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?".

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.-W.B. Yeats, The Second ComingIn 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 PODCASTBrian 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 Zahndhttps://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 PODCASTBrian 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 Zahndhttps://wolc.com/twbtw

ABOUT THIS PODCASTBrian 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 Zahndhttps://wolc.com/twbtwFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wordoflifechurchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordoflifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wolctvPASTOR BRIAN ZAHND ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianzahndInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianzahndTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/brianzahndCONNECT WITH A PASTORDo 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/connectABOUT WORD OF LIFE CHURCHWord 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.comGIVETo 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.

MonstersDave Matthews BandBroke old toy soldiers lined up one, two, threeLittle kid and everything I did just to save my paper queen'Cause love won't let me goYeah, no army's gonna save my soul'Cause love won't let me goNothing in the closetNothing underneath the bedJust the monsters in your headI hear strange voices at every step I takeNo, you can't cross the ocean if you can't get past the breakEven if fear don't put you downWon't you lean on me while I'm aroundOh, no rope to hang the deadNo line to save the drowning manJust the monsters in your headNothing in the closetNothing underneath the bedJust the monsters in your headSee killer's eyes and painted facesThe Devil wants your soul, but Jesus savesTraffic jam is an angry mazeThe Devil wants your soul, but Jesus savesChutes and ladders, pick-up sticksCounting cars and counting bricksDriving past the ol' five-and-dimeCan't get nothin' for a nickel since a long, long timeI won't let you downNothing in the closetNothing underneath your bedJust the monsters in your headNo rope to hang the deadNo line to save the drowning manJust the monsters in your headLove won't let you goLove 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.

SanctuaryHiss Golden MessengerFeeling badFeeling blueCan't get out of my own mindI know how to sing about itRing of boneA little lonelyI better hit the road, childWe can cry into the phone a whileJubileeFind meSteady with your hope nowThat little light's gotta last a whileLike an arrow to the marrowI know it feels like hell now'Til we make it to the other sideYou want good newsYou want sanctuaryWhen you try to get realOh, they break you on the wheelYou wanna moveYou want sanctuaryThat's all that I can offer to youFrom the bottom to the boneTo the boneGet used to the bad newsIt's all part of the show, childHandsome Johnny had to go, childDid you feel the bad news?Oh, there's something you should know nowLittle things that'll cut you downRagged peopleHard timesAnd the lightning strikes the poorhouseThe rich man cries like a crocodileSalvationDespairBut the game that they taught meSometimes it feels like it just ain't fairYou want good newsYou want sanctuaryWhen you try to get realOh, they break you on the wheelYou wanna moveYou want sanctuaryThat's all that I can offer to youFrom the bottom to the boneTo the boneYeah, to the boneAh, to the boneYeah, to the boneAh, to the boneYeah, to the boneAh, to the boneFeeling badFeeling blueCan't get out of my own mindBut I know how to sing about it

Quiet TownThe KillersA couple of kids got hit by a Union Pacific trainCarrying sheet metal and household appliancesThrough the pouring rainThey were planning on getting married after graduationHad a little baby girl, trouble came and shut it downThings like that ain't supposed to happenIn this quiet townFamilies are tightGood people,They still don't deadbolt their doors at nightIn this quiet townWhen we first heard opioid storiesThey were always in whispering tonesNow banners of sorrow mark the front steps of childhood homesParents wept through daddy's girl eulogiesAnd merit badge milestones with their daughters and sonsLaying there lifeless in their suits and gownsSomebody's been keeping secretsIn this quiet townThey know how to liveGood people who lean on JesusThey're quick to forgiveIn this quiet townNow whenever I'm near the townI'll find some reason to giveAnd I will walk with the dead and the living where I used to liveAnd every time I see my parents in the prime of their livesOffering their son the kind of love he could never put downPart of me is still that stainless kid, luckyIn this quiet townSalt of the landHard-working people, if you're in troubleThey'll lend you a handHere in this quiet townThe first crop of hay is upSchool let out and the sun beats downSmoke billows from a Sunday trainThat cries away from a quiet town

Unconditional (Lookout Kid)Unconditional (Lookout Kid)Arcade FireLookout kid, trust your heartYou don't have to play the part They wrote for youJust be trueThere are things that you could doThat no one else on earth could ever doBut I can't teach you, I can't teach it to youLookout kid, trust your mindBut you can't trust it everytimeYou know it plays tricks on youAnd it don't give a damn if you are happy or you're sadBut if you've lost it, don't feel bad'Cause it's alright to be sadLookout kid, trust your bodyYou can dance, and you can shakeThings will break, you make mistakesYou lose your friends, again and again'Cause nothing is ever perfectNo one's perfectLet me say it again, no one's perfectRightA lifetime of skinned kneesAnd heartbreak comes so easyBut a life without pain would be boringAnd if you feel it, it's fineI give you everything that's mineI give you my heart and my precious timeLookout kid, trust your soulIt ain't hard to rock n' rollYou know how to move your hipsAnd you know God is cool with itBut some people want the rock without the rollBut we all know, there's no God without soulRightA lifetime of skinned kneesAnd heartbreak comes so easilyBut a life without youWould be boring for someone like meAnd if you feel it, it's fineI give you everything that's mineI give you my heart and my precious time(Precious time)(Give you everything)I give you my heart and my precious timeUnconditionalUnconditionalNo matter what you doIt's unconditional Unconditional No matter what you doIt's unconditional

Waiting On A WarFoo FightersI've been waiting on a war since I was youngSince I was a little boy with a toy gunNever really wanted to be number oneJust wanted to love everyoneIs there more to this than that?Is there more to this than that?Is there more to this than that?Is there more to thisMore to this, more to this thanJust waiting on a war?Just waiting on a war?Every day waiting for the sky to fallBig crash on a world that's so smallJust a boy with nowhere left to goFell in love with a voice on the radioIs there more to this than that?Is there more to this than that?Is there more to this than that?Is there more to thisMore to this, more to this thanJust waiting on a war?Just waiting on a war?Just waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than thatJust waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than thatI've been waiting on a war since I was youngSince I was a little boy with a toy gunIs there more to thisMore to this, more to this thanJust waiting on a war?Just waiting on a war?Just waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than thatJust waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than thatJust waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than thatJust waiting on a war for this and thatThere's got to be more to this than that'Cause I need moreYeah, I need moreJust waiting on a warJust waiting on a warYeah, 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, 2022Life ain’t always empty…Don’t get stuck in the pastSay your favorite things at massTell your mother that you love herAnd go out of your way for othersSit beneath a light that suits youAnd look forward to a brighter futureLife ain’t always empty…Sink as far down as you can be pulled upHappiness really ain’t all about luckLet your demeanor be your deep down selfAnd don’t sacrifice your life for your healthWhen you speak, speak sincereAnd believe me friend, everyone will hearLife ain’t always empty…Bring your own two centsNever borrow them from someone elseBuy yourself a flower every hundredth hourThrow your hair down from your lonely towerAnd if, and ifYou find yourself in the family wayGive the kid more than what you got in your dayLife ain’t always empty…Never let a clock tell you what you got time forIt only goes around, goes around, goes aroundTake your family name for your own great sins'Cause each day is where it all beginsAnd don’t give up too quickYou only get one line, you better make it stickIf we give ourselves to every breathThen we’re all in the running for a hero's deathLife 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 liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr 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 twodisillusioned 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 HealingThe 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, 2022Mystics on the MountainsOne 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 mountainsI have run through the fieldsOnly to be with youOnly to be with youI have runI have crawledI have scaled these city wallsThese city wallsOnly to be with youBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forI have kissed honey lipsFelt the healing in her fingertipsIt burned like fireThis burning desireI have spoke with the tongue of angelsI have held the hand of a devilIt was warm in the nightI was cold as a stoneBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forI believe in the kingdom comeThen all the colors will bleed into oneBleed into oneBut yes I'm still runningYou broke the bondsAnd you loosed the chainsCarried the crossOf my shameOh my shameYou know I believe itBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forBut I still haven't found what I'm looking forBut I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Think about it, there must be higher loveDown in the heart or hidden in the stars aboveWithout it, life is wasted timeLook inside your heart, I'll look inside mineThings look so bad everywhereIn this whole world, what is fair?We walk blind and we try to seeFalling behind in what could beBring me a higher loveBring me a higher loveBring me a higher loveWhere's that higher love I keep thinking of?Worlds are turning and we're just hanging onFacing our fear and standing out there aloneA yearning, and it's real to meThere must be someone who's feeling for meThings look so bad everywhereIn this whole world, what is fair?We walk blind and we try to seeFalling behind in what could beBring me a higher loveBring me a higher love Bring me a higher loveWhere's that higher love I keep thinking of?Bring me a higher loveBring me a higher love Bring be a higher loveI could rise above on a higher loveI will wait for itI'm not too late for itUntil then, I'll sing my songTo cheer the night along (bring it)I could light the night up with my soul on fireI could make the sun shine from pure desireLet me feel that love come over meLet me feel how strong it could beBring me a higher loveBring me a higher loveBring me a higher loveWhere's that higher love I keep thinking of?

