206.8K
Downloads
987
Episodes
At Denver Community Church, we explore and participate in the life of Jesus, so that we can be a healing presence in our world. Download the latest teachings here.
Episodes
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
There is a popular phrase within many Christian circles when describing one who no longer identifies as Christian. The phrase? “Far from God …” We talk about someone who no longer goes to church, “Yeah, I haven’t seen Wendy in quite a while on Sundays, she’s far from God.” Or we tell others our story saying things like, “For a time I was doing my own thing and didn’t care about the Christian faith, I was far from God.” Here’s the thing: It’s impossible to be far from God.
We learn this from the *mythic story of the first man and the first woman in the garden. They eat of the fruit God commanded them not to eat from. And what does God do? God goes to them, seeks them out and invites them into conversation. It’s clear in the story, the humans are the ones who run and hide; God calls them out of hiding. As one walks through the biblical narrative what we witness again and again is a God who is near to us … near as our next breath, because God is our very breath. This is the God who is right here, right now.
Monday Nov 30, 2020
Monday Nov 30, 2020
The Bible begins with a poem that tells of God’s intimate involvement with the universe. God speaking, bringing order to chaos and God getting God’s hands dirty when forming humanity from the dust of the ground. It’s a beautiful picture of how God’s involvement in the world in which we live. According to the biblical writers, this involvement was not just a one-time thing “in the beginning”, but a constant involvement every single second. From our breath to the energy that holds all things together - God is here. God is the very ground of being.
This life, animating force, divine breath is still a mystery that stumps the brightest minds today. We know it is there, but it cannot be seen. Paul, when speaking of this mystery wrote of the “invisible God” claiming Jesus was the image of the invisible God. But he goes further, claiming that all things have their being for him, through him and in him all things hold together. Which means that all things are sacred for Christ is in all things and all things are in Christ. It’s always been that way according to John and Paul. Immanuel then, speaks of the Divine as one who is Right here, right now … and always has been.
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Jesus shows us the way. Just as the cross shows us our violence, so these OT passages reflect our violence onto us. We all have it. But the call is toward a nonviolent ethic that we see on the cross. What looks ugly is actually love. It is God coming toward us … it is God allowing us to do to God what we want. And in doing so, discovering the Love that is beneath all the ugliness.
For in the moments that we see a bleeding, naked, crucified God - we at the same time see the monstrousness of our violence. God chose to not return violence for violence, but instead absorbed the violence in God’s self in Jesus. This is the invitation to us (in part) when we are invited to pick up our cross.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
At DCC we believe that as we explore and participate in the life of Jesus, we become a healing presence in the world. Part of participating in the life of Jesus is actively engaging our interior worlds. This involves exploring who we are, the Divine in us, and the ways in which God uniquely speaks to and leads us. Contemplative prayer practices are a great way to cultivate this in our lives. As you sit at home, or perhaps as you take a walk, simply download the podcast and you will be guided in a contemplative prayer practice.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
At DCC we believe that as we explore and participate in the life of Jesus, we become a healing presence in the world. Part of participating in the life of Jesus is actively engaging our interior worlds. This involves exploring who we are, the Divine in us, and the ways in which God uniquely speaks to and leads us. Contemplative prayer practices are a great way to cultivate this in our lives. As you sit at home, or perhaps as you take a walk, simply download the podcast and you will be guided in a contemplative prayer practice.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
At DCC we believe that as we explore and participate in the life of Jesus, we become a healing presence in the world. Part of participating in the life of Jesus is actively engaging our interior worlds. This involves exploring who we are, the Divine in us, and the ways in which God uniquely speaks to and leads us. Contemplative prayer practices are a great way to cultivate this in our lives. As you sit at home, or perhaps as you take a walk, simply download the podcast and you will be guided in a contemplative prayer practice.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
At DCC we believe that as we explore and participate in the life of Jesus, we become a healing presence in the world. Part of participating in the life of Jesus is actively engaging our interior worlds. This involves exploring who we are, the Divine in us, and the ways in which God uniquely speaks to and leads us. Contemplative prayer practices are a great way to cultivate this in our lives. As you sit at home, or perhaps as you take a walk, simply download the podcast and you will be guided in a contemplative prayer practice.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
After the flood narrative Noah, who apparently was quite the gardener plants a vineyard, ferments the grapes, drinks the wine (too much wine), gets schnockered and then passes out naked in his tent. His son Ham walks in on him and sees him in all his miserable glory, and goes to find his brothers Shem and Japheth to tell them about dad. It feels like a moment in a frat house: Connor, after a heavy night of drinking, passes out face down in the bathroom buck naked. Aiden walks in and sees him, laughs, goes to get his phone because he’s absolutely got to get a picture of this, and he tells Justin because he’ll think it’s hilarious!
