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

What has Nietzsche to do with Christmas?  And what has either to do with rock bands, HIV and clean water?  In a word: hope. Having just described generosity as one of the highest virtues of the church, one of the surest signs that a community is following Jesus, we turn now to the content of […]

One of the surest signs an individual or community is following the Jesus way (of life) is that they possesses a thorough-going  spirit of generosity.  For them, it truly is better to give than to receive as they have every confidence that they will receive again.  Gifts are not to be clutched and hidden, but freely shared, […]

What sort of community should grow out of the biblical story?  A grateful one.  In this episode we explore the concept of hesed – the Hebrew word usually translated as "steadfast love."  It is used throughout the Bible to describe the fundamental nature of God and is meant to explain why God is so committed to the work of […]

For centuries, "Kingdom work" was synonymous with the stuff pastors do – preaching, sacraments, general church-running…  This was the "eternal" work done for God, and the province of a small minority of God's people who were "ordained" to the role. "Secular" work was what one did for money, not an equally important embodiment of Jesus's ministry of […]

Conflict is the last thing anyone wants from their "church experience."  After all, we go to church to feel better, to get a little uplift to face the week, right?  It's the one place where we don't have to deal with the typical human foibles of self-interest, pettiness, passive-aggression…right?  I mean, sure, we may have […]

Churches obsess about a lot of things.  Some things important (e.g., budgets and buildings and staff).  Most…not so much (from the minutiae of worship to revamping the website one more time).  And none of these the stuff that stands at the center of the biblical story.  So what should a church obsess about???  What should […]

The true test of a theology is not questions is answers but the community it creates.   Having just spent more than a year developing an understanding of the biblical narrative – centered on the conviction that God is love – we now turn our attention to "us," to the conscious shaping of our life […]

At last we come to the end of the biblical journey: all creation made new!  And the completion of the project of salvation is symbolized by the return of the "tree of life," indeed a near forest of them now lining the center of the city.  (Remember it was access to the tree of life […]

What is heaven like?  For centuries that question conjured within the Christian imagination images of a glorious "elsewhere" – a place very unlike earth where the souls of the saints dwell in a sort of dreamlike bliss.  Such a vision was part and parcel of the larger belief that the very goal of "this life" […]

Throughout the biblical story the final establishment of the kingdom of God has been described in terms of both blessing and wrath.  In the Hebrew scriptures, "the (great and terrible) day of the Lord" is one in which the true allegiances of both Israel and the nations are judged.  Those who have proven faithful to […]

Revelation has now granted us a look at the very nature of evil itself, as well as the means by which it exercises power in creation – namely violence and deception.  The question that remains is:  Why does humanity so willingly (and repeatedly) ally itself with such powers of destruction?  Why do the false promises […]

Kirk's 2nd Rule of Biblical Study:  Attend to the context!  That is to say, we must always keep in mind the historical, literary, social…elements that underly any passage of scripture (or any ancient literature).  And Revelation 14 is one of the chief examples of why.  Without understanding the context, Rev. 14 is one of the […]

Interpreting the Bible well requires that we understand  the central conflict – the dilemma that God must resolve.  Last week we had our clearest glimpse of  the Enemy (symbolized in the dragon) – the one opposing the loving purposes of God.  But how does the the Enemy exercise its power?  After all, most people have […]

Throughout the biblical story there has been a sense of an enemy.  From the Garden of Eden, to the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, to the cross itself…there has always been something (someone?) lurking in the shadows, seeking to influence events in a manner contrary to God's intent.  It would be too much to […]

The driving question of the book of Revelation is:  Why the delay?  What purposed is served by leaving time between Jesus's resurrection and the consummation of the kingdom of God on earth?  To an oppressed church – facing what seems to be imminent persecution and martyrdom – it appears that there is little to be gained and […]

To a church facing persecution and fearing abandonment, John describes the vision granted to him of the heavenly throne room.  God sits in ultimate glory – suddenly placing Roman imperial power in cosmic perspective – and holds in his right hand the plan for the consummation of the age.  The scroll he holds is sealed with […]

Interpreting the book of Revelation requires we first understand the genre of "apocalypse" (from Gk. apocalypsis: "to reveal" – as in a secret, or in pulling back the curtain on a stage).  Though it feels quite foreign to us, it was a well-known form of literature in the ancient world, particularly within 2nd Temple Judaism.  The […]

While the early decades of the church's history were hardly easy, they were nevertheless filled with optimism: Jesus was risen! But…, as the decades passed, questions about Jesus's delay began to mount. And with the disastrous events of 70 AD (the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of the second Temple and the massacre at Masada), things changed dramatically. By the mid-90s, Roman persecution woul...

No biblical book inspires a broader spectrum of interpretation than the book of Revelation. Filled with symbols that range from multi-headed dragon to streets of gold, from doomsday battles and the mark of the beast to the New Jerusalem, the Apocalypse (literally the "revealing") is meant to guide the church in the last act of […]

Paul's teaching on the role of wives and  slaves in the Christian household are among the most (tragically!) misinterpreted passages in scripture.  In this episode we examine the tension between ideals and reality, between what is ultimately true and how close (or not) we can approximate it at any particular moment in time.   As […]

If, as Paul argues, salvation is by grace alone (a gift of God and not achieved by any act on our part), what does that imply for Christian ethics?  Can we therefore "sin boldly" — indulge our impulses and enjoy the party…?  I mean, if all is forgiven in the end, why not make good […]

Every philosophical and religious tradition has a view on the requirements of membership – what it takes to belong to the community of "salvation."  In early Judaism, for example, membership within "true Israel" belonged to those who were at least: descended from Abraham, circumcised (men), obedient to the food laws and observant of the Sabbath.  For […]

What happens when you take people from different geographical regions, religious traditions, languages and cultures and tell them they are now "one in Christ" – the family of faith…?  As anyone who has ever sat in a church committee meeting will tell you, the answer is:  arguments!  Since there has been church, there has been […]

If confessing the full divinity of Jesus, or God who is simultaneously three Persons in one, strikes you as quite an intellectual stretch, know that you are in excellent company! After all, it is one thing to regard Jesus as a great religious teacher, a political leader or perhaps even some sort of (human) messianic figure. […]

Every Sunday Christians all over the world gather to sing, pray…listen to (a brilliant!) sermon… Styles may vary, but the pattern and basic content is stunningly consistent.  The question for today is:  Why?  What are the origins of Christian worship?  Why these particular elements?  And how do we know if we are "worshipping correctly"?  Can […]