Episodes
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 8
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
When Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him, he says, ‘Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem you who stone the prophets and kill those sent to you.’ Jesus recognizes that Herod is the most recent iteration of a long history of Israel’s leaders defending themselves from people like him in order to maintain the status quo.
Matthew’s gospel tells us that Herod had all the baby boys in Bethlehem two and under put to death. Mark and Luke tell similar gruesome stories about Herod. George Orwell says: ‘In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible’, and Herod was the indefensible status quo of Israel. When faced with a choice between Herod or Jesus, Israel’s leaders went with Herod. They had to narrate their reality so that they could make peace with the decision.
Because language is used to defend the indefensible, Orwell explains that our ‘political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.'
Joe Biden was the chair of the special senate committee for foreign relations from 1997 to 2003. During his tenure, Biden began to advocate for the invasion of Iraq 5 years before George Bush executed the war. After Bush waged a war of aggression, Obama became president and smoothed it all over. By that time Obama felt he could drop the euphemistic language and said ‘we tortured some folks’. He went on to explain, ‘While I don’t believe that anybody is above the law, I also believe that we need to look forward instead of backwards’. Obama instructed America to put the illegal war and the torture program down the ‘memory hole’ - another Orwellian term. Obama himself would go on to start new wars, renew the patriot act, and arrest more journalists and their sources than any president to date.
If the church is going to have a prophetic imagination, we have to be willing to break with the herd and refuse to speak the political language handed to us by the predominant culture. This may not mean success for the church in the sense of convincing others to see what we see; but the church is not called to be successful, but rather to be faithful.
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Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 7
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The prophet’s ability to predict events decades if not centuries into the future can seem mysterious and appear as if they have psychic powers or a crystal ball. But when we read Jesus’ words closely - and the words of other prophetic voices - we discover that Jesus and other prophets understood how their time and place was really functioning - regardless of how others said it was functioning. In other words the prophets had a far more intimate knowledge of their own contemporary situation than anyone else around them and it is this deep understanding of their contemporary situation that gives them such predictive powers.
But this too is mysterious - why do the prophets understand their contemporary situation more deeply than the people around them?
We can explore this mystery by considering the question that Jesus often asks his listeners ‘Have you not read?’
Given that the vast majority of people were illiterate in Jesus day this may seem like an odd question to ask. It seems the obvious answer is ‘no of course they haven’t read, because they can’t read or write!’
But when Jesus asks this question he is addressing the literate Pharisees and the educated Sadducees and the cultured Herodians; in other words, Jesus’ sharpest confrontations are with the educated cultured class.
And every time Jesus asks the question ‘have you not read?’, followed by a well-known passage of scripture, he is showing these self appointed guardians of Israel that they do not really know these scriptures in any meaningful way and are in fact at odds with their own texts.
They had co-opted the language of scripture to tell the story in such a way that essentially pushed God out of the way and allowed them to seize control and maintain their own power. By asking have you not read, Jesus wanted to rescue them as he want to rescue us from a self-serving language that leads us astray and disconnects us from the realities of our own contemporary situation.
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Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 6
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
During a TV interview, British comedian and outspoken atheist, Stephen Fry, was asked, “What would you do if you died and found out God existed?” Fry responded that he would walk up to God and say, "Bone cancer in children. What’s that about? How dare you create a world where there is so much misery that is not our fault. It’s evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"
Stephen Fry isn’t wrong when he says that our world is full of injustice and pain. Jeremiah and the Psalms are filled with obvious anger and frustration directed at God, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician? Why has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?"
The same feelings of resentment and rage that Stephen Fry directs towards God are in fact echoed with as much vitriol and despair within the Bible itself.
Pastor Stephen once said, “The problem of evil and suffering in the world is as much a philosophical problem for Christians as it is for everyone. The question of innocent suffering before a good, all-powerful God is the engine that drives the entire biblical narrative. It’s in multiple psalms, every verse of the book of Job, in the cry of Jesus on the cross. The Bible creates space for and provides us language to bring our complaints against God.”
