Word of Life Church Podcast

Philip the Evangelist rode in a chariot with the Ethiopian Eunuch on the Gaza Road two thousand years ago. Brian Zahnd road on a train with Yu in Paris on the day Derrida died. The two stories are not entirely different.

No matter what cripples us, no matter what issues we have, no matter how many dark spirits afflict us, Jesus is the one who recalls us to life.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Puddleglum tells the underworld witch, "I'm on Aslan's side even if there is no Aslan. I'm going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't any Narnia." In this story C.S. Lewis is doing more than telling a children's fantasy, he is portraying what it means to "walk by faith."

Bread on the table is ordinary, but bread in the hands of Jesus becomes extraordinary. Bread in Jesus' hands during the Passover meal became an extension of Jesus’ very flesh. During Jesus' teaching ministry, bread became a feast for 5,000 people. During a meal with two disciples in Emmaus, bread became a revelation of Jesus in their midst. And we are like bread. Jesus takes us, blesses us, breaks us, and gives us to the world making our lives extraordinary.

This sermon explores the transformative work of Christ to give us beauty for ashes and bring healing to our woundedness. As Henry Nouwen states: "Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not 'How can we hide our wounds?' so we don't have to be embarrassed but 'How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?' When our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers."

Haven't seen you in quite a while

I was down the hold just passing time

Last time we met was a low-lit room

We were as close together as a bride and groom

We ate the food, we drank the wine

Everybody having a good time

Except you

You were talking about the end of the world

I took the money

I spiked your drink

You miss too much these days if you stop to think

You led me on with those innocent eyes

You know I love the element of surprise

In the garden I was playing the tart

I kissed your lips and broke your heart

You

You were acting like it was the end of the world

In my dream I was drowning my sorrows

But my sorrows, they learned to swim

Surrounding me, going down on me

Spilling over the brim

Waves of regret and waves of joy

I reached out for the one I tried to destroy

You, you said you'd wait

'Til the end of the world

Oh life is bigger

It's bigger than you

And you are not me

The lengths that I will go to

The distance in your eyes

Oh no I've said too much

I set it up

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight

Losing my religion

Trying to keep up with you

And I don't know if I can do it

Oh no I've said too much

I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper, of every waking hour

I'm choosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool

Oh no I've said too much

I set it up

Consider this

Consider this the hint of the century

Consider this the slip

That brought me to my knees, failed

What if all these fantasies come

Flailing around

Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

That was just a dream

That was just a dream

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight

Losing my religion

Trying to keep up with you

And I don't know if I can do it

Oh no I've said too much

I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream

Try, cry, fly, try

That was just a dream

Just a dream

Just a dream, dream

Come as you are, as you were

As I want you to be

As a friend, as a friend

As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up

Choice is yours, don't be late

Take a rest as a friend

As an old

Memoria

Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach

As I want you to be

As a trend, as a friend

As an old

Memoria

And I swear that I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

No I don't have a gun

Memoria

Shine

Collective Soul

Give me a word

Give me a sign

Show me where to look

Tell me, what will I find?

What will I find?

Lay me on the ground

And fly me in the sky

Show me where to look

Tell me, what will I find?

What will I find?

Whoa, Heaven let your light shine down...

Love is in the water

Love is in the air

Show me where to look

Tell me, will love be there?

Will love be there?

Teach me how to speak

Teach me how to share

Teach me where to go

Tell me, will love be there?

Will love be there?

Whoa, Heaven let your light shine down...

If God had a name what would it be?

And would you call it to his face?

If you were faced with Him in all His glory

What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryin' to make his way home?

If God had a face what would it look like?

And would you want to see

If seeing meant that you would have to believe

In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints

And all the prophets?

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryin' to make his way home?

Just tryin' to make his way home

Back up to heaven all alone

Nobody callin' on the phone

'Cept for the Pope, maybe in Rome

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryin' to make his way home?

Just tryin' to make his way home

Like a holy rolling stone?

Back up to heaven all alone

Just tryin' to make his way home

Nobody callin' on the phone

'Cept for the Pope maybe in Rome

The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood to reveal God’s neighboring presence. God has joined us as us in order to rescue us and the world. The infinite took on the finite. Immortality took on mortality. The eternal took on the earthly. The God of creation moved into the neighborhoods of our creation in order to rebuild our neighborhoods. God is here. God’s neighboring presence is here with us and for us in order to remake us. In and through Jesus, God joins us in three movements. God joins us in life (incarnation) to be with us and we awaken. God joins us in death (crucifixion) to rescue us and we believe. God joins us in new life (resurrection) to transform us and we participate.

When by the grace of God we realize that who we've become is not who we are supposed to be, the good news is this: We can put our trust in Jesus, be reborn, and begin the salvation journey of becoming the person we were always meant to be.

Can the gospel be told as a tragedy? Obviously. And it certainly was by the Apostles. Before we jump to the triumph of the resurrection we must first face the tragedy of the cross.

The gospel is the divine comedy that begins with a ninety-year-old woman having a baby and concludes with a slain lamb overcoming all the monsters of the abyss. This is the divine comedy we’re invited join by simply believing that Jesus is Lord, and the joke is on the devil.

In a Voyage and Return story the central character travels out of their familiar, “everyday” surroundings into another world completely cut off from home. This other world is strange, different, exotic, and perhaps at first, exhilarating. But eventually a shadow intrudes. Things begin to change…for the worse. The traveler increasingly feels threatened or trapped. At some point they will need to return home—but enriched and transformed. Unlike the Quest plot, the journey away from home is usually by accident or a mistake—they pass through the looking glass, fall down the rabbit hole, or stumble through a wardrobe into another world. There will be adventures and dangers, but the story ends with the hero returning home, now with greater wisdom and a newfound appreciation.

"You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune—though it would not be the fortune you seek. But first, first you must travel—a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. You shall see things wonderful to tell. You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house, and oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the ob-stacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. And though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye foller the way, even unto your salvation." 

-O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Rags to riches is the familiar story where we begin with an apparently ordinary, insignificant person, overlooked or even dismissed by everyone else, who suddenly takes center stage and is revealed to be someone quite extraordinary. And the greatest rags to riches story is the gospel story of Jesus of Nazareth.

The greatest stories, epics, and myths offer a profound insight into the deepest longings of the human heart, for as Ecclesiastes says, “God has placed eternity in their hearts.” In analyzing the great stories we discover that there are seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. All of these plots point to the true story, the true epic, the true myth that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this sermon we look at the gospel as Overcoming the Monster.

The gospel is first and foremost a story—it’s the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of God saving the world. And this story is what all the great stories in one way or another point to—because, indeed, Jesus Christ is Lord of the Story.

The unique way Christians talk about God is found in ancient language. We say God is a Holy Trinity. We believe the one true living God, the creator God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob has been revealed in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in one God, one divine essence and substance in three persons. The doctrine of the Trinity is important and essential because it tells us who God is and subsequently who we are.  

The church born on Pentecost -- the very first church -- devoted itself to four things:

1. The Apostles' Teaching (Didache)

2. The Fellowship (Koinonia)

3. The Breaking of Bread (Eucharist)

4. The Prayers (Liturgy)

Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings/Psalms. After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples, "Everything written about me in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. If we want our minds to be opened to understand the Scriptures, there’s one essential key: The aim and end, the Alpha and Omega, the promise and fulfillment of all Scripture is…Jesus Christ!

The Apostle Paul speaks often of the mystery of Christ as the supreme revelation of God, but this in not a mystery we can place under our control. In his poem The Magi, William Butler Yeats aptly describes the incarnate Word born at Bethlehem as "the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor."

The landscape of our current culture seems to be filled with fury and it has left the condition of our souls vexed with anxiety. If we trust and follow Jesus, the one who cares for our soul, he will lead us, as the Good Shepherd, out of the landscape of fury and into pastures of peace.

Do you believe in ghosts? The disciples may have. Upon seeing the resurrected Jesus, they wrongly assumed he was a ghost. This opens the door for Jesus to assure them(and us) that he has risen indeed. If Jesus has been raised, then death has been defeated, and we need not fear. Therefore, Jesus continues to ask "Why are you frightened?".

One way to think about the resurrection is to see it as Jesus’ first step towards ascension. Another way is to think of the resurrection of Jesus like a wormhole, a tunnel through time and space. From this perspective, Jesus went into death creating a passageway from this broken down world into God’s new world where all things are new again. In stepping through that doorway into the place where God the Holy Spirit is making all things, we have the opportunity to participate with the Spirit. We participate by stripping off everything associated with our old sinful nature and putting on our new nature created to be like God. We strip off everything that doesn't look like Jesus so we can be like the God revealed in Jesus. A new life is waiting for you. Are you ready for it?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.

-W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

In him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning,

The firstborn from the dead.

