Word of Life Church Podcast

At the center of Christian theology and practice we find a table. The holy of holies is no longer a veiled chamber reserved for a solitary high priest, now it's a shared table to which all are invited.

Jesus had a knack for taking Old Testament subtexts and turning them into prime texts. These subtexts were always tucked away in the Hebrew scriptures in an attempt to subvert triumphalism and scapegoating. One of these subtexts is the story of Naaman. Naaman was a gentile, a Syrian, the military commander of Israel's enemy. He was also a leper who found hope and healing in the God of Israel.

Hagar was an Egyptian slave treated harshly by her Hebrew mistress. But God saw her. The Hebrews were slaves treated harshly by their Egyptians masters. But God saw them. God doesn't see ethnicity or nationality. God sees suffering. God doesn't care about ethnicity or nationality. God cares about suffering.

What is the book of Revelation? It is the prophetic critique of the Roman Empire, and as such it is the divine critique of all empires. Empires are rich and powerful nations that believe they have a divine right to rule the nations and a manifest destiny to shape world according to their will and are willing to use the means of death to do so. God is opposed to these empires. What they claim for themselves, God claims for his Son Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is a counter-text to the dominant text of empire. The worship depicted in Revelation is subversion of civil religion -- it seeks to create a people faithful to God as they are drawn into the anthem of the Lamb.

Isaac. The middle child of the Patriarchs. The quiet one stuck between Abraham and Jacob. Abraham is the father of faith -- the man with whom God made his covenant. Jacob is the man who became Israel -- his twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. But what about Isaac? The boy named Laughter. The promised son of Abraham and Sarah's old age? There's not much said about Isaac. He rarely speaks. But there was that one incident. The day his father almost sacrificed him as a burnt offering to Yahweh. Imagine Isaac as an old man recalling the day he and his father went to the top of Moriah to worship Yahweh, and how he ended up bound upon an altar while his father held the knife.

The violent lust for thrones of power is a familiar theme in the human story. And it's a story that is told over and over in the course of the Old Testament—this game of thrones. The story of Israel's first three kings alone is filled with tales of murder, lust, and deceit. The game of thrones is the way of the world. But is there a better way?

The church in Western Europe and North America is struggling with deep disappointment. We are disappointed with the failure of the Christendom project. The grand attempt to produce a continent of Christian civilization through the apparatus of the state is either dead or dying. It appears that secularism has already won in Europe and will win in North America. So we either deny it (more easily done in America), or we angrily blame scapegoats (those we claim have “compromised the gospel”), or we simply trudge along, a bit sad about it all, nostalgic for a mythical past. The church in the post-Christendom world is walking the Emmaus Road. Confused and disappointed. But our confusion and disappointment, like that of the original Emmaus Road disciples, comes from misunderstanding the nature of Christ's kingdom.

"Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams."-The Prophet Joel"You may say that I'm a dreamer."-John LennonBrian Zahnd tells the story of three dreams:1. In New York looking for the faith of Abraham.2. In Zurich shopping for shoes with Karl Barth.3. In Calcutta riding in a taxi with Mother Teresa.

Following Jesus is not a matter of religious preference or memorizing a set of God-facts or preparing for the afterlife. Following Jesus is a journey with surprises, challenges, and changing terrain. Our journey with Jesus is much like long distance hiking, requiring waypoints to guide the way, waypoints such as: training, rhythm, obstacles, companionship, flexibility, and being present.

David and Goliath. The underdog prevailing against impossible odds. The boy who slays the giant. This archetypal story captures our imagination like few other stories in Scripture. But how do we reconcile this admittedly violent story with the Son of David who bears the moniker of Prince of Peace?