The Biblical narrative itself is designed to hand us the language of lament in times when our own words fail us and when all we have is a wordless groan.
In response to the Prosperity Gospel in American Christianity, Kate Bowler (professor of American Religious History at Duke who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 35) says, “We don’t serve a Quid Pro Quo God. Our lives are built with such delicate material; it doesn’t take a lot to topple the whole thing over... our culture makes us feel embarrassed for the terrible things that happen to us. It makes us feel ashamed, lonely and like a loser. I would love if we had a culture that could embrace those of us that fall... give us a language and support to help us feel like we’re not problems to be solved, we’re just people to be loved.”
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Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 5
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple at the hands of Babylon. Even after being allowed to remain with his people in Judah instead of being taken to Babylon, he had to flee to Egypt where he eventually died, never having returned home.
A tragic sequence of events for a prophet of Israel who understood full well that the very prophetic tradition of which he was a part had started back with Moses and the Exodus out of Egypt. For Jeremiah, to be stuck back in Egypt would have felt like a cruel joke.
If you open the book of Jeremiah and jab your finger down on any given line of text you’re more than likely to find gut-wrenching grief, lament and gruesome descriptions of human mortality/death. But why focus on death and dying?
Lydia Dugdale is the director of The Center for Medical Ethics at Columbia University, having first established The Program for Medicine, Spirituality, and Religion at Yale School of Medicine, and is also the author of a book, "The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom."
Lydia is an exemplar of what it means to actively practice hope, AND look into the darkness and explore human mortality and what she calls, "The Good Death". She is adamant that working to form a healthy concept of "The Good Death" is what informs our ability to live "The Good Life."
Lydia says that she wishes everyone, regardless of youth or health, might internalize the fact that they have a death diagnosis.
People are given 3-6 months to live, and all of a sudden feelings of jealousy, attachment to material possessions, the pursuit of success, all begin to subside; all the ‘Imperial Consciousness' stuff falls away and what remains is The Prophetic Imagination - the hope for a mended world, longing for resurrection and understanding that time is precious and people matter.
Like Lydia, Jeremiah wasn’t gazing into the darkness from a place of overwhelming despair but rather from a place of hope. Through his art, Jeremiah points us towards the fragile beauty of life, mines our universal longings for resurrection, and unearths what often feel like our absurd hopes for a restored, mended world.
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Saturday Apr 13, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 4
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
We are inundated by messages that say that “hopeful” or promising language is too much, too idealistic for this world.
The prevailing wisdom tells us repeatedly, this world is a violent world that needs violent solutions. We are confronted by the “facts” and we clam up.
“Hope... is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts... hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.” - Walter Brueggemann
Prophetic Hope is not optimism.
Optimism is somehow managing the reality and massaging the facts and attempting to create reasons for positivity. It’s fatuous.
HOPE however isn’t afraid to look into the darkness. Christian hope, rooted in ancient traditions reaching back to the Hebrew Bible, connects us into a perspective, a posture which is one of hope, in the middle of darkness.
Texts such as Isaiah 25:6-9 and the stories about banquets and weddings told by Jesus in Matthew 25:1-13 are energizing us to defy the darkness. In Jesus’ story he insists hope is an active work to be done through the night, keeping our lamps fueled even if the wait seems interminably long.
Jesus will come, at the midnight hour, and we will see a new world comprised of all the tens of thousands of gestures of justice, sacrifice, grace and love, with all the compassionate and loyal movements rolled up into a new world where there is only beauty.
No more tears, only beauty, only love and no more death… all that has been beautiful, all that has contained love (however imperfectly we enacted it) will be preserved and brought forward to this new world. The great mending. The great reversal.
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Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 3
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
We often get the impression that the prophet operated as a lone voice over and against the rest of society. This idea is reinforced when we flick through the prophetic books of the bible and find that they are all named after particular prophets: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah etc.
