Word of Life Church Podcast

<p>There's always some dude on a horse. The most famous dude on a horse is Alexander the Great (356–323 BC). Even his horse is famous—the warhorse Bucephalus (355–326 BC). At the same time when Alexander and Bucephalus were conquering the world, the Hebrew prophet Zechariah gave a different vision of a different kind of king. Zechariah prophesied that Israel’s king would not be like Alexander the Great, riding a warhorse and conquering by killing. Instead, Zechariah prophesied that Messiah would come with gentleness and humility, riding a lowly donkey and teaching peace to the nations.</p>

<p>Jesus came as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy where the wolf and lamb come to eat together. The mission of Jesus is revolutionary because Jesus wants to save both the oppressed and the oppressor, both the abused and the abuser, both the offended and the offender, both the lambs and the wolves. All people are invited into his saving embrace. We can experience a kind of forgiveness that leads to reconciliation if lambs tell the wolves how their actions make them feel and if wolves ask, "Will you forgive me?"</p>

<p>Cristine Eckhardt's Story of Forgiveness</p>

<p>What Jesus calls us to in the Kingdom of God is not a religiously modified version of the self-preservation and self-promotion value systems that govern the empires of men. What Jesus calls us to is far more radical than that. Jesus calls us to the demanding ethic of the turned cheek and the second mile; he challenges us with the absurd idea of loving our enemies, overcoming evil with good, and triumphing over tragedy through forgiveness. The only reason we even entertain the possibility of living such a life is that we believe Jesus is the Son of God.</p>

<p>Todd Norris's story of forgiveness</p>

<p>We must dare to believe in Jesus’ radical ideas of enemy-love and endless-forgiveness, because without this kind of love and this kind of forgiveness, there is no future. The future you look for, the future you long for, the future that would free you from the unending repetition of the painful past, lies in your capacity to move beyond the past through the liberating practice of faith-based forgiveness. It is forgiveness that creates the future you want to live in.</p>

<p>Candy Draper's Story of Forgiveness</p>

<p>When we choose to forgive those who harm us, instead of perpetuating the cycle of revenge, we become a living imitation of Jesus Christ. As we do this we help flood a world hell-bent on paybacks with a forgiveness that washes away sin. The world is full of a lust for vengeance that fuels our conflicts—from petty quarrels to deadly wars. Christians are called to opt out of the game of getting even.</p>

<p>Glen & Heather Taylor's Story of Forgiveness</p>

<p>If Christianity is to be a compelling and relevant voice in the 21st Century, we need a fresh message—not a new innovation or novel interpretation, but a return to our roots. And if Christianity is about anything, it's about forgiveness.</p>

<p>The Epiphany text begins with these words: “In the time of King Herod.” Most of history has been “in the time of King Herod.” And if not the time of Herod, then the time of Pharaoh, the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the time of Caesar, the time of Nero, all the way into modern times—the time of Hitler and Mussolini, of Franco and Salazar, of Pinochet and Putin. It’s true that most of history has been lived in the time of tyrant kings. But the gospel also tells us that since the birth of Jesus, heaven has been invading the time of tyrant kings.</p>

<p>In singing his prophetic song over the infant Jesus, Simeon drew upon a verse from one of Isaiah’s Servant Songs. The Servant Songs (Isaiah 49–52) were prophetic poems written in the sixth century BC that envision Israel as Yahweh’s Servant. But these poems also seem to envision Yahweh’s Servant as a person who will be the embodiment Israel. In other words, this Servant will be Israel in person, as a person. And it is this person who will fulfill Israel’s mission to the world—it is this person will be Messiah!</p>

<p>This is what Christians confess about Christmas: Emmanuel (God with us) joined humanity, not by swooping down from the celestial heavens in a golden chariot, but by being born—born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Like all of us, God was pushed from the womb through contractions, labor, agony, and blood, to enter headfirst into the beautiful and horrible mess that is our world. This is not Athena springing fully formed from the head of Zeus, this is Jesus born of Mary.</p>

