The Goodness of God

Not everyone who is in the Bible or gets ancestor status is a role model. Sometimes, we need to learn that God has been working with kind of lousy people all along and so won't be derailed by the kind of lousy people of today. Jacob is one of those people. He's kind of lousy. The Bible is pretty upfront about that. He steals, lies, and plays tricks. Jacob stands in for broken/chaotic side of human...

It's hard to be vulnerable in public. So much of our world runs on pretending to be cooler, more put together, more dramatic, or more interesting that you really are. Trillions of dollars of our economy runs on presenting a highly curated window into our lives. In introducing himself to the Romans, a church that did not know him, Paul chooses the opposite tactic. He presents an honest and unvarnis...

At some point while reading Genesis 22, you have to make a fundamental choice. Do you think that Abraham would have made a good serial killer? To phrase it another way, you either think that Abraham believed God was not going to make him kill his son, or you think that Abraham is a degree of stone cold killer that is dangerous to society. If you choose the former, you see a man who understands the...

There's always this temptation to look at God's grace as the ultimate Get Out Of Jail Free card. You know that God loves you. You know, thanks to God's grace, anything can be forgiven. So, we can just do whatever, knowing that it'll be forgiven, right? Right? To quote Paul directly, "By no means." God's grace is amazing gift and a powerful opportunity to change. To misuse the gift is to deeply mis...

We like it when we see Jesus dealing so well and graciously with human chaos. He's so kind and loving. People reject him, harm him, ignore him, sin against him, and Jesus greets the world with love. It's truly awesome. By Matthew 9-10, Jesus begins the process of making it clear that it's not just him who will have to face all that chaos. He sends the disciples out into the world - completely empo...

Matthew writes a Gospel. Matthew walks with Jesus. Matthew was a tax collector. One of those facts should absolutely shock you. In the Roman Empire, tax collectors were not pedantic role enforcers. They were traitors to their own people who leveraged the the power of the evil empire for their own sordid gain. So, eating with a tax collect ranks right up there with being touched by a woman with a m...

Bang! God sweeps over the waves of chaos, and then, all of sudden, a universe explodes into intricate and beautiful being. The author of the opening of Genesis knew that they were writing the introduction to an anthology of God's early history with humanity, and he opens with a powerful poem - an ode to God's ability to transform chaos into beauty, into something that God can behold and declare go...

It's Pentecost again! Every year, we look at the moment that the Holy Spirit descended and everything changed. It kicked off the age that we still live in, where the Holy Spirit is present, and we can do the same amazing things that we see in Acts of the Apostles. In fact, that's probably why Luke wrote the book at all, so you, a normal person, could look at what all of these other normal people d...

Jesus gives his core group of disciples some last marching orders, and then, we ascend into the sky. What he wanted them to do was simple: get out there and preach the good news. Christ had been preparing them for this moment the whole time, but he did one last thing that was incredibly important. He got out of the way. He shifted what it meant to be the Body of Christ. It was no longer the body o...

In his journeys, Paul finds himself called right into the center of Athenian culture with one opportunity to make his case. Standing before Athens' ruling council, he artfully uses a combination of pieces of Greco-Roman culture to make a convincing and intelligent argument to a group of people who appreciate that exact kind of thing. Paul got to that point because the early church didn't have the...

There are some real highs and lows to the religious experience. Stephen experiences all of them at once. He has this moment of direct connection with God and gets killed by a mob for speaking out against the religious authorities. Pushing forward God's Kingdom has always been difficult and remains so. We don't have to seek out the suffering. It just comes with the territory sometimes. Hosted on Ac...

At some point, when asked, "what is church?" we end up with architecture. Even if we know on some level that the Church is people and not a building, we still probably picture those people in a building. Maybe, it's a grand steepled structure, a modern theater looking space, or something clapboard and down home. At the start, 2,000 years ago, there were no buildings that belonged to the church. Th...

