One of the cultural values that define our focus on Jesus as the embodiment of God’s love is an emphasis on Scripture. But this isn’t a fixation on the Bible for the Bible’s sake - it depends on a very specific understanding of what the Bible is and how it works.

There are lots of important dimensions to church life we evaluate when considering joining one. Doctrine, methodology and character are all important; but none of them are as important as evaluating the culture of a church. The culture will tell you what they really value. This series will try to articulate aspects of the culture at Bread & Wine from the first words of Christ's earthly ministry in Luke chapter 4. It is summarized in six affirmations (biblical authority, experiential necessity, missional priority, communal unity, mystical spirituality and spiritual liberty) rooted in the rich soil of Gospel centrality.

Spiritual renewal, we learned from Psalm 1, depends on the voices to which we pay attention. To respond to God in the daily stuff of life is to hear His voice - but where can we do that, and how does that work? CS Lewis called Psalm 19 the greatest song the world has ever known because it describes the powerful sources our souls must draw upon for renewal - God's world and God's word.

Psalm 1 depicts the spiritual life as a journey which is ever forking in two directions - the way of life and the way of death. The essence of soul renewal is choosing life.

In Paul's concluding greeting to the church in Philippi he blesses them with the main themes he's been teaching throughout the letter. In listening to his blessing we can summarize some of where the Spirit is leading Bread & Wine - toward a greater sense of unity, a richer sense of community and a deeper sense of grace.

The politics of Jesus is a politics of peace. The Good News of the Gospel is that in Jesus God has made peace with the world - but that peace must be worked out in communities mired in conflict. Even in this fairly ideal church disagreements among prominent leaders threatened to divide the community. In this passage Paul speaks about how we, as the church, are charged to keep the peace because we've received a kind of peace that grace empowers us to practice.

Living out the kingdom of God in a local community, resisting empire and organizing around the love of God revealed in the cross, are all very lofty ideas. Learning what this looks like in practice isn't obvious, which is why the politics of Jesus can never be spelled out in detailed policies, procedures or rules. They must be exemplified in human lives, flesh and blood examples we can see and touch.

Using the example of Timothy and Epaphroditus, Paul shows the us what it looks like to live in light of the Gospel as individuals and as a community.

The command to “not complain” seems a little petty in light of the majestic poem Paul just wrote, marveling in the mysteries of God’s voluntary humiliation for our sake on the cross. But Paul is not just telling the Philippians to be careful about being too picky, he is warning them to be on guard against the forces of empire which threaten to fracture God‘s rule and frustrate his plan of salvation.