Welcome to your lifeThere's no turning backEven while we sleepWe will find youActing on your best behaviorTurn your back on mother natureEverybody wants to rule the worldIt's my own designIt's my own remorseHelp me to decideHelp me make theMost of freedom and of pleasureNothing ever lasts foreverEverybody wants to rule the worldThere's a room where the light won't find youHolding hands while the walls come tumbling downWhen they do, I'll be right behind youSo glad we've almost made itSo sad they had to fade itEverybody wants to rule the worldI can't stand this indecisionMarried with a lack of visionEverybody wants to rule the worldSay that you'll never, never, never, never need itOne headline, why believe it?Everybody wants to rule the worldAll for freedom and for pleasureNothing ever lasts foreverEverybody 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 shoreHis mama sure was proud of him!He stood so straight and tall in his uniform and allHis mama’s face broke out into a grin“Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mineMake me proud to know you’re wearing a gunDo what the captain says, lots of medals you will getWe’ll put them on the wall when you come home”That old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shoutTelling 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 understoodShe got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smileShe showed them to the people from next doorShe bragged about her son with his uniform and gunIn this thing she called a good old-fashioned warThen the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not comeCeased to come for about ten months or moreThen a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the trainYour son is coming back from the war”She smiled and she went right down, she looked up and all aroundBut she did not see her soldier son in sightWhen all the people passed, she saw her son at lastWhen she did she could not believe her eyesOh his face was all shot off and his hands were blown awayAnd he wore a metal brace around his waistHe whispered kind of slow, in a voice she didn’t knowAnd she couldn’t even recognize his face!“Oh tell me, my darling son, tell me what they’vd doneHow is it that you come to be this way?”He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly moveAnd the mother had to turn her face away“Don’t you remember, Ma, when I went off to warYou thought it was the best thing I could do?I was on the battleground, you were home acting proudYou 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 closeI could see that his face looked just like mine”“And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stinkI was just a puppet in a playAnd through the roar and smoke, the string it finally brokeAnd a cannonball blew my eyes away”As he turned away to go, his mother was acting slowSeeing the metal brace that helped him standBut as he turned to leave, he called his mother closeAnd he dropped his medals down into her hands

My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girlYou wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the worldCompared to last time I look like I've hit the skidsLiving in the project with my two little kidsIt's not what I would of choseNow you have to call me RoseI was boss of bosses the last time aroundI lived by cunning and ambition unboundThe suckers said they'd stand behind me right or wrongAs if they thought that hubris was the mark of the strongI was an arrogant manBut now I've got it in handIt's not what I would have choseNow you have to call me RoseCall me RoseCall me RoseIt's not what I would have choseNow you have to call me Rose My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girlYou wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the worldI'm back here learning what it is to be poorTo have no power but the strength to endureI'll perform my penance wellMaybe the memoir will sellIt's not what I would of choseNow you have to call me Rose

We're all born to broken people on their most honest day of livingAnd since that first breath we'll need grace that we've never givenI've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghostsAnd it's not only when these eyes are closedThese lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,But they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weatherAnd my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,Stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets betterBut it won't, at least I don't believe it willSo I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,To sail these blood red seas and find your coastDon't let these waves wash away your hopesThis war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchorsPulling fist-fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviorsBut I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single boardWashed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shoresSo come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of griefAnd fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beachCome on and sew us together, just tattered rags stained foreverWe only have what we rememberI am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made itBut we're making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new startsWe all have the same holes in our heartsEverything falls apart at the exact same timeThat it all comes together perfectly for the next stepBut my fear is this prison, that I keep locked below the main deckI keep a key under my pillow, it's quiet and it's hiddenAnd my hopes are weapons that I'm still learning how to use rightBut they're heavy and I'm awkward, always running out of fightSo I've carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking shipHoping it would help me float for just a few more weeksBecause I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beamLost and found like you and me scattered out on the seaSo come on let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of griefAnd fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beachCome on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained foreverWe only have what we rememberMy throat it still tastes like house a-fire and salt waterI wear this tide like loose skin, c’mon, rock me to seaIf we hold on tight we'll hold each other togetherAnd not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleepWhile these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electricShocking each other back to lifeYour hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connectedOur bones grown together in timeOur hands entwined, my fingers in your veins connectedOur spines grown stronger insideBecause I know that our church is all made out of shipwrecksFrom every hull these rocks have claimedBut we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the changeSo come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of griefAnd fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beachCome on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained foreverWe only have what we remember

Well, I came upon a child of GodHe was walking along the roadAnd I asked him, tell me, where are you goingThis he told meSaid, I'm going down to Yasgur's FarmGonna join in a rock and roll bandGot to get back to the land and set my soul freeWe are stardust, we are goldenWe are billion year old carbonAnd we’ve got to get ourselves back to the gardenWell, then can I roam beside you?I have come to lose the smog,And I feel myself a cog in something turningAnd maybe it's the time of yearYes and maybe it's the time of manAnd I don't know who I amBut life is for learningWe are stardust, we are goldenWe are billion year old carbonAnd we got to get ourselves back to the gardenBy the time we got to WoodstockWe were half a million strongAnd everywhere was a song and a celebrationAnd I dreamed I saw the bomber death planesRiding shotgun in the sky,Turning into butterfliesAbove our nationWe are stardust, we are goldenWe are caught in the devil’s bargainAnd we got to get ourselves back to the garden

Saw a man's home, a box made of cardboardFrozen to the bone, can't take much moreHe says Lord I need help here, send me a strong handTo lift me from the street, help me to standI've been forgotten, been forsakenPoisoned by a bottle I could not shake itI've been passed over, been rejectedAnd I'm afraid I'll never feelThe warmth of summer come againMan I am helpless, I'm freezingYou were there, you were thereI saw a sick man on a sick bedScorned by the world like he had two headsHe says I'm a man here dying a cruel deathI'm cut off from the world, man it was so sadHe was suffering, he was ailingTortured by his fate, his body was failingHe says I'm an outcast, left defenselessAnd I'm afraid that I'll be deadBefore the summer comes againI've been rejected, man I am dyingYou were there, you were thereSaw a rich man alone in a dark houseA prison made of gold he could not break outHe says my life is aimless, it just seems pointlessBoredom truly kills, man I am hopelessI got diamonds, I got housesI got silver clouds and silver spoons to match itI've come up empty, man I am desperateAnd I never want to feelThe warmth of summer come againI'll be forgotten, my life is overYou were there, you were thereYou were there, Lord, you were there

When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderfulA miracle, oh it was beautiful, magicalAnd all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happilyJoyfully, playfully watching meBut then they send me away to teach me how to be sensibleLogical, oh responsible, practicalAnd they showed me a world where I could be so dependableClinical, intellectual, cynicalThere are times when all the world's asleepThe questions run too deepFor such a simple manWon't you please, please tell me what we've learnedI know it sounds absurdBut please tell me who I amNow watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radicalLiberal, fanatical, criminalWon't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're acceptableRespectable, presentable, a vegetable!Oh, take it take it yeahAt night, when all the world's asleepThe questions run so deepFor such a simple manWon't you please tell me what we've learnedI know it sounds absurdBut 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 BrueggemannIn 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 meanSo this is our highway to heavenOur American dreamThe two fools on the road to emmausWell they might as well be you and meHave 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 GodThe 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 NotGood NewsGreat JoyAll PeopleA 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 meI can’t use it anymoreIt’s gettin’ dark, too dark to seeI feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorMama, put my guns in the groundI can’t shoot them anymoreThat long black cloud is comin’ downI feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s doorKnock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

Jesus just left ChicagoAnd he's bound for New OrleansWell now, Jesus just left ChicagoAnd he's bound for New OrleansWorkin' from one end to the other and all points in betweenTook a junk through MississippiWell, muddy water turned to wineTook a junk through MississippiMuddy water turned to wineThen out to California through the forests and the pinesAh, take me with you, JesusYou might not see him in personBut he'll see you just the sameYou might not see him in personBut he'll see you just the sameYou don't have to worry 'cause takin' care of business is his name

Now I've been happy latelyThinking about the good things to comeAnd I believe it could beSomething good has begunOh, I've been smiling latelyDreaming about the world as oneAnd I believe it could beSomeday it's going to come'Cause out on the edge of darknessThere rides a peace trainOh, peace train take this countryCome take me home againNow I've been smiling lately,Thinking about the good things to comeAnd I believe it could be,Something good has begunOh, peace train sounding louderGlide on the peace trainCome on now peace trainYes, peace train holy rollerEveryone jump upon the peace trainCome on now, peace trainGet your bags together,Go bring your good friends, too'Cause it's getting nearer,It soon will be with youNow come and join the living,It's not so far from youAnd it's getting nearer,Soon it will all be trueOh, peace train sounding louderGlide on the peace trainCome on the peace trainPeace trainNow I've been crying lately,Thinking about the world as it isWhy must we go on hating,Why can't we live in bliss'Cause out on the edge of darkness,There rides a peace trainOh peace train take this country,Come take me home againOh, peace train sounding louderGlide on the peace trainCome on the peace trainYes, peace train holy rollerEveryone jump upon the peace trainCome on, come on, come onYes, come on, the peace trainYes, it's the peace trainCome on the peace trainOh, peace train

I want to live, I want to giveI've been a miner for a heart of goldIt's these expressions I never giveThat keep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting oldKeep me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting oldI've been to Hollywood, I've been to RedwoodI crossed the ocean for a heart of goldI've been in my mind, it's such a fine lineThat keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting oldKeeps me searching for a heart of gold and I'm getting old

