Word of Life Church Podcast

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.