Word of Life Church Podcast

<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>

<p>Because we’ve not understood the Ascension of Christ, we’ve also not understood the Book of Revelation. We’ve thought Revelation is primarily a prediction about future events, when it’s primarily a prophetic description of the ascended Christ.</p>

<p>If Jesus Christ is Lord over the principalities (the power structures of this age), then don’t put any faith in the political, economic, and military powers of this age. Pledge your allegiance to Christ alone and put all your faith for salvation in him. It’s not Wall Street or the White House or the Pentagon who is going to save us, but Jesus Christ — the one who conquered Sin and Satan, Death and Hell, and who now fills all things everywhere with himself.</p>

<p>Following Jesus is to learn what it means to live life to the fullest. In doing so, we have to learn to trust the ways of Jesus. We have to learn to entrust the whole of our life, our ways of thinking and being, to the Master of Life, Jesus - that we may become like Jesus. This process of becoming is not void of struggle, pitfalls, and failures. The story of Peter reminds us of a God who heals, restores, and always invites us to stay on the journey of following him - despite our struggle.</p>

<p>Christianity is not primarily a set of beliefs, even though the work of theology is massively important for the church. Christianity is not primarily a personal relationship with God, even if personal faith and responsibility are required. Christianity is not primarily a religion, even though the liturgies that shape the worship and work of the church are indispensable. Christianity is primarily a way, that is, a way of living shaped around the death and resurrection of Jesus. We all want the life Jesus offers, but to be a disciple means we confess the truth of Jesus and walk in the way of Jesus. The Jesus truth plus the Jesus way equals the Jesus life.</p>

<p>"By his wounds you have been healed" is a poetic contemplation of Saint Peter on the cross of Christ, and it is one of the most sublime passages in all of the New Testament. As a meditation on the meaning of the cross it is far superior to the formulaic and often ugly “atonement theories” that later crept into the church. Quite simply, Peter sees the cross as the wound that heals the world.</p>

<p>We behold in the Eucharistic mystery the sacred mystery that after Easter Christ is with us in another form, in the blessed and broken bread. This is the point of the dramatic gesture at the climactic moment in the Emmaus road story: Jesus is present as bread on the table! Of course, this is a very different presence than what was anticipated by either the Emmaus road disciples or the heirs of Christendom.</p>

<p>On the cross Jesus shed his precious blood to expose, condemn, forgive, and ultimately ransom us from our soul-destroying “rat race”—the insane pursuit of wealth and power, or what Peter calls, “the futile way of life inherited from our ancestors.”</p>

<p>"We are all Thomas now." These words echo throughout our current secular age. Everything is questioned. Everything is doubted. In response to this seemingly dark reality, we can choose to retreat into a closed off life of certainty or open to the endless possibilities of an enchanted world. A world where Christ fills all things. In an age of doubt, we find the doubter's doubt is faith. This sermon explores the tension we feel as people of faith in a secular age.</p>

<p>Jesus appearing in a locked room, speaking peace, and sending his disciples into the world with a commission to forgive, should speak powerfully to a traumatized post 9-11 church that is afraid, angry, and retreating into ever smaller locked rooms of security obsessed ideologies.</p>

<p>What’s Happened To You?<br><br>The Call<br> <br>What's happened to you?<br>You used to be so shy<br>You used to hang your head down<br>You wouldn't look in my eyes<br>Did you some great vision<br>Did you finally break through<br>Did you shake the foundations<br>What's happened to you?<br> <br>What's happened to you?<br>You used to look so tired<br>Now there's a spring in your step<br>And your words are on fire<br>Did you hear some great secret<br>Did the words ring of truth<br>Did you rise from the ashes<br>What's happened to you?<br> <br>Where the four winds meet<br>The world is so still<br>The waves are not pounding<br>And the hungry are filled<br>Our shadows have crossed here<br>Where the sun touched the ground<br>The gathered are singing<br>what a beautiful sound<br> What's happened to you?<br>You used to be so unkind<br>You used to curse at this poor world<br>So what changed your mind<br>What stirred such compassion<br>Is a mystery to me<br>I don't know what's happened<br>Oh, but I like what I see</p>

<p>Jesus entered into Death by death in order to fill Death with himself; so that now to enter into Death is to encounter Christ.</p>

<p>The principalities and powers assert the right to wield violence because they claim to be wise and just. But the crucifixion of Jesus reveals the awful truth, and puts the principalities and powers to shame. We shroud our violence in the myth of justice, but in our violence we are neither wise nor just. What we are, is capable of the greatest crime: the murder of the innocent Son of God. At Golgotha we recoil in horror at our violence and stagger away saying, what have we done? Because even if we are not personal participants in violence, most of us have too often placed our faith in institutions of collective violence. But on Good Friday the truth comes out…and we beat our breasts in sorrow.</p>

<p>Lift up your heads, O gates;<br>lift them high, O everlasting doors;<br>and the King of glory shall come in.<br>“Who is this King of glory?”<br>“The LORD, strong and mighty,<br>the LORD, mighty in battle.”<br>Lift up your heads, O gates;<br>lift them high, O everlasting doors;<br>“Who is this King of glory?”<br>“The LORD of hosts,<br>he is the King of glory”<br><br>(Psalm 24:7–10)</p>

<p>To read the Bible in such a way that's it’s not a sprawling mass of contradictions we have to center our reading at some stationary, unmoving point. That is, we have to find the place to stand in this thousand page epic of redemption where we say, “It's from this vantage point that I’ll read and interpret the rest of Scripture.<br><br>It’s not Leviticus with its prohibition against eating shellfish and other obsolete laws.<br><br>It’s not Joshua’s conquest of Canaan with its troubling genocidal violence.<br><br>It’s not even Paul’s technical theology of justification that we’re so prone to misread and misunderstand.<br><br>It’s certainly not the Book of Revelation with its wild (and often inscrutable!) metaphors.<br><br>Center your reading of the sacred text in the Gospels…with Jesus…on the cross…as he forgives his murderers. Luke 23:34 ("Father, forgive them") is the Pole Star around which the rest of scriptural constellations rotate and are interpreted.</p>

<p>The story of Lazarus abides among us as a story of enduring hope despite all odds. When all seems lost, when all hope has faded, we remember the story of Lazarus. Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, no one — no matter how mired in sin and death, in sorrow and despair — is a lost cause.</p>