Saw you stretched out in room 1009With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eyeCould not seem to get a line on you, my sweet honey loveBerber jewelry jangling down the streetMaking bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meetCould not seem to get high on you, my sweet honey loveMay the good Lord shine a light on youMake every song your favorite tuneMay the good Lord shine a light on youWarm like the evening sunWhen you're drunk in the elevator with your clothes all tornAnd your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawnJust seen too many flies on you, I just can't brush them offAngels beating all their wings in timeWith smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyesThought I heard one sigh for youCome on up, come on up, now, come on up nowMay the good Lord shine a light on youMake every song you sing your favorite tuneMay the good Lord shine a light on youWarm like the evening sun

You say you want a revolution Well, you knowWe'd all love to change the worldYou tell me that it's evolutionWell, you knowWe'd all love to change the worldBut when you talk about destructionDon't you know that you can count me outDon't you know it's gonna be alrightYou say you got a real solution Well, you knowWe'd all love to see the planYou ask me for a contributionWell, you knowWe're all doing what we canBut if you want money for people with minds that hateWell, all I can tell brother is you have to waitDon't you know it's gonna be alrightYou say you'll change the constitutionWell, you knowWe'd all love to change your headYou tell me that it's institutionWell, you knowYou better free you mind insteadBut if you go carrying pictures of chairman MaoYou ain't going to make it with anyone anyhowDon'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 reliefBusinessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earthNone 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 jokeBut you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fateSo let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”All along the watchtower, princes kept the viewWhile all the women came and went, barefoot servants, tooOutside in the cold distance a wildcat did growlTwo 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 RahnerThe 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 PagesBob DylanCrimson flames tied through my earsRollin’ high and mighty trapsPounced with fire on flaming roadsUsing ideas as my maps“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said IProud ’neath heated browAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that nowHalf-wracked prejudice leaped forth“Rip down all hate,” I screamedLies that life is black and whiteSpoke from my skull. I dreamedRomantic facts of musketeersFoundationed deep, somehowAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that nowGirls’ faces formed the forward pathFrom phony jealousyTo memorizing politicsOf ancient historyFlung down by corpse evangelistsUnthought of, though, somehowAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that nowA self-ordained professor’s tongueToo serious to foolSpouted out that libertyIs just equality in school“Equality,” I spoke the wordAs if a wedding vowAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that nowIn a soldier’s stance, I aimed my handAt the mongrel dogs who teachFearing not I’d become my enemyIn the instant that I preachMy existence led by confusion boatsMutiny from stern to bowAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that nowYes, my guard stood hard when abstract threatsToo noble to neglectDeceived me into thinkingI had something to protectGood and bad, I define these termsQuite clear, no doubt, somehowAh, but I was so much older thenI’m younger than that now

There Is A LightU2And if the terrors of the nightcome creeping into your days And the world comes, stealing children from your roomGuard your innocence From hallucination and know that darkness always gathers around the lightThere is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always beIf there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light, don’t let it go outWhen the winds screams and shoutsAnd the sea is a dragon’s tailAnd the ship that stole your heart away sets sailWhen all you’ve left is leaving And all you got is grievingAnd all you know is needingIf there is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always beIf there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light, don’t let it go outCause this is a songA song for someoneSomeone like meI know the world is doneBut you don’t have to beI’ve got a question for the child in you before it leavesAre you tough enough to be kind?Do you know your heart has it’s own mind?Darkness gathers around the lightHold on, hold on There is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always beIf there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light don’t let it go outAnd this is a songA song for someoneThis is a songA song for someoneSomeone like meSomeone like meSomeone like me

LamentA portion like madness in seasonBracing all like a breaking of reasonWith every night lost and every day tornWith the drama feeling calmer and it's calmer in the stormSpeakers are crying like a forest in the rainI was so alone with my thoughts and my painAnd the darkness closed like a mouth on a wild nightI'll never be freeGospelOoh, in this darknessPlease light my wayLight my wayLamentI can't stand on my own anymoreI can't stand in the stain of the broken and poorI can't break what I held and it never was trueIn the mirror what I said was a lie to youAnd me and everything I see and everything I couldI tried so hard to be goodFor myself, for you, for the hidden and divineFor everything but I can fail just so many timesGospelOoh, in this darknessPlease light my wayLight my way

I'm passing sleeping citiesFading by degreesNot believing all I see to be soI'm flyin' over backyardsCountry homes and ranchesWatching life between the branches belowAnd it's hard to sayWho you are these daysBut you run on anywayDon't you baby?You keep running for another placeTo find that saving graceI'm moving on aloneOver ground that no one ownsPast statues that atone for my sinsThere's a guard on every doorAnd a drink on every floorOverflowing with a thousand amensAnd it's hard to sayWho you are these daysBut you run on anywayDon't you baby?You keep running for another placeTo find that saving graceDon't you baby?You're rolling up the carpetOf your father's two-room mansionNo headroom for expansion no moreAnd there's a corner of the floorThey're telling you is yoursYou're confident but not really sureAnd it's hard to sayWho you are these daysBut you run on anywayDon't you baby?You keep running for another placeTo find that saving graceDon't you baby?

​The day you cameNaked, afraidYoung mother screams and pushes youThe day you came Oh joy beginWeak little thingMore precious there’ll be nothing, noOh joy begin Let’s not forget these early daysRemember we begin the sameWe lose our way in fear and painOh joy begin First just one stepOne word and thenWith laughter sing, oh life beginFirst just one step Innocent kissBlack magic blissFirst broken boneSudden and swiftOh innocence Let’s not forget these early daysRemember we begin the sameWe lose our way in fear and hateOh joy beginOh joy begin

Love NeverJimmy Eat WorldLove ain’t never been your friendLove never going hear what you’re demandingLove ain’t some magical thingLove never gonna to be the way you’re dreamingIt’s going to seem so farIt’s going to feel so hardUntil you want the work more than the rewardUntil you stop asking, “Oh, what is it all for?”Do you want the work more than the reward?

My Mind Is For Sale - Jack JohnsonWell, I heard the blinker's onI heard we're changing lanesI heard he likes to raceI heard there's six or seven words he likes to useAre always in bad tasteAnd I heard that Monday's just a word we sayEvery seven times aroundAnd then we pin the tail on TuesdayWatch those strings go up and downThe elephant in the room begins to danceThe cameras zoom intoHis mouth begins to moveThose hateful words he usesI don't care for your paranoidUs against them wallsI don't care for your carelessMe first, gimme gimme appetite at allAnd all the real estate in my mind is for saleIt's all been subdividedDivided into reasons whyMy two opposing thoughts at once are fineThe residue from the price tagOn the tip of my tongueWords don't come, they goHow many likes I gotta getBefore I know the truthAnd the truth isSeason three will be a great reasonTo forget all about Reality's a slippery slopeWatch the TV, scream and shout itI don't care for your paranoidUs against them, fearful kind of wallsI don't care for your carelessMe first, gimme gimme appetite at allNow I heard the blinker's onI heard we're changing lanesI heard we need more spaceI heard there's six or seven words are in bad tasteIt's absurd to believe that we mightDeserve anythingAs if it's balanced in the endAnd the good guys always winI don't care for your paranoidUs against them fearful kind of wallsI don't care for your careless"Me first, gimme gimme" appetiteWith the residue from the price tagOn those two opposing thoughts in my mindUs 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 manIn the wisdom of his daysIt whispers soft but constantlyYou 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.

When Jesus was in the home of Simon the leper on Wednesday during his last week, a woman poured a bottle of costly perfume on him while he sat at the table after dinner. The group around the table scolded her. But Jesus commended her. They thought what she did was shameful. Jesus saw it as beautiful, because she was preparing his body for burial. What she did was an act of worship and in it we discover that two components working together make Christian worship a beautiful thing—intentionality and expression. Both are needed. Expression without intentionality ends up in heartless worship and intentionality without expression ends up in lifeless worship. But together they bring out of us something very beautiful.

On Jesus’ last Tuesday, he speaks to us with unfiltered clarity. The temple and it’s systems which perpetuate injustice has walked the way which leads to destruction. As the end of Jesus’ life draws near, he speaks to us about the things of utmost importance. How might we avoid the same fate as this temple and the city which surrounds it? We must let Jesus lead us in the way of neighborly love.

On Monday of the final week before his death Jesus interrupted the operations of the Temple by driving out the sacrificial animals with a whip and flipping over the tables of the money changers. We are accustomed to calling this the "cleansing of the Temple." But is that what it really was? Or is there a better to way to interpret Jesus' provocative action in the Temple?

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

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

Cristine Eckhardt's Story of Forgiveness

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

Todd Norris's story of forgiveness

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

Candy Draper's Story of Forgiveness

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

Glen & Heather Taylor's Story of Forgiveness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q&A Session from the message "What About the Book of Revelation?"

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

Q&A Session from the message "What About Hell?"

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

Q&A Session from the message "What About the Violence of the Cross?"

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

Q&A session from the message "What About Old Testament Violence?"

