Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

A common - and often very angry - criticism of Christianity is that it somehow promotes violence.  We look at war and abuse in the Old and New Testament.  We consider the reason these stories are there.  We also consider the modern Christian and our relationship to biblical bloodshed.  We discover that the modern interpretation of these biblical stories is in many ways misguided.  We also discover that we are not bound by biblical violence.

Jesus repeatedly challenged the Sabbath day restrictions, using it as a day of healing when no "work" of any kind was supposed to be done.  He is doing this to make a point: the day of formalized ritualism having priority over true faith is over.  He is ushering in the New Covenant age - when each of us will focus on our relationship with God, not the "rules" of faith.

In Colorado, we frequently hear of climbers who suffer devastating injuries - or die - while free climbing.  We learn from the Gospels that Jesus did not come to this earth to necessarily keep us from earthly dangers, that he did not come here to be a king in this world.  But he did come to be our eternal king.  While he does not keep us from free-climbing in our earthy lives, he is there to help us from free-climbing in our spiritual lives.

What does it literally mean to mimic the life of Christ, to walk in his footsteps?  Jesus performed miracles.  Will we?  We look at several quotes of Jesus, from the Gospels, and we look at this issue.  When we examine the goals that Jesus had for his life of Earth, at the reasons behind his actions and his words, we discover that it might not be as difficult as it would seem to truly emulate Jesus.
 

Someone recently told me that if you are angry with your spouse, and if you end the night that way by going to bed without coming to a resolution, it's like letting milk sit out all night on the counter.  As we are told in Ephesians: "Do not let the sun go down on your anger."  You do not want to get up in the morning and chug down that sour milk.  We look at the New Life offered every day to the believer, and in particular, we look at the role of anger in that New Life.

When I was a boy, the Monsignor of my parish decided to gold flake the cross on top of the steeple of the church.  It didn't turn out well.  We look at Ezekiel, who spoke for God when he said: "I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel."  We see that a true spokesperson for God talks about the incredible power and devotion of God - not about the glory of humans. 

For the Apostles, it was a full-time job to bring the Word to God's people.  For us, we don't have to go on the road, giving up our homes and our jobs and our possessions and our families.  But being a person of faith is indeed a full-time job.  We don't have to be like Paul who emulated the Apostles by becoming a homeless preacher.  But we must be like Paul in this regard: we must serve freely and we must serve as as if we are Apostles ourselves.

Recently, while reading a heart-rending article about the civil war in Sudan, the targeted ad system used by ABCnews.com put up an ad tailored specifically for me - for a $3500 virtual reality headset by Apple.  We look at the callous nature of our consumer-oriented society. No, I did not leave the suffering people of Sudan so that I could look at the next exciting high tech toy.  And, here is the truth: if we can ignore the things of this world, what awaits us are amazing revelations from God's world.

The Imitation of Christ is considered the most influential book in the Christian world, second only to the Bible.  In this book, Thomas à Kempis provides, in an elegant, highly readable fashion, advice that is as relevant today - and in many cases, far, far more relevant - than it was in the 14th century.  In particular, he tells us how to maintain a clean conscious and how important this is to spiritual health and daily joy.  In an uplifting, faith-building fashion, he tells us that there are many things that we must NOT do...

We look at Samson, a Judge of Israel, and a biblical hero with extremely low morals. While he is a very powerful man physically, he consorts with the brutal enemy of the Israelites, the Philistines, and he falls in love with a Philistine woman.  We consider the famous metaphor of his hair - and what it really means, especially to us, today.

The one Gospel that was almost certainly written by a first person witness to Jesus' ministry on Earth is the Gospel of John - by the Apostle John.  This firsthand account is extremely different from the other three Gospels, which all bear some similarity to each other.  John's Gospel celebrates the majesty and power of Jesus Christ, as well as our ability to live in the Kingdom of God right here on Earth.  The hope is that after listening to this podcast, you will want to read the Gospel for yourself!

We look at the early emergence of the church system within the Christian faith, and how it mirrors the synagogue system that emerged after the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.  We also look at the many things that Christianity owes to Judaism - and how a better understanding of this extensive relationship can give us a deeper, more intuitive sense of our faith tradition.

We look at the horrors that await today's children: violent TV, captivating and addictive video games that teach hatred and immorality, and social media designed to corrupt them.  We make a comparison to an ancient church.  In Revelation, John of Patmos makes prophetic pronouncements to seven churches active at his time.  One of them is to the church at Pergamum.  He calls it the home of Satan's throne. Today live in the home of Satan's throne.

There is a major misconception that the Bible teaches predestination, that those who will spend eternity with God have been chosen in advance.  We look at Romans, Chapter 9, and consider just what this chapter truly says.  We learn, among other things, that what we do on this earth while we are alive very much matters.

There is much to learn from the Bible - even from what is considered the most difficult to interpret book of the New Testament - Revelation.  We look at the letters the author of Revelation, John of Patmos, wrote to seven churches active in his day.  They were all clustered in Asia Minor, today Turkey.  We consider the question: Which of the seven churches of Revelation most resembles our own personal church today?