Word of Life Church Podcast

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.