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

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

Q&A Session from the message "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God"

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

Seen my share of broken halosFolded wings that used to flyThey've all gone wherever they goBroken halos that used to shineAngels come down from the heavensJust to help us on our wayCome to teach us, then they leave usAnd they find some other soul to saveSeen my share of broken halosFolded wings that used to flyThey've all gone wherever they goBroken halos that used to shineBroken halos that used to shineDon't go looking for the reasonsDon't go asking Jesus whyWe're not meant to know the answersThey belong to the by and byThey belong to the by and bySeen my share of broken halosFolded wings that used to flyThey've all gone wherever they goBroken halos that used to shineBroken halos that used to shineBroken halos that used to shineBroken halos that used to shine

Us and themAnd after all we're only ordinary menMe and youGod only knowsIt's not what we would choose to doForward he cried from the rearAnd the front rank diedAnd the general satAnd the lines on the mapMoved from side to sideBlack and blueAnd who knows which is which and who is whoUp and downAnd in the end it's only round 'n roundHaven't you heard it's a battle of wordsThe poster bearer criedListen son, said the man with the gunThere's room for you inside"I mean, they're not gonna kill ya, so if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock, they won't do it again. Dig it? I mean he get off lightly, 'cause I would've given him a thrashing - I only hit him once! It was only a difference of opinion, but really...I mean good manners don't cost nothing do they, eh?"Down and outIt can't be helped that there's a lot of it aboutWith, withoutAnd who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?Out of the wayIt's a busy dayI've got things on my mindFor the want of the priceOf tea and a sliceThe old man died

Father tell me, we get what we deserveOh we get what we deserveAnd way down we goWay down we goSay way down we goWay down we goYou let your feet run wildTime has come as we all oh, go downYeah but for the fall oh, myDo you dare to look him right in the eyes?'Cause they will run you down, down til the darkYes and they will run you down, down til you fallAnd they will run you down, down til you goYeah so you can't crawl no moreAnd way down we goWay down we goSay way down we go'Cause they will run you down, down til you fallWay down we goOh bab-bab-yeahWow babyBabyBab, down we goYeahAnd way down we goWay down we goSay way down we goWay down we go

We've wanted to be trusty and trueBut feathers fell from our wingsAnd we've wanted to be worthy of youBut weather rained on our dreamsAnd we can't take backWhat is done, what is pastSo fellas, lay down your fears'Cause we can't take backWhat is done, what is pastSo let us start from here'Cause we never wanted to be lusty or lewdNor tethered to prudish stringsAnd we never wanted to be jealously tunedNor withered into ugly thingsBut we can't take backWhat is done, what is pastSo fellas, lay down your spears'Cause we can't take backWhat is done, what is pastSo let us start from hereAnd if all that you areIs not all you desire,Then, comeCome, let yourself be wrongCome, it's already begunCome, come aloneCome with fear, come with loveCome however you areJust come, come aloneCome with friends, come with foesCome however you areJust come, come aloneCome with me, then let goCome however you areJust come, come aloneCome so carefully closedCome however you areJust comeCome, come alongCome with sorrows and songsCome however you areJust come, come alongCome, let yourself be wrongCome however you areJust come

Every inch of sky's got a starEvery inch of skin's got a scarI guess that you've got everything nowEvery inch of space in your headIs filled up with the things that you readI guess you've got everything nowAnd every film that you've ever seenFills the spaces up in your dreamsThat reminds meEvery inch of road's got a signAnd every boy uses the same lineI pledge allegiance to everything nowAnd every song that I've ever heardIs playing at the same time, it's absurdAnd it reminds me, we've got everything nowWe turn the speakers up till they break'Cause every time you smile it's a fake!Stop pretending, you've gotEvery inch of road's got a townDaddy, how come you're never around?I miss you, like everything nowMama, leave the food on the stoveLeave your car in the middle of the roadThis happy family with everything nowWe turn the speakers up till they break'Cause every time you smile it's a fake!Stop pretending, you've got

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Happened To You?The Call What's happened to you?You used to be so shyYou used to hang your head downYou wouldn't look in my eyesDid you some great visionDid you finally break throughDid you shake the foundationsWhat's happened to you? What's happened to you?You used to look so tiredNow there's a spring in your stepAnd your words are on fireDid you hear some great secretDid the words ring of truthDid you rise from the ashesWhat's happened to you? Where the four winds meetThe world is so stillThe waves are not poundingAnd the hungry are filledOur shadows have crossed hereWhere the sun touched the groundThe gathered are singingwhat a beautiful sound What's happened to you?You used to be so unkindYou used to curse at this poor worldSo what changed your mindWhat stirred such compassionIs a mystery to meI don't know what's happenedOh, but I like what I see

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

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

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

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

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

Economic self-interest is the single greatest obstacle to participating in the kingdom of God.Jesus doesn’t teach Marxist economics.Jesus doesn’t teach Capitalist economics.Jesus teaches Love economics.We’ve been scripted to believe that life is a competition of acquisition. But that is a lie. Life is not a game; life is a gift. The purpose of life is not to win; the purpose of life is to learn to love well.

Jesus has healed the blind man and it was a scandal. There should have been a party, but instead there was an investigation. The Pharisees were all upset about this and they launched a criminal investigation. Jesus shows them what true judgment looks like. To their surprise, it wasn’t fault-finding or pointing the finger of accusation. The judgment of Jesus is not a judgment of condemnation, but a judgment of light, exposing things for what they are in order to set things right.

The life of faith is a life of trust. When Jesus invites us on the journey of following him with these words, "Come follow me" he is saying to us "Come trust me." What does it look like to answer that call? What happens if we struggle to answer that call? This sermon explores these topics and more as we dive into the call to trust.

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." Nothing of this world can resist the inevitable entropy of life and death. Only that which is eternal can be the center that holds so that things don’t fall apart. Which just another way of saying only God can occupy the orbital center of our life.Christ is before all things,And in him all things hold together.–Colossians 1:17

Saint Patrick’s BreastplateChrist, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie,Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.Salvation is of the Lord.Salvation is of the Christ.May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

The dark night when Nicodemus came to Jesus reflected the dark night of his own soul. For a long time Nicodemus had lived in the sunny land of a Pharisee’s certitude. Nicodemus had it all figured out. He had all the answers. He was the Bible Answer Man. But then along came Jesus and suddenly his equations no longer added up. Jesus was an untrained, self-made rabbi from Galilee who was not a Pharisee — and yet God was obviously with him. All of this created deep theological cognitive dissonance for Nicodemus.Jesus was the monkey wrench in Nicodemus’ theological system.Jesus was the pebble in the shoe of Nicodemus’ certitude.Jesus was the solar eclipse that suddenly cast a shadow of doubt into Nicodemus' soul.

We live in an unprecedented time of the exponential growth of human knowledge. Some have suggested that knowledge in some sectors is doubling every 12 months. This does not necessarily mean that we are getting smarter, because knowledge is not the same thing as wisdom. For Christians, Jesus is for us the wisdom of God. In Christ we learn Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord and it is curated in the halls of patient reflection. We will learn and grow in wisdom either by listening to wise people or by suffering through our own failure.

Because Jesus prevailed over the devil in his wilderness temptation, and remained true to the Father’s will all the way to the cross, the world now has a saving alternative to the death dealing ways of Pharaoh and Caesar. Because Jesus was formed in the Scriptures and not the dominant script of idolatry and injustice, we can be formed in the Word of Christ and overcome the devil. As the Apostle John said, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”

As I call Christians to the practices of radical forgiveness and nonviolent peacemaking that Jesus embodied and most clearly sets forth in the Sermon on the Mount, I often encounter Christians using Romans 13 as a kind of rebuttal. Their argument goes something like this:“God has ordained the government and has given it the sword to execute vengeance; therefore we cannot be opposed to war because Romans 13 sanctions ‘Just War.’”But this is an egregious misinterpretation and misapplication of what Paul is talking about.

On Mount Sinai we only see the back of God; so assumptions are made and at the bottom of the mountain people are executed in the name of holiness, justice, etc. But on Mount Tabor we finally see the face of God in Christ, and at the bottom of the mountain people are healed and set free from their demons. On Mount Tabor the Theology of Terror (back of God theology) is excelled by the Theology of Love (face of God theology).

“It is simply out of the question that God ‘helps’ the Germans or the French or the English. God does not even ‘help’ us Swiss. God helps justice and love. God helps the kingdom of heaven, and that exists across all national boundaries. The foolish mixing of patriotism, war enthusiasm, and Christian faith could one day lead to the bitterest disappointment. We will not join in drinking this intoxicating potion. We want to look steadfastly and unwaveringly to God, who loves everyone equally and who is above all the nations.” –Karl Barth, 1914

If God reveals himself to us as I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE, it seems to indicate there is to be a "divine unfolding" over time. How we first know God will not be how we will know God as we stay on the journey. This doesn’t mean God is changing. God is immutable. God does not mutate. God does not change. But from our perspective it may certainly appear that God is changing.This is the divine unfolding.

We share this planet with seven and half billion other people. What are they for? Are they mere “extras” in a movie called "ME"? Are they resources to be used in the advancement of our selfish agendas? Are they objects to be analyzed, categorized, and utilized according to how they benefit us? Of course not! That approach to the worth and purpose of people is entirely antichrist! People are bearers of the divine image, and as such they are to be unconditionally loved and respected, always accorded justice, and given proper dignity as an expression of our love for God. To mistreat, use, and abuse other people is an insult to God. It's a kind of blasphemy.

We need holy places to help cultivate our sense of the sacred. By spending time in places connected with sacred history or set aside for worship we develop a capacity to see the glory of God in every bush. This is holy ground. But the deeper truth is that every step we take is on holy ground. It's all holy. There are no non-sacred places, only sacred places and desecrated places. But it’s specific “holy places” that lead the way to seeing all places as holy. It's the practices of prayer, pilgrimage, and contemplation that help alert us to the fact that we live our lives on holy ground.