Certainly, there were times when the prophets felt alone. Remember Elijah sitting by himself, wishing for his own death, claiming that he was the only faithful prophet left?
But even then, Elijah was not alone, because Obediah had hidden 100 prophets in caves and supplied them with bread and water.
Or take Moses for example, when God commands him to go to Pharaoh he replies, ‘I’m not eloquent, I am slow in speech and of tongue’. And so God brings his brother Aaron to him so that they can fulfill the prophetic calling - not alone but together.
Before they confront Pharaoh, they go to Israel, gather the elders, and begin to cultivate the prophetic imagination in them asking, ‘do you remember when things were different? Can you imagine a different future?’ In other words, the prophets belonged to prophetic communities in which their own prophetic imaginations could be cultivated.
For as long as there have been prophets, there have been those who ape the prophetic voice. Last episode we compared the prophets of Baal who ate from Jezebel’s table with the prophets of God who were surviving on rations of bread and water hiding in a cave. The prophets around Jezebel’s table knew what to say and what not to say if they were going to survive and they had no interest in delivering a word from ‘beyond’.
This culture of fear and coerced agreement contrasts with the culture of love which Jesus cultivates amongst his disciples. Jesus says ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ If we love each other the way Christ loves us then we know we will be there for each other no matter what. This kind of love produces freedom to be honest and this honesty and love are the wellspring of the prophetic imagination.
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Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 2
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
This episode contrasts the imperial imagination with the prophetic imagination. The imperial imagination tells us that this is the way things are, this is the way things have always been and this is the way things are always going to be. In other words, the imperial imagination is very good at perpetuating the myth of its own eternity.
On the other hand, the prophetic imagination can see through the way the now is being presented, it knows things are not the way they seem, moreover the prophetic imagination has access to deep memories so it can remember a different past. And because the prophetic imagination can see through the way the now is being presented and can remember a different past, the prophetic imagination can envisage and hope for an entirely different future.
But in order for the prophetic imagination to be able to do all this, the imagination has to be free and the prophetic imagination finds its freedom in relationship with the God who is completely free. But a god, who is ‘coincidentally’ aligned with all our major institutions and the views of the surrounding predominant culture is probably not a free god but the servant and slave of the established order.
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Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
The Prophetic Imagination - Part 1
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
The history of Biblical prophetic tradition has everything to do with the relationship between the prophet and the Creator God for whom the prophet functions as a mouthpiece. Continued to this day, it’s a tradition that has been fostered by communities throughout history from generation to generation.
Freidrich Nietzsche felt that abstract ideas were easier to understand when they found their roots in individuals. He called these people exemplars. A contemporary exemplar who has continued the Biblical prophetic tradition in our day and who embodies the idea of The Prophetic Imagination, is novelist, essayist, poet and organic farmer, Wendell Berry.
Berry published a book titled "The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture", where he traces the injustices foundational to the initial settling of America and then goes on to outline the ensuing growth of small agricultural communities, the effects of the Industrial Revolution on said communities and the physical, spiritual and psychological unsettling of the American people as they slowly began to be treated less like humans and more like the cogs in a machine.
Berry traces the rise of a kind of person he calls the Consumer Exploiter, contrasted with the Producer Nurturer. He states that in a perfect world all would take on the posture of a Producer Nurturer and there would be no room for Consumer Exploiters.
Berry is a believer committed to the idea of a Creator God. A God that he believes he is in partnership with, as a steward of the land and as a partnering voice in intimate relationship with his Creator.
Berry speaks with creativity and imagination. He speaks out against the injustices of our dominant community and through story, poetry, gorgeous lines of inquiry, robust curiosity, poignant dissatisfaction and healthy doubt, speaks into our present moment with a modern fluency that points towards a new freedom and future.
This kind of prophetic voice doesn’t stop with Wendell Berry. It continues to this day carried by other individuals. A tradition that’s still being encouraged by entire communities.
