Word of Life Church Podcast

<p>I want to live, I want to give<br>I've been a miner for a heart of gold<br>It's these expressions I never give<br>That keep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old<br>Keep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old<br><br>I've been to Hollywood, I've been to Redwood<br>I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold<br>I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line<br>That keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old<br>Keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old</p>

<p>Saw you stretched out in room 1009<br>With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye<br>Could not seem to get a line on you, my sweet honey love<br><br>Berber jewelry jangling down the street<br>Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet<br>Could not seem to get high on you, my sweet honey love<br><br>May the good Lord shine a light on you<br>Make every song your favorite tune<br>May the good Lord shine a light on you<br>Warm like the evening sun<br><br>When you're drunk in the elevator with your clothes all torn<br>And your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn<br>Just seen too many flies on you, I just can't brush them off<br><br>Angels beating all their wings in time<br>With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes<br>Thought I heard one sigh for you<br>Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now<br><br>May the good Lord shine a light on you<br>Make every song you sing your favorite tune<br>May the good Lord shine a light on you<br>Warm like the evening sun</p>

<p>You say you want a revolution <br>Well, you know<br>We'd all love to change the world<br>You tell me that it's evolution<br>Well, you know<br>We'd all love to change the world<br>But when you talk about destruction<br>Don't you know that you can count me out<br>Don't you know it's gonna be alright<br><br>You say you got a real solution <br>Well, you know<br>We'd all love to see the plan<br>You ask me for a contribution<br>Well, you know<br>We're all doing what we can<br>But if you want money for people with minds that hate<br>Well, all I can tell brother is you have to wait<br>Don't you know it's gonna be alright<br><br>You say you'll change the constitution<br>Well, you know<br>We'd all love to change your head<br>You tell me that it's institution<br>Well, you know<br>You better free you mind instead<br>But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao<br>You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow<br>Don't you know it's gonna be alright</p>

<p>“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief<br>“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief<br>Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth<br>None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”<br><br>“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke<br>“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke<br>But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate<br>So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”<br><br>All along the watchtower, princes kept the view<br>While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too<br>Outside in the cold distance a wildcat did growl<br>Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl</p>

<p>Justice is the presence of God’s healing presence in the world. It's God’s ongoing work of setting right a world gone wrong. When people are suffering, where the strong oppress the weak, when people are suffering lack, the justice of God comes. When the brokenness of our world keeps people pushed aside and robbed of dignity and value, the justice of God comes to heal and restore. When we do justice and love kindness we are joining God in God's mission on the earth.</p>

<p>Just like we have four directions and four seasons, we have four Gospels. These four distinct, yet complimentary witnesses, give us a full portrait of Jesus Christ. We need all four Gospels just like we need the whole body of Christ. Luke, the third Gospel written, gives us the most human picture of Jesus. It's from Luke that we see the prayer and table practices of Jesus.</p>

<p>On Trinity Sunday the church emphasizes that the living God is a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trinity is not a word found in Scripture, rather it is a formulation within the Christian religion drawn by the church from Scripture in concert with the Holy Spirit. It took the church three centuries to arrive at the creedal statement about the Trinity set forth in the year 325. In the Council of Nicaea we see how the Holy Spirit works with the church in the development of the Christian religion. But I also know that some modern protestants balk at Christianity being referred to as a religion. So today I want to address the question: Is Christianity a Religion?</p>

<p>Visions are for when you’re holding on tight and are looking for direction. Dreams are for when you’re letting go and have less to lose — or something like that. Visions are prose and need a plan. Dreams are poetry and only need be dreamt. Visions are still a little bit tethered to what we tend to think is possible. Dreams are a portal to a world where all things are possible. We are free to dream of that which we have no idea how it could come to pass. Much of the Bible is the poetry from those inspired dreamers we call prophets.</p>

