Word of Life Church Podcast

"Sitting with Jesus" is a form of contemplative prayer. There are breakthroughs in spiritual development that can occur through contemplative prayer that can occur no other way. Either we gain new perspectives through contemplative prayer or we forever look at the world through the same old lens of frightened self-interest. It is in contemplative prayer (or "sitting with Jesus") that universal love becomes possible.

We all know we live in a broken world. From Fallujah to Ferguson, Beirut to Baltimore, there’s too much hate, too much war, too much poverty, too much sorrow. Some religious folk just want to post a “condemned” sign and abandon the world. Their escapist fantasy is to fly off to some other world. But this is not the blessed hope. God still loves our beautiful and broken world, and the Carpenter of Nazareth came to restore it, not condemn it. The Hebrew prophets dreamed of a day when all things would be restored. Their poems speak of lions lying down with lambs, swords turning into plowshares, barren wastelands being healed, and every bitter tear wiped away. After Pentecost the apostles preached that Jesus is the hero of the poet’s dream. So this is our gospel: The world is broken because we are broken…but Jesus restores all things!That God may send JesusThe Christ appointed for youWhom heaven must receiveUntil the timeFor the restorationOf all things-The Apostle Peter (Acts 3:20-21)

The Apostle Paul says that he received his revelation directly from Christ. Paul never knew the historical Jesus of Nazareth, but he did know the risen and ascended Christ of the Cosmos. Paul also says that it is this "Christ of the Cosmos" who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

If we don’t perceive the importance of Pentecost, it’s because we don’t perceive how the gospel culminates with the creation of the Church. The catholicity of the Church is not about speaking one language. (That's Babylon.) It's about one gospel spoken in many tongues. We must not shrink Pentecost to an individual spiritual experience. Pentecost isn't about individualism; it's about our unity in the Holy Spirit.

Armageddon. It's word that only appears once in the Bible, but few words have captured popular imagination more than Armageddon. As such it's much used and and abused by the popular misinterpreters of Revelation. To hear them tell it, the world is being drawn inevitably toward an unpreventable war. But this is a horrible misinterpretation. Our looming Armageddons are always a possibility, but never an inevitability. Armageddon is inevitable only if that's what we want. Armageddon is inevitable only if we refuse to follow the Lamb. Armageddon is inevitable only if we follow dragons, beasts, and false prophets.

We certainly need fresh encounters with the Holy Spirit, but we also need the wisdom of the historic church. We need the Holy Spirit and we need the creeds. We need the power of the Spirit and we need the writings of the church fathers. We need the gifts of the Spirit and we need the traditions of the church. We need an openness to the surprising work of the Holy Spirit and we need serious, theological study of Scripture.One of the ways to bridge the gap between these kinds of needs is to reflect upon the Holy Spirit using "Come, Creator Spirit," a 9th century hymn to the Holy Spirit. What we see among other things in considering this hymn is the Holy Spirit is not only the breath of God, but the touch of God; the place where God touches humanity.

Most of our problems in church life are rooted in worship problems driven by theology problems. This phenomenon is why the Apostle Paul addressed problems in the ancient church with answers in what we think and what we say about God. The god we believe in is the god we will worship. Worship the wrong god and experience the road to destruction and heartache. Christians worship the one God, the creator God, the God of Israel. We worship one God, but whatever it meant for God to be one was radically rethought by Paul by Jesus and the Spirit. The one God we worship is a holy community of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The branches of our life that are incapable of transmitting the life of Jesus will eventually be burned. The branches of our life that are capable of transmitting the life of Jesus will eventually be cut back. But if we keep abiding in the mystery of Jesus, the pruned places of pain and loss will become the source of great grace to help heal others.

We're told that the Ethiopian Eunuch went to Jerusalem to worship. But this treasurer in the royal court of Queen Candace would not have been allowed to worship in the Temple. The Torah prohibited eunuchs from the entering the Temple. But Isaiah held forth a vision of a new kind of Temple where eunuchs would be welcome. When Philip preached the good news of Jesus, the eunuch discovered that he was welcome in the new Temple that is the kingdom of God.