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 Can

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+ experienc

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

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

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!

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 mo

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 fu

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 Faceb

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

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, Twitte

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

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.

Isn't the main point of Christianity to be a good person (and thereby to secure my place in heaven)? I mean, if one is basically moral, reasonably charitable and occasionally saintly, doesn't that please the Almighty? Is the point to please the Almighty? Come to think of it, what IS the point of Christianity? If one were to boil it all down, what's the message of the gospel? In this episode we take up these questions and arrive at a vision of faith that goes far beyond ethics. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Ephesians 2:1-10 (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.

I know that as a Christian I am called to sanctification - to a life shaped ever more into the image of Jesus, in short, to a life of sinning less and loving more. And in some areas of my life, I see progress! But in other areas...not so much. Indeed in some facets of my life, I see almost no inner change at all, despite genuine effort. What gives? Do I just need to try harder? Really? (Frankly, much of me is ready to give up and just make peace with a besetting sin or three.) So what does actual sanctification look like??? How do I work with besetting sins? And is there an option for change beyond sloth (i.e., surrender) at one end of the spectrum and scrupulosity (never-ending guilt and anxiety) at the other??? The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  Matthew 25:14-30 (NRSV) 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.

Does prayer work? By which we mean, does prayer change anything? Is it supposed to change things? Change external circumstances? Or merely the disposition of the pray-er? And if God knows all that we need and loves us dearly, does his help depend on our prayers or the prayers of others??? In this episode our beloved Ian Farrell takes up the topic of prayer - a practice with which he is intimately familiar - and offers his insights on the purpose of prayer and the means by which prayer affects us and others. The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:  John 16 (NRSV) And here's the link to Jordan Seng's Miracle Work. Read at your own risk! ;-)    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.