So, what kind of community works to foster a prophetic voice?
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Friday Mar 22, 2024
Mystery: Trinity
Friday Mar 22, 2024
Friday Mar 22, 2024
In this enlightening podcast episode, Pastor Stephen Cheung delves deep into the profound mysteries of the doctrine of the Trinity, drawing from the Gospel of John and the Athanasian Creed. Through a careful examination of scripture and historical context, he explores the intricate nature of the Triune God and its significance in Christian theology. Cheung eloquently guides listeners through the paradoxes and complexities inherent in understanding the Trinity, emphasizing the importance of embracing mystery rather than attempting to resolve it. He challenges conventional approaches to doctrine, urging believers to step beyond the confines of intellectual comprehension and into a deeper, more profound experience of divine community and love.
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Monday Mar 11, 2024
Resurrection: And So It Begins
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
On this Easter Sunday, Pastor Stephen delves into an encounter between the Apostle Paul and a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, as recounted in the book of Acts. Paul's preaching about Jesus and the resurrection intrigued some but left others skeptical. However, Paul seized the opportunity to share the message of the resurrection with them, emphasizing its significance in the Christian faith.
By reframing the resurrection as both a promise and an invitation, the episode challenges listeners to reimagine their futures in its light. It highlights historical examples of how belief in the resurrection has inspired acts of compassion, justice, and social change. Ultimately, this episode encourages us to consider how embracing the reality of the resurrection can lead to a renewed sense of purpose and hope in our lives.
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Monday Mar 11, 2024
Humanity: On Being Human
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
What does it mean to be human? Amidst our daily routines and societal discussions on rights, the notion of humanity remains elusive and complex. Drawing from existentialist perspectives and cultural observations, Pastor Stephen navigates through the intricacies of defining humanity in a world that demands its rights fervently. Through a journey spanning cultural reflections and biblical insights, the narrative culminates in an exploration of Jesus Christ as the epitome of humanity, embodying the divine image and offering a profound lens through which to understand our own humanity.
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Sunday Dec 11, 2022
Love, Joy & Peace: Part Two - Peace
Sunday Dec 11, 2022
Sunday Dec 11, 2022
12.11 [Sermon] To rescue us from the "lullaby effect" that comes from overfamiliarity with the Christmas gospel narratives, Eric contrasts Jesus with his contemporary and attempted assassin, Herod the Great. The latter's excessive wealth, paranoia, and brutality leads us to especially welcome Jesus as the Prince of Peace.
This Advent series explores the vast implications of the birth of Christ and the resounding love, joy and peace imbedded in the story of the creator God who intervenes on behalf of his creation and stakes his claim once and for all in the reality that he has always deemed to be "very good."
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Love, Joy & Peace: Part One - Glory
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
12.4 [Sermon] You've probably heard, "Glory to God in the highest," especially around Christmastime. Why do we pursue fleeting glory--fame, beauty, and bliss? How would our lives be transformed by pursuing the everlasting glory of God?
This Advent series explores the vast implications of the birth of Christ and the resounding love, joy and peace imbedded in the story of the creator God who intervenes on behalf of his creation and stakes his claim once and for all in the reality that he has always deemed to be "very good."
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
The Story Behind the Doctrine: Part Four - Mezzanine Discussion
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
11.20 [Discussion] The Story Behind the Doctrine: Part Four - Mezzanine Discussion - Stephen and Eric recap the sermon series and discuss the four main ways doctrine tends to be misunderstood aka 'The Four Flips'. Eric plugs the BEMA podcast and finally opens up the conversation with four questions:
1. What do you think of when you hear the word doctrine? Have you ever thought of doctrine as being rooted in story?
2. Doctrine is often misunderstood as being detached from reality. What are some ways you’ve seen doctrine play out in real time and in very real, concrete ways?
3. In the series it was mentioned that doctrine isn’t about finding answers but is actually more about being immersed in the mysterious. How might learning to rest in mystery and paradox inform our lives for the better?