<p>The ascension of Jesus given to us in Acts 1 pictures Jesus going up into heaven. Jesus has gone up into heaven until the day when he brings heaven down to earth. So what is Jesus doing up there? In the Apostles' Creed we confess, "He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father," a place of authority, so when you hear “ascension” think “promotion.” Jesus was promoted to the right hand of the Father. Though hidden from our eyes, we believe Jesus is ruling and reigning over the earth from the control room of heaven.</p>

<p>In the closing chapters of the Bible, the lost garden of Eden and Abraham’s sought-after city are combined in the garden metropolis of the Lamb. The arrival of New Jerusalem is celebrated as a great wedding. Just as Jesus began his ministry at the wedding in Cana, now the ascended Christ presides over the marriage of heaven and earth. The tragic divorce between heaven and earth is now reconciled by the Lamb. Today every local church is to be a suburb of New Jerusalem.</p>

<p>The book of Revelation is the most prophetic book in the Bible; it’s a prophetic interpretation of the cataclysmic events of the AD 60s and 70s; it’s a prophetic critique of the Roman Empire and thus all empire; it’s a prophetic exposé of the idolatry of civil worship; and most of all, the book of Revelation is a prophetic depiction in sign and symbol of the ultimate triumph of Christ. It’s from the Apocalypse that we gain the Christian eschatological hope of God in Christ making all things new.</p>

<p>When we dare to read the book of Revelation we find all manner of strangeness — angels and demons, dragons and beasts, bowls of blood and a bejeweled city, angels with four faces and locusts with human faces, cryptic numbers like 144,000 and 666, a beast with seven heads and ten horns and a lamb with seven eyes and seven horns, a great whore drunk on blood and a pregnant woman clothed with the sun, three frogs that deceive kings and an angel that tells John to eat a scroll, wars in heaven and wars on earth, blood as high as a horses’ bridal and angles falling like stars, lakes of fire and rivers of life, a fallen Babylon and a New Jerusalem!</p>

<p>The New Testament gives us about eight accounts of Jesus appearing to people following his resurrection. First to Mary Magdalene in the garden; then to a group of women as they left the empty tomb; to Cleopas and his wife on the Emmaus Road on Easter afternoon; to ten disciples in the upper room on Easter evening; to Thomas a week later; to seven disciples beside the Sea of Galilee; to all of the disciples on a mountain in Galilee; and finally, as to one untimely born, to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. What all of these appearances have in common is that they all contain an element of surprise. To encounter the risen Lord is to be surprised by Jesus.</p>

<p>Thomas, the disciple of Jesus. Thomas the twin. Thomas the one who doubted. But Thomas was no more inclined to doubt than any of the other disciples, it’s just that Thomas had not had their experience; so Thomas had a roadblock to belief. We’re told that Thomas had a twin. Who is the twin of Thomas? We are. In a secular age we’ve all encountered the same roadblock to belief as Thomas. As sons of the Enlightenment and daughters of Modernity we’re all Thomas now.</p>

<p>Throughout Lent we’ve been seeking to encounter the Unvarnished Jesus. In 46 daily meditations and seven sermons we’ve been looking at and listening to Jesus Christ. We’ve seen him announce and enact the kingdom of God by feeding the hungry, healing the sick, casting out demons, and forgiving sinners. We’ve seen Jesus on his long journey toward the royal city of Jerusalem; a journey toward coronation by crucifixion; a journey into danger and death; a journey that ends with Jesus buried in a garden, laid to rest inside a rock-hewn tomb. Now, on Easter Sunday, we see Jesus on the Other Side.</p>

<p>That Jesus was crucified with victims on either side of him presents us with a powerful image: Jesus among the victims in solidarity with them, but simultaneously becoming the dividing point. How we respond to Jesus determines everything. One thief sees in Jesus the possibility of a new kingdom and believes. The other thief, though himself a victim, can’t resist participating in the old way of victimizing others. Only one response leads to the paradise of union with Christ.</p>