-St. Paul, Colossians 1:17–18

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Jacob Taylor discuss The Harrowing of Hell in this special Good Friday episode. This is the last episode of conversations based on Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. We hope you have enjoyed this series and invite you to subscribe for future related content.

GET THE BOOK - The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd

https://wolc.com/twbtw

Jesus Christ—the Logos made flesh—is the true icon of the living God. The world has at last truly seen God. And what is the climactic, definitive moment of God’s self-revelation in Christ? It’s the central event in the gospel story—the crucifixion. The cross is the pinnacle of divine self-disclosure.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Jacob Taylor explore themes from the Lord of the Rings epic by J.R. Tolkien and more specifically how power should be handled by those who follow Christ. This episode continues conversation based on Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent.

GET THE BOOK - The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd

https://wolc.com/twbtw

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Derek Vreeland discuss the wild images and stunning message of the book of Revelation. This episode continues conversation based on Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent.

GET THE BOOK - The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd

https://wolc.com/twbtw

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Derek Vreeland explore topics ranging from the betrayal by Judas to the Protestant presumption that there can be no salvific work after the moment of death. This episode continues conversation based on Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent.

GET THE BOOK - The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd

https://wolc.com/twbtw

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wordoflifechurch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordoflifechurch

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wolctv

PASTOR BRIAN ZAHND ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianzahnd

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianzahnd

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/brianzahnd

CONNECT WITH A PASTOR

Do you need prayer? Are you new to Word of Life Church? One of our pastors would love to connect with you. Fill out the form at https://www.wolc.com/connect

ABOUT WORD OF LIFE CHURCH

Word of Life is located in St. Joseph, MO. We are seeking to be an authentic expression of the Kingdom of Jesus in the 21st Century. You can learn more at https://www.wolc.com

GIVE

To make a financial contribution to the ministry work of Word of Life Church visit https://www.wolc.com/give

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Jacob Taylor discuss the role of beauty in the Christian faith. This conversation continues to discuss themes from Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent.

Watch this episode on at Youtube.com/wolctv.

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wordoflifechurch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordoflifechurch

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wolctv

PASTOR BRIAN ZAHND ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianzahnd

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianzahnd

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/brianzahnd

CONNECT WITH A PASTOR

Do you need prayer? Are you new to Word of Life Church? One of our pastors would love to connect with you. Fill out the form at https://www.wolc.com/connect

ABOUT WORD OF LIFE CHURCH

Word of Life is located in St. Joseph, MO. We are seeking to be an authentic expression of the Kingdom of Jesus in the 21st Century. You can learn more at https://www.wolc.com

GIVE

To make a financial contribution to the ministry work of Word of Life Church visit https://www.wolc.com/give

"Beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it surely because they do not perceive it." - Roger Scruton, Beauty

ABOUT THIS PODCAST - Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Jacob Taylor sit down for a conversation about theodicy and centered on the idea that only the suffering God can help. This conversation continues to explore themes from Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent. 

GET THE BOOK - The Wood Between the Worlds by Brian Zahnd https://wolc.com/twbtw

Once a symbol of imperial terror, the cross has become the eternal symbol of divine love. When we look upon the cross today, we don’t see an instrument of torture and death; we see the supreme demonstration of God’s love. We see the lengths to which God will go to save the world.

Brian Zahnd, Cole Novak, and Derek Vreeland explore the paradox of God revealed in the crucifixion of Christ on the cross. This conversation continues to explore themes from Brian's new book The Wood Between The Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross. Follow for more episodes each Thursday in Lent.

The cross of Christ is the wood between the worlds.

There is the world that was and the world to come,

and in between those two worlds,

is the wood upon which the Son of God was hung.

It's nearly impossible to comprehend how shocking Jesus' call to "take up your cross and follow me" was to a first century audience. It would not have been heard as a call to a pious spirituality. It could only be understood as a call to martyrdom. And what could be more shocking than that?

The Uncreated Light of Tabor illuminates the Old Testament. The Light brighter than the sun that shines from the face of the Transfigured Christ turns the Old Testament into a brand-new text. At the Transfiguration we learn that Jesus is the telos of the Old Testament.

Everyone is searching. Everyone who hasn't given up and succumbed to despair and surrendered to nihilism is searching for something. And ultimately, whether they know it or not, they're searching for Jesus.

The fame of Jesus spread throughout Galilee, then Judea, then the Roman Empire, and then throughout the whole world, so that Jesus of Nazareth is far and away the most famous person in history. Fame is connected with fascination. We're fascinated by famous people—we want to know more about them. And fascination with Jesus Christ is the essential thing. But wherein lies the fame of Jesus? What is Jesus famous for?

To follow Jesus is to embark upon the risk of becoming—it’s the lifelong journey of becoming who you are meant to be. And this journey is always a risky adventure. There are gains and losses, successes and failures, victories and defeats. Sometimes you walk on water for ten seconds—and the next moment you're crying out, “Lord, save me!” And in that moment of risk Jesus does save you. But the greater truth is this: As long as you're moving toward Jesus, there’s really never any risk at all.

The story of Jacob's Ladder in Genesis has a powerful influence upon our theological imagination:

It speaks to us of the reality of another world called heaven.

It speaks to us of another order of being called angels.

It speaks to us of the possibility of a ladder of interaction between these two worlds.

One of the reasons that after nearly fifty years of following Jesus and after over forty years of full-time ministry that I’m not bored, burned out, jaded or cynical, is that many times and in many ways—including by dreams—I’ve been warned and wooed by the Holy Spirit to travel by another road.

Ours is an age of acute empirical perception that affords spectacular scientific and technological developments, but our age is also an epoch of dire spiritual dullness leading to a deep poverty of the soul. This lack of spiritual perceptivity engenders a profound sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. To recover meaning we need to rediscover the paths of unseen existences.

Monsters

Dave Matthews Band

Broke old toy soldiers lined up one, two, three

Little kid and everything I did just to save my paper queen

'Cause love won't let me go

Yeah, no army's gonna save my soul

'Cause love won't let me go

Nothing in the closet

Nothing underneath the bed

Just the monsters in your head

I hear strange voices at every step I take

No, you can't cross the ocean if you can't get past the break

Even if fear don't put you down

Won't you lean on me while I'm around

Oh, no rope to hang the dead

No line to save the drowning man

Just the monsters in your head

Nothing in the closet

Nothing underneath the bed

Just the monsters in your head

See killer's eyes and painted faces

The Devil wants your soul, but Jesus saves

Traffic jam is an angry maze

The Devil wants your soul, but Jesus saves

Chutes and ladders, pick-up sticks

Counting cars and counting bricks

Driving past the ol' five-and-dime

Can't get nothin' for a nickel since a long, long time

I won't let you down

Nothing in the closet

Nothing underneath your bed

Just the monsters in your head

No rope to hang the dead

No line to save the drowning man

Just the monsters in your head

Love won't let you go

Love won't let you go

The Holy Trinity is a sanctuary of perfect love where there is never any fear, discord, or sorrow. It is from this sanctuary that the the Holy Spirit is sent as the Paraclete—the one who comes alongside to help us.

John the Evangelist originally concluded his Gospel with chapter twenty. But sometime later, perhaps to affirm the leadership of Peter and to dispel a rumor about himself, John wrote and additional chapter -- a chapter that can be described as a lovely coda.

On the first Sunday in Lent the lectionary takes us to the wilderness temptation of Christ. As Jesus prayed and fasted forty days in preparation to launch his ministry—a ministry that would announce and enact the arrival of the kingdom of God— he was beset with three satanic temptations. The first two temptations involved misuse of miraculous powers. But it was the final temptation that was the most insidious of all: the temptation to receive political dominion over the kingdoms of the world in exchange for bowing down to the devil. The third temptation deserves special attention, not only because it was the most sinister, but because it is the temptation that has beguiled and beleaguered the church for seventeen centuries.

Jesus knows that all forms of spirituality built on legalistic, rule-based religion focused on behavior modification is a dead-end road. It cannot produce life. Inward transformation, a change of the heart and the formation of character, becomes the foundation for real life in the kingdom of God. Jesus warns us of the judgment that is to come if we allow anger to become angry words that seek to hurt and destroy. It is ok to get angry, but there is a massive difference between being a person who feels angry and being an angry person. One is Christlike and one is not. If we are to be made new, renewed in the likeness of God, we have to deal with our anger issues. To do so we need to answer at least three questions: How do I respond to the anger I feel? How do I resolve the anger that seems to linger? What about righteous anger?

When Isaiah penned his “Rivers In the Desert” poem, Judah was in a bad way—internally Judah was corrupt and externally it was under threat of foreign invasion. But the poet of audacious hope does not despair; instead he proclaims that God will come, and in that day it will be said, “Here is your God!”

Paul says that Christ has abolished death and brought immortality to light, and he says this is the gospel. And it is! But it’s not the gospel we’re accustomed to hearing. Over time the gospel has been reduced to be almost exclusively about forgiveness. Of course forgiveness is a beautiful component of the gospel, but that’s not all there is. The gospel in its fullest and most grand presentation is about the abolition of death.

