what do christians believe – Page 3 – Jesus @ 2 am blogs and podcast

What Do You Do with an Empty Tomb? (Easter 2015)

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

There are few claims of Christian theology more audacious than the bodily resurrection of Jesus. And any citizen of the 21st century who doesn’t doubt such assertions is probably in need of a good head examination (or a reduction in their AMC viewing…). Dead bodies don’t return to life. Not as ghosts. Not as zombies. And certainly not as itinerant preachers. And yet…

On what would later be known as “Easter” – somewhere around the year 30 C.E. – a group of despairing Jews (who had no expectations of resurrection) went to mourn at the gravesite of their friend and found his tomb…empty. And they had no idea what to make of that fact.

In this episode we look at the reactions of Jesus’s most intimate followers as they came to grips with events they never expected.

Before a single Christian declared that “He is risen!” (which many eventually will exclaim), there was much confusion, doubt and a struggle to consider that sometimes the laws of nature don’t get the last word.

Ultimately it was not the “proofs” of theologians and philosophers that brought them to believe that Jesus is alive, nor was it the arguments of historians and logicians…it was encounter.

Belief in the resurrection came from seeing and hearing (not the empty tomb, but Jesus himself). And so it is today. Reports from reliable sources of an empty tomb can get our attention and – hopefully – open us to consider the the crazy possibility that Jesus has conquered even death! But faith requires an experience of new life. And, it turns out, that is not so hard to find as one might think…

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), April 5, 2015 (Easter Sunday). To learn more about Canvas, click here!

Loving God 101, Part 8: Accepting the Invitation to the Table

July 26, 2015July 25, 2015Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

For most of Christian history, the central element of both corporate worship and individual prayer has been regular participation in the sacrament of Communion. Indeed, the Roman Catholic mass still centers on the Eucharist (as the Lord’s Supper is also called) as the priest consecrates the elements of bread and wine and invites the people of God to share in the body of Christ.

And while I share the Reformer’s opinion that, by the 16th century, the sacrament had become distorted in a manner that bordered on “magic”(seeing the priest being the agent who literally transformed the bread and wine into the physical body and blood of Jesus), their efforts to restore the Bible to the center of the Christian life has had the unintended consequence of pushing Communion to the periphery.

In far too many churches the sacraments are celebrated terribly rarely (I grew up in a church that celebrated Communion quarterly) and with such overwrought reverence that it has become empty ritual once again! Ugh! How much the early church saw things differently!

The sacrament is the very invitation our hearts are longing for – the direct call of God to come and be present with him. In the Lord’s Supper we are being offered a seat at the family table of the Father and Son, who fills the bread and cup not with physical flesh and blood of Jesus, but with his Spirit. There we have the opportunity to make direct contact with the God of love and compassion, if only we can learn to open ourselves to receive it. Such preparation is not about purifying one’s life (or who could come?) or the proper ritual to prepare the scene (Jesus never once stood on ceremony!), but about being present to ourselves and understanding – intellectually and emotionally – what is being offered to us.

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), March 1, 2015. To learn more about Canvas, click here!

To receive future episodes automatically, simply subscribe by clicking below:

Loving God 101, Part 7: So Many Voices in My Head! (Discernment Cont’d)

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

Learning to “hear” God’s voice (i.e., “discernment”) actually begins by learning what is not God’s voice.

That is to say, each of us arrives to our relationship with God with many voices in our head – the voices of our family, our culture, our friends…the voice of Reason, of our deepest hopes, our deepest fears. Indeed, our inner stage is crowded with actors repeating their lines, each calling us in a different directions.

Ignatius (of Loyola) reminds us that one of those voices is God. God is actively trying to engage with us, not hiding afar off until we prove ourselves worthy. But God’s voice is often drown out by the clamor of all the others making demands upon our will.

As we seek to discern God’s voice from the crowd, we do best to first identify as many of the others as we can. Not to judge or dismiss them outright (our families and friends and intellects and passions can have many good things to say). Rather, we simply want to become aware of who is saying what. When a voice calls me strongly, which voice is it? And does God have an alternative word to offer?

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), February 22, 2015. To learn more about Canvas, click here!

To receive future episodes automatically, simply subscribe by clicking below: