bumper sticker evangelism. There's nothing tame or docile about asserting that Jesus is the light of the world. It's the audacious claim that all of history and all humanity are informed and interpreted by the light that comes from the life of Jesus of Nazareth.</p>

<p>"All the kitsch to be found in Christian life and Christian art arises from a failure to take the Incarnation seriously." -Hans Urs von Balthasar<br><br>(kitsch: mass produced art in poor taste; often characterized by an excessive sentimentality)<br><br>If we think of Christmas as God donning a human costume to playact as a person, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus being born just so he can grow up and can die for our sins, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus as Superman flying around being God all over the place, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. And if we have a kitschy view of the Incarnation, we will have a kitschy and cartoonish, cheap, and sentimental Christian life. But if we can approach the mystery of the Incarnation as the greatest wonder of all, we can find the door to the substantive faith that is the object of our deepest longing.</p>

<p>What C.S. Lewis told us about Aslan, is true about Jesus: He's not tame or safe, but he is very good. Once we find out that Jesus will be good to whoever he wants to be good to—regardless of race, religion, nationality, politics, or whatever—that’s when we discover that Jesus is neither tame nor safe…he’s just good. Very good! But we’ll never know these things if we stay in the cramped little confines of our assumptions and certitude. We’ll only know these beautiful things if we heed the call to come further up and further in.</p>

<p>If we learn the lesson of Mary's Song we make this revolutionary discovery: Jesus isn't going to meet us in the penthouse of our prosperity, but in the garbage dump of our pain and poverty.</p>

<p>The arrival of Messiah was announced as Isaiah's prophecy that God would come to his people on a highway in the desert. John the Baptist preached in the desert and Jesus first appeared publicly as Messiah in that desert. That's the way it was and that's the way it is. It's from your spiritual desert that God comes to you in a new way. Your spiritual desert isn't bad news, it's good news. This is the lesson and hope of Advent. Because this is the announcement of Advent: Your God is coming!</p>

<p>God is not the cozy cabin of a Thomas Kinkade painting. To get involved with God is to invite great risk -- it's to risk the fiery furnace and the lions' den. Think of the most notable characters in Scripture: Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Mary, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and most of all, Jesus. Which one of them played it safe? Not a one! To get involved with God is to risk misunderstanding, rejection, failure, suffering, and even death. Christendom was an attempt to invent a risk-free Christianity. But removing all risk makes Christianity incomprehensible. To risk too little, is to risk too much.</p>

<p>During the season of Advent we address the past, the present, and the future all at once. Looking to the past we recall the yearning of ancient Israel for the coming of their long awaited Messiah. Looking to the future we confess that Christ shall come again to judge the living and the dead. But living in the present we look for the appearing of Christ in our everyday lives. To do this we have to wake up. We have to shake off the sedation of certitude, civil religion, and consumerism and awake to the reality of Christ!</p>

<p>The final eschatological vision in the Book of Revelation is the answer to our constant prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In the final two chapters of Revelation we are shown a vision of the arrival on earth of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the city of the Lamb.</p>

<p>The gospel is the story of Jesus. It's not a plan for going to heaven or a formula for forgiveness; it's not a set of spiritual laws for life or God's principles for success. The gospel is the story of Jesus. To climb into the story of Jesus is to encounter salvation. This is what Zacchaeus did. This is what we need to do.</p>

<p>The final triumph of Christ over beastly empire and its ways and means of death is described in the Book of Revelation as the war of the Lamb. Jesus doesn't become a righteous beast to conquer evil beasts -- Jesus conquers the beasts of empire as a slain and risen Lamb. This is the kind of war that is depicted in Revelation 19 with the white horse rider called the Word of God who wears a robe drenched in his own blood and wages a righteous war with a sword in his mouth. This is the way of the Lamb. This is the war of the Lamb.</p>

<p>"One thing have I <a href="http://desired...to" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">desired...to</a> gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." -Psalm 27:4<br><br>"It is the prerogative and charm of beauty to win hearts." -Don Quixote<br><br>In the modern age Christian apologetic and ethics -- defending truth and defining good -- have been very prominent. Christan aesthetics, on the other hand, has been largely ignored. But we may have reached the point where it is now chiefly the prerogative of beauty to win hearts. When arguing about the truth and shouting about what is good have failed, it is beauty that has enough charm to draw people to Jesus Christ.</p>

<p>The mysterious book of Revelation is a bit like Don McLean's 1972 song "American Pie" -- if you get the allusions and cryptic references it's cool and makes sense; but if not it's just confusing. The book of Revelation is best understood as a first century prophetic critique of the Roman Empire. As such it serves as a Christian critique of all beastly empires. In Revelation we discover that God's kingdom does not come by the violent means of the beast, but by the self-sacrificing way of the Lamb.</p>

<p>Jesus is the savior -- the savior of all that is saved...including the Old Testament. Jesus is the one who saves us from a harmful misreading of the Old Testament. Both Jesus and Paul show us how to read the Old Testament in a redemptive way. To read the Bible in the light of Christ is to discover a Biblical trajectory. A trajectory away from violence and vengeance, and toward mercy and inclusion.</p>