Where there is no war, is in heaven above, where Christ reigns supreme. In the world above, the world to come, the war is already won. The devil has been cast down and no longer has any place in heaven above. Heaven is the place where there is no war, so keep your head in heaven above.

This sermon is an exploration of the fundamental truth that many of us know, but most of us find hard to believe. 1 John 4 lays out the extraordinary claim that God is love. The implications for our lives and the world we live in are profound and unlimited in the light of this reality - if only we can come to know and believe that it is true. May we let go of our false self and let our true self be known and loved by the God who is love.

After the ancient people of God crossed the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land, they stacked 12 stones to serve as a memorial that God indeed had remained faithful to God’s people. The resurrection of Jesus is our memorial stone as the renewed people of God. Jesus’ resurrection was not a collection of stones stacked by human beings, but a single stone that God rolled away when life triumphed over death. Resurrection as a memorial stone is a way of seeing. Our painful past is often recorded in our memories in black and white, but resurrection colors everything with hope and life. The resurrection as a memorial stone changes how we look at our suffering personally and collectively because the resurrection of Jesus is a signpost pointing us to a future resurrection of our own.

The Gospel of John decidedly and deliberately differs from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John the Evangelist wants to give us a theological Gospel containing the highest possible Christology. In his opening sentence John tells us that this one who is the Word of God is fully divine. While the other Gospels give genealogies and tell us that Jesus comes from Bethlehem and Nazareth, John is not interested in those particular biographical details. For John the only genealogy of Jesus that really matters is that he is the Son of God, who was in the beginning with God, and that he is the truth of God who comes from heaven, that is from above.

Sanctuary
Hiss Golden Messenger

Feeling bad
Feeling blue
Can't get out of my own mind
I know how to sing about it

Ring of bone
A little lonely
I better hit the road, child
We can cry into the phone a while

Jubilee
Find me
Steady with your hope now
That little light's gotta last a while

Like an arrow to the marrow
I know it feels like hell now
'Til we make it to the other side

You want good news
You want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you on the wheel
You wanna move
You want sanctuary
That's all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone
To the bone

Get used to the bad news
It's all part of the show, child
Handsome Johnny had to go, child

Did you feel the bad news?
Oh, there's something you should know now
Little things that'll cut you down

Ragged people
Hard times
And the lightning strikes the poorhouse
The rich man cries like a crocodile

Salvation
Despair
But the game that they taught me
Sometimes it feels like it just ain't fair

You want good news
You want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you on the wheel
You wanna move
You want sanctuary
That's all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone
To the bone

Yeah, to the bone
Ah, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Ah, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Ah, to the bone

Feeling bad
Feeling blue
Can't get out of my own mind
But I know how to sing about it

Quiet Town
The Killers

A couple of kids got hit by a Union Pacific train
Carrying sheet metal and household appliances
Through the pouring rain
They were planning on getting married after graduation
Had a little baby girl, trouble came and shut it down
Things like that ain't supposed to happen

In this quiet town
Families are tight
Good people,
They still don't deadbolt their doors at night
In this quiet town

When we first heard opioid stories
They were always in whispering tones
Now banners of sorrow mark the front steps of childhood homes
Parents wept through daddy's girl eulogies
And merit badge milestones with their daughters and sons
Laying there lifeless in their suits and gowns
Somebody's been keeping secrets

In this quiet town
They know how to live
Good people who lean on Jesus
They're quick to forgive
In this quiet town

Now whenever I'm near the town
I'll find some reason to give
And I will walk with the dead and the living where I used to live
And every time I see my parents in the prime of their lives
Offering their son the kind of love he could never put down
Part of me is still that stainless kid, lucky

In this quiet town
Salt of the land
Hard-working people, if you're in trouble
They'll lend you a hand
Here in this quiet town

The first crop of hay is up
School let out and the sun beats down
Smoke billows from a Sunday train
That cries away from a quiet town

Unconditional (Lookout Kid)

Unconditional (Lookout Kid)
Arcade Fire

Lookout kid, trust your heart
You don't have to play the part
They wrote for you
Just be true
There are things that you could do
That no one else on earth could ever do
But I can't teach you, I can't teach it to you

Lookout kid, trust your mind
But you can't trust it everytime
You know it plays tricks on you
And it don't give a damn if you are happy or you're sad
But if you've lost it, don't feel bad
'Cause it's alright to be sad

Lookout kid, trust your body
You can dance, and you can shake
Things will break, you make mistakes
You lose your friends, again and again
'Cause nothing is ever perfect
No one's perfect
Let me say it again, no one's perfect
Right

A lifetime of skinned knees
And heartbreak comes so easy
But a life without pain would be boring

And if you feel it, it's fine
I give you everything that's mine
I give you my heart and my precious time

Lookout kid, trust your soul
It ain't hard to rock n' roll
You know how to move your hips
And you know God is cool with it
But some people want the rock without the roll
But we all know, there's no God without soul
Right

A lifetime of skinned knees
And heartbreak comes so easily
But a life without you
Would be boring for someone like me

And if you feel it, it's fine
I give you everything that's mine
I give you my heart and my precious time
(Precious time)
(Give you everything)
I give you my heart and my precious time

Unconditional
Unconditional
No matter what you do
It's unconditional
Unconditional
No matter what you do
It's unconditional

Waiting On A War
Foo Fighters

I've been waiting on a war since I was young
Since I was a little boy with a toy gun
Never really wanted to be number one
Just wanted to love everyone

Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this
More to this, more to this than

Just waiting on a war?
Just waiting on a war?

Every day waiting for the sky to fall
Big crash on a world that's so small
Just a boy with nowhere left to go
Fell in love with a voice on the radio

Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this than that?
Is there more to this
More to this, more to this than

Just waiting on a war?
Just waiting on a war?

Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that
Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that

I've been waiting on a war since I was young
Since I was a little boy with a toy gun

Is there more to this
More to this, more to this than

Just waiting on a war?
Just waiting on a war?

Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that
Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that
Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that
Just waiting on a war for this and that
There's got to be more to this than that

'Cause I need more
Yeah, I need more
Just waiting on a war
Just waiting on a war
Yeah, I need more (for this and that)
(There's got to be more to this than that)
Yeah, I need more (just waiting on a war, for this and that)
(There's got to be more to this than that)
Just waiting on a war

Sunday, July 31, 2022
Life ain’t always empty…

Don’t get stuck in the past
Say your favorite things at mass
Tell your mother that you love her
And go out of your way for others
Sit beneath a light that suits you
And look forward to a brighter future

Life ain’t always empty…

Sink as far down as you can be pulled up
Happiness really ain’t all about luck
Let your demeanor be your deep down self
And don’t sacrifice your life for your health
When you speak, speak sincere
And believe me friend, everyone will hear

Life ain’t always empty…

Bring your own two cents
Never borrow them from someone else
Buy yourself a flower every hundredth hour
Throw your hair down from your lonely tower
And if, and if
You find yourself in the family way
Give the kid more than what you got in your day

Life ain’t always empty…

Never let a clock tell you what you got time for
It only goes around, goes around, goes around
Take your family name for your own great sins
'Cause each day is where it all begins
And don’t give up too quick
You only get one line, you better make it stick
If we give ourselves to every breath
Then we’re all in the running for a hero's death

Life ain’t always empty…

Mary and Martha do not represent two kinds of people—the contemplative person and the practical person. Mary and Martha represent two choices—two choices we all have to make. Jesus said that Mary made the better choice. Mary chose to be an everyday mystic.

The life of the age to come for those who are seeking first the kingdom of God is a “go and do” kind of life. Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter" (Matthew 7:21). This may be one of the most sobering things Jesus has to say. Calling Jesus Lord is not the same thing as doing what the Lord Jesus says.

Our life in pursuit of Jesus is not primarily about theology (what we believe), liturgy (the shape of our worship), or piety (our heart’s devotion), but a way of living shaped by the Holy Spirit around the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yes, what we believe about God is important. Yes, worship and prayer are important. Yes, devotion and passion for God are important. But each of these find
their significance when they prompt us to go and do.

Wherever people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to love God with all their hearts, love their neighbor as themselves, embrace the way of peace and reject war, refuse to be an agent of accusation, choosing advocacy instead, there Satan falls like lightning.

The "Sons of Thunder," James and John, wanted to call fire down from heaven on a Samaritan village who refused to welcome Jesus. In their petition they were able to cite Scripture because Elijah had done this. But Jesus rebuked them, saying, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of." The question isn't can we find it in the Bible, but can we find it in Jesus. If we weaponize the Bible to hurt other people, we do not have the Spirit of the Lord.