<p>It was through a young, poor Jewish maiden named Miriam (Mary) living in the backwater Galilean village of Nazareth during the Roman occupation of the first century, that the Eternal Logos, the Word of God, the Logic of Divine Love, took on flesh, becoming incarnate and fully human. In Christian theology this is known as the Incarnation and Mary is known as the Theotokos—the God-bearer. The Incarnation of Christ through the Theotokos is one of the most sublime confessions of the Christian faith—it’s the sacred mystery of how through a cooperation of the Spirit and humankind the holy becomes enfleshed.</p>

<p>John the Baptist was a burning and shining lamp—but he wasn’t the dawn of the new day. John doesn’t belong to the new day—John belongs to the end of the long night. John is not the sun of righteousness that will give the world a new order and orbit. John is a supernova—the brief, brilliant explosion of a dying star. But it's John who prepares us for the coming of Jesus and the birth of a galaxy of grace.</p>

<p>In the birth of the baby born in Bethlehem in the days of King Herod we find the fulcrum of every human hope and every diabolical fear. What the poets and prophets hoped and prayed for, and what the principalities and powers feared and fought against, is what the birth of Jesus brought into the world.</p>

<p>Those who treat the unlucky souls who have fallen into the cracks of society as worthy of dignity and respect, compassion and provision, are seen by Jesus as co-conspirators in his Kingdom. The Kingdom of Jesus is heaven’s insurgency against the inhumane regimes of beastly empire. Those who treat the minimum wage worker, the undocumented refugee, the sick with a pre-existing condition, the convict serving a life sentence as a human being worthy of love, are welcomed by Jesus into the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.</p>

<p>“The first precondition of being called a spiritual leader is to perceive and feel the falsehood that is prevailing in society, and then to dedicate one’s life to a struggle against that falsehood. If one tolerates the falsehood and resigns oneself to it, one can never become a prophet. If one cannot rise above material life, one cannot even become a citizen in the Kingdom of the Spirit, far less a leader of others.” –Vladimir Solovyov in his eulogy of Fyodor Dostoevsky<br><br> Can you feel it? It’s all around you. But can you feel it? The falseness — the falseness that prevails in society. Most are so sedated they never even suspect it. Some sense it, but cannot name it. It takes a prophet to name it.</p>

<p>“How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it? To live in the world without belonging to the world summarizes the essence of the spiritual life. Our true house is not the house of fear, in which the powers of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides. Through the spiritual life we gradually move from the house of fear to the house of love.” –Henry Nouwen</p>

<p>Hans Urs von Balthasar said, "Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed.<br>The first thing that must strike a non-Christian about the Christian’s faith is that it is too good to be true." And even Christians are hesitant to believe that the deepest essence of God’s being is co-suffering, self-giving, never-ending love. Yet this seemingly inconceivable truth about the love of God is the pinnacle of scriptural revelation.</p>

<p>Here we are now, five-hundred years down the road—five-hundred years beyond the Wittenberg Door. And finding ourselves half a millennium beyond the Wittenberg Door, how should we now think about the Protestant Reformation?</p>

<p>If you are a follower of Jesus you are not what you do. You aren't what people say about you or what you say about you. You are not what your haunted past says about you. These all belong to your old self, your false self. If you are a follower of Jesus, you find your true self in Jesus. Through baptism we have died to our old self and now our life, our new self, is hidden away with Christ in God. Who am I? I am Christian. I am a fellow follower of Jesus. I am a full-functioning member of God’s family. This identity supersedes all other identities. Before race, nationality, and gender, I am Christian. Before family identities, I am Christian. Before political affiliation and ideology, I am Christian. Fight the temptation to trade away your Christian identity for anything else, because your life, your true self, is hidden with Jesus.</p>

