Vision For Life

No episode today, but we will be back with you next week on April 13!

Family played a central role in man's earliest recorded history. Man and Woman, created in God's image, were joined in a union and given the sacred task of continuing God's creative work: bring more image-bearers into being, love them, and commission them to spread God's good kingdom over the face of the earth. They failed. They chose self-determinism, and their family brought about death instead of life.

But God chose family once again as the vehicle to bring about redemption. Through a family a baby boy, God's own son, would be born. He would extend the invitation of sonship and the rich inheritance of God's family to all who would bear his name. If all who are a part of God's church are family, how does that reality shape our lives today?

Autumn, Angi, and Michael discuss the vision and mission of Church as Family via the lens of the local church family and their personal experience.

What is a "family"? A group of people biologically connected in some way? People who share a name or a common heritage? People with whom you crossfit or camp? Modern American culture oft applies the term "family" to any loosely connected group of people in an attempt to create a conception of connectedness or meaning.

In Scripture "family" has both biological and redemptive meaning. Autumn, Hunter, and Michael discuss the theological significance of family in its Scriptural context and why church as family matters to us today.

Articles referenced in this episode:
- ‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes, an interview with Fiona Hill by Maura Reynolds (https://apple.news/AAOcZNM-3Rk-7SzjmXtUkvw)
- Two Years Ago, I Warned You About The Coming Pandemic; Today I Am Warning You About The Fallout From Ukraine by Bryce Hoffman (https://apple.news/ADigts1PcRAmBim4SJgrmwQ)
- How Vladimir Putin Lost Interest in the Present by Mikhail Zygar (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/10/opinion/putin-russia-ukraine.html)

Hunter and Autumn respond to three listener questions.

Q1: In the episode on the law, Autumn mentioned Psalm 119:97 in which David says “Oh how I love your law; it is my meditation all the day.” Is David using the word “law” to refer to The Torah or specifically to the law given to the Israelites?

Q2: Many verses in the Bible mention God’s anger. See Ezra 8:22, Isaiah 42:25, and
Deuteronomy 29:27. How does God’s anger relate to judgment?

Q3: I've always thought of the difficulties and brokenness we experience in life as a natural consequence of the fall. For instance, if I make dinner for my family but my child refuses to eat, she may be hungry later. Her hunger is a natural consequence resulting from her decision, not a punishment that I’ve determined. The Bible speaks about God’s judgment in terms that sometimes sound like a natural consequence, but at other times sound like disciplinary action that God has taken. Where, or with whom, does the agency lie when we choose our own way or our own wisdom over God’s?

Modern readers often struggle when reading the Bible, particularly the OT, to make sense of the violence that God not only seems to condone, but to command. Doesn't God command Israel to mercilessly wipe out the surrounding nations? Doesn't God use other nations to execute judgment against Israel, and at other times use Israel to be an instrument of judgment against other nations? Jesus may at first pass seem like a kinder, gentler depiction of God, but he also talks about Hell. Hunter and Autumn discuss some of the difficult Scripture passages that speak of God's judgment, and they consider the necessity of judgment to the establishment of God's kingdom.

Jesus not only claimed to “fulfill” the Scriptures, but in fulfilling them, he teaches us how to make sense of them. This is especially important when we read the Old Testament law because, at first blush, it seems like Christians apply some parts of the law but not others. For example, why do we keep the Old Testament’s sex ethic but disregard the laws about not eating shellfish or wearing clothes made from two kinds of fabric (stretchy jeans, anyone?).

Autumn and Hunter consider posit that this way of interpreting and applying the law actually has something to do with how Jesus fulfills the Scriptures and how he taught his disciples to read them in light of him.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"The Whole Christ" by Sinclair Ferguson (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433548003)

How do you read any part of the Bible–a chapter or a passage–and get something out of it? One of the keys is knowing the big story which holds all of the parts together. In this episode, Autumn and Hunter begin a series of conversations to help us make sense of the whole Bible. They discuss three major themes that connect all 66 books: The Kingdom of God, The Promise of God and the person of Jesus Christ.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"According to Plan" by Graeme Goldsworthy (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0830826963)
"The Christ of the Covenants" by O. Palmer Robertson (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0875524184)
"Covenant and Creation" by William Dumbrell (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1842278258)

Hunter and Autumn discuss an article featured in the New Yorker, written by Parul Seghal, entitled The Case Against the Trauma Plot. Seghal posits that the "trauma plot" has become the primary narrative device used by script writers and authors during the past few decades. The "trauma plot" promises, via revelation of a person's past, to explain their idiosyncrasies, personality quirks, and failures in the present. The device rings hollow, though, as character after character become locked into a determinant version of themselves in the future.

The popularization of the trauma plot holds a certain allure. It convinces us that we, too, can understand and type people in the present through the story of their past. The gospel, though, shatters the trajectory of the trauma plot. In Christ we are not just our past. In fact, II Corinthians 5 declares us "a new creation."

Mentioned in this episode:
"The Case Against the Trauma Plot" by Parul Seghal (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/the-case-against-the-trauma-plot)
"Crossroads" by Jonathan Franzen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374181179)

Michael, Jesse, and Autumn discuss a current critique of pop culture presented by a VOX culture writer, how pop culture heroes come and go, and the shaping effect these shifting loyalties have on Gen Z and on all of us. So how should we engage in current media and art, namely film, shows, and literature? We turn to ancient wisdom, taught by "The Preacher" in Ecclesiastes, for our answer to this modern dilemma.