Don't surrender your faith in Jesus to an ideological ism. Nationalism, Socialism, Capitalism, Marxism, Conservatism, Progressivism, Fundamentalism, Liberalism, etc. Isms can easily become possessed, turn into a herd, and rush off a cliff. Sit with Jesus instead. Jesus will put you in your right mind. Following Jesus may sometimes look conservative or sometimes look progressive. But it’s Jesus we are following, not an ideological ism.

This sermon is about the long, gradual, Spirit-guided journey into the dazzling light of all truth.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
–Emily Dickinson

The Holy Spirit is the experience of God. Thinking about God is theology. And theology matters. Theology is the Queen of the Sciences. It’s important that we think as accurately as possible about the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—just like it’s important that we think as accurately as possible about physics, chemistry, and mathematics. But relatively few people are called to do the actual hard work of creating and writing theology. Not everyone is called to be a theologian. But the message of Pentecost is that everyone can experience God!

On the seventh Sunday of Eastertide we look at the culmination of great story of redemption. At the end of the Bible we discover that the gospel story does not end with the lucky elect whisked off to heaven—it ends with heaven coming to earth. And the story does not end with the demise of the nations—it ends with the healing of the nations.

"I do not know what is happening. The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. In this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure!”

–The Return of the King, The Steward and the King

Sermon by Jonathan Martin.

In this sermon, Jonathan Martin reimagines Luke's story of two
disillusioned disciples walking the Emmas road away from the holy city, where they had watched their hope die a gruesome death right before their eyes. With compassion born from his own experience, Martin reveals that the resurrected Christ is profoundly present with us-even as we walk away. This is a sermon to help you feel seen in your spiritual journey and all its complexities ... and to find home where you least expect it.

With the resurrection of Jesus Christ the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining. But how do we know if we are shining in the light or drifting into the darkness?

The greatest revelations of divine love come from showings of the risen Christ. But these showings are not just for first century disciples or medieval mystics; Jesus wants to show himself to all of us, and in ways that are unique to our experience.

"What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s resurrection? It is though I play with the thought of it – If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He Is Dead and Decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer HELP; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. But if I am to be REALLY saved – what I need is…faith. And faith is faith in what is really needed by my heart, my soul, and not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, and not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say: Only LOVE can believe the Resurrection." -Ludwig Wittgenstein

Jesus preaches his own Easter sermon, when in the book of Revelation he says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Pantocrator). Fear not! I am the First and the Last. I am he that lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Death and Hades." Because it is Jesus Christ, the Almighty Pantocrator, who has the keys of Death and Hades, we can fear not!

The cross is the true center of history—everything leads up to it and everything flows from it. The death of God upon a tree is not just some event within history, it is the event that defines and explains, reveals and redeems all of history. However we understand the origin of sin within the human story, its trajectory moves inevitably toward Good Friday. This is the moment when the Spirit of Love that flows between the Father and Son erupted to engulf and forgive the sin of the world.

During his final days in Jerusalem, Jesus prophesied the end of the old temple and the emergence of a new temple -- a new temple known as the Body of Christ. This new temple is not made of limestone, but of living stones. One of the chief characteristics of this new temple is its radical inclusivity -- it is to be a temple for all people.

The thing that was initially the most obvious about Jesus was that he was a healer. Everyone knew that Jesus was a healer, even his enemies, who sought to use this against him. In the story of Jesus healing the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath, we look at Jesus—who is the perfect revelation of God—and ask this theological question: Is the character of God revealed in the power to harm or heal?

What happens when the carriers of hope and healing become the cause of harm and hurt? The wounds cut deeper, the pain becomes unbearable, and the harassed and helpless feel like sheep without a shepherd. Despite the failure of the church at times, there remains a good shepherd who walks with us through every valley. Jesus is the healer of every disease and every affliction including the afflictions suffered because of his church.

Ultimate Healing
The healing of Lazarus brought the dead back to life. Much like the other events of healing in the ministry of Jesus, this miracle demonstrated God’s glory, majesty, and magnificence. People saw Jesus' authority as he raised the dead and many believed in him. This miracle was a sign for those present at the tomb of Lazarus and a sign for us. The raising of Lazarus is a sign that our ultimate healing will take place in the resurrection at the end of the age.

Jesus carried our sins in his own body on the cross so that he might take away our sins, our brokenness, our sickness. This is the good news buried in the sorrow of Lent. He was wounded so that we could be healed, both body and soul, healed both on the outside and the inside, and so we bring sick people to Jesus with our prayers whether their brokenness is in their bodies, minds, or emotions.

We tend to make a hard theological distinction between sin and sickness, between iniquity and illness, between guilt and death; but Jesus doesn’t seem to make that kind of hard distinction. In his great compassion Jesus looks upon all of us as soul-sick sinners broken by a terrible fall, and he comes to help us, to heal us, to forgive us, and to restore us. The salvation we find in Jesus Christ is holistic.

You have heard it said, God helps those who help themselves. But I say unto you, God helps the helpless and leaves the rest to help themselves. We are saved when we call upon the name of the Lord—and we call upon the Lord when we know we can't save ourselves. When we go into the ashes and wait in the place of loss, we admit that we need God.

Scripture references are NRSV.

Transfiguration Sunday, February 27, 2022
Mystics on the Mountains

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Transfiguration is the appearance of Moses and Elijah—Moses who lived twelve centuries before Christ and Elijah who lived nine centuries before Christ. Moses and Elijah were mystics who had had their own encounters with God on a holy mountain. They were Mystics on the Mountains.

During the season of Epiphany leading up to Lent, the Gospel readings in the lectionary are focused on the early ministry of Jesus—that is, from his baptism to his transfiguration. What we find in the first half of the Gospels is the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus as he travels throughout Galilee. This sermon will look at the core of Jesus’ kingdom message—The Politics of Heaven.

When Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee around the age of thirty, the thing that drew the crowds and spread his fame was that he was a healer. John the Baptist was famous as a preacher and baptizer, but Jesus was first of all famous as a healer and miracle worker. From curing Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever in Capernaum at the beginning of his ministry to resorting Malchus’ severed ear in the Garden of Gethsemane at the end of his ministry, Jesus was a healer. When we look at the ministry of Jesus we can say…Hence Comes the Healer.

"Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown by God is altogether too much privacy. My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God’s will and God’s love—outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion. … The secret of my [true] identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God."
—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Jesus was rejected in his hometown. What are we to think of the people of Nazareth? Were they just more dull-witted or hard-hearted than the people of Capernaum? No. They had simply stumbled at the offence of familiarity. And today in Western society, we're all from Jesus hometown.

My life has become so intertwined with the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana that it has become the primary way that I tell my born again again story. Every time I read about how Jesus turned the water to wine, I feel a deep personal connection with the story. It’s become my story—or at least some of my story. And when the Gospel stories become our stories, this is when Scripture is doing its most profound work in our lives. I love the whole Bible, but I have a particular love for the story of Jesus’ first miracle. My love for this story is such that whenever I just hear the word Cana, it makes me happy. When I hear the baffled steward say, “But you have kept the best wine until now!”, I think, “That’s my story too!” The story of how in midlife Jesus turned the water to wine and I discovered the vintage I’d been looking for all my life.

The spiritual genius of the lectionary is on display when the water and flame poem of Isaiah 43 in the Old Testament is connected with Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism in the New Testament. By making this connection, we are shown that God’s promise to be with us as we pass through rivers and waters, through fire and flame, is fulfilled, as all the promises of God are, in Jesus. For Christ Jesus is the one who joins us in the waters of baptism and the one who purifies us in the baptism of fire.

The star of Bethlehem is not to be found in a re-creation of ancient astronomy. The star of Bethlehem is the "more sure word of prophecy" that rises in our hearts in response to the proclamation of the gospel.

Christ is not just born in the beautiful places of our lives, as if we live in the idyllic bubble of a snow globe. Christ is also born in the war-torn places of our lives, littered with rubber bullets and teargas canisters. Jesus was not born into a fairytale but into the world as it is.

Our secular age doesn’t make much room for a world filled with blessings. Our age is one that wants to reduce everything down to cold sterile mechanisms, where everything is predictable, provable, and explainable. We are given the choice to live in a world of blessings or curses. What kind of world do you want to live in? God who blesses all humanity has made a way for us to live in a world full of blessings because Jesus rescued us from the curse. If we want to live in a world full of blessings then we have to do our part and impart blessings to others including those who curse us. When we bless those who curse us, we neutralize cursing. When we curse those who curse us, we normalize cursing. Choose to bless.

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine

Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me

Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love

I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along (bring it)

I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
Acting on your best behavior
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the
Most of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do, I'll be right behind you
So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world
I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it
One headline, why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world
All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

The sixth century BC was a very difficult time for the Jewish people. Their holy city and their holy temple had been destroyed, and most of the survivors had been deported into forced exile in Babylon. The difficult challenge they faced was how to survive as exiles in Babylon and maintain their monotheistic faithfulness to Yahweh. How do you integrate into Babylonian society so that you can have a life but at the same time retain your Jewish identity? How do you live in a pagan world without becoming a pagan yourself? This is what the book of Daniel is about.

