Word of Life Church Podcast

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Jubilee For Everybody Jan 31, 2016

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In announcing that God’s jubilee of liberation, amnesty, and pardon was arriving with what he was doing, Jesus omitted any reference to God exacting vengeance on Israel’s enemies. In claiming that Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus is claiming to be Jubilee in person. But the scandalous suggestion is that this Jubilee is to be for everybody…even Israel’s enemies. Jesus has edited out vengeance, and this gives us a key to how Jesus read the Old Testament.

Silence Jan 29, 2016

Show notes

Ours is an angry and vociferous age. We’re constantly subjected to the noise of charged political rhetoric — the wearying din of the culture wars. Too often Sunday morning can be little more than a religious echo of this same noise. But shouldn’t Sunday be a Christian Sabbath, a time to quiet our souls and receive the gift of silence? What if, instead of being another contributor to this clatter, our churches became a shelter from the storm offering respite to shell-shocked souls?

Jesus and Jubilee Jan 24, 2016

Show notes

When God gave Israel the Law, God also gave Israel a calendar. Included in Israel's sacred calendar was the year of Jubilee when debts were canceled, slaves were freed, and property inheritance was restored. The Jubilee was a divine liberation from debt, slavery, and eviction. During Israel's exile Isaiah prophesied of a Spirit anointed person who would announce the restitution of Jubilee. Six centuries later in the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus announced that he was fulling Isaiah's prophecy by announcing the arrival of God's jubilee

Echoes Jan 22, 2016

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"Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Those four words seemed prescient. I don’t want to make too much of what was probably just a happy coincidence, but those four words did speak to me. Echoes, silence, patience, and grace. These were things I needed. I needed to hear echoes from the past. I needed to practice more silence in the present. I needed patience with the future. I needed grace to tie it all together. Like the five words in 2004, these four words in 2009 meant something to me. Four words from the Foo Fighters on the train to Assisi." - Pastor Brian Zahnd, "Water To Wine"

Water To Wine Jan 17, 2016

Show notes

Why would the pastor of a large and successful church risk everything in a quest to find a richer, deeper, fuller Christianity? In Water To Wine Pastor Brian tells his story of disenchantment with pop Christianity and his search for a more substantive faith.
“I was halfway to ninety—midway through life—and I had reached a full-blown crisis. Call it garden variety mid-life crisis if you want, but it was something more. You might say it was a theological crisis, though that makes it sound too cerebral. The unease I felt came from a deeper place than a mental file labeled “theology.” I was wrestling with the uneasy feeling that the faith I had built my life around was somehow deficient. Not wrong, but lacking. It seemed watery, weak. In my most honest moments I couldn’t help but notice that the faith I knew seemed to lack the kind of robust authenticity that made Jesus so fascinating. And I had always been utterly fascinated by Jesus. What I knew was that the Jesus I believed in warranted a better Christianity than what I was familiar with. I was in Cana and the wine had run out. I needed Jesus to perform a miracle.” –Brian Zahnd

Walls of Wounds Jan 15, 2016

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Original Blessing Jan 10, 2016

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Original blessing is more original than original sin. Jesus is the new Adam who leads humanity back to original blessing. The community of the baptized belong to the new humanity to which God says, "You are my beloved sons and daughters, with you I am well pleased."

Where Is He? Jan 08, 2016

Show notes

"Magi from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he...?" -Matthew 2:2
Two thousand years ago magi from Persia came to Jerusalem seeking the one born King of the Jews and asking, "Where is he?" What about modern magi? What about 21st century seekers? What about those who in some way believe Jesus is important, but don't quite know where to find him. If asked by modern magi, "Where is he? Where is Jesus?" -- what should we say? Here are five responses:
1) At the right hand of God.
2) Among the suffering.
3) Among the baptized gathered in his name.
4) With you. Always.
5) In the bread and wine of communion .

A New Way of Knowing God Jan 03, 2016

Show notes

One of the most unique things about the religion of the ancient Hebrews was the prohibition against making images of the Divine. The two things all ancient religions had in common were sacrifice and images. Israel shared sacrificial rites similar with other religions, but they prohibited the creation of sacred images. Israel had a correct instinct that to make an image of God is to misrepresent God. Israel was taught by God that they didn’t know enough about God to make an image of God. So Israel had a Torah, but no icons -- no representative images revealing what God is like. But then something wonderful happened! The most wonderful thing of all happened! The Word, Wisdom, Logos, Logic of God became flesh…a baby…a human being! Who is Jesus? The perfect icon of God. The exact imprint of God’s nature. With the coming of Christ we have a new way of knowing God!

Losing Jesus Dec 27, 2015

Show notes

Losing Jesus. Finding Jesus. Rethinking Jesus. This is how we make spiritual progress. This is the only way we make spiritual progress! We think we’ve got Jesus figured out. We think we know the crowd where Jesus can be found. We think we know where we can always locate Jesus. Then one day…he’s not there! And we have to go searching for him. “Seek and you shall find.” But when we find Jesus after losing him, he’s…different. That’s when the rethinking (repenting) starts. It’s the only way we make spiritual progress.

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