<p>Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in order to be crowned King and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. During his coronation and passion Jesus stood before all three representatives of the principalities and powers — Joseph Caiaphas the High Priest, Herod the King of Judea, and Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor.</p>

<p>The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most important stories of our faith. As with any truly great story, this parable invites everyone everywhere throughout all time to find themselves somewhere in this tale of a father and two sons. Jesus' brilliance is on full display as he invites us to see the father's love afresh and anew in our own lives. He challenges the notion that we can earn God's love for ourselves or withhold his love from others. Jesus reminds us that the love of the father is readily available in abundance for everyone.</p>

<p>Some Galilean Passover pilgrims had been executed when they rioted against Roman occupation and eighteen people had perished in a Jerusalem building collapse. Jesus commented on these tragedies by saying, unless your rethink everything, you will all perish in the same way. Jesus is not talking about afterlife issues, but warning Jerusalem against embracing the way of war. Jesus is saying to them, if you don’t rethink war and peace according to what I’m teaching, you’re all going to die by Roman swords and collapsing buildings. And this is exactly what happened forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 and according to Josephus 600,000 people perished. War is hell. And there is no way to peace — peace is the way.</p>

<p>Salvation is this: to live in the kingdom of God—the kingdom that comes from heaven bringing peace, justice, and human flourishing to the earth, and where King Jesus bestows forgiveness upon all, and finally, at the end of the age, raises the dead.</p>

<p>In the wilderness the devil tempted Jesus with three good ideas:<br>1. Feed everyone.<br>2. Liberate everyone.<br>3. Persuade everyone.<br><br>And who would disagree that these are good ideas? But Jesus discerned the devil lurking in those good ideas. The devil's good ideas were really these not so good ideas...<br><br>1. Feed everyone and forget God.<br>2. Liberate everyone and kill the bad guys.<br>3. Persuade everyone and eliminate faith.</p>

<p>Jesus is the perfect epiphany of who God is. Reading the Bible without the spirit of Jesus is a veiled and death-dealing reading of Scripture. This why Augustine said, "It is not the Old Testament that is done away with in Christ, but the concealing veil, so that it may be understood through Christ."</p>

<p>Loving is a kind of knowing. We know God not only by collecting information about God. We know God by loving the way God loves. We love our enemies because God loves them. God loves the people we hate. When we love those who judge us, make fun of us, insult us, dismiss us, or judge us we see who God is and who we are supposed to be. Hate is a destructive force. When we respond to enemies with hate, it begins to deform our hearts. When we love our enemies we find our true selves and we free ourselves from hate and the need to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.</p>

<p>In Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus opens his sermon with the Beatitudes -- eight blessings. In Luke's account of the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus also opens his sermon with the Beatitudes -- this time four blessings. But in the Sermon on the Plain Jesus also pronounces four woes. Luke's Gospel reminds us that the Kingdom of Christ brings both blessing and woe.</p>

<p>You may feel like a sinner; you may feel guilty; you may feel like a failure; but none of that matters. Keep believing in the boundless mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.</p>

<p>The Bible is a dangerous book — especially if you emphasize the parts people would rather overlook. In his hometown the people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. Why? Because Jesus told the stories prophets tell — and no prophet is accepted in his hometown.</p>

<p>Throughout history the Bible has been misused to justify wars of conquest, genocide, the institution of slavery, women held as property, and any number of other egregious abuses. But to do this we have to ignore the greatest truth the Bible gives us: Jesus Christ is Lord of All! As Christians we are not allowed to use the Bible to disobey Jesus! All Scripture is fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. So if we don’t see it in Jesus, we let it go—because even the Bible must bow to Jesus.</p>

<p>Every baptism is a new Exodus from the bondage of Egypt and a new entrance into the Promised Land of freedom and forgiveness in Christ. Every baptism is a spiritual incorporation into a new Israel — an Israel no longer defined by ethnicity, circumcision, and Torah observance, but defined by faith, baptism, and loyalty to Jesus. This new Israel is what the Apostle Paul calls the Body of Christ or the New Humanity.</p>