The most embarrassing moments in church history are when the church sold its soul for political power. Whenever the church reaches for the sword of Caesar, it lets go of the cross of Christ. We don’t have to change the world, we only have to be that part of the world already changed by Christ. But this requires that we be genuine Jesus people.

The story of Jacob at Jabbok is one of the richest mines for spiritual gems in all Scripture. It’s the first place where we are specifically told of someone who saw the face of God. It’s also the origin of the name Israel—a name that becomes synonymous with God’s people.

The spirit of the age blesses the cocky and self-confident—But Jesus blesses the poor in spirit.The spirit of the age blesses those who are shallow and thus happy all the time—But Jesus blesses those who have the capacity to mourn deeply.The spirit of the age blesses the power-hungry who want to run the world—But Jesus blesses the meek who are willing to trust God.The spirit of the age blesses the privilege-protectors—But Jesus blesses the justice-seekers.The spirit of the age blesses those who think justice is retribution and revenge—Jesus blesses the merciful instead.The spirit of the age blesses the clever ones who come up with the best schemes—Jesus blesses the pure-hearted who have no schemes.The spirit of the age blesses those who are great at waging war—Jesus blesses those who have the patience to work for peace.The spirit of the age blesses those who fight for might—Jesus blesses those who suffer for what is right.

To be a Christian, to be a disciple of Jesus, to participate in the Revolutionary Kingdom of Christ, is to be a follower of the Lamb—the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. But what does this mean?___________Here is the text to the prayer of St. Francis...Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.Where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;where there is sadness, joy.O, Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;to be understood as to understand;to be loved as to love;For it is in giving that we receive;it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.Amen.

In the bleak landscape of death's darkness, the light of life comes as a shocking surprise. Our world is well-acquainted with the ugly reality of death and sin. This is why the life and resurrection of Jesus become the most shocking moments in human history, present, and future. Love, incarnate and resurrected, shocked the world and overcame death. As followers of a beautiful savior, how might we live faithful lives reflecting the shocking beauty of Christ?

Baptism has become a portal out of this old broken-down world and into God’s world of new creation, an escape hatch out of the kingdom of empire, power, idolatry, and injustice and into the kingdom of love. Jesus was baptized to fulfill God's plan to rescue the world. All those who follow Jesus through the waters of baptism can enter his revolutionary kingdom.

The light of Jesus reveals the obstacles, the clutter, the junk, and the unnecessary complexities in our lives. God knows we need things. We need hings to wear, things to eat, things to live in, things to drive, but the light Jesus shines on all these things is the truth that life is not found in pursuit of things. Life is found in pursuit of the kingdom. The way of Jesus is the way of kingdom-minded simplicity.

Pagan astrologers read it in the stars — a new king of the Jews had been born. And so the magi came from the Orient bearing their gifts and accidentally got tangled up with the current King of the Jews — a debauched and murderous megalomaniac named Herod who decades earlier had been made an imperial client king by the Roman Senate. Not long after that the death squads were breaking down doors and killing baby boys in Bethlehem. An angel got Mary and Joseph and the baby king out of town in the nick of time. And so the Holy Family became refugees seeking asylum in a foreign country in order to escape a violent regime in their homeland. If this all sounds very political, you’re right, it was…and it still is.

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself."–Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), On The Incarnation

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself."–Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), On The Incarnation

Isaiah anticipates a time when the earth will be arid and lifeless, and the people will be blind, deaf, and disabled. The land will be burning and the people will be blind to the problem, deaf to the word of God, and unable to do anything about it. The spiritual aridity of the people is reflected in a once lush land turning into a scorching desert. But in his Messianic poem of hope, Isaiah says something will happen that will change everything: The desert land will blossom and broken lives will be healed. What will cause there to be streams in the desert and for the lame to leap like a deer? God will come!

Waiting on God is an acknowledgement that we are not in charge of our own spiritual formation. Through healthy practices of spiritual formation we regularly present ourselves before God. What happens there will happen in God’s own time or Godspeed.

If we see Jesus in Isaiah's prophecy of a king whose reign causes the lion to lie down with the lamb—and we do!—it means that we cannot reduce Jesus to the “personal savior” of our “private soul.” Jesus may indeed personally save our soul, but he’s also the righteous king who brings justice to the poor and challenges the systems of oppression presided over by the principalities and powers.

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

Under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord Isaiah re-imagined the world…A world where swords become plowshares and spears become pruning hooks.A world where weapons of war becomes instruments of agriculture.A world where people seek to make the world a garden and not a battleground.A world where tanks are turned into tractors and missile silos become grain silos.

The kingdom of God does not come by the sword, it comes by the cross.The kingdom of God does not come by killing, it comes by dying.The kingdom of God does not come with vengeance, it comes with forgiveness.If it comes by the sword (by some dude on a horse), it’s not the kingdom of God.If it comes by killing (the way of Cain), it’s not the kingdom of God.If it comes with vengeance (the way of the Beast), it’s not the kingdom of God.By the way of the cross…By self-sacrifice, by co-suffering love, and by radical forgiveness…Is how the kingdom of God comes.And it comes no other way.If we lose sight of this, we will be blind to the kingdom of God. And if we’re blind to the kingdom of God, we will mistake something else as the kingdom of God.

"By his wounds you are healed." This is a deep and holy mystery, but it lies at the heart of what happened at the cross. Jesus took a world of suffering and sorrow into himself, so that we could be healed. When we lay our wounds upon the wounds of Christ it does not multiply woundedness, it initiates healing.

To follow Jesus and the way he taught, especially when living in a military-economic superpower, is to be radically counter-cultural. The ways and values of superpowers are the very opposite of the ways and values commanded by Jesus. To live out the Sermon on the Mount in the context of empire will cause you to be viewed as a freak -- a Jesus freak. The Jesus way, when truly lived, has always been viewed with suspicion by people in power. As the Apostle Paul said to the Roman governor, "I admit that I follow the Way which they call a cult."

Whatever it means for the world to be saved, God does not do it through the conventional means of power (politics, weapons, wars), but though the unconventional means of utter powerlessness—through the crucifixion of a Galilean Jew. Thus the kind of power Christians are to aspire to is cruciform in nature

On the 35th Anniversary of Word of Life Church, Pastor Brian tells the story walking the Camino de Santiago during his Sabbatical.

We have told ourselves that some scars last a lifetime and some wounds may never heal, but the story of scripture tells an entirely other truth. God is working throughout history, the present, and the future to make all things new and set all things right. How might this bring hope, healing, and redemption to our own lives? And as we experience this new creation work, what are we called to do with it?

If you've ever struggled to trust God, you are not alone. The story of the people of God has been a long story of learning to trust that God cares. In a world where we feel bombarded with anxiety, uncertainty, and injustice, we often ask "Who cares?" Jesus reminds us that God is more just than we could have ever imagined. He is a God who cares and will act to set all things right.

For generations, even before humans were literate, father and mothers have sat fireside with sons and daughters, night after night, telling stories. These Stories, both new and old, are the stories that have become our scriptures. Storytelling is the way we pass on our history and our own experience, inviting others into our story. When our story intersects with the Jesus story, our response should be to go and tell this story. Telling our story may be the very way that someone else is able to find hope and healing in their own story.

The death of Jesus on the cross is central to the gospel story and it is central to our faith. The cross was scandalous for first-century Jews and silly for first-century Romans. It is ignored by modern people, but for those of us who believe, the cross changes everything. It is the day a revolution began. The cross is only revolutionary if we get the end game right. If the end is disembodied Christians living in heaven for all eternity then the cross becomes the central figure of a new religion, nothing more. But if the end of our story is new creation, the restoration of all things, the salvation of the world, then we see again the revolutionary nature of the cross.

The gospel isn’t a plan or a theory. The gospel isn’t good advice or moral instructions. The gospel is not a collection of God-facts. The gospel is a story. It is the story of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection.Salvation occurs at the intersection of your story and the Gospel story.

Through the storms in life, Christians since the beginning have held on to an anchor of the hope in Christ. Storms are not something we can avoid in life. So how can we make it through the storm? Looking at the gospel story of Jesus as he calms the storm, we find that we are not alone and we can ask for help in the midst of the storm.

Every life is a story unfolding. We live in a world where bad stories are told and in need of good stories. How might our life tell a good story? This sermon explores how life hinges on the details and how the God of the grand sweeping narrative of the universe is also the God of the details of every human life.

The Book of Ephesians is a densely packed letter busting at the seams with so much: the gospel, the love of God, the mystery of God revealed in the life of the church, family life, and spiritual warfare. The opening of the book, verses 3-14 of chapter 1, is a prayer of thanks and praise to God, written not to isolated individuals, but to the church. We learn that it is not so much that I am blessed, loved, and chosen. Rather it is that I belong to the people of God who are blessed, loved, and chosen.

Your life is a story and we are the stories we tell. It’s in our neurons. God has hard-wired our brains for story, which is why we all like a good story. We love to hear a story of trial and triumph, or a long satisfying journey, or the hero defeating the monster. We all love these, but storytelling is not just a way of entertainment. Telling our stories is a way to practice self-awareness. It is how we form our identity and understand ourselves and make sense of the world around us. And the God of story is forming your story into our story.

