Word of Life Church Podcast

At his baptism the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove...not an eagle. The eagle was the representative bird of the Roman Empire. As a symbol of power and might eagles were affixed atop Roman military standards. Hawks and doves, then as now, are symbolic of war and peace, violence and gentleness. Empires have long adopted eagles and lions as their emblems -- birds and beasts of prey. Furthermore, Roman religion believed that an eagle in flight over the Caesar (who bore the title "Son of God") was a sign of divine pleasure -- the gods were "well pleased." That Jesus was identified as God's beloved Son by a dove and not an eagle is very instructive, deeply subversive, and absolutely beautiful. Put simply, the Holy Spirit is a dove, not a hawk.

We live in a secular age. Secularism as a way of ordering society (pioneered by Hume, Voltaire, Paine, and Jefferson) has prevailed in Europe and North America. Secularism carries the sense that nothing is truly sacred; heaven, if it exists, is far away; God, if God exists, should be restricted to the private realm; religion (or spirituality) should be an expression of private individualism. So how do we rebel against the secular spirit of the age? Not through anger, protest, or confrontation, but through an emphasis on Christian Prayer, Story, and Sacrament.

"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." -Matthew 2:12

After the Magi found and worshiped Jesus, they returned to their own country by another way; not the way they came.

A real encounter with Christ will not leave us unchallenged or unchanged. Once we see Jesus as the true King, we have to journey through life BY ANOTHER WAY. We cannot remain the same.

As I sat in openness with the Spirit I felt three things about Word of Life Church in the coming year.

A Coming together.
A fresh sense of community.

A move toward the contemplative.
The final move away from consumer Christianity.

A willingness to be radically other.
Because accommodation to Babylon is no longer an option.

To sum it up in three words, we're trying to be Cohesive, Contemplative, Alternative.

One of the boldest claims a Christian can make is that Jesus is the light of the world. Christians don't mean this as a cheap religious cliche or as a bit of bumper sticker evangelism. There's nothing tame or docile about asserting that Jesus is the light of the world. It's the audacious claim that all of history and all humanity are informed and interpreted by the light that comes from the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

"All the kitsch to be found in Christian life and Christian art arises from a failure to take the Incarnation seriously." -Hans Urs von Balthasar

(kitsch: mass produced art in poor taste; often characterized by an excessive sentimentality)

If we think of Christmas as God donning a human costume to playact as a person, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus being born just so he can grow up and can die for our sins, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. If we think of Jesus as Superman flying around being God all over the place, we treat the Incarnation as kitsch. And if we have a kitschy view of the Incarnation, we will have a kitschy and cartoonish, cheap, and sentimental Christian life. But if we can approach the mystery of the Incarnation as the greatest wonder of all, we can find the door to the substantive faith that is the object of our deepest longing.

What C.S. Lewis told us about Aslan, is true about Jesus: He's not tame or safe, but he is very good. Once we find out that Jesus will be good to whoever he wants to be good to—regardless of race, religion, nationality, politics, or whatever—that’s when we discover that Jesus is neither tame nor safe…he’s just good. Very good! But we’ll never know these things if we stay in the cramped little confines of our assumptions and certitude. We’ll only know these beautiful things if we heed the call to come further up and further in.

If we learn the lesson of Mary's Song we make this revolutionary discovery: Jesus isn't going to meet us in the penthouse of our prosperity, but in the garbage dump of our pain and poverty.

The arrival of Messiah was announced as Isaiah's prophecy that God would come to his people on a highway in the desert. John the Baptist preached in the desert and Jesus first appeared publicly as Messiah in that desert. That's the way it was and that's the way it is. It's from your spiritual desert that God comes to you in a new way. Your spiritual desert isn't bad news, it's good news. This is the lesson and hope of Advent. Because this is the announcement of Advent: Your God is coming!