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 presen…

God's Revolution to Restore All Creation begins with a cry to all Israel to prepare for war. But not the war Israel expected... For decades tensions with Rome had been growing. Various political and religious sects (think Pharisees, Sadducees, et al.) were staking out their positions in the coming conflict. Swords and spears were beginning to be sh…

At the heart of Jesus's ministry is the declaration that "the Kingdom of God has come near!" This is not merely a call for sinners to secure the afterlife, but the announcement that the fulfillment of the covenant of salvation is at hand! The God of Israel has arrived to depose the powers and principalities of this age and re-establish his reign ov…

The one commandment I disregard without a second thought is the one about resting. The irony, of course, is that I often ignore this divine call to honor the sabbath in what feels like the work of the Kingdom. And it has been more clear in the last two years than in most of my lifetime that there is work to be done. It is easy for good people to be…

No, your eyes do not deceive you...the podcast is back! (It never really left, but was definitely on leave of absence for a while...very sorry about that - some of the details are in the intro.) Then it's on to part 18 of our series: Hope in the Time of Covid. In this episode, we take a look at the difficult-yet-essential truth that the road to jus…

Does the 21st century nation state of Peru play an essential role in salvation history? Short answer: Of course not. God loves Peruvians! But Peru the cultural/political body is not critical to the plan redemption. So why do many American Christians suspect that the US, as a nation (or a cultural dimension of the nation), is a divinely ordained act…

How do I, as a white, well-educated, heterosexual, Protestant, cis male, who would never knowingly sanction racism of any sort, reflect on "systemic racism"? For those of us who try hard to so very hard to be good people (defined in no small part by being not-racist!), the phrase can spark a reflexive defensiveness ("Not me!"). Yet the enduring eff…

Hope is the belief that things can change for the better. And it is the question the gospel persistently sets before us: Are we naive in thinking that meaningful transformation is possible? And more naive still to believe that love is the means by which such transformation truly occurs? These questions of hope, love and change are especially pressi…

"How does one appease a deity? Gain a favor? Avert a curse?" Such questions stood at the center of Ancient Near Eastern religion (and of many cultures since...). And thus great effort has been dedicated to rituals and ceremonies and strict adherence to divine instructions. So what does the God of Israel want from his people? What are our instructio…

As those called to share in God's project of restoration, justice is at the heart of our work. But what does the Bible mean by "justice"? The term easily conjures feelings and images not shalom (peace), but punishment - that divine justice is defined by the reward of the righteous and the proper condemnation of the wicked. (This is where much of th…

Essential to the life of faith is recognizing that hope is rooted in reality, in what is actually possible. The gospel has no room for fairy tales or wishful thinking, only for what can be accomplished in this time and place. And thus the work of maturity is to expand our vision for what is possible with God (short answer: healing, peace and restor…

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 trans…

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: r…

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 …

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 suffe…

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'…

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 he…

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 apo…

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…

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 l…

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…

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 …

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 me…

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 ho…

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 …