That aside, Shem and Japheth find little humor in the situation, put a blanket over their shoulders, walk into the tent backward so as not to see their father’s nakedness, and lay it over him. The next morning Noah hears about Ham and is furious. He says, “Cursed be Canaan!” Canaan being one of Ham’s boys. Interesting isn’t it? Why Canaan? Why not one of his other sons - say Cush or Egypt or Put. Canaan didn’t see Noah naked, Ham did. Not only did Noah curse Canaan, he praised Japheth and Shem (Abram was his descendant) - blessing them. So this hatred of Canaan goes way back, and the praise of the Shem goes way back too.
We see this trend through the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophets and the people of Israel really pile it on Canaan, but not just him. Ham’s descendants include people from Babylon, Assyria (Nineveh anyone?), Egypt was the father of … well Egypt the brutal slave overlords, the Philistines (the longtime nemesis of Israel) and Sidon, the Hittites, Jebusites, Girgashites, Hivite, Arkites, Amorites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. All of them enemies of the God and his people. This rift and hatred runs deep - generations deep. But then comes Jesus.
Jesus goes through Sidon, a big no-no. It’s there he encounters a Phoenician woman … and who else was a Phoenician woman from Sidon? Jezebel; the woman who epitomized all the evil that came from Ham’s lineage. And what does Jesus do? He heals her daughter and praises her faith. It’s no wonder then people from Sidon bring their sick to Jesus to be healed. Jesus even says it’s going to be better for Sidon than for the people of Israel … better to be Ham than Japheth.
This points toward a way to help us understand the Bible and God and all the violence. Simply put: if it doesn’t look like Jesus then it’s not an accurate picture of God. Because Jesus is the very face of God who is love. It is through him, his life, teaching and love that we come to know God. So what if that is what we gave ourselves to?
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
If the violence of God was only in the Hebrew Scriptures, we might be able to move on with a bit of a wince and keep going. However, we are met with the violence of God for all eternity when it comes to the threat of hell that suddenly rears its ugly head in the Christian Scriptures. What makes things more interesting is this threat of eternal conscious torment forever in the fire prepared by a loving God is found on the lips of Jesus. Jesus, the face of a God who is love, talks about eternal fire and a place where the worm never dies; and he talks about hell more than heaven. This fact has been seized upon by many over the years.
It’s helpful however to take a big step back before we continue. First, Jesus only speaks about hell to the religious who believed they were in no danger of hell. In some ways saying, “If you think you are not in danger of hell, and believe they are … you may well be in danger of hell.” Second, Jesus always spoke of a very specific place. Like one you could walk to. A place that had a sordid history, and, in Jesus’ day, was a garbage dump that also served as a place of burial for poor families and a place the Romans would toss crucified bodies. It was called Gehenna (aka Valley of Hinnom). Third, our understanding of hell that we walk around with today wasn’t actually in the minds of those who wrote the Bible. Seriously, it wasn’t. Our modern notion of hell is much more the product of Dante Alighieri than anything written in the Bible.
So what exactly was Jesus talking about then? Well, it seems he was speaking toward some sort of willful separation or distance from the Divine that we choose within our fractured selves. That’s what we will explore when talking about hell.