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

The divine rescue - of which the ministry of Jesus is the decisive act - is not merely to be understood as the securing of a heavenly afterlife for the faithful, but the restoration of a fallen creation. To be "saved" is to be set free, to be healed and to be counted a citizen of the "kingdom of God."

But such freedom recognizes there we are presently captives, subjects of a hostile regime. There is an enemy that must be defeated. But identifying that enemy - the actual enemy - can be quite difficult.

In this episode we turn to the story of Jesus's "temptation" in the wilderness as Matthew helps us see that this is Evil's attempt at a negotiated victory. Why not accept some comfort here, some glory there and a whole lot of earthly power? All that is required is to let Evil continue it's work behind the scenes... It's an offer Jesus managed to refuse..., but one we are quite often willing to accept in an instant. And the thing about deals with the devil is...there is never a deal.

It can help to follow along visually, so the text for this sermon can be found here --> Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)

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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!

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Jesus scandalizes his religious contemporaries by accepting an invitation to dine with Levi, a known tax collector (one who purchased the right to ” collect” – read “overcharge” – the taxes of their fellow Jews). The occasion reveals a fundamental clash of values, in which Jesus declares that God has come to rescue the “righteous” [...]

Love is the name of the game. It is the purpose behind creation, the goal of life and the greatest of all commandments. In this episode we begin an extensive look at love in practice – love of God, self and other (indeed even of enemy) as displayed in the life of Jesus. Our guide [...]

The life of faith will have its share of sleepless nights. The question is whether we are having them for the right reasons.

In this episode we look at Jesus's parable of the "narrow door" - a stern warning to those who, in their self righteousness, would never bother to question their citizenship within the Kingdom of God. But question they should, question we all should. NOT to foster undue fear, shame and/or anxiety, but so that - like an athlete in training - they might recognize the very real need to be ever on task, preparing or the critical work of the kingdom that is our true mission.

In an effort to be especially practical, In the sermon I mention a Rule of Life we did at Canvas for Lent 2016. Here is a link to the .PDF file. If you want to hear more about the idea of Rule, you can listen to Ep. 131 of the podcast. Or read more about Rule here.

The text for this episode is Luke 13:22-35.

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