Word of Life Church Podcast

To be a Christian, to be a disciple of Jesus, to participate in the Revolutionary Kingdom of Christ, is to be a follower of the Lamb—the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. But what does this mean? ___________ Here is the text to the prayer of St. Francis... Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt,...

In the bleak landscape of death's darkness, the light of life comes as a shocking surprise. Our world is well-acquainted with the ugly reality of death and sin. This is why the life and resurrection of Jesus become the most shocking moments in human history, present, and future. Love, incarnate and resurrected, shocked the world and overcame death. As followers of a beautiful savior, how might we...

Baptism has become a portal out of this old broken-down world and into God’s world of new creation, an escape hatch out of the kingdom of empire, power, idolatry, and injustice and into the kingdom of love. Jesus was baptized to fulfill God's plan to rescue the world. All those who follow Jesus through the waters of baptism can enter his revolutionary kingdom.

The light of Jesus reveals the obstacles, the clutter, the junk, and the unnecessary complexities in our lives. God knows we need things. We need hings to wear, things to eat, things to live in, things to drive, but the light Jesus shines on all these things is the truth that life is not found in pursuit of things. Life is found in pursuit of the kingdom. The way of Jesus is the way of kingdom-min...

Pagan astrologers read it in the stars — a new king of the Jews had been born. And so the magi came from the Orient bearing their gifts and accidentally got tangled up with the current King of the Jews — a debauched and murderous megalomaniac named Herod who decades earlier had been made an imperial client king by the Roman Senate. Not long after that the death squads were breaking down doors and...

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He...

"You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst in order that He...

Isaiah anticipates a time when the earth will be arid and lifeless, and the people will be blind, deaf, and disabled. The land will be burning and the people will be blind to the problem, deaf to the word of God, and unable to do anything about it. The spiritual aridity of the people is reflected in a once lush land turning into a scorching desert. But in his Messianic poem of hope, Isaiah says so...

Waiting on God is an acknowledgement that we are not in charge of our own spiritual formation. Through healthy practices of spiritual formation we regularly present ourselves before God. What happens there will happen in God’s own time or Godspeed.

If we see Jesus in Isaiah's prophecy of a king whose reign causes the lion to lie down with the lamb—and we do!—it means that we cannot reduce Jesus to the “personal savior” of our “private soul.” Jesus may indeed personally save our soul, but he’s also the righteous king who brings justice to the poor and challenges the systems of oppression presided over by the principalities and powers.

“How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it?” “To live in the world without belonging to the world summarizes the essence of the spiritual life.” “Our true house is not the house of fear, in which the powers of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides.” “Through the spiritual life we gradually move from the hou...

Under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord Isaiah re-imagined the world… A world where swords become plowshares and spears become pruning hooks. A world where weapons of war becomes instruments of agriculture. A world where people seek to make the world a garden and not a battleground. A world where tanks are turned into tractors and missile silos become grain silos.

The kingdom of God does not come by the sword, it comes by the cross. The kingdom of God does not come by killing, it comes by dying. The kingdom of God does not come with vengeance, it comes with forgiveness. If it comes by the sword (by some dude on a horse), it’s not the kingdom of God. If it comes by killing (the way of Cain), it’s not the kingdom of God. If it comes with vengeance (the way of...

"By his wounds you are healed." This is a deep and holy mystery, but it lies at the heart of what happened at the cross. Jesus took a world of suffering and sorrow into himself, so that we could be healed. When we lay our wounds upon the wounds of Christ it does not multiply woundedness, it initiates healing.

To follow Jesus and the way he taught, especially when living in a military-economic superpower, is to be radically counter-cultural. The ways and values of superpowers are the very opposite of the ways and values commanded by Jesus. To live out the Sermon on the Mount in the context of empire will cause you to be viewed as a freak -- a Jesus freak. The Jesus way, when truly lived, has always been...

Whatever it means for the world to be saved, God does not do it through the conventional means of power (politics, weapons, wars), but though the unconventional means of utter powerlessness—through the crucifixion of a Galilean Jew. Thus the kind of power Christians are to aspire to is cruciform in nature

On the 35th Anniversary of Word of Life Church, Pastor Brian tells the story walking the Camino de Santiago during his Sabbatical.

We have told ourselves that some scars last a lifetime and some wounds may never heal, but the story of scripture tells an entirely other truth. God is working throughout history, the present, and the future to make all things new and set all things right. How might this bring hope, healing, and redemption to our own lives? And as we experience this new creation work, what are we called to do with...

If you've ever struggled to trust God, you are not alone. The story of the people of God has been a long story of learning to trust that God cares. In a world where we feel bombarded with anxiety, uncertainty, and injustice, we often ask "Who cares?" Jesus reminds us that God is more just than we could have ever imagined. He is a God who cares and will act to set all things right.

For generations, even before humans were literate, father and mothers have sat fireside with sons and daughters, night after night, telling stories. These Stories, both new and old, are the stories that have become our scriptures. Storytelling is the way we pass on our history and our own experience, inviting others into our story. When our story intersects with the Jesus story, our response shoul...

The death of Jesus on the cross is central to the gospel story and it is central to our faith. The cross was scandalous for first-century Jews and silly for first-century Romans. It is ignored by modern people, but for those of us who believe, the cross changes everything. It is the day a revolution began. The cross is only revolutionary if we get the end game right. If the end is disembodied Chri...