Episode 21: Cleansing the Temple

After a long delay, we're back. Here is episode 21!

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Influences

A few weeks ago I attended a symposium with several friends where we discussed the nature of communion or the Eucharist. Over the course of the evening the views of several theologians were brought up as the foundation for various members' understanding of communion. This made me pause and take stock about what theologians have been foundational to my worldview and I discovered that my influences are much more literary than theological and the few theologians who make my list did so, not based on their theological writings but rather on the stories they told. Here is a short list of some of the most influential.

Cosmology: Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane, for example)
Eschatology: J.R.R. Tolkien (The Silmarillion)
Soteriology: C.S. Lewis (The Great Divorce)
Ecclesiology: Richard Adams (Watership Down)

I think this is because I am driven by story. I place more weight on a well told story than I do on a rational argument. I think story is solid because it is better at describing the way the would can be whereas argument is limited in this fashion.

Episode 20: The First and the Last

Episode 20 is LIVE!!

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What the Gospel is really about

I've been thinking about this for some time and I feel like it is important to know in order to understand what Matthew is getting at with his Gospel. Jesus didn't come to save people's souls. He didn't come to open the door to heaven so that when we die we get to live happily ever after. He came to save people and to open the reign of God here on earth. The kingdom of Heaven is not a retirement plan but a living breathing political reality that throws everything we ever thought about life, the universe, and everything upside down.

The funny thing about it is that what we currently see as upside down is actually right side up. The kingdom of Heaven in the book of Matthew is representative of the world working the way it was designed to work. That which was broken is being made whole. The questions are so much bigger than "If you died tonight, where would you go?"

The Gospel is ultimately the good news that the way things are is not the way things are supposed to be, nor is it the way they are going to end up. Life, the Universe, Everything is on the mend in the kingdom of Heaven and we can either get on board and get to work fixing it or we can continue to pursue the old broken way of doing things.

Episode 19: The Violence Inherent in the System

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Episode 18: In the Event of A Water Landing Your Millstone Should Not Be Used as A Flotation Device

My sincere apologies for the delay in production. There has been a great deal of busyness here at the Motley Cross and none of it really pointed at the podcast. The crazy is slowing down so we'll be back on track soon.

In the meantime, enjoy a special version of the podcast. This is a sermon I preached at Servant Church Austin back on October 6th. Strangely enough it was on Matthew 18.

http://bit.ly/1h2WWM1

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Episode 17: Coming Down the Mountain

Hello!! Thanks for your patience. Episode 17 is done and can be downloaded by clicking here!!

Thanks for listening and when your finished, check out my friend and sometime engineer of this podcast, at his site dictionaryofchristianese.com