The Crucifixion is not a defeat to be overturned by Resurrection; the Crucifixion is a victory revealed by Resurrection. The cross was made by Christ to become the portal by which he invaded death to liberate the dead ones.

In Cain the world was organized around an axis of power enforced by violence. Violent power became the organizing principle for human civilization. This is the story of Cain of Abel, the story of Romulus and Remus, the story Sméagol and Déagol. These archetypal stories remind us of dark truths we would rather keep hidden. But Jesus came into the world to shine the light, tell the truth, and re-found the world. In Christ crucified the world is re-founded around an axis of love expressed in forgiveness.

On Good Friday the sin of the world coalesced into a hideous singularity that upon the cross it might be forgiven en masse.

John's poetic prologue to his Gospel is one of the loftiest presentations of Christology in all the New Testament—it's also one of them of the most beautiful passages of Scripture. John's theopoetics reaches its crescendo when proclaims that until we see Jesus, we've never seen God.

When Jesus was dedicated in the Temple, two old prophets -- Simeon and Anna -- spoke of the infant Jesus as Salvation and Redemption. Indeed, Jesus will save both Simeon and Anna, but neither of them knows how.

We look for Jesus in the story of Isaac, because as Christians that is how we read the Bible. Issac is the son of promise. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. Isaac is the son of laughter. Jesus is the bringer of joy. Isaac is the son of sacrifice. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Isaac serves as a signpost pointing to the hope, joy, and new life we find in Jesus.

In his many adventures Abraham constantly encountered Christ in some way. Abraham encountered Christ in the Voice that called him out Ur of the Chaldees and into the land of Canaan. In the foreshadowing of Melchizedek king of Salem who gave him bread and wine. In the trinity of strangers he entertained at his tent under the oaks of Mamre. In the smoking oven and burning torch that appeared when the covenant was cut. In the ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah on the day Isaac was offered up. Truly Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

Jesus is the Ark that carries the Cosmos away from corruption and into God’s new creation. Just as there was a door placed in the side of the Ark for access to salvation, so the side of Jesus was pierced that creation might enter the heart of Christ and be carried through the flood of destruction and arrive safely in a redeemed world where all things are made new.

Where do we find Jesus in Genesis in relation to Adam? We find Jesus as a new Adam who gives humanity a new original ancestor. We find Jesus in the Seed of the Woman who crushes the head of the serpent. We find Jesus in the One who comes in search of lost Adam.

If we read the Old Testament as only predating Christ instead of deeply anticipating and foreseeing Christ, we have failed to read it in a Christian manner. But when we see Christ as the Creator, as the New Adam, as Noah’s Ark, as Abraham’s sought-after city, as Isaac’s ram on Mount Moriah, as the ladder between heaven and earth that Jacob saw, as foretold in the life of Joseph, then are we reading the Old Testament in the way Jesus taught his disciples to read it following his resurrection.

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore
His mama sure was proud of him!
He stood so straight and tall in his uniform and all
His mama’s face broke out into a grin

“Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mine
Make me proud to know you’re wearing a gun
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get
We’ll put them on the wall when you come home”

That old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shout
Telling everybody in the neighborhood
“That’s my son that’s about to go, he’s a soldier now, you know”
She made well sure her neighbors understood

She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile
She showed them to the people from next door
She bragged about her son with his uniform and gun
In this thing she called a good old-fashioned war

Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come
Ceased to come for about ten months or more
Then a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the train
Your son is coming back from the war”

She smiled and she went right down, she looked up and all around
But she did not see her soldier son in sight
When all the people passed, she saw her son at last
When she did she could not believe her eyes

Oh his face was all shot off and his hands were blown away
And he wore a metal brace around his waist
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she didn’t know
And she couldn’t even recognize his face!

“Oh tell me, my darling son, tell me what they’vd done
How is it that you come to be this way?”
He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And the mother had to turn her face away

“Don’t you remember, Ma, when I went off to war
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud
You wasn’t there standing in my shoes”

“Well, I thought when I was there, Lord, what am I doing here?
Tryin’ to kill somebody or die tryin’
But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close

I could see that his face looked just like mine”

“And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink
I was just a puppet in a play
And through the roar and smoke, the string it finally broke
And a cannonball blew my eyes away”

As he turned away to go, his mother was acting slow
Seeing the metal brace that helped him stand
But as he turned to leave, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hands

My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girl
You wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the world
Compared to last time I look like I've hit the skids
Living in the project with my two little kids
It's not what I would of chose
Now you have to call me Rose

I was boss of bosses the last time around
I lived by cunning and ambition unbound
The suckers said they'd stand behind me right or wrong
As if they thought that hubris was the mark of the strong
I was an arrogant man
But now I've got it in hand
It's not what I would have chose
Now you have to call me Rose


Call me Rose
Call me Rose

It's not what I would have chose
Now you have to call me Rose



My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girl
You wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the world
I'm back here learning what it is to be poor
To have no power but the strength to endure
I'll perform my penance well
Maybe the memoir will sell
It's not what I would of chose
Now you have to call me Rose

We're all born to broken people on their most honest day of living
And since that first breath we'll need grace that we've never given
I've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts
And it's not only when these eyes are closed
These lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,
But they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather
And my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,
Stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better
But it won't, at least I don't believe it will
So I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,
To sail these blood red seas and find your coast
Don't let these waves wash away your hopes
This war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors
Pulling fist-fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors
But I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board
Washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores
So come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
Come on and sew us together, just tattered rags stained forever
We only have what we remember

I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it
But we're making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts
We all have the same holes in our hearts
Everything falls apart at the exact same time
That it all comes together perfectly for the next step
But my fear is this prison, that I keep locked below the main deck
I keep a key under my pillow, it's quiet and it's hidden
And my hopes are weapons that I'm still learning how to use right
But they're heavy and I'm awkward, always running out of fight
So I've carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship
Hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks
Because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam
Lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea
So come on let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
Come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever
We only have what we remember

My throat it still tastes like house a-fire and salt water
I wear this tide like loose skin, c’mon, rock me to sea
If we hold on tight we'll hold each other together
And not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep
While these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric
Shocking each other back to life
Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected
Our bones grown together in time
Our hands entwined, my fingers in your veins connected
Our spines grown stronger inside
Because I know that our church is all made out of shipwrecks
From every hull these rocks have claimed
But we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change
So come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
Come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever
We only have what we remember

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, tell me, where are you going
This he told me
Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free

We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden

Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel myself a cog in something turning
And maybe it's the time of year
Yes and maybe it's the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning

We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation

We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devil’s bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

Saw a man's home, a box made of cardboard
Frozen to the bone, can't take much more
He says Lord I need help here, send me a strong hand
To lift me from the street, help me to stand
I've been forgotten, been forsaken
Poisoned by a bottle I could not shake it
I've been passed over, been rejected
And I'm afraid I'll never feel
The warmth of summer come again
Man I am helpless, I'm freezing
You were there, you were there

I saw a sick man on a sick bed
Scorned by the world like he had two heads
He says I'm a man here dying a cruel death
I'm cut off from the world, man it was so sad
He was suffering, he was ailing
Tortured by his fate, his body was failing
He says I'm an outcast, left defenseless
And I'm afraid that I'll be dead
Before the summer comes again
I've been rejected, man I am dying
You were there, you were there

Saw a rich man alone in a dark house
A prison made of gold he could not break out
He says my life is aimless, it just seems pointless
Boredom truly kills, man I am hopeless
I got diamonds, I got houses
I got silver clouds and silver spoons to match it
I've come up empty, man I am desperate
And I never want to feel
The warmth of summer come again
I'll be forgotten, my life is over
You were there, you were there
You were there, Lord, you were there

When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully watching me
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical

There are times when all the world's asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am

Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical
Liberal, fanatical, criminal
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're acceptable
Respectable, presentable, a vegetable!
Oh, take it take it yeah

At night, when all the world's asleep
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am

When things become unsettled, we typically look for some kind of change, something new, but what we need right now is not a new car, a new job, a new spouse, a new church, or a new country. What we need in the midst of all this craziness is a new hope. Faith, hope, and love all work together. Faith is a present reality oriented towards the past, what God has done. Hope is a present reality oriented towards the future, what God will do. Love is that present reality made known by the Holy Spirit.

When David returned to his home in Ziklag, he encountered disaster -- he had lost everything. His house had burned down, his possessions had all been stolen, his family had been kidnapped. What do you do on a day like that? How do you recover from such devastating loss?

The living God is the God who speaks. This God who knows you, loves you, and calls you by name, will speak to you. You can learn to discern the voice of God. And this is a wonderful thing, because one word from God can change your life.