<p>A well respected, established pharisee and religious leader comes to Jesus under the cloak of darkness. Why? What is his fear? What does he want with Jesus? Can we begin to understand the life giving work of God through the story of Nicodemus? <br><br>Jesus comes to bring long awaited changes to a weary and wounded world. His work to transform the world is accomplished through transforming people. Stories of transformation like the story of Nicodemus, reveal a God who cannot be tamed or controlled. Like the wind - the Spirit of God is blowing in new life, new seasons, and new perspective. Are we willing to open up and receive it?</p>

<p>Q&A Session from the message "What About the Book of Revelation?"</p>

<p>What is the book of Revelation? It's basically four things:<br><br>1. Revelation is a prophetic interpretation of the cataclysmic events of the AD 60s/70s.<br><br>2. Revelation is a prophetic critique of the Roman Empire.<br><br>3. Revelation is a prophetic exposé of the idolatry of empire and civil religion.<br><br>4. Revelation is a prophetic portrayal of the eventual triumph of Christ.</p>

<p>Q&A Session from the message "What About Hell?"</p>

<p>Jesus’ teaching on hell is basically this: If you refuse to love, you cannot enter the kingdom of God and will end up a lonely, tormented soul. But hell in its popular and pagan misconceptions has been a blight upon the beauty of the Christian gospel.</p>

<p>Q&A Session from the message "What About the Violence of the Cross?"</p>

<p>The sacrifice of Jesus was not a payment offered to an offended deity bound to an economy of appeasement. That is a pagan and ugly distortion of who God is—the God whom Jesus called Father. The ugly violence of the cross is entirely attributable to human structures of sin, while the beautiful forgiveness of the cross is entirely attributable to God’s extravagant love and mercy.</p>

<p>Q&A session from the message "What About Old Testament Violence?"</p>

<p>In responding to the the troubling question of genocidal violence in the Old Testament and its alleged divine endorsement, we really only have three options:<br><br>1. We can question the morality of God.<br><br>2. We can question the immutability of God.<br><br>3. We can question how we read Scripture.</p>

<p>Q&A from the message "What about the Wrath of God?"</p>

<p>The wrath of God is a biblical metaphor we use to describe the very real consequences we suffer from trying to go through life against the grain of love. The wrath of God is understood as divine consent to our own self-destructive defiance. When we sin against the two great commandments—to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves—we suffer the inevitable consequences of acting against love. We can call this the wrath of God if we like; the Bible does, but that doesn’t mean that God literally loses his temper.</p>

<p>Q&A Session from the message "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God"</p>

<p>The hands of God are not hurling thunderbolts from heaven like Zeus of the Greek pantheon. The hands of God have been stretched out in love where they were nailed to a tree. The nail-pierced hands of God now reach out to every doubter and every sufferer, revealing the wounds of love. The hands of God are not hands of wrath but hands of mercy. To be a sinner in these hands is where the healing begins.</p>

<p>Seen my share of broken halos<br>Folded wings that used to fly<br>They've all gone wherever they go<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br><br>Angels come down from the heavens<br>Just to help us on our way<br>Come to teach us, then they leave us<br>And they find some other soul to save<br><br>Seen my share of broken halos<br>Folded wings that used to fly<br>They've all gone wherever they go<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br><br>Don't go looking for the reasons<br>Don't go asking Jesus why<br>We're not meant to know the answers<br>They belong to the by and by<br>They belong to the by and by<br><br>Seen my share of broken halos<br>Folded wings that used to fly<br>They've all gone wherever they go<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br>Broken halos that used to shine<br>Broken halos that used to shine</p>

