Advent 2 (2020) - Peace Within and Peace on Earth
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
Release Date: 12/10/2020
The Abundant Life, Part 08: Treasuring Humanity
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
Today we arrive at the 6th Commandment: “You shall not murder…” That, at least, is how the NRSV translates it. But as you’ll see, there is much, much more to the 6th commandment than not murdering someone. (Though not murdering is a darn fine place to start!) The goal, however, is to go much farther than not taking life. Rather we are to honor the sacred gift of humanness and all the beauty that is inherent to human life. That is to say: if we want the abundant life, we begin by honoring humanity - our own and that and of everyone else. In this episode I highly recommend...
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The Abundant Life, Part 07: Honoring Family, Weighting Memory
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
The 5th commandment tell us to "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." But what does "honor" truly mean? Is it obedience? Gratitude? Or something even deeper—a call to listen, to remember, and to carry forward the lessons of love and grace? Our world often teaches us to move fast, to leave the past behind, and to define ourselves solely by individual achievement. But the truth is, none of us walk this journey alone. We are all part of a story much larger than ourselves, one woven together by the people who have...
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The Abundant Life, Part 06: Sabbath Rest
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
Today we arrive at the 4th commandment: "Remember the Sabbath..." And you get a sermon not from me (which is probably good because – as you might have guessed – I’m not great at Sabbathing!), but from our old friend, Rev. Ian Farrell – who is much better at Sabbath than I am. In this episode, Ian is going to make the case that Sabbath is not about the particular day we choose for rest, but about the attitude we carry about being a beloved child of God because of who we are, not what we do. It’s a lesson that we probably all understand at a superficial level. But...
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The Abundant Life, Part 05: Calling Rightly on the God of Love
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
Today we continue our journey through the Ten Commandments—not as a list of rules, but as a pathway to true freedom and flourishing, arriving at the 3rd commandment: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." For many of us, this commandment has been reduced to a simple rule about avoiding bad words or not using God’s name in vain. But its meaning runs far deeper! The 3rd commandment is about the profound significance of God’s name, about the power of prayer and and the dangers of distorting faith for personal or political gain. To call on the name of the Lord...
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The Abundant Life, Part 04: The One Perfect Image of God
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
In this episode we continue our look at what Jesus meant when he said he came to bring "life and life abundantly." It’s a study that has taken us not into the NT so much, but into the Old – specifically into the 10 commandment of all places. Indeed, today we look at the 2nd commandment “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Which at first glance, sounds like a reiteration of the first commandment – have no other gods. But I’m going to...
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The Abundant Life, Part 03: The Freedom of Worshipping Rightly
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." It is the first commandment and it sounds...rather ominous. But if we take a moment to listen more deeply, what we discover is actually a call to radical freedom! In a world of myriad deities, each with a slight power over the necessities of life, the stress of keeping each placated was never-ending (and exhausting!)...perhaps not so unlike our world today... And yet, at Mt. Sinai - after the lived experience of rescue from slavery - the God of...
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The Abundant Life, Part 02: The Life-Giving Law of God
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
We continue our look at the abundant life by turning - quite unexpectedly! - to the 10 Commandments and consider the possibility that they are not meant to be the burden we so often imagine them to be, but are rather a gift pointing us to health, life and joy. They are, after all, the first instruction of a loving God to his chosen people. Perhaps love is more operative within the commandments than threat...? ( referenced in the sermon!) The text for this sermon can be found here: . If you value the podcast and are able to support the community from which it comes, you can make a...
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The Abundant Life, Part 01: What's Missing?
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
We begin our look at the abundant life in Christ by examining what has gone wrong. Why do we find ourselves so taxed so often? Why does inner peace feel so ellusive, even though I have a genuine faith in God's goodness and love? To answer these questions we turn to the Apostle John and also to the theological work of St. Augustine and his metaphor of the "two cities" in which Christians have our citizenship. (Augustine's "City of God" is one of the great works of literature, bar none!) Join us as we explore both the theologial reasons we find ourselves caught in a world in conflict and the...
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The Podcast Returns!
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
Yes, you read that correctly, the podcast is returning!! Returning on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 to be exact. It has been a long two-and-a-half years... a break I never expected. But a pretty bad case of burnout hit me hard and it's taken some time to recover and build some new habits that make podcasting possible once again! New episodes begin this coming Wednesday and each Wednesday thereafter - starting with a series on The Abundant Life, a very unexpected look at the 10 commandments. If you want to catch the end of the series , or , they are always available in the . There you can also find...
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Jesus and the Revolution, Part 03 - The Enemy and the Allure of Now
Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith
The divine rescue - of which the ministry of Jesus is the decisive act - is not merely to be understood as the securing of a heavenly afterlife for the faithful, but the restoration of a fallen creation. To be "saved" is to be set free, to be healed and to be counted a citizen of the "kingdom of God." But such freedom recognizes there we are presently captives, subjects of a hostile regime. There is an enemy that must be defeated. But identifying that enemy - the actual enemy - can be quite difficult. In this episode we turn to the story of Jesus's "temptation" in the...
info_outlinePeace is the theme of the 2nd week of Advent and one of the central promises of the Bible.
And yet for many of us, true peace - both inward and in creation - is very elusive.
How can we find inner calm when so much of the world is hurting? Would we not have to turn a blind eye to suffering? Indeed, is not the way to peace on Earth the labor of God's people?
Today we look again at Psalm 46 and a deep lesson on the nature of peace and and the means by which we can truly experience it (memory and faith).
The biblical passage referenced in this sermon is:
It was preached on December 6, 2020 at Canvas Presbyterian Church (Irvine, CA). If you'd like to see the whole worship service, you can find it here. Or subscribe to the Canvas Vimeo page for our video archive or to see future worship services!
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