We live in a moment when almost everyone feels weary and worn. Too much has come at us too fast. We are facing no less than four crises at once: A public health crisis; an economic crisis; a political crisis; a racial justice crisis. In addition to these we still have to deal with whatever personal crises may come our way. We are weary and worn. And to the weary and worn Jesus says, “Come to me. You're weary and I want to give you rest. You're worn out from heavy burdens—let me lighten your load. The world is harsh, but I am gentle; the age is arrogant, but I am humble; the times are hard, but my yoke is easy. Come to me and I will give you rest.”

When I begin to feel pessimistic about the way things are in the world, I remember that the world will be saved, because God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. Because Jesus is the Savior of the world, the world will be saved. The Word of the Father sent from heaven will not return in vain—it will succeed! This is not an excuse for irresponsibility or apathy, but an invitation to trust Jesus and to cooperate with the Savior in saving the world.

To cultivate joy that is not dependent upon acquisition or events is deeply Christian.‬ It also subverts the powers who want to control everything, including our joy. The powers want to dictate when and why we can rejoice, and then sell it to us.‬ Rebel, and rejoice in the Lord!‬ This is the scandalous joy given to us by Jesus.

One of the most important stories in the history of Israel is the story of their exile in Babylon. Israel's experience with exile informs so much of the Bible that its importance cannot not be overemphasized. The story of exile is what sets up the good news of Jesus.

The life of discipleship (which is to say the Christian life) is a life of obedience to Jesus. When the church lets decisions replace discipleship, we drift into nominal Christianity.

This church and that church may come and go with the tides of time, but the Church, built upon the foundation of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, will outlast the gates of Death and endure from generation to generation.

The foundation for Christian faith is the revelation of Jesus Christ; not the Church, not the Bible. The revelation of Jesus is where our faith begins and it cannot begin anywhere else. The Church and the Bible are essential, but they are not the foundation. And both the Church and the Bible teach us this.

“The Psalms are not for those whose life is one of uninterrupted equilibrium. Such people should stay safely in the book of Proverbs.” –Walter Brueggemann

In the world of the king, in the safe confines of the palace, just reward and proper punishment are seen as a sure thing. But the Psalms see a much more complicated world. The Psalms give us a perspective from the bottom, from the outside, from the poor, from the forgotten. The Psalms give us prayers for an unpredictable world where just reward and proper punishment are not always the guaranteed outcome.

When Jesus says he’s the way, he means he’s the way to Father’s House. And what is the Father’s House? It’s the House of Love. We constantly have to choose between the House of Fear and the House of Love.

On their 40th wedding anniversary Brian and Peri Zahnd talk about a life of following Jesus together.

Have you ever said goodbye to a hero?
Have you ever had to lay away your dreams?
Have you ever been so lonely that a stranger is your best friend?
Then you'll know what I mean
So this is our highway to heaven
Our American dream
The two fools on the road to emmaus
Well they might as well be you and me
Have you ever been angry at your country?
Have you ever been angry at your God?
Have you ever been so angry that you can't see what you've got right in front of you?
Have you ever been distracted by the homeless?
Have you ever thrown your dollar with disgust?
Have you ever thought the great commission's just too great a cost?
Have you ever played the fool?

-Jason Upton

When Jesus died his soul descended to hell, Hades, Sheol, the realm of the dead. But Jesus did not enter Hades as a captive, Jesus invaded Hades as a conqueror. Because Jesus is fully human, he could die and descend into Hades. But Jesus is fully God, it was impossible for Hades to hold Christ as a captive.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just a one-off personal victory for Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has cosmic implications -- new heavens and new earth! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the event that guarantees the resurrection of the human race! This is what the Apostles and the early church taught and emphasized. But somewhere along the way this emphasis got lost in the West. Now is the time to recover The gospel message that the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of the dead ones.

Coming from the Mount of Olives, Jesus not only entered Jerusalem from the opposite direction than the Roman governor, but in the opposite manner. Instead of riding a warhorse like Pilate and all the warhorse riders throughout history, Jesus rides a donkey, and not even a full grown donkey, but a donkey’s colt. Jesus’ triumphal entry was the anti-military parade. It was a mockery of Rome’s intimidating show of military power. It also presented Jerusalem with a stark contrast between the way of war and the way of peace.

On three occasions in Galilee, Jesus foretold his death by crucifixion. But in Jerusalem, a few days before his death, Jesus talked about the meaning of his crucifixion. We cannot attempt to understand the meaning of the crucifixion without paying attention to how Jesus understood his death. Jesus interprets the meaning of his crucifixion by saying it will accomplish three things:

1. It will judge the world.
2. It will cast out the ruler of the world.
3. It will draw the whole world to him.

In the time of coronavirus the question isn't who can we blame, the question is how we can love and who can we help. We don't know what's going to happen, but we know we're not abandoned. We can't control our lives, but we trust God. We can help everyone, but we can help someone

We find ourselves here again at the the well in Samaria. This sermon invites us into the story of the woman at the well with a fresh perspective and a daunting challenge. Are we willing to see this woman as strong and brave? Are we willing to follow her lead and visit the places of our own pain? In doing so, we will find a God who doesn’t exempt himself from places of pain, but rather makes himself present there in that very place.

At the Transfiguration the disciples had a powerful encounter with the brightness of Jesus in his divine glory. During the season of Lent we can let the brightness of Jesus shine into some of the dark places of our hearts. Shadowy places develop in our hearts when we are living from a place of pretense or hypocrisy. Shadowy places expand in our hearts when we move away from love. God wants to do incredible things in our world and God has chosen to do those things through the church. God wants to set right a world gone wrong and that begins with setting his people right. Lent is a time for self-examination and repentance, a time to allow the brightness of Jesus to shine in our hearts to reveal pockets of our hearts that still do not look like Jesus.

In speaking of the devil I mean something, though not precisely, like this: Experiences of evil and pressure toward evil that become disturbingly present in our lived experience. We all have these experiences with evil from time to time, and in those moments there’s no doubt that the devil is real. And are angels heavenly energies of grace that are generally non-material (as we understand materiality) but can at times assume a material presence? This seems to be what C.S. Lewis thought and I tend to agree.

During Lent we follow Jesus from Galilee to Good Friday in Jerusalem. It’s a journey to the center of salvation. That the cross is the center of salvation is a confession all Christians can agree on, but precisely how the cross is the epicenter of salvation belongs to sacred mystery. The cross is a mystery, not because we have no idea what it means, but because we can never fully fathom or articulate the depth of its meaning.

Jesus who is the light of the world says that we are salt and light. As salt, Jesus is sprinkling us throughout the earth that we might provide moral flavor and preserve society from collapsing in on itself due to moral rot and decay. As light, we are reflecting the light of God's love into a world growing dark because of tribalism, rage, and despair. We are called to reflect something different in the world God loves. The pollution of perpetual rage has left people in a place of bitterness, cynicism, and despair, which is an awful state of existence. We who follow Jesus are the hopeful hope-bringers who shine the hope of the gospel into the darkness of despair.

Moses says if Israel is going truly be the people of God they must have a different economy.

The Prophets say worship is meaningless if it doesn't affect how we make and spend our money.

Jesus says love of money is the single biggest challenge to full participation in the kingdom of God

The Apostles say the newness of Christ touches all areas of our life, including our money.

The interesting thing about Jesus and money is that he really doesn't say anything other than what Moses had already said. What Jesus does is call his followers to take seriously what Moses said about money and to live according to God’s alternative economy. We see this especially in the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler.

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.” –Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967)

Other than God himself, the Bible talks more about money than any other topic. We cannot separate our relationship with God from how we think about, how we make, and how we spend our money!

A portent is a sign that anticipates a momentous event. Isaiah’s Arise, Shine song is a portent of the three kings who came from the East bearing gifts to pay homage to the Christ child. But the event itself — the Adoration of the Magi — is a portent of an even more momentous event: The Gentile world coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds, he gave them five gold rings in the Christmas announcement. These five announcements ring true:
Fear Not
Good News
Great Joy
All People
A Savior

It’s only by reading the Scriptures in the light of Christ that we get their full meaning. No one could have “predicted” that Messiah would be born of virgin from Isaiah 7. But once we are told that Messiah was born of virgin, then we can see it. Christians must read all the Bible in the light of Christ to discover all its riches

Advent is for waiting. As we tell the story of redemption through the church calendar we begin our telling of the sacred story, not with doing, not with celebrating, but with waiting — waiting for God to act.

Isaiah envisions a day when a Messianic king will rule in righteousness, causing the beastly to be converted and to live humanely with the most vulnerable in society. It's the glorious day when the lion lays down with the lamb.

Jesus Christ is the light that enlightens every person. In the light of Christ we know that narcissism is a deformity of the soul because in the life of Jesus we see self-sacrifice. In the light of Christ we know that materialism is a wrong orientation of the soul because in the life of Jesus we find no greed. In the light of Christ we know that nativism is odious because in the life of Jesus we see radical hospitality.

