Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith

We are all familiar with nativity scenes- Mary and Joseph tend to the infant Jesus as animals and shepherds look on, and in the distance we see traveling magi, bearing their gifts, following a star... It's a peaceful scene filled with both love and wonder. And it bears some resemblance to the biblical story. But the birth of Jesus is a fundamentally disruptive event that stirs both the cosmic and political orders, and brings hidden truths to light. And revelation is a powerful thing... The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Matt. 2:1:12 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We all have seasons in life in which we are waiting...: Waiting on the next chapter to unfold, waiting something to make sense...waiting for God to take action! The wait can be excruciating at times, especially when we feel that God is silent. In this episode we look at what to do in those moments - namely the Jesuit practice of "contemplating" scripture, a means by which we learn to hear God's word to US. Want more on the contemplation stuff? Find it in my Loving God 101 series, parts 11 and 12.   The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Luke 2:21-35 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We all carry an picture of God - his power, nature, "personality"... Mine was, for many years, an academic one, formed with the Latin words of the long-dead philosophers we studied in school. And that image did great things for my GPA! Until, one day, that same picture rendered me useless to a scared, 6-yr-old cancer patient. As she saw it, cancer was proof of God's anger. When I said, "I don't think God is like that." She said, "Then what is God like...?" And it has taken me 20-years to find my answer.  The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Luke 2:8-20 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Amidst the wait for God's salvation, one can begin to doubt that it will ever come. Perhaps we have believed in vain? Or trusted in a promise that will not be fulfilled? I think the thought crosses the mind of every person of faith. So where do we go when we need assurance? Where do we look for signs of God's present love? In this episode we examine one poet's answer in the form of Psalm 139. It turns out to be quite persuasive....   The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Psalm 139 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Advent is a pensive season, a time of active reflection on our need for a savior. And that reflection on a needful world can, at times, lead to the false conclusion that the true life of faith is one of mild depression - sharing the pain of the world with only a distant hope of redemption. But that is not God's intent! There is much joy to be found even in a broken creation and in this episode we examine one poet's experience of it - a psalm of blessing and rejoicing in a God who is presently saving! The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Psalm 103 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Peace is an endangered species. From the violence of war, to our conflicted politics, to the internal battle for rest and quiet within our self, peace feels more elusive than ever. And in quest to find it, to have it, we are tempted to believe that the way to peace inwardly is to first establish peace outwardly. When the chaos and hostility have been tamed out there, I can finally rest in my soul. When in fact the opposite is true. Peace out there begins with peace in me. And that peace comes only from God. In this episode we look into one of the Bible's greatest visions of peace and gain a sense of the shalom that God intends for his creation. And as we study, we find ourselves being shaped by the words themselves, in such a way that when we have slowed ourselves and read the poem (Ps. 23), we often find that we have become more peaceful. It is a wonderful look at the power of scripture to both inform and transform the human soul. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Psalm 23 (NRSV)  Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Hope is essential to a life of love. But it can be hard to come by, especially when so much that matters to us is outside of our control. In this episode we look honestly at the difficulty of hope and how we regain it. In particular, we turn to the psalms (a constant guide to connection with God), and how one Hebrew poet found his way back to comfort and assurance in the goodness of God. If you'd like to read the e-mail sent to the Canvas congregation about the practice of the daily office, just CLICK HERE. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Psalm 33 (NRSV)   Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We have already witnessed a radical transformation in Paul - from zealous persecutor of the church to faithful Christian. But there is more to come. Paul is called by God to be an apostle (lit. "a sent one"), not to his fellow Jews, but specifically to the Gentile world. It is a mission that revolutionizes his theology, and reveals for him a depth of God's salvation he could never have otherwise imagined. In this episode we examine the Gentile mission and its essential role in the saving of the world.   The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Ephesians 3:1-13 (NRSV) To see the map referenced in the sermon, CLICK HERE.   Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

How does one go from being the church's greatest persecutor to its greatest advocate? The short answer, in Paul's own words, is: grace. In this episode, we examine this most central theme in Paul's theology. What exactly is "grace"? How do we experience it? And is it a new development in God's character, or has the God of Israel been demonstrating grace all along? If you've ever sought a deeper understanding of the Christian conception of grace, this is the episode for you. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Gal. 1:11-17 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The letter to the church at Rome - essentially a treatise on the saving work of God across history - is the Apostle Paul's magnum opus and one of the great works of Western literature. It is so profound in its insight and broad in application that we are tempted to read it apart from its context. But it is the work of a very human author, whose internal and external life must be understood. In this prologue to Romans, we meet Paul, the once notorious Saul of Tarsus - zealot and Pharisee.   The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Acts 7:54-8:1 (NRSV) Want to connect?  You can send e-mail here. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.