<p>On January 6 we commemorate the epiphany granted to the magi from the east—Persian astronomers, astrologers, magicians who discerned an auspicious sign in the stars and made a thousand mile journey to worship the Christ child in Bethlehem. These magi were the first Gentile worshipers of the King of the Jews and with their famous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they foretold that Mary’s child would not just be King of the Jews, but King of Kings. After seeing and worshiping the infant King indicated by the Christmas star, they returned to their own country, but by another way, because they would never be the same.</p>

<p>When we think of Jesus we mostly think of the man of his ministry years. At Christmastime we also think of the baby Jesus lying in the manger of Bethlehem. But there’s one episode in the Gospels that takes place between infancy and ministry. It’s the episode of the boy Jesus when he was in Jerusalem at the age of twelve</p>

<p>In the eighth century BC the Hebrew prophet Micah of Morasheth said that Bethlehem would be the place where a new king of the Jews would be born. Bethlehem was a small village five miles south of Jerusalem, but it was also the place where three hundred years earlier King David had been born. In other words, Micah was prophesying that in Bethlehem a new kingdom of Israel would begin. But we who know the Christmas story can say much more than that — we can say that Bethlehem is where The Second Half of Human History began!</p>

<p>When God lives among us salvation will swallow up our sorrows, sweep away our troubles, and we will fear no more. When God lives among us our salvation will have come. Salvation is not a program or a plan, salvation is not three steps or four laws—salvation is what happens when God lives among us.</p>

<p>During Advent we prepare the way for a “second coming" of Christ into our lives. Yes, Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the living and the dead. Amen. But the living Christ also comes to us again and again in fresh new ways, and we must prepare the way for these new comings of Christ. We prepare the way by cultivating a willingness to change. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put more bluntly: "When a human being confronts Jesus the human being must either die or kill Jesus.”</p>

<p>Advent is for waiting. And our Advent hope is rooted in sacred memory — the memory of the story of salvation that we tell through the Christian calendar. We begin the year-long telling of the salvation story, not by celebrating, but by waiting — waiting for God to act. But that’s the problem, we don’t really like waiting, because waiting is not having. Waiting assumes a kind of poverty, we wait because we lack. And in our Amazon and Instagram age of one-click consumerism and careful image cultivation we a conditioned to be ashamed of our poverty, of our lack, of our having to…wait. In our waiting it can feel like the embarrassment of sitting alone at a table for two and telling the maître d' that our date will show up any moment, yet inwardly we’re already feeling the shame of having been stood up. Our waiting has been in vain and we feel ashamed. But here’s the message of Advent: None who wait for God will be put to shame.</p>

<p>I know I’m speaking idealistically, but I’m a dreamer (and I’m not the only one), so let me just say it. There’s no place on earth like the church. A place where Matthew 25 is just a normal day — a place where the poor are fed and clothed, the sick are helped and healed (who do you think invented hospitals?), a place where the immigrant is welcomed, and the prisoner is given dignity. A place where everyone is saint and sinner. A place where a judge and a felon can sit side by side on the same pew with equal status in Christ. A place where we not only carry each other’s burdens, but when necessary carry each other, because, despite our vast differences in education and opportunity, opinions and politics, we are learning to love one another like Jesus loves us — unconditionally. Yes, I know I’m speaking like a dreamer, but I’m dreaming with my eyes wide open, because I’ve seen everything I’ve just described right here at Word of Life Church. Amen.</p>

<p>The Babylonian exile was a time of theological deconstruction for Israel. The literal destruction of Jerusalem and the temple gave the Hebrew prophets space to rethink things. And they did. They dreamed of a new Israel, a new Jerusalem, a new temple, and a new covenant.</p>