4. At certain moments in history, doctrine was used as a means of abuse and control (Inquisitions, etc…) However, doctrine’s earliest origins actually have more to do with maintaining human freedom in the face of a totalitarian controlling state. How might a deeper understanding of the early origins of doctrine instill freedom, courage and wholeness within each of us?
In our present day, the idea of ‘doctrine’ is often understood to be an unwavering set of rules rigidly enforced by the self proclaimed ‘doctrine police’. And so, the word itself carries with it a certain degree of baggage and may even bring to mind horrific images of historic inquisitions. But, what if we went back, stood alongside early Christians and immersed ourselves in the nuanced story of Christ? What would happen if we were able to understand how a dry word like doctrine might actually be referring to the distillation of a vast story? The story of God’s intervention on behalf of his creation with the key plot points aka ‘doctrine’ compelling humanity towards a greater fullness and deeper hope even amidst the chaos of our contemporary world.
Sunday Nov 13, 2022
The Story Behind the Doctrine: Part Three - Trinity
Sunday Nov 13, 2022
Sunday Nov 13, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
The Story Behind the Doctrine: Part Two - Resurrection
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
The Story Behind the Doctrine: Part One - Incarnation
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
International Justice Mission - Miguel Lau
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 16, 2022
Being Disciples: Part Four - Staying Power (Hebrews 12:1-13)
Sunday Oct 16, 2022
Sunday Oct 16, 2022
10.02 [Sermon] Being Disciples: Part Four - Staying Power - Chris Lawrence wraps up our series 'Being Disciples' and explores how resilience is not in fact a gift but is a habit that needs to be learned. Or maybe it's something to be “caught” by association, from those who have found themselves pushing through threatening and painful experiences.
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Being Disciples: Part Three - A Larger Story
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
10.09 [Sermon] Being Disciples: Part Three - A Larger Story - We conclude our Being Disciples series on following Jesus. Our prevailing cultural mantra "As long as I'm not hurting anyone..." turns out to be a woefully insufficient rule of life. Jesus instead invites us into the grand story of devoting ourselves to the good of one another, as he did for us.
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Being Disciples: Part Two - Knowledge and Dust
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Being Disciples: Part One - Come Follow Me
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Sunday Sep 18, 2022
Sunday Sep 18, 2022
09.11 [Sermon] Thoughts on Church: Part Two - Bodies, Banquets and the Muscle Memory of Love - As we wrap up our 'Thoughts on Church' miniseries we explore what it means to gather and worship as a community of Christians and Skeptics - but this time with a twist. Because, buying into church is one thing but if we're really going to explore prevailing 'Thoughts on Church' we have to recognize that many view organized religious gatherings to be archaic, outmoded and outdated and would rather not have anything to do with something, seemingly so out of touch with contemporary reality. So, why do we still choose to meet Sunday after Sunday? What does gathering together actually do? And, how do we find ourselves shaped and changed by our decision to live and worship alongside others?
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
Thoughts on Church: Part One - God With Us
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
The Things That Shape Us: Part Five - Prayer
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
The Things That Shape Us: Part Four - The Bible
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Reason, the letters of St. Anselm and a fragment of The Canterbury Tales - all within the same two covers. And remember that the chronological span of the books of the Bible is
even longer than that of the examples I have just given." So the reality is that as soon as you think you know what the Bible is, you turn the page and it turns into something different. So how should we approach this book?
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
The Things That Shape Us: Part Three - Baptism
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
The Things That Shape Us: Part Two - Communion
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 12, 2022
The Things That Shape Us: Part One
Sunday Jun 12, 2022
Sunday Jun 12, 2022
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
Pentecost Sunday: Spirit of Presence
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
06.05 [Sermon] Pentecost Sunday: Spirit of Presence - What do Christians today believe about the mystery of the Holy Spirit? AND, what do we do with these beliefs? How does this stuff play out in real time? Do we behave as if the Holy Spirit exists, works and moves? OR, do we actually rely more on the power of our own efforts?
