Word of Life Church Podcast

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.