Whether or not Advent is good news depends on where you are standing:  “Every valley shall be exalted, & every mountain & hill shall be made low.” Advent is good news when you are in the valley, bad news when you are on the mountain. The bad news of Advent is that the judgment of God is coming. The good news of Advent...is that the judgment of God is coming!

This was a sermon  preached at the Northshore Vineyard church in Covington, Louisiana.

Advent & Judgment

Welcome to Son of a Preacher Man with Jonathan Martin, a new podcast that’s all about finding beauty in brokenness, grace in grit, and God in the ambiguity of the in-between. Spirituality isn’t sanitized here, because your life isn’t. Like and LP, each episode is divided into side A and Side B. Side A could be a sermon, a conversation with a guest, but will always introduce some idea. Side B will always be a creative exploration of that idea, through music, Q and A with listeners, or quirky rabbit trails off of Side A—for people who want the deep cuts, not just the singles.&nbsp;

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He Got Up Anyway

The prophet Amos is told by the priest not to prophesy in Bethel—because it is “the sanctuary of the king.” But we know the deeper history of Bethel is that Jacob named it “the house of God.” What do you do when the king & the prophet...or God & government...have conflicting claims? And where does Romans 13 fit in? These are the pressing questions of the moment we are in, & this no-holds barred message from The Table explores them all.

Conflicting Claims

Pastor Larry Crudup from Tabernacle Baptist Church in OKC joins us this week. How is the gospel good news, if it does not set free the oppressed? What does a gospel that liberates look like in this complex moment in history—in Oklahoma City, in America, in the world? What precisely should Christians believe we are “saved” from? And what exactly are we “saved” for?

A Gospel that Liberates

From Jonathan Martin’s plenary session from the Water to Wine Gathering in St. Joseph, MO. Elisha demonstrates the prophetic task to which we are now all called—not to stand in the safe middle, but to stand in the dangerous in-between. Not standing for ourselves, our own people or interests, even for our own faith—but to stand in-between the world and her own self-destruction. The peace not only of “the people of God,” but of all people, is at stake at whether or not there is a people who are willing to stand in-between.

Not in the middle but the in-between

The Black Church tradition in America offers an alternative  perspective on how faith responds to trauma and pain, from what we often hear in popular culture. In this episode, CeCe Jones Davis offers an alternative to Exodus/leaving faith of “exfoliation,” and shares why she holds a spirituality “where you don’t throw anything away.”

Advent & Judgment

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