When you are grieving and in great pain, pour out your lamentation to God, but hold on to your ticket. Remember that life is a precious gift, affirm the goodness of creation, love every leaf and every grain of sand, and trust God. Trust that, in the end, God is able to make all things work together for good, that God will wipe away every tear, and that God will make all things new.

When we encounter tragedy, the question is not, Who can we blame? The question is, How can we help? If the framing question in tragedy is, Who can we blame?, then we end up doing the work of the devil. But if the framing question in tragedy is, How can we help?, we will do the work of God.

The Book of Job exposes the satanic practice of blame. The book presents a test to the reader: Can the reader hold onto what God says about Job — that Job was blameless. Most readers cannot. Eventually they are seduced into agreeing with the arguments set forth by Job’s accusers. Most readers end up forgetting what God has said about Job and agreeing with what Satan says about Job. This shows us the insidious lure of the satanic temptation to blame a scapegoat. It’s a temptation that really only Jesus can save us from.

“The essential thing in heaven and in earth is that there should be a long OBEDIENCE in the same direction that thereby results, in the long run, in something which makes life worth living—virtue, art, music, dancing, reason, spirituality—anything whatsoever that is transfiguring, refined, foolish, or divine.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche

Jesus shows us what it means to be family. We are fully seen and known by him. Even after diving deep into the details of our lives he still calls us family. This is how we are called to love each other as well. To go out of our way and be troubled by what troubles others is the love Jesus challenges us to live.

It feels good to be chosen, because it communicates to us that we are wanted. It communicates that not only are we welcomed, but we are wanted. It creates a sense of belonging. Psychologists since the 1950s have said that a sense of belonging is a fundamental human need. You feel like you belong when you know you have been chosen. As followers of Jesus we have been chosen, not for salvation, but for a vocation, for a mission to bear the image of God in the world. We live in a wolf-world and Jesus isn't sending us out to be a better version of the wolf. Jesus is sending us out like sheep among wolves. Jesus is sending us out to be distinctly different, a chosen and holy people. It is through our holiness, our distinctiveness, that we fulfill God's call for us.

You were made to worship, because you are human. Worship is a human quality. We all have the capacity to look towards something outside ourselves, to give attention to some version of the good life, to give our hearts and devotion to something or someone. This is what worship is and we were made for this. Our hearts were made for worship just as our bodies were made to move. We were made for worship. For followers of Jesus, God is looking for worshipers who will worship God in spirit and truth.

From Moses to Mary we see God calling individuals to specific tasks and special vocations through peculiar and powerful events. This can leave us awestruck and distraught at the same time, wondering what our calling may be and if we have missed our calling. In Christ we discover that we are all called and our calling is more about who are becoming than what we are specifically doing.

We are created to be people of peace. Jesus is present with us in the midst of our fears and worries. Rather than participate in the chaos Jesus invites us into the peace of His presence through prayer. Prayer is the place that makes space for peace.

There is a sense in our day that the drive for more is driving us crazy. Jesus wants to liberate us from this madness of more, setting us free to rest in his grace. Jesus says to us, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” May we learn to walk the way of thankfulness and trust, seeing more than enough wherever we look.

The second most important question a person can answer is "Who are you?" This question follows the most important question "Who is Jesus?" As we look to Jesus and the cross we can honestly answer, "I am loved." Shame is soul-crushing and can keep us from believing the truth about who we really are. The good news is that shame has been defeated by Jesus' death and resurrection. The words of shame are not who we are. We are people who are loved. In the words of Henri Nouwen, “We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us. Coming home is claiming the truth. I am the beloved child of a loving Creator. We no longer have to beg for permission from the world to exist.”

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark to see
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

Jesus just left Chicago
And he's bound for New Orleans
Well now, Jesus just left Chicago
And he's bound for New Orleans
Workin' from one end to the other and all points in between

Took a junk through Mississippi
Well, muddy water turned to wine
Took a junk through Mississippi
Muddy water turned to wine

Then out to California through the forests and the pines
Ah, take me with you, Jesus

You might not see him in person
But he'll see you just the same
You might not see him in person
But he'll see you just the same
You don't have to worry 'cause takin' care of business is his name

Now I've been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun

Oh, I've been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be
Someday it's going to come

'Cause out on the edge of darkness
There rides a peace train
Oh, peace train take this country
Come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately,
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
Something good has begun
Oh, peace train sounding louder

Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now, peace train

Get your bags together,
Go bring your good friends, too
'Cause it's getting nearer,
It soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
It's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer,
Soon it will all be true
Oh, peace train sounding louder

Glide on the peace train
Come on the peace train
Peace train

Now I've been crying lately,
Thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
Why can't we live in bliss

'Cause out on the edge of darkness,
There rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
Come take me home again
Oh, peace train sounding louder

Glide on the peace train
Come on the peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train

Come on, come on, come on
Yes, come on, the peace train
Yes, it's the peace train

Come on the peace train
Oh, peace train

I want to live, I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold
It's these expressions I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old
Keep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old

I've been to Hollywood, I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old

Saw you stretched out in room 1009
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye
Could not seem to get a line on you, my sweet honey love

Berber jewelry jangling down the street
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet
Could not seem to get high on you, my sweet honey love

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

When you're drunk in the elevator with your clothes all torn
And your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn
Just seen too many flies on you, I just can't brush them off

Angels beating all their wings in time
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes
Thought I heard one sigh for you
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song you sing your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We'd all love to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We'd all love to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be alright

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
Well, all I can tell brother is you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be alright

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We'd all love to change your head
You tell me that it's institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be alright

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too
Outside in the cold distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl

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.

God is like Jesus.

God has always been like Jesus.

There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.

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.

Matthew opens his Gospel with these words: “The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.” So we could say that Matthew is the Genesis of the New Testament. But in a Christian reading of Scripture, Matthew is actually the genesis of the whole Bible—for it is only as we look back on the Old Testament through the light of Jesus Christ that we can read the Old Testament in its proper light.

The New Testament opens with four Gospel witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ. Each of these Gospels has their own voice, perspective, and particular emphasis. The Gospels are not mere biographies—they are theologically driven documents. They differ in historic details because they’re interested in theological reflection. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not mere biographers, they are theologians.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

All four Gospels give an account of Jesus being anointed by a woman as an act of worship. In Matthew and Mark, Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, anoints Jesus’ head in Bethany following the Triumphal Entry. In Luke an unnamed woman who was a notorious sinner anoints Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair in the home of Simon the Pharisee in Galilee. In John these two anointings are combined. Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair just before the Triumphal Entry. But in all four accounts the woman is criticized by someone for her extravagant worship, yet defended and commended by Jesus.

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.

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.

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.

In the wilderness the devil tempted Jesus with three good ideas:
1. Feed everyone.
2. Liberate everyone.
3. Persuade everyone.

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...

1. Feed everyone and forget God.
2. Liberate everyone and kill the bad guys.
3. Persuade everyone and eliminate faith.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 God...more than the watchman for the morning. Yes, we wait for the mercy of God—mercy as sure as the morning.

"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)

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.

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.

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.

“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

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.

My Back Pages
Bob Dylan

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

There Is A Light
U2

And if the terrors of the night
come creeping into your days
And the world comes, stealing children from your room
Guard your innocence
From hallucination
and know that darkness always gathers around the light

There is a light you can’t always see
If there is a world we can’t always be
If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt
And there is a light, don’t let it go out

When the winds screams and shouts
And the sea is a dragon’s tail
And the ship that stole your heart away sets sail
When all you’ve left is leaving
And all you got is grieving
And all you know is needing

If there is a light you can’t always see
If there is a world we can’t always be
If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt
And there is a light, don’t let it go out

Cause this is a song
A song for someone
Someone like me

I know the world is done
But you don’t have to be
I’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves
Are you tough enough to be kind?
Do you know your heart has it’s own mind?
Darkness gathers around the light
Hold on, hold on

There is a light you can’t always see
If there is a world we can’t always be
If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt
And there is a light don’t let it go out

And this is a song
A song for someone
This is a song
A song for someone
Someone like me
Someone like me
Someone like me

Lament
A portion like madness in season
Bracing all like a breaking of reason
With every night lost and every day torn
With the drama feeling calmer and it's calmer in the storm
Speakers are crying like a forest in the rain
I was so alone with my thoughts and my pain
And the darkness closed like a mouth on a wild night
I'll never be free

Gospel
Ooh, in this darkness
Please light my way
Light my way

Lament
I can't stand on my own anymore
I can't stand in the stain of the broken and poor
I can't break what I held and it never was true
In the mirror what I said was a lie to you
And me and everything I see and everything I could
I tried so hard to be good
For myself, for you, for the hidden and divine
For everything but I can fail just so many times

Gospel
Ooh, in this darkness
Please light my way
Light my way

I'm passing sleeping cities
Fading by degrees
Not believing all I see to be so
I'm flyin' over backyards
Country homes and ranches
Watching life between the branches below

And it's hard to say
Who you are these days
But you run on anyway
Don't you baby?