What if you only had one last sentence to speak to those closest to you? You might find the words you speak may be the most important words you've ever spoken. This sermon takes a look at the last sentence Jesus ever speaks, "I am with you Always." In doing so we see in Jesus what God is like and has always been like. Click here to Reply or Forward

If we love Jesus then it seems like we should love what Jesus loves. And what does Jesus love? The church. While the New Testament uses many metaphors to describe the church, the most helpful may be the image of church as the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 uses this metaphor as a way to describe our need for one another in the body of Christ. The foot cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. We are all needed and the church herself is necessary if we want the faith to continue.

Happy are the people whose strength is in God! whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way. –Psalm 84:5Put plain and simple, the Christian life is a pilgrim’s journey. It’s not static, it’s not sedentary, it’s not the mere maintenance of the status quo.It's the difficult and demanding pilgrimage of following Jesus through life. Nothing of this world (by which I mean American culture) prepares us to be Christian. If we think being Christian basically means being a good citizen and going to church on Sunday, we've profoundly misunderstood what it really means to follow Jesus!

How Much a Dollar Cost Kendrick LamarHow much a dollar really cost? The question is detrimental, paralyzin' my thoughts Parasites in my stomach keep me with a gut feeling, y'all Gotta see how I’m chillin' once I park this luxury car Hopping out feeling big as Mutombo "20 on pump 6" - dirty Marcellus called me Dumbo 20 years ago - can't forget Now I can lend all my ear or two how to stack these residuals Tenfold; the liberal concept of what men'll do "20 on 6" - he didn't hear me Indigenous African only spoke Zulu My American tongue was slurry Walked out the gas station A homeless man with a semi-tan complexion Asked me for ten rand, stressin' about dry land Deep water, powder blue skies that crack open A piece of crack that he wanted, I knew he was smokin' He begged and pleaded Asked me to feed him twice, I didn't believe it Told him, "Beat it" Contributin' money just for his pipe, I couldn't see it He said, "My son, temptation is one thing that I've defeated Listen to me, I want a single bill from you Nothin' less, nothin' more" I told him I ain't have it and closed my door Tell me how much a dollar costIt's more to feed your mind Water, sun and love, the one you love All you need, the air you breatheHe's starin' at me in disbelief My temper is buildin', he's starin' at me, I grab my key He's starin' at me, I started the car, then I tried to leave And somethin' told me to keep it in park until I could see The reason why he was mad at a stranger Like I was supposed to save him Like I'm the reason he's homeless and askin' me for a favor He's starin' at me, his eyes followed me with no laser He's starin' at me, I notice that his stare is contagious Cause now I'm starin' back at him, feelin' some type of disrespect If I could throw a bat at him, it'd be aimin' at his neck I never understood someone beggin' for goods Askin' for handouts, takin' it if they could And this particular person just had it down pat Starin' at me for the longest until he finally asked Have you ever opened up Exodus 14? A humble man is all that we ever need Tell me how much a dollar costIt's more to feed your mind Water, sun and love, the one you love All you need, the air you breatheGuilt trippin' and feelin' resentment I never met a transient that demanded attention They got me frustrated, indecisive and power trippin' Sour emotions got me lookin' at the universe different I should distance myself, I should keep it relentless My selfishness is what got me here, who am I kiddin'? So I'mma tell you like I told the last bum Crumbs and pennies, I need all of mines And I recognize this type of panhandlin' all the time I got better judgement, I know when it's hustlin', keep in mind When I was strugglin', I did compromise, now I comprehend I smell grandpa's old medicine, reekin' from your skin Moonshine and gin, now you're babblin', your words ain't flatterin' I'm imaginin' Denzel but lookin' at O'Neal Kazaam is sad thrills, your gimmick is mediocre The jig is up, I seen you from a mile away losin' focus And I'm insensitive, and I lack empathy He looked at me and said, "Your potential is bittersweet" I looked at him and said, "Every nickel is mines to keep" He looked at me and said, "Know the truth, it'll set you free You're lookin' at the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the higher power The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit The nerve of Nazareth, and I'll tell you just how much a dollar cost The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God"I wash my hands, I said my grace What more do you want from me? Tears of a clown, guess I'm not all what is meant to be Shades of grey will never change if I condone Turn this page, help me change, so right my wrongs

The hit song Stressed Out by 21 Pilots is track 9 of Finding God on Your iPod. This song captures the desire of most modern men and women of our stressed out, anxiety-filled society. We want to go back to when things were simple and stress-free; the childhood years of life. To be stress free would be like Heaven on Earth and Jesus is inviting us into that kind of reality here and now. How might we learn to life in the unforced rhythms of God's grace? It has something to do with recovering a child-like trust.

"What’s So” by John Paul White is a song about the importance of being rooted. The song opens with these lines:Hole in the road Sun on your back Shoulder the load Your ancestors passed Wear on your sleeve The virtues you lack But don't get above your raisingModern society is transient. Modern work life has people moving from one place to another and many of us experience the absence of rootedness. Many people feel uprooted and disconnected. The Gospel offers a solution in that all of the work of God is connected to a particular time and place with a particular people. Rootedness in Christ, in the church, and in communion establishes us on a solid foundation.

Mercy Please The Whistles and The BellsIf we are what we eat then my future it is scary For I have been scarfing down the pages of the devil’s dictionary In my veins there’s a potent cocktail of fear and worry That will show in my soul when the test results return from its autopsyI need just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more mercy please A beggar at your door, a beggar at your door I will always beWhen the henchmen of midnight march me up to the gallows and I stand accused with a noose around my neck in the shadows and my crimes fill the dark as the ringleader barks and he bellows And the whisper of hope cuts the burlap rope And steals all the ghetto king's gustoI need just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more mercy please A beggar at your door, a beggar at your door I will always be

Leon Bridges claims to be "just a kid from Fort Worth, Texas." This kid, who is 25 years old, brings a sound and a soul from 60 years ago. His vintage sound and soulful songs on his first album "Coming Home" lead us to its concluding track entitled "River." Leon brings a message of light to the world as he shares from a heart that longs for redemption in the waters of baptism. It is the very Baptism of Jesus that inaugurates New Creation and calls us to join in what God is doing to set all things right. Let the justice of God roll down like a river.

The Strumbella's song "Spirits" has been growing in popularity because it taps into the age-old cosmic battle between good and evil, the light and the darkness, Superman and Lex Luthor, Jedis and the Sith, "spirits" and "guns." From classic Greek mythology to modern film, these themes have been played and replayed time and time again. The "spirits" are the things that give life and the "guns" are the things that destroy. Both of these reverberate in our heads, battling it out and keeping us frustrated. The moment we put the guns down and turn to the Spirit, that’s when we say: "Maybe we don’t wanna stay the same." This movement opens us to the possibility of real change.

Rolling Stones magazine claims Lucius is the best band you've never heard of. They bring an honest lament in the beautiful vocal driven "Dusty Trails." Each of us has been told that everything will be ok in midst of our sorrow, but what do we do when everything is not ok? What happens when we arrived in a place of doubt, despair, and disappointment? This track explores how we might live in the honest tension of lament and laughter, doubt and faith, confusion and confession.

I Will Be There Eric ClaptonWhen times are hard and friends are few And you need someone to help you through Just call my name and I will come running to your side Don't be afraid, don't be afraidI will be there I will be there I will be there I will be thereWhen morning comes and nothing's changed And the world outside plays the same old game Just call on me and I will ease your lonely heart Don't be afraid, don't be afraidI will be there When you are lost in the night No where to turn I will be there Don't be afraid, don't be afraid I will be there Don't be afraid I will be there When every one that you believe still lets you down I will be there Don't be afraid, don't be afraid Will be there Don't be afraidJust call my name And I will come running to your side Don't be afraid, don't be afraidI will be there When you are lost, lost in the night No where to turn I will be there Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid I will be thereWhen everyone that you believe still lets you down I will be there Don't be afraid, don't be afraid Don't be afraidWhen you are lost, lost in the night No where to turn Don't be afraid Don't be afraid Don't be afraid

Burn The Witch RadioheadStay in the shadows Cheer at the gallows This is a round upThis is a low flying panic attack Sing a song on the jukebox that goesBurn the witch Burn the witch We know where you liveRed crosses on wooden doors And if you float you burn Loose talk around tables Abandon all reason Avoid all eye contact Do not react Shoot the messengersThis is a low flying panic attack Sing the song of sixpence that goesBurn the witch Burn the witch We know where you live We know where you live

Her Mercy Glen HansardWhen you're kneeling through the hours, And you're doubting your given powers, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will comeWhen you're sneaking round the back door, And she’s waiting for you no more, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will comeWhen the birds are just tuning up still, And the dawn breaks on your windowsill, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will come It will comeWhen you're broken, When your heart is finally open, When you're down, Down and troubled, When you're lost among the rubbleWell, there's sugar on the old spoon, Let’s do that two-step around your front room, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will comeMercy, mercy, coming to you, Feel her beauty flowing through you She will unbind you, set the word free. Mercy, Mercy

The story the Bible wants to tell is the story of a good God who created a good world that went horribly wrong. Ever since, God has been at work setting right his good world gone wrong. His plan from Abraham through Jesus was to work through his people as King to make things right. King Jesus is changing the world in particular through the holiness of his people. How we live and how we love is the Jesus way of changing the world.