Every once and while, we catch that moment of clarity. "Oh geez, I need to change." Reams of self help books and the bowels of the Internet will gladly give you some advice, but there's something much more ancient (and reliable) - God's Holy Spirit. At the tail end of his sermon in Acts 2, we see Peter striking a fine balance. He shows the crowd that they have a need to change. He hopes to lead th...

For his first ever sermon, Peter became the first person to face a new a troubling questions: "How do I tell people about Jesus?" Peter had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and bore direct witness to the resurrection. The crowd of thousands that he now stared down had done none of that. When Jesus did all the talking, this was easy. Now, Peter is in charge and has the proverbial microphone, s...

The way that we tell the Easter story has at least a couple of problems. First, we read it as if every one is perfectly calm and in command of themselves, so we lose the impact that it most of had on the people at the time. Second, the meaning of Easter isn't contained in the accounts of the resurrection. For each Gospel, we get an account that Jesus rose, but it's the rest of the New Testament th...

The entire setup for the Last Supper sheds important light on what really matters. Jesus only has a few hours before his arrest. He decides to spend it teaching his closest friend about the importance of loving and serving one another. Jesus even washes the feet of the man who had already betrayed him. This should put life and faith into perspective. With limited time, Jesus stressed to his friend...

Our tendency, as Jesus triumphally enters Jerusalem, is to keep our eyes on Jesus. Fair enough. He's the protagonist for the entire Gospel narrative. He's also the Son of God, the Divine Logos, etc. If anyone deserves our attention, it's Christ. However, if we look beyond who is in the center of the shot, we see something powerful - a massive group of disparate people coming together to spontaneou...

During the long Exile, God's people faced a reasonable question: can things get better? How does it all go back together. To answer this, God led the prophet, Ezekiel, out to the desert to observe some dry bones coming back to life. God can breathe new life into God's people. That was true 2,500 years ago, and through God's sanctifying grace, is true in your life as well. God can breathe new life...

The remarkable rhythm that keeps playing out between humanity and God is that God starts by loving us. Christ's death on the cross is the most extreme example of that. Humanity kept failing. Humanity put Jesus on that cross. He bore that out of love for us all - even though we were not worthy of that love. It is that love that unleashed God's grace into the world. Even before we are even the tinie...

John 3:16 is an incredibly recognizable piece of Scripture. We hold it up as a Gospel in miniature. We memorize. We emblazon it on t-shirts, lettermen jackets, mugs, and wall art. It's at the top of the list of hit Scriptures. So, what is this Pharisee doing in this scene? We know the Scripture so well that we can lose sight of its context. Jesus lays it on in a respectful but pointed debate with...

The snake, Eve, and Adam, each in their own way, find fascinating ways to mess up. The snake attempts to tempt another. Eve gives into ambition and gives Adam a chance eat as well. Adam neither tries to stop Eve nor heads God's instruction himself. We view this series of events as the origin of sin, and theologians, including John Wesley, have wrestled with how to guide folks through their own mom...

It's one of those scene that we see every year. Jesus goes up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. Moses and Elijah show up. God speaks claiming Jesus as God's Son. Then, they all have go back down the mountain and back to work. Matthew says that Jesus is "transfigured" before them. Yes, he looked different, but it was reality that was revealed. Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of who...

If asked some version of "What do you think God wants you to do?" we could all probably spit out something like "God's will" or "Follow Christ" or "Answer the Great Commission" or "Be a good person." The Prophet Isaiah puts a lot more meat onto the bones of what God really wants. God wants us to stop fighting with each other and instead liberate the oppressed, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked...

How do we really change things? We might feel powerless or angry. We might feel paralyzed or the urge to rush out into the street. God calls us to seek justice, but in our hyperpolarized world, perspectives on justice vary wildly. It's a wrestling process - wrestling with God and your place in the world. It's a discerning process - thinking about where you are capable of making an impact. It's als...

In his argument with the Corinthians, that we called 1 Corinthians, Paul does something surprising. He doesn't put the Corinthians in their place by pointing at this own greatness or accomplishments. Paul doesn't make it about him at all. He makes it about Christ, and in that way, empties himself and seeks to level the playing field. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.