Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

We look at the story of the Tower of Babel, and at its traditional interpretation, along with some newer twists on that interpretation.  We consider how this ties in with a story from the New Testament, and how the Tower of Babel, combined with a New Testament slant, tells a very uplifting story.  We also look at a man I met a while back who was building his own Tower of Babel, and how that went w...

A man with no home and no family once showed up at the hospital having a seizure.  We look at how this man responded to being treated with compassion.  We also look at the "sandwiched" stories of Jesus curing the daughter of a rich man and Jesus healing a poor woman.  We look at a very special word in the inner story - kraspedou - and how the way it is typically translated tends to greatly minimiz...

I once met a former EMT who was using a high tech wheelchair because she was an incomplete quadriplegic.  She was in the hospital for a test, but was highly traumatized, suffering from a PTSD attack because she was back in a hospital - after having spent months in an ICU after her accident.  She told me the story of how, as an EMT earning a bit over the minimum wage, she had been in a traffic acci...

Supposedly, Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, but in truth it was written 700 years later.  I studied Greek philosophy and literature in college at Occidental, long ago.  Something stuck with me later: Ecclesiastes was probably written in part as a response to the Greek influence on Hebrew culture at the time Ecclesiastes was written - just after the height of the Epicurean age.  We consider th...

I used to tease my kids, telling them things that were not real and getting them to believe it, before telling them it was a joke.  This backfired when my little daughter refused to eat an ice cream cone that I told her was safe to eat - convinced that I was trying to get her to eat cardboard.  I had turned myself into a wolf in sheep's clothing, a dad that was not to be believed.  We look at the...

Wendy and I once traveled in Ireland with our kids - when they were quite small.  We had some adventures, in particular, a surprise concert at a nearby zoo, by U2.  We look at the book of Ecclesiastes, a very enigmatic and literate book that talks about the difficulties of finding true satisfaction and meaning in life on Earth.  It can be a very jaded read.  But it teaches us some very important p...

I met a young man who considered himself a modern "Gnostic" - and I learned about the dire limitations of his faith.  We look at 1st John, a deeply theological letter that strives to set the reader straight on the basic tenets of Christian faith.  We look at issues such as Christ being both fully human and fully man, at the source of love, and the need to recognize the reality of sin.  We see why...

I visited Israel once, and drove the length of the old Unified Kingdom under David and Solomon: about 100 or so miles.  We look at the history of the 10 tribes of Israel, the United Kingdom, and the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah.  We consider the tiny size and brief period during when the Unified Kingdom existed.  We consider what a couple of Prophets and the New Testament has to say about...

We consider a couple of prominent Bible passages that superficially seem to back up the "fire and brimstone" sermon that I once heard from a rather strident pastor.  But we look at these passages more closely.  We consider whether God really is vengeful and violent.  We consider an alternative interpretation of these New Testament passages - and see if perhaps there is a common misinterpretation o...

We consider an ancient landfill found in Egypt - which contains the oldest known New Testament fragments ever found.  We look at the very negative view that the ancient Jews had of garbage or refuse of any kind and what this means for God choosing to preserve his most ancient New Testament Word in a landfill.  We also consider a man I once met who worked in a landfill and how ashamed he was of his...

We consider something that I have had trouble conveying in my church and in my podcasts: how we know that we can relax and depend on God to take care of us.  We do this by looking at the Book of Esther, an ancient Hebrew story (and not really "history") about a woman who saves the entire Jewish people from annihilation.  God is never mentioned in the story.  Neither is prayer, the history of the I...

When I was a boy, a girl went missing while playing Hide and Go Seek with some of us.  Her mother ended up offering a prayer, which I later identified, I believe, as the Prayer of Manasseh, from the Apocrypha.  We look at the history of the evil King Manasseh from the Kings and Chronicles Books, and at this prayer which is attributed to him (which he certainly did not write).  From the beautiful,...

When I was a young kid in school, I was exposed to a boy who would probably now be called "neurodivergent".  I ended up learning a lot about what it means to be different, but still be made in God's image.  We look at Samson, a sinful, arrogant, corrupt, even laughable man who is manipulated by God to serving despite his apparent desire to dishonor his position as a Nazarite.  We look at the many...