Once upon a time the trees decided to choose a king. First the trees said to the Olive Tree, "Be our king!" But Olive Tree refused, saying, "Should I quit producing my olive oil that blesses both God and people, just to wave back and forth over the trees?" Then they said to the Fig Tree, "You be our king!" But Fig Tree also refused, saying, "Should I quit producing my sweet fruit just to wave back and forth over the trees?" Then the trees said to the Grape Vine, "You be our king." But Grape Vine refused, saying, "Should I quit producing my wine that cheers both God and men, just to wave back and forth over the trees?" Then all the trees finally turned to Bramble Thornbush and said, "Be our king!" And Bramble Thornbush replied to the trees, "If you truly want to make me your king, come and put your trust in my shadow. But if not, let fire come out from me and devour the Cedars of Lebanon." (Judges 9:8-15)

When we are at critical crossroads in our lives and we are faced with two doors and we are unsure which way to go, the truth is there is not a “right” door in terms of the will of God, as if God is only behind one door. One of the surprising things about following Jesus is we discover God is behind every door. Even if we walk through the door bearing a sign saying: "Sin and Destruction," we can find the love of God there. There is no place where God is not.

The Life of A Great Sinner was to be the title of Fyodor Dostoevsky's sequal to The Brothers Karamazov – a book that was never completed. In this sermon "The Life of A Great Sinner" is the story of Zacchaeus – the short tax collector who climbed a tree so he could see Jesus, the "wee little man" of the Sunday School song. But describing Zacchaeus as a "wee little man" is probably misleading. Romans weren't looking for "wee little" bureaucrats to collect their taxes, but enforcer types. Zacchaeus was more like "Sammy the Bull" Gravano – the short of stature mafia boss. This is the story of Zak the Bull...and his encounter with Jesus.

The American church should spend the next one hundred years emphasizing two things: Contemplation and Transformation. One of the most serious maladies infecting Western/American Christianity is that we’ve made Christianity non-contemplative (reactive) and transactional. Our reputation for deep anger and shallow religion are symptoms of this. To move away from industrialized soul care to artistic soul care is a major paradigm shift. It requires re-calibrating how we fundamentally think about our engagement with God. Instead of thinking in terms of transaction, we need to think in terms of transformation.

"I woke up this morning looking for someone to blame. Someone to hate. Someone who I could make the single target for my fear about the officers killed in Dallas and for what happened to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. It was such a desperate feeling to want to discharge the uncertainty and scarcity. Then it dawned on me that this is the exact drive that fueled what’s happening right now. Instead of feeling hurt we act out our hurt. Rather than acknowledging our pain, we inflict it on others. Neither hate nor blame will lead to the justice and peace that we all want—it will only move us further apart. We can’t forget that hate and blame are seductive. Anger is easier than grief. Blame is easier than real accountability. When we choose instant relief in the form of rage, we are in many ways choosing permanent grief for the entire world." –Brené Brown

Jesus, we sit with you in lament for the land.We lament the long history of injustice that has been upon this land.We weep for the Native Americans who were killed and driven from their land.We weep for the African slaves who were sold and suffered in this land.We weep for Native Americans who continue to suffer injustice in this land.We weep for African Americans who continue to suffer injustice in this land.We weep for the families of black men who have been unjustly killed.We weep for the families of police officers slain while keeping the peace.We weep for our children growing up in this violent land.But while we weep, lament, and repent…We do not give in to despair.We look to God, for our hope is in God.The psalmist said, “The meek shall inherit the land.”Jesus, you said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”Lord, teach us to be meek and trusting, not greedy and clutching.Jesus, you blessed those who hunger and thirst for justice.We have a deep ache in the pit of our belly;We have a searing thirst deep in our soul—For this wounded land to see justice and be healed.But we don’t know exactly what to do—So Jesus, we sit with you.We sit with you so we might see the deep truth—That God is love…And there is no them, there is only us.Amen.

Jacob wrestled with God and became Israel—the God wrestler. In time Israel became the name for the people of God. The people of God are not those who have God all figured out or have learned to use God; the people of God are those who wrestle with God.

As we get closer to July 4th, people often ask: Is it OK to be patriotic? Can I be a Christian and a Patriot? Can I celebrate national holidays like the fourth of July? Answering questions like these require a clear definition of patriotism. If by patriotism you mean pride of place and love of people in that place, then yes, it's OK to be a patriotic. But...it is easy for patriotism to turn into nationalism whereby we elevate our love for country over our love for Jesus, which creates all sorts of problems in our faith life. Jesus calls us to a life of discipleship where we put him first and everything else becomes a distant second.

The land of the Gerasenes is opposite Capernaum on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Though it’s only eight miles away by boat, it really was a world away from Capernaum -- the land of the Gerasenes was a land of Gentiles. So when Jesus said, "let’s go over to the other side," he was saying, "let’s go to 'them.'" (If we’re going to learn to love the other, we’re going to have to get to know them.) The city of the Gerasenes was Kursi. In the city of Kursi there lived a man whose had lost the battle with his demons....but that was about to change.

Let’s try to evaluate the church in the context of beauty and ask some fearless questions.Instead of contributing to the hateful rhetoric of our ugly age, could the church be a shelter from the storm?Instead of a furrowed brow of disapproval, a clenched fist of anger, a wagging finger of condemnation, could the church present to the world a compassionate countenance of grace?Instead of being sucked into the destructive dualism of reactive people, could the church become a contemplative people seeking to hold all things together in the reconciling love of Christ?Instead of ratcheting up culture war polemics, could the church speak the first words of the risen Christ, “peace be with you”?

As a child Prince Mephibosheth was let down by a loved one; as a result he was crippled, living on the edge of hell. Have you ever been let down by a loved one and the episode left its mark on you? Have you ever been hurt by those who were supposed to help you? Do you limp through life, suffering from old wounds, feeling like you're going through hell? This is Mephibosheth. But it's not the end of the story...

Power as defined as the need to be in control, and to be able to control others, belongs to that part of the world Jesus wants to save us from. We are all addicted to power and we don't even know it. This kind of power is challenged by the gospel. Jesus takes away the sin of power through powerlessness, leaving for us an example to follow. Jesus says those who lose their life will save it. When we experience this kind of powerlessness, we are empowered to become fully healed, fully human, and fully alive.

Simeon Bachos, the Ethiopian eunuch, became the first Gentile convert to Christ. There is a powerful message here, because Simeon Bachos was the ultimate outsider. Excluded by his ethnicity and wounded in his sexuality, Simeon had never belonged, never had a place he could truly call home. But when Philip preached Jesus to him and then baptized him, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled—the inclusive temple of Christ had been built!

Religion is bad when it fosters and legitimizes violence. Religion is bad when it is infected with hypocrisy. Religion is bad when it becomes a source of spiritual pride. Religion is bad when it becomes in end in itself. Religion is bad when it becomes a means of domination. Religion is bad when it becomes an apparatus of coercive power.But religion can also be good; not only good, but absolutely necessary. Religion is how we pass on the faith from generation to generation. Christian religion is the practices of prayer, worship, scripture, creed, sacrament, and justice that form us into Christ-like people. Christian religion is what binds us to the Christian faith Only by the practices of Christian religion will we survive the tsunami of secularism.

Bible reading as part of a spiritual formation regiment can be extremely beneficial in helping form disciples of Jesus in Christlikeness. But this isn’t always the case. There are ways of approaching the Bible, reading the Bible, using the Bible that are detrimental to the soul. Because the Bible is such a powerful thing, the misuse of it can be extremely dangerous. So how do we read the Bible so that it's good for us and not bad for us?

God has a face—it’s the face of Jesus. We see the face of God when we see Jesus. The beauty of God is fully seen in the face of Jesus. We see the face of Jesus as it is revealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. As we gaze on the face of Jesus, we are gradually transformed into the same image. To be transformed into the image of Jesus is the full work of salvation. The Old Testament said no one could see the face of God and live. The New Testament says it’s only by seeing the face of God in Christ that we live.

How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it? By becoming aware that our true house is not the house of fear, in which the powers of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides. Through the spiritual life we gradually move from the house of fear to the house of love.” –Henry Nouwen, Behold the Beauty of the Lord

We are not Levites at Sinai cutting down sinners in our zeal. We are healers from Mount Zion reconciling people to God. We are not given the ministry of death from the letter; we are given the ministry of life from the Spirit. If we have more passion to put up the Ten Commandments in courthouses than to advocate for immigrants, help prisoners, and reconcile sinners, we can be sure we are filled with the wrong spirit and have the wrong ministry!

When the Law was given at Mount Sinai, the Levites took up swords and killed 3,000 people who had worshiped the golden calf. At Pentecost, when the holy spirit was given, Peter preached the gospel and 3,000 people were saved! The Apostle Paul says it this way: “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

God is triune but Jesus gets a lot of attention because the Father sends the Son and the Spirit glorifies the Son. Jesus said that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would come to glorify him. The work of the Holy Spirit is not to draw attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, but to draw our attention to Jesus. He does this by producing within us the fruit of the Spirit.

Ascension Day is easily the most overlooked holy day in the church calendar. In Western culture Christmas and Easter remain very prominent (even if commercialized). In the church Good Friday and Pentecost are still recognized as holy days. But Ascension Day has been almost totally lost. This should tell us something: We’ve lost the meaning of the Ascension of Christ. The gospel is the story of Jesus: Incarnation, Proclamation of the kingdom of God, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. If we fail to understand the Ascension, our gospel is incomplete.