<p>If we’re schooled in denial we don’t know what to do with suffering when it comes. But the Hebrew people—formed in the crucible of suffering—know what to do. You write a poem, sing a song, create a lament that gives full expression to the pain you feel. You make art out of your pain so that you can give it away to God.</p>

<p>Jeremiah was a prophet for the end times; and we need such prophets because things are always coming to an end. It’s hubris and idolatry to think that anything other than God and his kingdom lasts forever. Nations and empires, institutions and economies, moments, movements, and even our lives all come to an end. But prophets like Jeremiah help us accept these inevitable endings and see the purposes of God in them.</p>

<p>This road we are on following Jesus isn’t pretty or neat and tidy. It’s hard to follow Jesus. Whoever told you otherwise is selling Jesus short. Following Jesus is thrilling and rewarding, but it isn't easy. We have to accept hardship as the pathway to the peace that Jesus talks about. The psalms have been given to us as very real, very honest language to be used to reach out to God through the hardships of the Christian life including the hardships of patience, perseverance, forgiveness, and love.</p>

<p>This beautiful pilgrim psalm is a meditation on the mercy of God. The psalmist sings about how God does not mark iniquities, about God’s plenteous forgiveness, about God’s steadfast love, about God’s great power to redeem. It’s also a song about waiting with hope. The soul of the pilgrim waits for the mercy of <a href="http://God...more" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">God...more</a> than the watchman for the morning. Yes, we wait for the mercy of God—mercy as sure as the morning.</p>

<p>"Sometimes when I stand in some corner of Auschwitz, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. And I want to be there right in the thick of what people call “horror” and still be able to say: life is beautiful. And now I lie here in a corner, dizzy and feverish and unable to do a thing. But I am also with the jasmine and with that piece of sky beyond my window. For once you have begun to walk with God, you need only keep on walking with Him and all of life becomes one long stroll—such a marvelous feeling." -Etty Hillesum (1914-1943)</p>

<p>Pilgrimage (a journey of a spiritual nature) has always been a practice among spiritual seekers. The ancient Jews were to make three pilgrimages a year to the holy city of Jerusalem. This is the context for Psalm 84 — it’s a meditation on the pilgrim journey to Zion. As such it's a profound reflection upon the all-important journey of the heart — an inner pilgrimage toward a mature revelation of God.</p>

<p>On the journey of life, we will find ourselves as both the helper and the helped. The myth of the self-made man is a strong belief in our culture, but an honest reflection on life will find "no man is an island entire of itself." We are a God-made mankind and it is not good that we are alone. Therefore, may find comfort in a God who is good and faithful - who's help most often comes through other people.</p>

<p>We are resurrection people not only because believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. We are resurrection people because we practice resurrection. We walk in newness of life. There are four practices that open up the door to all the other practices of the faith, namely awareness, learning, reflecting, and action. When we adopt these four practices, the way of life opens up for us.</p>

<p>“The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic,’ one who has ‘experienced’ something, or he will cease to be anything at all. –Karl Rahner<br><br>The tsunami of secularism will be survived, not by clever apologetics, or by waging misguided culture wars, or by pining away for an irretrievable past, but being a person who has had their own mystical experience with God.</p>

<p>My Back Pages<br>Bob Dylan<br><br>Crimson flames tied through my ears<br>Rollin’ high and mighty traps<br>Pounced with fire on flaming roads<br>Using ideas as my maps<br>“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I<br>Proud ’neath heated brow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now<br><br>Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth<br>“Rip down all hate,” I screamed<br>Lies that life is black and white<br>Spoke from my skull. I dreamed<br>Romantic facts of musketeers<br>Foundationed deep, somehow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now<br><br>Girls’ faces formed the forward path<br>From phony jealousy<br>To memorizing politics<br>Of ancient history<br>Flung down by corpse evangelists<br>Unthought of, though, somehow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now<br><br>A self-ordained professor’s tongue<br>Too serious to fool<br>Spouted out that liberty<br>Is just equality in school<br>“Equality,” I spoke the word<br>As if a wedding vow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now<br><br>In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand<br>At the mongrel dogs who teach<br>Fearing not I’d become my enemy<br>In the instant that I preach<br>My existence led by confusion boats<br>Mutiny from stern to bow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now<br><br>Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats<br>Too noble to neglect<br>Deceived me into thinking<br>I had something to protect<br>Good and bad, I define these terms<br>Quite clear, no doubt, somehow<br>Ah, but I was so much older then<br>I’m younger than that now</p>