You keep running for another place
To find that saving grace

I'm moving on alone
Over ground that no one owns
Past statues that atone for my sins
There's a guard on every door
And a drink on every floor
Overflowing with a thousand amens

And it's hard to say
Who you are these days
But you run on anyway
Don't you baby?

You keep running for another place
To find that saving grace
Don't you baby?

You're rolling up the carpet
Of your father's two-room mansion
No headroom for expansion no more
And there's a corner of the floor
They're telling you is yours
You're confident but not really sure

And it's hard to say
Who you are these days
But you run on anyway
Don't you baby?

You keep running for another place
To find that saving grace
Don't you baby?

​The day you came
Naked, afraid
Young mother screams and pushes you
The day you came

Oh joy begin
Weak little thing
More precious there’ll be nothing, no
Oh joy begin

Let’s not forget these early days
Remember we begin the same
We lose our way in fear and pain
Oh joy begin

First just one step
One word and then
With laughter sing, oh life begin
First just one step

Innocent kiss
Black magic bliss
First broken bone
Sudden and swift
Oh innocence

Let’s not forget these early days
Remember we begin the same
We lose our way in fear and hate
Oh joy begin

Oh joy begin

Love Never
Jimmy Eat World

Love ain’t never been your friend
Love never going hear what you’re demanding
Love ain’t some magical thing
Love never gonna to be the way you’re dreaming
It’s going to seem so far
It’s going to feel so hard
Until you want the work more than the reward
Until you stop asking, “Oh, what is it all for?”
Do you want the work more than the reward?

My Mind Is For Sale - Jack Johnson

Well, I heard the blinker's on
I heard we're changing lanes
I heard he likes to race
I heard there's six or seven words he likes to use
Are always in bad taste
And I heard that Monday's just a word we say
Every seven times around
And then we pin the tail on Tuesday
Watch those strings go up and down
The elephant in the room begins to dance
The cameras zoom into
His mouth begins to move
Those hateful words he uses

I don't care for your paranoid
Us against them walls
I don't care for your careless
Me first, gimme gimme appetite at all

And all the real estate in my mind is for sale
It's all been subdivided
Divided into reasons why
My two opposing thoughts at once are fine
The residue from the price tag
On the tip of my tongue
Words don't come, they go
How many likes I gotta get
Before I know the truth
And the truth is
Season three will be a great reason
To forget all about
Reality's a slippery slope
Watch the TV, scream and shout it

I don't care for your paranoid
Us against them, fearful kind of walls
I don't care for your careless
Me first, gimme gimme appetite at all

Now I heard the blinker's on
I heard we're changing lanes
I heard we need more space
I heard there's six or seven words are in bad taste
It's absurd to believe that we might
Deserve anything
As if it's balanced in the end
And the good guys always win

I don't care for your paranoid
Us against them fearful kind of walls
I don't care for your careless
"Me first, gimme gimme" appetite
With the residue from the price tag
On those two opposing thoughts in my mind
Us against them fearful kind of walls

The story line of the Book of Acts is very straightforward: It retraces the Gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria to the Gentiles and finally to Rome. The dominant person in the first twelve chapters is the Apostle Peter: His preaching in Jerusalem, his proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles at Caesarea, and the Council in Jerusalem that determined that Gentiles do not have to become Jewish in order to belong to the body of Messiah.

The central figure in the remaining sixteen chapters of Acts is the Apostle Paul: His conversion on the Damascus Road, his preaching of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire, the persecution he suffered from both Jews and Gentiles, and finally his arrival in the capital city of Rome about thirty years after the resurrection of Jesus. Rome is where the Jesus revolution had to go.

Why were the first Christians frequently persecuted? Not because they embraced a new religion, but because with their faith, their baptism and their Christian lifestyle they announced and enacted a new social order. The first Christians pledged their allegiance to Christ as the world's new and true King and they dared to live according to that allegiance.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

Join us next year for our next Water To Wine Gathering, June 13-15, 2019. Register now at www.watertowinegathering.com.

In Acts 9 we meet a man who was always zealous for God, who always wanted a revolution, who always wanted to change the world; but after he met Jesus he had to rethink how the world is to be changed and how the revolution is to come. This man is Saul of Tarsus—we know him as the Apostle Paul.

Hierarchies and strategies of exclusion belong to the old order that died with Christ. In the new order of the risen Christ, revolutionary inclusion and equality reign. Ethnic hierarchies, economic hierarchies, gender hierarchies are all done away with!

From Stephen and James, Peter and Paul, Polycarp and Perpetua in the early church, to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jim Eliot, Oscar Romero, and the Coptic martyrs in modern times, the church has always had those who overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives even unto death. These are the martyrs—the great saints whose loyal witness we honor.

On the day of Pentecost Peter preached the gospel to people who belonged to a religion that had become corrupted by its compromised allegiance to a materialistic and militaristic empire. So Peter’s invitation was, “be saved from this crooked generation.” It's the same today.

The Bible becomes an obstacle for some people when they are in a serious season of doubt or a process of spiritual deconstruction. Some choose to throw the Bible out and others simply walk away from the faith. Jesus offers us a better way: Read the Bible with Jesus at the center. In this way, the Bible leads us to Jesus. The written word leads us to the living Word. The word made text leads us to the Word made flesh. The Spirit-inspired word leads us to the Spirit-conceived Word. The Bible is the word of God insofar as it leads us to Jesus who leads us into the life of God, the Triune life of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the Bible the new day doesn’t begin at sunrise or at midnight, but at sunset. Thus, for example, the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday. In the Jewish way of thinking each new day begins with new darkness. This is counterintuitive. The new day does not begin by being able to see, the new day begins with being unable to see. Dark nights come before new dawns. Spiritual progress does not begin with the bright day of knowing; spiritual progress begins with the dark night of unknowing.

"Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me." –Frederick Buechner

"Do you love your faith so little that you have never battled a single fear lest your faith should not be true? Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth." –George MacDonald

At the center of Christian faith is not a belief system or a book, but a person—Jesus Christ. We confess Christ as the incarnate Word of God who saves the world through his death, burial, and resurrection. Constructed around Jesus is our theological house. But we may discover that our theological house is an inadequate dwelling for Christ the King—too small, too sectarian, too impoverished. That's when our theological house has to undergo a renovation, and perhaps some deconstruction and reconstruction.

What we think and say about God affects us more than we know. If we believe lies about God, those lies begin to run rampant and do damage to our souls. Today, we will turn our attention to the one true living God and listen to a great conversation about separating out truth from lies regarding the God we worship.

Paul Young is the New York Times bestselling author of The Shack and most recently Lies We Believe About God. Through his own journey of coming to discover the God revealed in Jesus, Paul has experienced overwhelming healing and the grace of God's transforming love.

Soil is miracle ground — it’s the matrix of all life on earth. As the second account of creation in Genesis tell us, all life comes “out of the ground” — plants, animals, and humans. We did not fall as pure spirits from the realm of the perfect forms and find ourselves imprisoned in contemptible matter (as Platonism claims); rather we were formed from the dust of the earth, breathed on by God, and became living souls. We are humans from the humus, soil with a soul; we are a mysterious synthesis of the dust of the earth and the breath of God. There is a sense in which humans are very complicated, self-aware rocks — rocks so magnificently complex that we are capable of bearing the Creator’s image and sharing the Creator’s spirit.

"It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how a human being becomes good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that… The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties—but right through every human heart and through all human hearts." -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago

The truth can change a man
In the wisdom of his days
It whispers soft but constantly
You cannot live this way
–The Call, “When”

In the madness of modernity how do we cultivate the practices of prayer and contemplation that give us a life that we can live?

"On the third day the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of a gardener God walked again in the garden, not in the cool of the evening, but in the dawn." –G.K. Chesterton

In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft, and for forty years it has continued its long journey into interstellar space. Today Voyager is more than thirteen billion miles from home. Aboard Voyager is a golden record; one of the songs on the golden record is Blind Willie Johnson's Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. It's a blues moan. It has no lyrics. It's a song about death, the most bitter of all human experiences. It's a song that belongs to Holy Saturday.

At the cross the sin of the world coalesced into a singularity where it was both borne and forgiven by God in Christ. The structures of sin (“the sin of the world”) that entangles and implicates all of us reached its hideous apex in the crucifixion of the Son of God. At Golgotha the sin of the world gathered in a Good Friday singularity where it was absorbed and forgiven and thus dispelled.

Gethsemane means "oil press" and it's in the garden of Gethsemane that the Anointed (the Christ) comes under immense pressure. It's in Gethsemane that we most clearly see the humanity of Jesus as he struggles with the will of the Father. And it's in Gethsemane that Jesus most pointedly renounces the myth of redemptive violence and takes his stand for a peace that will only come through co-suffering love.