Word of Life Church Podcast

Why would the pastor of a large and successful church risk everything in a quest to find a richer, deeper, fuller Christianity? In Water To Wine Pastor Brian tells his story of disenchantment with pop Christianity and his search for a more substantive faith.“I was halfway to ninety—midway through life—and I had reached a full-blown crisis. Call it garden variety mid-life crisis if you want, but it was something more. You might say it was a theological crisis, though that makes it sound too cerebral. The unease I felt came from a deeper place than a mental file labeled “theology.” I was wrestling with the uneasy feeling that the faith I had built my life around was somehow deficient. Not wrong, but lacking. It seemed watery, weak. In my most honest moments I couldn’t help but notice that the faith I knew seemed to lack the kind of robust authenticity that made Jesus so fascinating. And I had always been utterly fascinated by Jesus. What I knew was that the Jesus I believed in warranted a better Christianity than what I was familiar with. I was in Cana and the wine had run out. I needed Jesus to perform a miracle.” –Brian Zahnd

Original blessing is more original than original sin. Jesus is the new Adam who leads humanity back to original blessing. The community of the baptized belong to the new humanity to which God says, "You are my beloved sons and daughters, with you I am well pleased."

"Magi from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he...?" -Matthew 2:2Two thousand years ago magi from Persia came to Jerusalem seeking the one born King of the Jews and asking, "Where is he?" What about modern magi? What about 21st century seekers? What about those who in some way believe Jesus is important, but don't quite know where to find him. If asked by modern magi, "Where is he? Where is Jesus?" -- what should we say? Here are five responses:1) At the right hand of God.2) Among the suffering.3) Among the baptized gathered in his name.4) With you. Always.5) In the bread and wine of communion .

One of the most unique things about the religion of the ancient Hebrews was the prohibition against making images of the Divine. The two things all ancient religions had in common were sacrifice and images. Israel shared sacrificial rites similar with other religions, but they prohibited the creation of sacred images. Israel had a correct instinct that to make an image of God is to misrepresent God. Israel was taught by God that they didn’t know enough about God to make an image of God. So Israel had a Torah, but no icons -- no representative images revealing what God is like. But then something wonderful happened! The most wonderful thing of all happened! The Word, Wisdom, Logos, Logic of God became flesh…a baby…a human being! Who is Jesus? The perfect icon of God. The exact imprint of God’s nature. With the coming of Christ we have a new way of knowing God!

Losing Jesus. Finding Jesus. Rethinking Jesus. This is how we make spiritual progress. This is the only way we make spiritual progress! We think we’ve got Jesus figured out. We think we know the crowd where Jesus can be found. We think we know where we can always locate Jesus. Then one day…he’s not there! And we have to go searching for him. “Seek and you shall find.” But when we find Jesus after losing him, he’s…different. That’s when the rethinking (repenting) starts. It’s the only way we make spiritual progress.

Jesus came into the world at the intersection of beauty and pain. Christ was born on the fault line of our most intractable conflict. O little town of Bethlehem… A city today where the beauty of Orthodox icons and olive wood Nativity sets collides head on with the brutality of teargas canisters and rubber bullets. Hope and horror in the House of Bread.

Explore the contrast between joy and fear in a turbulent world. Discover how early Christians found deep joy even amid persecution, inspired by Pauline teachings. Delve into the transformative power of prayer and the lordship of Jesus to achieve inner peace. Embrace joy and peace as forms of spiritual resistance against negativity. Reflect on how true identity in faith, highlighted by the story of Polycarp, can foster courage. Experience profound joy through divine love and communal expression in life's challenges.

Advent is the season where we prepare for the birth of Christ. We don’t just prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ (decorate, shop, bake, etc), but we actually prepare for Christ to born into our lives in a new way. Thus Advent is the season where we do work to keep Christ in Christians.

We are presently in a time of great darkness. The darkness of hate, bigotry, violence, and vengeance threatens to sweep over the world. But in this darkness a light shines -- the light of Jesus. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied about Messiah, saying that he would, "give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide us to the path of peace."