Living in Hope (on the Brink of an Election) #LectioCast

Explicit content warning

11/01/16 • 34 min

In a world in which “you can’t always get what you want,” whether it’s justice, abundance, equality, or a decent political candidate, how do we continue to place our hope in God? Why should we place our hope in God?

Haggai 1:15b-2:9 In the midst of grave disappointment God says, “Don’t give up on me yet.” The presence of God is the promise of God’s acts in the future.

Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 God is worthy of praise. Do we tell enough stories about what God has done that we know this to be true in the depths of our hearts?

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Don’t worry: you haven’t missed the awesome thing that God is going to do, because God has that awesome thing in store for you. We can continue to hope, even if the present isn’t panning out like we expected.

Luke 20:27-38 The life to come is not just like this one. It offers freedoms and life that blow up all our categories. So when things seem to be hopeless, there is a hope beyond imagining still waiting.

Daniel Kirk is a writer, speaker, and blogger who lives in San Francisco, CA where he is currently Pastoral Director for the Newbigin House of Studies. His third book A Man Attested by God: the Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, is hot off the presses. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Duke University and is the author of, Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God and Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? He blogs regularly at StoriedTheology.com (http://patheos.com/blogs/storiedtheology). You can follow him on Twitter @jrdkirk and on Facebook at Facebook.com/jrdkirk.

Haggai 1:15b-2:9 In the midst of grave disappointment God says, “Don’t give up on me yet.” The presence of God is the promise of God’s acts in the future.

Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 God is worthy of praise. Do we tell enough stories about what God has done that we know this to be true in the depths of our hearts?

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The Contemplative Practice of Faithfulness to God with Corinna Guerrero #LectioCast

Sometimes the chaos of the world compels us to call on God to set all things right. Sometimes the chaos of the world compels us to delight in God’s presence in the midst of hardship. Can we take hold of both?

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 A cry for justice in a time of uncertainty. And a renewed cry when God answers wrong. A call for patience as we await geopolitical transformation.

Psalm 119:137-144 Here we find righteousness not in a transformed world but in the Torah that God has given. Perhaps a call to find peace and joy in the presence of God even in the midst of geopolitical turmoil.

Luke 19:1-10 Did Jesus bring repentance to the house of Zacchaeus? Or did he recognize that Zecchaeus was already a child of Abraham? What message do we need to hear with respect to our own money? Comfort or challenge? Do we need to be chastised for our crowd-like presumption and grumbling?

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 Faith needs to get worked out in horizontal and vertical dimensions. And suffering is to be expected for those living out the story of the crucified Christ.

Corinna Guerrero is currently the MTS Online Program Coordinator (Berkeley, Campus) and Lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University. She holds these positions while writing her dissertation on motifs of atrocity in the Book of Judges.

To read some of Corinna’s popular work see her cover article “Costly Scripture” for America Magazine and her essay “I am CHURCH” in Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay.

Daniel Kirk is a writer, speaker, and blogger who lives in San Francisco, CA. His third book A Man Attested by God: the Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, is hot off the presses. He is also serving as pastoral director for the Newbigin House of Studies in San Francisco. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Duke University and is the author of, Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God and Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? He blogs regularly at StoriedTheology.com (http://patheos.com/blogs/storiedtheology). You can follow him on Twitter @jrdkirk and on Facebook at Facebook.com/jrdkirk.

Next Episode

A Glorious New Creation! After Things Get Really, Really Bad #LectioCast

The promise of new creation bursts through with images of wholeness, shalom, restoration, and God’s relentless passion for God’s beloved people. And when a bystander tries to get Jesus to say that the time has finally come for it, Jesus says, “Actually, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

Isaiah 65:17-25 New creation looks like a holistic picture of human thriving and flourishing. It’s shalom. It’s the dignity of meaningful work. It’s God delighting in each of us.

Isaiah 12 We celebrate a God whose identity is tied to our own. We celebrate a God who only “is” in relation to us, who “becomes” in relationship to the doings God promised to do.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Get to work. That is all.

Luke 21:5-19 No, that new creation thing isn’t on the cusp of happening. In fact, things have to get a whole lot worse, first. But take courage–God can save your whole self even if you lose your life.