<p>Us and them<br>And after all we're only ordinary men<br><br>Me and you<br>God only knows<br>It's not what we would choose to do<br><br>Forward he cried from the rear<br>And the front rank died<br>And the general sat<br>And the lines on the map<br>Moved from side to side<br><br>Black and blue<br>And who knows which is which and who is who<br><br>Up and down<br>And in the end it's only round 'n round<br><br>Haven't you heard it's a battle of words<br>The poster bearer cried<br>Listen son, said the man with the gun<br>There's room for you inside<br><br>"I mean, they're not gonna kill ya, so if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock, they won't do it again. Dig it? I mean he get off lightly, 'cause I would've given him a thrashing - I only hit him once! It was only a difference of opinion, but really...I mean good manners don't cost nothing do they, eh?"<br><br>Down and out<br>It can't be helped that there's a lot of it about<br><br>With, without<br>And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?<br><br>Out of the way<br>It's a busy day<br>I've got things on my mind<br>For the want of the price<br>Of tea and a slice<br>The old man died</p>

<p>Father tell me, we get what we deserve<br>Oh we get what we deserve<br><br>And way down we go<br>Way down we go<br>Say way down we go<br>Way down we go<br><br>You let your feet run wild<br>Time has come as we all oh, go down<br>Yeah but for the fall oh, my<br>Do you dare to look him right in the eyes?<br><br>'Cause they will run you down, down til the dark<br>Yes and they will run you down, down til you fall<br>And they will run you down, down til you go<br>Yeah so you can't crawl no more<br><br>And way down we go<br>Way down we go<br>Say way down we go<br>'Cause they will run you down, down til you fall<br>Way down we go<br><br>Oh bab-bab-yeah<br>Wow baby<br>Baby<br>Bab, down we go<br>Yeah<br><br>And way down we go<br>Way down we go<br>Say way down we go<br>Way down we go</p>

<p>We've wanted to be trusty and true<br>But feathers fell from our wings<br>And we've wanted to be worthy of you<br>But weather rained on our dreams<br><br>And we can't take back<br>What is done, what is past<br>So fellas, lay down your fears<br>'Cause we can't take back<br>What is done, what is past<br>So let us start from here<br><br>'Cause we never wanted to be lusty or lewd<br>Nor tethered to prudish strings<br>And we never wanted to be jealously tuned<br>Nor withered into ugly things<br><br>But we can't take back<br>What is done, what is past<br>So fellas, lay down your spears<br>'Cause we can't take back<br>What is done, what is past<br>So let us start from here<br><br>And if all that you are<br>Is not all you desire,<br>Then, come<br><br>Come, let yourself be wrong<br>Come, it's already begun<br><br>Come, come alone<br>Come with fear, come with love<br>Come however you are<br>Just come, come alone<br>Come with friends, come with foes<br>Come however you are<br>Just come, come alone<br>Come with me, then let go<br>Come however you are<br>Just come, come alone<br>Come so carefully closed<br>Come however you are<br>Just come<br><br>Come, come along<br>Come with sorrows and songs<br>Come however you are<br>Just come, come along<br>Come, let yourself be wrong<br>Come however you are<br>Just come</p>

<p>Every inch of sky's got a star<br>Every inch of skin's got a scar<br>I guess that you've got everything now<br>Every inch of space in your head<br>Is filled up with the things that you read<br>I guess you've got everything now<br>And every film that you've ever seen<br>Fills the spaces up in your dreams<br>That reminds me<br><br>Every inch of road's got a sign<br>And every boy uses the same line<br>I pledge allegiance to everything now<br>And every song that I've ever heard<br>Is playing at the same time, it's absurd<br>And it reminds me, we've got everything now<br>We turn the speakers up till they break<br>'Cause every time you smile it's a fake!<br>Stop pretending, you've got<br><br>Every inch of road's got a town<br>Daddy, how come you're never around?<br>I miss you, like everything now<br>Mama, leave the food on the stove<br>Leave your car in the middle of the road<br>This happy family with everything now<br>We turn the speakers up till they break<br>'Cause every time you smile it's a fake!<br>Stop pretending, you've got</p>

