Word Of Life Church Podcast

ShineCollective SoulGive me a wordGive me a signShow me where to lookTell me, what will I find?What will I find?Lay me on the groundAnd fly me in the skyShow me where to lookTell me, what will I find?What will I find?Whoa, Heaven let your light shine down...Love is in the waterLove is in the airShow me where to lookTell me, will love be there?Will love be there?Teach me how to speakTeach me how to shareTeach me where to goTell me, will love be there?Will love be there?Whoa, Heaven let your light shine down...

If God had a name what would it be?And would you call it to his face?If you were faced with Him in all His gloryWhat would you ask if you had just one question?And yeah, yeah, God is greatYeah, yeah, God is goodYeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeahWhat if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTryin' to make his way home?If God had a face what would it look like?And would you want to seeIf seeing meant that you would have to believeIn things like heaven and in Jesus and the SaintsAnd all the prophets?And yeah, yeah, God is greatYeah, yeah, God is goodYeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeahWhat if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTryin' to make his way home?Just tryin' to make his way homeBack up to heaven all aloneNobody callin' on the phone'Cept for the Pope, maybe in RomeAnd yeah, yeah, God is greatYeah, yeah, God is goodYeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeahWhat if God was one of us?Just a slob like one of usJust a stranger on the busTryin' to make his way home?Just tryin' t

The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood to reveal God’s neighboring presence. God has joined us as us in order to rescue us and the world. The infinite took on the finite. Immortality took on mortality. The eternal took on the earthly. The God of creation moved into the neighborhoods of our creation in order to rebuild our neighborhoods. God is here. God’s neighboring presence is here with us and for us in order to remake us. In and through Jesus, God joins us in three movements. God joins us in life (incarnation) to be with us and we awaken. God joins us in death (crucifixion) to rescue us and we believe. God joins us in new life (resurrection) to transform us and we participate.

When by the grace of God we realize that who we've become is not who we are supposed to be, the good news is this: We can put our trust in Jesus, be reborn, and begin the salvation journey of becoming the person we were always meant to be.

Can the gospel be told as a tragedy? Obviously. And it certainly was by the Apostles. Before we jump to the triumph of the resurrection we must first face the tragedy of the cross.

The gospel is the divine comedy that begins with a ninety-year-old woman having a baby and concludes with a slain lamb overcoming all the monsters of the abyss. This is the divine comedy we’re invited join by simply believing that Jesus is Lord, and the joke is on the devil.

In a Voyage and Return story the central character travels out of their familiar, “everyday” surroundings into another world completely cut off from home. This other world is strange, different, exotic, and perhaps at first, exhilarating. But eventually a shadow intrudes. Things begin to change…for the worse. The traveler increasingly feels threatened or trapped. At some point they will need to return home—but enriched and transformed. Unlike the Quest plot, the journey away from home is usually by accident or a mistake—they pass through the looking glass, fall down the rabbit hole, or stumble through a wardrobe into another world. There will be adventures and dangers, but the story ends with the hero returning home, now with greater wisdom and a newfound appreciation.

"You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune—though it would not be the fortune you seek. But first, first you must travel—a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. You shall see things wonderful to tell. You shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton house, and oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the ob-stacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. And though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye foller the way, even unto your salvation." -O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Rags to riches is the familiar story where we begin with an apparently ordinary, insignificant person, overlooked or even dismissed by everyone else, who suddenly takes center stage and is revealed to be someone quite extraordinary. And the greatest rags to riches story is the gospel story of Jesus of Nazareth.

The greatest stories, epics, and myths offer a profound insight into the deepest longings of the human heart, for as Ecclesiastes says, “God has placed eternity in their hearts.” In analyzing the great stories we discover that there are seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. All of these plots point to the true story, the true epic, the true myth that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this sermon we look at the gospel as Overcoming the Monster.

The gospel is first and foremost a story—it’s the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of God saving the world. And this story is what all the great stories in one way or another point to—because, indeed, Jesus Christ is Lord of the Story.

The unique way Christians talk about God is found in ancient language. We say God is a Holy Trinity. We believe the one true living God, the creator God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob has been revealed in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in one God, one divine essence and substance in three persons. The doctrine of the Trinity is important and essential because it tells us who God is and subsequently who we are.  

The church born on Pentecost -- the very first church -- devoted itself to four things:1. The Apostles' Teaching (Didache)2. The Fellowship (Koinonia)3. The Breaking of Bread (Eucharist)4. The Prayers (Liturgy)

Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings/Psalms. After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples, "Everything written about me in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. If we want our minds to be opened to understand the Scriptures, there’s one essential key: The aim and end, the Alpha and Omega, the promise and fulfillment of all Scripture is…Jesus Christ!

The Apostle Paul speaks often of the mystery of Christ as the supreme revelation of God, but this in not a mystery we can place under our control. In his poem The Magi, William Butler Yeats aptly describes the incarnate Word born at Bethlehem as "the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor."

The landscape of our current culture seems to be filled with fury and it has left the condition of our souls vexed with anxiety. If we trust and follow Jesus, the one who cares for our soul, he will lead us, as the Good Shepherd, out of the landscape of fury and into pastures of peace.

Q&A from the message "What about the Wrath of God?"

The eschatological vision of the Bible is the answer to our constant prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So at the end of the Bible we are shown a prophetic picture of the arrival on earth of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem; a garden city that embodies fidelity and justice.

"All the kitsch to be found in Christian life and Christian art arises from a failure to take the Incarnation seriously." -Hans Urs von Balthasar(kitsch: mass produced art in poor taste; often characterized by an excessive sentimentality)If we think of Christmas as God donning a human costume to playact as a person, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus being born just so he can grow up and can die for our sins, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus as Superman flying around being God all over the place, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. And if we have a kitschy view of the Incarnation, we will have a kitschy and cartoonish, cheap, and sentimental Christian life. But if we can approach the mystery of the Incarnation as the greatest wonder of all, we can find the door to the substantive faith that is the object of our deepest longing.