Sunday May 22, 2022
Reflections on the Sabbath - Part Five: Mezzanine Discussion
Sunday May 22, 2022
Sunday May 22, 2022
05.22 [Mezzanine] I Will Give You Rest: Reflections on the Sabbath - Part Five - At the end of each sermon series, rather than pushing on to the next thing we intentionally take time to rest and reflect on what's been said. This time around we speak with Mark and Mara and hear how Jesus' invitation into Sabbath rest has recently entered their lives in a new way and continues to inform the rhythm of their week as they work from home and raise two small children in New York City.
Sunday May 15, 2022
Reflections on the Sabbath - Part Four: Sabbath as an Invitation to Freedom
Sunday May 15, 2022
Sunday May 15, 2022
Sunday May 08, 2022
Sunday May 08, 2022
Sunday May 01, 2022
Sunday May 01, 2022
05.01 [Sermon] I Will Give You Rest: Reflections on the Sabbath - Part Two - Stephen Cheung reminds us to welcome the Sabbath as our Beloved. In the Sabbath, God grants us permission to rest, to cease from striving. Creation is good, and Sabbath is "very good."
Stephen suggests four practices for us to lean into Sabbath delight:
- Start where you are with the pleasures at hand.
- Introduce one slow meal in the week.
- Introduce an entire day in your week where you rest.
- Make Sabbath possible for everyone within your sphere of influence.
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
04.24 [Sermon] I Will Give You Rest: Reflections on the Sabbath - Part One - Stephen Cheung reveals how American culture has slipped away from the restorative gift of Sabbath rest. He reminds us that the Sabbath is integral to Creation, not an addendum - the practice that restores our relationships with ourselves, others, and all creation.
Stephen suggests four practices for us to lean into Sabbath presence:
- Fight the urge to check the phone first thing in the morning.
- Put your phone into Airplane/’Do not disturb’ mode when meeting with people.
- Don’t bring the phone to the bedroom.
- Turn off the phone for 24 hours once a week.
Sunday Apr 17, 2022
Easter Sunday: ’It is Love that Believes the Resurrection’
Sunday Apr 17, 2022
Sunday Apr 17, 2022
04.17 [Sermon] Easter Sunday - When we look around at the people in our lives: children, family, lovers, friends - all the ones we hold dear - and realize that death works to divide and separate us all, it's then that it becomes clear that, 'It is love that believes the Resurrection."
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
Palm Sunday: A Triumphal Entry of Sorts
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
Sunday Apr 03, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Ten: End of Series Discussion
Sunday Apr 03, 2022
Sunday Apr 03, 2022
Question 1: Over the course of Mountain of Salt, City of Light what things jumped out to you as being new ways of understanding the Sermon on the Mount?
Question 2 : How have you felt yourself leaning towards escapism as opposed to pressing into reality? What practices have you adopted to root yourself more firmly in the world as it is?
Question 3: The old Arabic phrase says, “There is salt between us” meaning two people are committed to each other. How do you see yourself as being salt and light binding people and God together?
Question 4: If all of the plot lines of human history converge in Jesus, then what happens next? What is God’s “new and unexpected future for humanity?” And, how do we fit into that story?
Part Two:
Question 1: In what ways have you found our cultural context to create a conflict between your inner and outer life?
Question 2: Who do you think your enemies are? And, how does the call to love them make you feel?
Question 3: Before this sermon series had you ever thought about the Lord’s Prayer being a revolutionary prayer?
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
03.27 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A Study in the Sermon on the Mount - Part Nine - As we wrap up our Mountain of Salt, City of Light series, we explore the "Parable of the Builders" and the final metaphor used in the Sermon on the Mount: the metaphor of a house. Two houses actually, one built on sand and the other built on rock. But why does Jesus use this image of a house right at the end? To find the answer, we look back over the entire sermon series and remember that a mountain isn’t just a mountain, salt and light aren't just salt and light and a house isn’t just a house.
