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

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.

That individual humans are dearly loved by God is central claim of Christianity. And yet many of us go through periods where we question even this foundational idea. Are we loved? Really? And even when we believe - intellectually - that we are, coming to deeply accept and experience that love remains quite a struggle. But there are ways we can aid in the process of receiving love, practices that can undertake. For the next few episodes we will look at those, staring with hearing God say it again. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Isaiah 43:1-7 (NRSV) It was preached on April 26, 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.

Having established the content of Christian hope - the present assurance of God's ultimate salvation (see ep. 292) - we turn now to the Christian obligation to be instruments of hope to others. Amidst suffering, even suffering inflicted upon us, as followers of Jesus we are called to embody hope, to reveal the way to love and peace and rest. Our means for accomplishing this? In a word: holiness - being distinctly Christian, distinctly loving. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: 1 Peter 1:1-16 (NRSV) It was preached on April 19, 2020 (Easter) 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.

For many of us right now, especially, hope can feel in short supply. Not just the amount of hope, but the content of hope. What are we actually hoping for? And what has Jesus got to do with it? What constitutes "Christian" hope? That we won't suffer? That we won't grieve? Die? Clearly that is NOT what the gospel promises (see "crucifixion"!). Is hope, then, limited only to the age to come? I trust that God will win in the cosmic end? Is there true, meaningful hope for today? Short answer: yes. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Romans 8:1-27 (NRSV) It was preached on April 12, 2020 (Easter) 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.

This remains a very difficult time, as crisis seems to mount upon crisis, pain upon pain, fear upon fear. And the question that confronts us is: How do we remain people of enduring hope, while honestly enduring suffering? When we don't seek false escape from pain, diminish it or deny it, but courageously face it, what gets us through? What genuine hope do we have? And how do we experience it? The short answer is: prayer. And prayer can be learned. In this episode we examine Ps. 118 as we learn how to pray deeply. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Psalm 118 (NRSV) It was preached on April 5, 2020 (Palm Sunday) at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or check out the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive. 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.

What most of us want amidst suffering is for the pain to end - to be quickly delivered from our distress. And it is tempting to imagine that if God loves us, this must be what he desires as well - a quick and sudden end to our hardships. Perhaps that is the hope of faith, that if we are sufficiently obedient, God will prevent our suffering in the first place (or remove it quickly)? But the Bible makes no such promises. Indeed Jesus himself insists that we will face pain. So what then is our hope? And why? The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Romans 5:1-5 (NRSV) It was preached on March 29, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or check out the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive. 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.

One of the hardest parts of enduring this crisis is coping with so much uncertainty: How long will it last? Who will be affected? What about the economy? Will there be a vaccine? Who should I trust for information...? The questions can be dizzying and tempt us in some moments to grasp at any hope offered, and at others, to nearly abandon hope. In this episode, we look at the biblical promises of hope - what God does (and does not) assure to his people - so as to ground ourselves in on the bedrock of truth and faith. It is in proper, nuanced hope that we find both comfort in our suffering and creative energy to bring transformation to our world. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Isaiah 46:3-13 (NRSV) The "lemonade stand" photo was taken by professional photographer and Canvas family member Irene Bowers (thanks, Irene!). This sermon was preached on March 22, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or check out the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive. 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.

This is the first in an entirely ad hoc series on hope and transformation and how they fit together. It is born out of the pandemic that has swept our world, and my ponderings on what defines the Christian hope and how that hope can shape the world that emerges on this other side of this crisis. This sermon is from March 15, 2020 (the first week of California's social distancing order) and looks at the theological and practical sides of loving our world in the manner of Jesus. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is: Matthew 5:1-16 (NRSV) If you'd like to participate in a virtual worship service at Canvas (Kirk's congregation), they are now available on the Canvas website and Vimeo page. Want more content from Jesus at 2AM?? Learn how to become a patron! Want to connect? You can send e-mail here. Or find Jesus at 2AM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.