<p>There Is A Light<br>U2<br><br>And if the terrors of the night<br>come creeping into your days <br>And the world comes, stealing children from your room<br>Guard your innocence <br>From hallucination <br>and know that darkness always gathers around the light<br><br>There is a light you can’t always see <br>If there is a world we can’t always be<br>If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt <br>And there is a light, don’t let it go out<br><br>When the winds screams and shouts<br>And the sea is a dragon’s tail<br>And the ship that stole your heart away sets sail<br>When all you’ve left is leaving <br>And all you got is grieving<br>And all you know is needing<br><br>If there is a light you can’t always see <br>If there is a world we can’t always be<br>If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt <br>And there is a light, don’t let it go out<br><br>Cause this is a song<br>A song for someone<br>Someone like me<br><br>I know the world is done<br>But you don’t have to be<br>I’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves<br>Are you tough enough to be kind?<br>Do you know your heart has it’s own mind?<br>Darkness gathers around the light<br>Hold on, hold on <br><br>There is a light you can’t always see <br>If there is a world we can’t always be<br>If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt <br>And there is a light don’t let it go out<br><br>And this is a song<br>A song for someone<br>This is a song<br>A song for someone<br>Someone like me<br>Someone like me<br>Someone like me</p>

<p>Lament<br>A portion like madness in season<br>Bracing all like a breaking of reason<br>With every night lost and every day torn<br>With the drama feeling calmer and it's calmer in the storm<br>Speakers are crying like a forest in the rain<br>I was so alone with my thoughts and my pain<br>And the darkness closed like a mouth on a wild night<br>I'll never be free<br><br>Gospel<br>Ooh, in this darkness<br>Please light my way<br>Light my way<br><br>Lament<br>I can't stand on my own anymore<br>I can't stand in the stain of the broken and poor<br>I can't break what I held and it never was true<br>In the mirror what I said was a lie to you<br>And me and everything I see and everything I could<br>I tried so hard to be good<br>For myself, for you, for the hidden and divine<br>For everything but I can fail just so many times<br><br>Gospel<br>Ooh, in this darkness<br>Please light my way<br>Light my way</p>

<p>I'm passing sleeping cities<br>Fading by degrees<br>Not believing all I see to be so<br>I'm flyin' over backyards<br>Country homes and ranches<br>Watching life between the branches below<br><br>And it's hard to say<br>Who you are these days<br>But you run on anyway<br>Don't you baby?<br><br>You keep running for another place<br>To find that saving grace<br><br>I'm moving on alone<br>Over ground that no one owns<br>Past statues that atone for my sins<br>There's a guard on every door<br>And a drink on every floor<br>Overflowing with a thousand amens<br><br>And it's hard to say<br>Who you are these days<br>But you run on anyway<br>Don't you baby?<br><br>You keep running for another place<br>To find that saving grace<br>Don't you baby?<br><br>You're rolling up the carpet<br>Of your father's two-room mansion<br>No headroom for expansion no more<br>And there's a corner of the floor<br>They're telling you is yours<br>You're confident but not really sure<br><br>And it's hard to say<br>Who you are these days<br>But you run on anyway<br>Don't you baby?<br><br>You keep running for another place<br>To find that saving grace<br>Don't you baby?</p>