The demonic seduction of accusation, empire, and propaganda (dragon, beast, and false prophet) always lead humanity to another bloody battlefield. Armageddon always looms. Yet hope abides. Armageddon is always a possibility, but never an inevitability. If we reject the ways of the beast and follow the way of the Lamb, Jesus will lead us away from the doom of Armageddon into the shalom of the New Jerusalem. Though the fires of destruction are always burning outside the walls, the Spirit and the Bride are always calling us into the city of the Lamb...and her gates will never be shut.

The Book of Revelation may be the most important biblical text for American Christians right now, but only if we can rescue it from its egregious misinterpretations and learn to read it properly. Revelation is NOT a 1st century prediction of the geopolitical events of the 21st century; Revelation IS a prophetic critique of the idolatry inherent with economic and military superpowers. The overarching message of the Book of Revelation is this: Jesus is Lord and Rome, etc., etc., is not.

“Jesus stands before a broken world and says, 'Come follow me.' He invites you to discover a beautiful life that lasts forever." - The Journey at Word of Life ChurchA beautiful life is the kind of life that last forever.A beautiful life is the kind of life that saves the world.The most beautiful life is the life of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.It is the beauty of Christ that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. It is the beauty of Christ that compels us to join with the Roman centurion at the Cross confessing “Truly, this is the Son of God.” In the bleak landscape of our bottom-line, results-obsessed culture, may we find new life as we join Jesus on this journey of beautiful living.

From the beginning Jesus has been gathering together a flock, a community of people, who follow Jesus and believe his teaching, a community that would share his life, eternal life. The Journey at Word of Life is not a solo project. It is an adventure we share together with friends and also with people who we would not necessarily be friends without outside of our shared faith.

Following Jesus is something we do together, but it is a self-initiated journey. No one can walk this journey for you; it is something you determine to do. God does give his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our helper and companion. However, you make the daily decision to either cooperate with or work against the Holy Spirit. We are each responsible for our own exploration of The Journey. We have the help of the Holy Spirit, but we also have the help of the collective wisdom of those who have followed Jesus before us. We have summed up much of this wisdom in what we call The Four Practices: awareness, learning, reflecting, action.

In a culture of consumerism worship is an act of holy rebellion. Worship is gloriously impractical—a royal wast of time. Because contemporary models of worship involve a band, a stage, and popular music, we are tempted to confuse worship with entertainment. Worship is not entertainment! Entertainment is evaluated on the basis of did we personally find it enjoyable. Worship is evaluated on the basis of did we give God the glory due his name.

April 8, 1966—fifty years ago today—Time magazine published its most iconic cover, asking the question that haunts modern man: “Is God Dead?” After the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima should we concede that Nietzsche was right in his provocative prophesy about Western civilization? Is God dead? This sermon is on the "Doubting Thomas" story. In his commitment to empiricism and the doubt it engendered, Thomas was a prefiguring of the modern age and the crisis of faith. Thomas was called “The Twin” (Didymus). He had the twin experiences of crippling doubt (“I will never believe”) and soaring faith (“My Lord and my God!”).

On the evening of the resurrection Jesus appeared to his frightened disciples as they were hiding in the upper room. He spoke peace to them, breathed the holy spirit upon them, and sent them into the world. From that locked room on that first Easter the gospel message of Jesus has traveled around the world and down through the centuries launching billions of spiritual journeys.

The expression “the scales fell from my eyes” is an idiom for a sudden epiphany. Something that had blinded us is suddenly removed so that now we see the truth. This idiom has its origin in the story of Saul/Paul’s Damascus Road conversion. “Damascus Road” has also become an idiom for a sudden change. But the Damascus Road event and the scales falling from Saul’s eyes are not exactly the same thing. They’re related, but different. One is deconstruction, the other is reconstruction.

The first person to see the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene. When Mary first saw Jesus in the garden she thought he was the gardener. A logical mistake. Or maybe a prophetic mistake. Or maybe not a mistake at all. As the first seed of resurrection raised, Jesus is now the gardener of resurrection, cultivating new life in all who believe.

With the burial of Jesus the new tomb has become a new womb. On Holy Saturday we have nothing to do—nothing to do but to wait. Sometimes it’s a good thing to come to the end of all our striving and enter into a holy Sabbath. A Sabbath of waiting…resting…waiting. When the work is done and the seed is sown, there’s nothing more to do, but to rest and wait...and see what tomorrow will bring.

The conquering king on a majestic horse has become a universal symbol of power. The king astride the warhorse is an equivalent symbol to the king upon his throne. Which is why to this day in every capital city there’s always some dude on a horse. But Jesus did not ride a warhorse into Jerusalem. Jesus rode a donkey…a little donkey. The one who rode the little donkey in humility, peace, and gentleness, now rides the white horse with all authority in heaven and on earth.

The book of Job is a test in how well the reader can resist scapegoating a blameless victim. The key to the whole book is found in the first verse. Job was blameless. But most readers fail the test and end up at some point agreeing with Job's three "miserable comforters" and the most vicious accuser of all, Elihu. But Job was BLAMELESS! Can the reader remember this all the way through? Most readers cannot; eventually they side with the accusers—the satan. We are possessed!

Mary’s anointing of Jesus at Bethany should restrain us from being too quick to judge some act of artistic worship as an unwarranted extravagance. In an age of secular pragmatism all prayer and worship is seen as an extravagant waste, the greatest of all wastes—the waste of time. The secular pragmatist says, “time is money.” But the worshiper knows better. The worshiper knows that time is a gift from God, and that we have not properly appreciated God’s gift of time until we return the best part of it back to God in prayer and worship.

The tenth station in the Scriptural Stations of the Cross ends with this prayer, "We love you Jesus; by your wounds heal us." The wounded of Jesus indicates that the way of Jesus includes suffering. Jesus suffered to leave us an example and on the cross he bore our sins, suffering so we could die to sin and live the life of justice. The cross is the center of our faith. The cross is where we see God enthroned. The cross is where we see sin condemned. As we continue to trust God, the wounds of Jesus can heal us, over time, both body and soul.

Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son recast in a contemporary setting and told from three different perspectives. Robert's story, Mike's Story, and Lloyd's story.

Christ above me...DivineChrist below me...IncarnationChrist before me...When SeenChrist behind me...When UnseenChrist at my right hand...When I’m StrongChrist on my left...When I’m WeakChrist all around me...Cosmic ChristChrist within me...Formed within me

The way of Jesus is the way of peace and mercy. It’s what Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s what Jesus lived all the way to Calvary. It’s the practice of enemy-love and radical forgiveness. This road is demanding, but it’s the narrow path that leads to abundant life. The question we face today is this: Do we believe in Jesus enough to follow him in the narrow way that leads to life? The stakes are high. If by nurturing fear and clinging to self-interest we choose the way of anger and resentment, hatred and scapegoating, nationalism and militarism, it will lead us to hell…and it will lead us to hell every time. Right now the Church desperately needs to live up to its lofty calling to be a city set on hill shining forth the light of Jesus. America needs the Church to be a beacon of love and mercy illuminating the way of peace.

G.K. Chesterton suggested that Saint Francis walked the world like the pardon of God. It’s an apt summary of the saint’s life. Francis embodied the grace of God as he walked the hills of Umbria barefoot in his patched brown habit and simple rope belt, preaching to birds and bishops. His life was a kind of performance art protest against the pervasive sins of thirteenth-century Italy — pride, avarice, corruption, and violence. Yet sinners themselves were drawn to Francis. How else do we explain why, in his lifetime, forty thousand people joined his rigorous order of radical Christianity emphasizing poverty, simplicity and humility? Like Jesus, Francis could uncompromisingly denounce systemic sin, while extending genuine compassion to the people caught in its pernicious web. To be a prophetic witness against systems of sin and a preacher of God’s pardon for sinners at the same time is the peculiar grace at which Francis excelled and to which the church is called.

Perhaps the most misunderstood and misused teaching of Jesus is his Olivet Discourse -- the teaching Jesus gave to his to his disciples on the Mount of Olives regarding the signs of "the end." The end of which Jesus is speaking is not the end of the world, but the the end of the Temple age. While the Temple establishment was plotting the end of Jesus, Jesus was prophesying the end of the Temple, the Temple establishment, and the Temple age. Jesus connected the demise of the Temple with the dawn of the Kingdom of God.

Patience is the heart of wisdom. Impatience is the essence of foolishness. When we demand “results” on our own timetable, we will most likely find ourselves out of step with the patient pace of historic Christianity. Impatient saints don’t exist. The saints have learned the secret of being patient with the world, with themselves, and even with God.

When we trust in Jesus, it does not guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen in our life. Evil, the destroyer of worlds is present in our World, but so is God, the savior of the worlds. In midst of suffering, we often have many questions about the goodness of God and the power of evil. What do we do with Evil? How do we respond when everything comes crashing down. Is there any hope to hold on to?

Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the world, but that we would be set apart while in the world. In answer to Jesus prayer, the tradition of Lent allows us to be present in, but separate from, the world. We practice traditions like Lent and Ash Wednesday not because we are commanded to by Bible, but because we are invited to by the church. As we practice Lent, we find that it invites us to practice self-denial, gives us space to reflect and rethink, connects us with echoes from the past, creates contrast in our lives to prepare us for Easter, and ultimately it points us to Jesus.

On the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus and talked with him about the "exodus" he would soon accomplish in Jerusalem. This exodus is more than a euphemism for death. Just as Moses led Israel out of the empire of Egypt through a divine exodus, Jesus' cross opens the door for our exodus out of the empire of sin and death.