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

At the cross, Love and Evil went to war - the final confrontation between God and sin. And the question is: Who won? (It would be good to know, as the answer changes everything about how we live!) The New Testament, of course, argues passionately that Easter is the proof of God's victory, and as a result, the entire course of history has been transformed. But has it? And if, indeed, it has, how might we experience the change for ourselves? What are we to do to both share in and further the triumph of Love? Today we turn to a critical passage in Paul's letter to the church at Corinth. Here are the links I mention in the intro: The biblical passage is: 1 Cor. 15:1-22, 30-34, 50-58 (NRSV) Here's a link to the map. And here is a link to our Good Friday Stations of the Cross worship service (it's wonderful, truly!). This sermon was the conclusion of a larger series titled Again & Again that was a joint project of Canvas Presbyterian Church and two other congregations. You can find the whole series on our Canvas Vimeo page, and, if you'd like, subscribe to receive future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

APOLOGIES for being away so long. No...really. I'm sorry for the extended absence (more in the intro). But at last we continue in our look at hope in the time of COVID, and particularly how we make good use of a crisis. So far we've looked at the essential first step of faith: allowing ourselves to be loved. Now we take the beginning of step two: recognizing that Jesus's manner of love - indeed his whole way of being - is a radically new road. And it calls us to a radically new worldview. As I mention in the introduction, one dimension of Canvas's work in these last few months of which I am very proud, is our Continual Learning series on the church and the LGBTQ+ community. It's a core value of Canvas that we are always growing in our understanding, and one very important intersection between the larger culture and the church is engagement around members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community. As a congregation that is inclusive and affirming, we felt compelled to deepen our understanding of the LGBTQ+ experience, and thus, created two extended learning series on the subject. The resources we collected and discussed are hardly the final word on any of the topics, but in the hope of continuing the conversation and growth, I truly encourage you to take a look at what we managed to put together. You can find the whole collection here. As for this sermon... The biblical passage upon which the sermon is based is: Luke 6:17-36 (NRSV) It was preached on May 24, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The ultimate lesson of Advent, indeed the ultimate lesson of the whole of scripture and the life of faith, is love - the pure, open, unending and unconditional, freely-given love of God. It is the simplest of insights, and yet we can go decades - even as confessing Christians - without truly seeing it...truly. And so this is a sermon about exactly that: the love of God, as plainly as I can make it. It's not a Christmas sermon per se, but there is much within it about discovering Jesus (again). I hope it's of help! Here's a quick link to translation of Augustine's Confessions I've been raving about! And the biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: John 14:18-31, 15:12-17 (NRSV) It was preached on December 20, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! And know that we'd LOVE to have you join us for Christmas Eve worship! The service will be live at 4:30PM PST on Dec. 24th.  You can find it on the Canvas website or on our Vimeo page. Want even more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

If any emotion has been in short supply this year, it's joy. And yet Advent calls us to return to this central experience of the Christian life, whatever our momentary circumstances. Today we hear from Banning Cantarini, a young and gifted preacher, who takes a look at how one of our most beloved carols of Christmas was written amidst serious suffering, and why coming to Jesus is cause for rejoicing. This is no call to deny pain or paint a happy face on hardship. Rather, it is a reminder of grace. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Luke 2:8-15 (NRSV) It was preached on December 13, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! And know that we'd LOVE to have you join us for Christmas Eve worship! The service will go live at 4:30PM PST on Dec. 24th.  You can find it on the Canvas website or on our Vimeo page. Want to hear more from Banning (I highly recommend it!). You can find more of his sermons here. If you would like make a (United States) tax-deductible contribution to Canvas, please click here! And thank you! Want even more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Peace is the theme of the 2nd week of Advent and one of the central promises of the Bible. And yet for many of us, true peace - both inward and in creation - is very elusive. How can we find inner calm when so much of the world is hurting? Would we not have to turn a blind eye to suffering? Indeed, is not the way to peace on Earth the labor of God's people? Today we look again at Psalm 46 and a deep lesson on the nature of peace and and the means by which we can truly experience it (memory and faith). The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Psalm 46 (NRSV) It was preached on December 6, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! I truly do hope you will accept my invitation to join Canvas for some or all of our upcoming events. Just click here to see what's up next! And here is the link to my Christmas at 2AM Spotify playlist! If you would like make a tax-deductible (US) contribution to Canvas (thank you!), please click here! Want even more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We begin Advent 2020 with a look (by our beloved Rev. Ian Farrell) at a Jewish official named Sosthenes. Originally mentioned in the book of Acts, he took part in bringing charges against Paul in Corinth, charges that could have had dire consequences. And when the case is thrown out of court, Sosthenes is attacked by his own. Seems the last we’d hear of him...until he co-writes 1 Corinthians. It turns out people can change - a lot! And that’s not a bad reason for hope in a broken world! The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Acts 18:12-17, 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 (NRSV) It was preached on November 29, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! As I mentioned in the intro (given that Advent 1 is the beginning of the Christian new year), now is the perfect time to begin or renew the habit of praying the daily office. If you'd like more info on the office, I wrote a short start-up guide here.  And there is much more about the practice in the Loving God 201, Part 6 episode (#101) on the subject! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

If you find yourself having to learn the same lesson of faith a thousand times, following Jesus closely and then wandering off aimlessly, believing and not believing, trusting and doubting...this is the episode for you. And you happen to be in good company - namely Jesus's first disciples! Today we look at the general ineptitude of the original apostles and how clearly their impressive fallibility reveals the unconditional love of God. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Matthew 15:29-16:20 (NRSV) It was preached on May 17, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Who truly belongs to the family of faith; how wide is the circle of God's people?  This was one of the most contested debates in the early church, and remains so 2,000 years later. In this All Saints Day episode, we take up the question of inclusion and why Canvas has published a formal statement of our full embrace of those of every race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, socio-economic status who call on Christ as Lord. As I mention in the intro, Canvas is currently engaged in a Continual Learning series on the church and the LGBTQ+ community. To find the resources we are exploring and join in our Zoom conversations about them, please click here! The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Deuteronomy 10:12-22 (NRSV) It was preached on November 1, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Continuing our look at the practice of being loved by God, we read the story of Jesus encounter with a young mother desperate for healing of her daughter. Everything about their meeting is a violation of cultural expectations, and the scene is wrought with emotion. And in this meeting - where hope meets love - we see in stark relief the boundless love of God for each and every person, no matter how distant from God they may seem (or feel). The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Matthew 15:21-28 (NRSV) It was preached on May 10, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Continuing our look at the practice of being loved - the work we can do on our side of the relationship to receive what God has already given us - we look, again, to Jesus. But we do so not so much in an effort to follow or obey, but simply to (re)discover his heart: What drives Jesus? What motivates his action? If Jesus is God incarnate, what does his life reveal about the essential nature of the Lord? And how might insight into the depths of Jesus's love change us? The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Mark 1:32-2:17 (NRSV) It was preached on May 3, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services! Want more content from Jesus at 2AM? Check out the website, where you can also learn more about how to become a patron! Up for connecting??? I'd love to have you send e-mail, or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.