We look at a story from Judges: the female judge Deborah and how her army destroyed the far more advanced army of their enemy.  In the Bible, it is an epic of the Iron Age of the Canaanites vs. the Bronze Age of the Israelites.  We study both the prose and the poem version of this story.  We see how with God's help, the rag tag Israelite army destroys the experienced Canaanite army which is invadi...

My father served in the Pacific in World War II as a Marine and the leader of a combat unit.  We look at three stories of resurrection, of rising from spiritual death: the return of the exiles from Babylon, the rise of Christ after death, and the growth of the Christian church in very recent times.  We also look at how my sister serving as a foreign exchange student healed my father and allowed hi...

We look at the traditional view of Holy Week, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, to the gruesome crucifixion, to the glorious resurrection.  We note that low point between the ride into the Holy City and the rise of Jesus from death.  But we consider a somewhat different view - that the crucifixion does not break the joy from Palm Sunday to Easter.  We look at Jesus' last words...

I once spoke with a highly educated physicist who was a psychiatric patient.  We call her Annie.  She talked to me about the Newtonian misconception of gravity as a force, when it really has more to do with the bending of spacetime.  We consider the biblical story of the invasion of Canaan, and the evidence to counter and to defend the validity of this story.  We then get back to the bending of sp...

I once saw John Wayne in a fancy mens store.  I was a boy, and was with an older volunteer who was buying clothing for a kid whose family had no assets.  We look at her bold behavior.  We consider several passages from the Bible that all tell us how we should behave when living out our faith.  We see that this volunteer, this older woman, truly followed the instructions of God as she approached Jo...

A very successful man who was in the hospital in great pain reminded me of an important Bible passage about humility: the apparent Creed that we think Paul inserted into his letter to the believers at Philippi.  We consider Creeds in general, like the Apostles and the Nicene, and then look at this beautiful, rhythmic passage of Paul's.  We then consider why Paul's poem might be a much better Chris...

Years ago, when I had an as-yet untreated corneal disease, I had very limited vision.  I once accidentally stepped into a coffee cart line in a hospital lobby, and without meaning to, cut off a number of people.  I got yelled at loudly - and felt both angry and embarrassed when the woman who yelled at me didn't seem to care that I couldn't see well.  We look at a few quotes, from Deuteronomy, Isai...

When I was a boy, the cross on the top of my church was covered with gold leaf.  We consider the First Temple, Solomon's Temple, which King David declared "will not be for man".  We consider an amazing vision of the Prophet Ezekiel: a valley of dried and disconnected bones rising up and reforming the lost people of God.  We consider the result of the gold leaf being put on the cross of my childhoo...

My wife and I once saw a side-dump trunk tip over and completely bury and crush a car - with a man still inside.  It seemed like the perfect example showing that we can die at any time.  We look at the Lord's Prayer, its text from the Gospels, what it really meant (as opposed to what we might think it means), and we consider how it relates to us today.  We look at the Lord's Prayer as the perfect...

When I was a boy we used to look for particularly salacious or gross stories in the Bible and talk about them on the playground at recess.  My favorite one is the bread that God orders Ezekiel to bake - by cooking it over human poo.  We look at the Old Testament purity laws and what they were really meant to inspire in the People of God.  We look at what they mean for us today.  We consider how we...

I once spoke with a young woman who had been badly traumatized in life.  She understandably had a jaded feeling about the ability of Christianity to change humanity.  We look at two similar stories in the Gospels, about the "Second Coming", or the "Parousia" in Greek.  We look at this from the perspective of a spiritual, not a physical, second coming - and what this could mean for those of us who...

We look at the four famous "Servant Songs" from Isaiah.  We also consider Sister Marie, who was one of my boyhood teachers - and what she told me about the use of Jewish scripture and our relationship to the Jewish people.  As it turns out, there is strong disagreement between Christians and Jews as to what these "Servant Songs" mean.  This leads us to the much bigger question of how to interpret...