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Seven: Living the Sermon on the Mount
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
02.27 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A Study in the Sermon on the Mount - Part Six - Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says "Love your enemies" and Etty Hillesum did just that. Born a Dutch Jew, Etty ignored all advice from friends and, completely of her own volition, went to work in the hospital at the Westerbork Transit Camp - the final German outpost in the Netherlands before Auschwitz. She was able to provide care to the prisoners and show love and kindness to everyone there, even the German guards. But, before long, Etty found herself to be an inmate and writing from the camp she said, "There must be someone to live through it all, to bear witness to the fact that God lived, even in these times." She went on to write in her diary "Now is the time to put into practice - love your enemies." Finally, when Etty found herself on a train to Auschwitz, her own death at the hands of her enemies looming, she threw a note from the train that read, "Let them know, we left singing."
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Five: Jesus and the Law
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Four: The Law and the Prophets
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
02.13 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A study in the Sermon on the Mount - Part Four - Jesus says that He has "come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets," but what does this phrase mean? Is Jesus the ultimate rule follower or does He mean something else?
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Three: Salt and Light
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
Sunday Feb 06, 2022
02.06 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A Study in the Sermon on the Mount - Part Three - One way to interpret Jesus' use of the metaphors of "Salt and Light" is to understand them as a direct calling on the lives of Christians to "add flavor" to a bland world and "light the way" in a world full of darkness. But, when we begin to understand the metaphors of "Salt and Light" within the cultural context of Jesus' day we begin to come closer to understanding their original meaning which we find to be deeply rooted within the ancient customs surrounding Covenant, Commitment and Promise.
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part Two: Blessed are Those
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
01.30 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A Study in the Sermon on the Mount - Part Two - When we hear Jesus repeat "Blessed are those" again and again in the Sermon on the Mount, it's easy to begin to feel that Christ is presenting a list of ways we might each be "blessed" and find individual favor with God. But, when we look closer and begin to realize that Christ's list is actually embracing the posture of the weak, voiceless and suffering we begin to realize that this is a list more concerned with justice and the flourishing of humanity as a whole.
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
Mountain of Salt, City of Light - Part One: Many Mountains
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
01.23 [Sermon] Mountain of Salt, City of Light: A Study in the Sermon on the Mount.
Stephen Cheung explores the rich meaning and symbolism in and around the longest continuous discourse of Jesus found in the New Testament.
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
Cana Grace
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
01.16 [Sermon] Chris Lawrence speaks on "Cana Grace" John 2:1-11 - The Art of Making That One Cup of Water Go a Long, Long Way - We are still just beginning a new year. Are we going to live 2022 deeply, live it with rich purpose, enjoy times which will be appreciated and looked back on in years to come with special fondness? That’s really setting the bar very, very high isn’t it? Maybe we are worried we will just scrape through in survival mode, languishing - that’s one of the most common complaints from people who feel they have missed out, or things have gone all very insipid and colorless. Jesus makes water become wine. Can he do that again? Or is that just a bedtime story to tell the little ones?
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
Christ in the New Year
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
01.09 [Sermon] Christ in the New Year - On this first Sunday of 2022, Bryant Parsons speaks on anchoring all of our New Year's Resolutions, hopes and good intentions in a power greater than ourselves: a power that changes us, a power that works in us and through us and even in spite of us, to bring about the renewal and redemption of all things.
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
Advent - Part Four: Angels, Shepherds, and the Lamb of God
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
Sunday Dec 19, 2021
12.19 [Reflection] Advent - Part Four: Angels, Shepherds and the Lamb of God - On this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, Eric Helvie reflects on the moment when the angels appeared to the shepherds, proclaiming the birth of the Messiah while also shining the light of heaven down upon them. It's as if heaven is pointing directly at the shepherds, their lives, livelihood and culture and saying there's deep significance here.