bread church

By breadReligion & Spirituality Christianity

bread church episodes

June 12, 2022 Back To The Start: Curse
There were consequences for Adam and Eve’s decision to eat the fruit. We
all know this part of the story, an echo and response to the famous
creation story of the Hebrews’ Mesopotamian captors. It’s fair to say that
Eve’s punishment may have had more air time than Adam and the snake’s
throughout christendom. In fact, many christians today still root their
belief in ordained male authority over women in what God says to Eve in
this scene. But this was never a story about God’s intentions for
hierarchy. This story is about quite the opposite!
34 min
June 05, 2022 Back To The Start: Crisis
The Fall of Adam and Eve is one of the most famous passages not only in the
Bible but all literature. But despite this it’s not always easy to
understand what is going on. Rather than just being about disobedience or a
loss of innocence, it’s really about something much deeper. The heart of
Adam and Eve’s fall is about independence. They go after something they
already have (wisdom and divinity) but they want it without God. This tends
to be the heart and result of all human sin - a turned inwards on oneself,
grasping at an identity independent of God. We become incapable of being
the generous open people, connected to our creator, that we were made to
be. The beauty of the gospel though is that we don’t have stay that way -
Jesus has broken the death spiral of independence and offered us a
reconnection to the God without whom we would be lost.
40 min
May 29, 2022 Back To The Start: Relationships
It is not good for us to be alone. In a culture that strives for autonomy
and individuality, Genesis reminds us that we are made for togetherness.
Often togetherness has been defined in terms that exclude and diminish some
under others. The togetherness that Genesis speaks of is one of equality
without any sense of hierarchy or patriarchy. What we find in Genesis 2 is
God’s purpose for us is to grow into his family. It used to be one built
through physical means but in Jesus, it is one growing by the Spirit. God’s
family is blended, its big, and theres room for you.
32 min
May 22, 2022 Back To The Start: Garden
Genesis 2 tells a second creation narrative that is told from the
ground-up, whereas Genesis 1 tells the story from a more cosmic
perspective. It speaks of Eden as a space where luxury and pleasure had no
limit. It contained a garden where God himself walked with humanity, along
with some symbolic rivers and trees. In this poetic-narrative we see a
mirror-image of where all humanity is headed, when Jesus finally restores
the earth. This series is called Back to the Start, but part of that is
remembering where we are going. We aren’t headed back to Eden, but we are
headed toward an earth that is restored and renewed by Jesus himself, when
he will finally set all things right.
37 min
May 15, 2022 Back To The Start: Humankind
The creation of humankind in Genesis 1 is one of the most important
passages in the whole bible. In it we see what God was and is again aiming
for with us, the human race. We’re not a cosmic disappointment. We’re the
pinnacle of his creation. He loves us and he saw that we are very very very
good!
We are not God’s slaves (like in Babylonian mythology) we aren’t created to
serve him, we are created to be him - an extension of his presence and
power in the world. We are given extraordinary position and influence in
the world. Through Jesus, God has redeemed, restored and ultimately
recommissioned us to be his vice-regents on earth. Every single one of us
has an identity and a calling from the King of Heaven. So allow him to
breath his royal life into us once again.
41 min
May 08, 2022 Back To The Start: Creation
The first chapter of Genesis may be one of the most controversial, but it’s
mind-blowingly revealing, beautifully poetic & meticulously structured, and
it serves as a triumphant introduction to the whole new message about the
kind of God, God is. Dating back to the Babylonian exile, this was a piece
of liturgy for a downtrodden people who were questioning everything about
their call and the nature and even existence of the God who called them.
It’s the overture to the whole story of God and his people: The Creator is
all powerful, He brings order out of chaos, He is in control, He names us,
He loves us and He says that we are good. Genesis 1 calls us back to
worshipping Him because He is God. And He is good.
36 min
May 01, 2022 Back To The Start: Pre-existence
Ultimately the central character of Genesis is not Adam or Eve. It’s the
one true God. And he is unlike all the gods of the surrounding nations. He
is creative - he both creates out of nothing in his exclusive power; and he
creates out of chaos in his redemptive power. And his spirit, there at
creation, is, thanks to Jesus, here for us now. He wants to bring his
redemptive and matchless power to every aspect of our lives. Because this
is what he is like - the matchless creator who is good.
37 min
April 24, 2022 The Way Into Life
The week after Easter: Thomas doesn’t meet the risen Jesus until a week
after the resurrection. He’s an intriguing character- alone, doubting,
troubled- but he goes on to doing extraordinary things. As such he is the
perfect example of how Jesus changes people. Following Thomas we’ve got to
be honest, we’ve got to believe, but more than that- we’ve also got to
acknowledge Jesus as Lord. This is simple, but not easy. But the
consequences are huge- this is the way into life in all its fullness.
38 min
April 21, 2022 Good News of Resurrection
The most important moment in all of human history is the resurrection of
Jesus of Nazareth. In the resurrection Jesus provides all humankind with
answers to our most fundamental questions - is there a God? What happens
when we die? Is there more to life than just the material? - as well as our
most longed for needs - do we matter? Can we change? will we be ok?
When Jesus rises from the death all pain and sickness, evil and death are
defeated - and he welcomes us into a new world order of love and peace and
joy with him.
18 min
April 10, 2022 The Paradox of the Triumphal Entry
On this important day en route to Easter, we celebrate Palm Sunday as a
paradox. Jesus was not the sort of king that God’s people were expecting.
In the same way, Jesus experienced the heaviness of disappointment in God’s
people missing the point. This message digs into the paradox of the
now-and-not yet of Christ’s kingdom and how we can make room for Him and
listen to the Spirit in new ways.
38 min