<p>The psalmists and prophets come to understand that God abolishes primitive ritual sacrifice in order to establish as justice actually doing God’s will. This is what we see in the life of Jesus. Jesus was faithful to embody God’s will even to the point of shedding his blood as he forgave sinners. Jesus did not shed his blood to pay off God in the form of a ritual sacrifice. That’s not what God wanted. Jesus shed his blood in faithful obedience to his Father’s will, demonstrating divine forgiveness even as he was crucified! As Jesus told the sacrifice-obsessed Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” God desires lives marked by mercy, not the sacrifice of victims. Jesus’ death was not a ritual sacrifice of appeasement but the supreme demonstration of God’s mercy. Jesus did not shed his blood to buy God’s forgiveness; Jesus shed his blood to embody God’s forgiveness! This is the gospel!</p>

<p>In the Psalms the largest single genre is the psalms of lament. But American Christians are loathe to lament. We are schooled in denial. It's part of the pathology of a superpower that sorrow must not be shown. But if we refuse to lament, we refuse to be healed.</p>

<p>Think of the Delta Blues sung by black plantation workers on Saturday nights in the 1930s. Think of Gospel music sung in black churches by those same people on Sunday mornings. This is the Psalms—a collection of songs and prayers that combine groans of sorrow with shouts of joy. This is the Psalms—Gospel & Blues.</p>

<p>In keeping with a healthy dose of rebellion, I unabashedly call myself religious. Self-identifying as a religious person may be the last act of rebellion possible in our libertine era! In the secular West the religious person may be the last rebel. So let me say it deliberately and with a hint of defiance: I’m not just spiritual, I’m religious! Anyone can be spiritual. Atheists are spiritual these days! So of course I’m spiritual—we all are!—but I am also intentionally religious. I accept the rigors and disciplines of a religious tradition. I do so because I refuse to leave my spiritual formation to the fads of amorphous “spirituality.” As Martin Luther King taught us, we all exist within an inescapable web of mutuality. I don’t get to make up Christianity, it’s a received faith. It’s a gift from God.</p>

<p>St. Francis of Assisi was a living embodiment of the Beatitudes—his life demonstrates that it is possible to live what Jesus taught. Francis was the blessed poor, the comforted mourner, who in his meekness inherited the earth. Francis hungered for justice, but gave mercy, made peace, and in his purity of heart perceived God in all things. And even though Francis was persecuted by his family and hometown, his life was indeed the kingdom of heaven on earth.</p>

<p>“Into this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of beginners on the spiritual road, and sets them in the state of those who make progress, which is that of those who are contemplatives, to the end that, after passing through the dark night, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with God.” —John of the Cross. The Dark Night of the Soul</p>

<p>The great mystics found in the Bible and throughout church history all have a common experience; no matter how different the stories of their own spiritual journeys are, they all eventually arrive at a place of deep friendship with God.</p>

<p>God has existed from before time and space and matter and creation, existing as a community of love, he Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loving one another in a perfect dance of self-giving love. We all the God as Trinity. God has opened himself and he has sent his Son and sent his Spirit to invite us to come. Jesus says come. The Spirit says come. All we have to do is turn and come and be welcomed in. God is love and the uncommon Trinity is how we define love. God is love not in theory or abstraction. God is love in relationship. The God we worship is a steady stream of love. How you experience that love depends on how you respond to the love of God.</p>

<p>The promise of God to Abraham and David was that through their seed and sons the world would be rescued from the deep distortion of sin. But millennia later Israel was also entangled in sin. The rescuers themselves were imperiled. Israel had failed in their mission and vocation. Or so it seemed. In the fullness of time Jesus was born -- the true Seed of Abraham and Son of David -- and Jesus took Israel's mission on his shoulders and carried it through to victory.</p>

<p>Our trust is not in the golden calf of The Economy—<br>But in the Maker of Heaven and Earth.<br><br>Our trust is not in who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—<br>But in the One who sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.<br><br>Our trust is not in a trillion dollar Defense Budget—<br>But in the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.<br><br>Our trust is not in Wall Street, the White House, or the Pentagon—<br>But in the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ.</p>