Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

We look at the story of Ruth and how a young woman gives up any chance of a better life by moving back with her Jewish mother-in-law to Israel, a land that will hold her, Ruth, as a pagan and as inferior.  God rewards Ruth, however, for her love and courage.  We also look at my father's love of dogs, and a story about an apricot poodle that was left wandering after its owner died by herself in her house.

We look at Nazareth, both modern and ancient.  We consider why it was almost certainly a holy place.  We consider Jesus growing up in this tiny, backwater town - and how it must have influenced him.  We consider the prophesy of the Messiah from Nazareth, the savior who would help us listen to that "still, small voice" of God, as described to us in Hebrew Scripture.

When I was a boy, I picked citrus with Mexican migrant workers.  The men always looked after the boys.  I tell a few stories of their unearned protection, their unearned grace.  We look at the transition from the Old to the New Covenants, the suzerain contracts that God has made with his people.  We look at the movement from having a sense of debt to God to earning God's acceptance only through faith.  We also look at what this means in our everyday lives.

We look at the city and history of Jerusalem, from its ancient beginnings, several millennia ago, to the time of Christ, to now.  We consider the people who pilgrimaged there from all over the Roman Empire, so that they could visit God's city, and visit the home of God, the Temple.  We consider what this means to us today and to the nature and to future of our faith.

I was quite the kid gardener as a boy.  Once, I planted pumpkin seeds - a lot of them - in my parents' front yard.  It did not turn out well.  We look at the story of the withered fig tree, the money changers at the Temple, and the power of prayer.  We see what it has in common with the pumpkin seeds.  We see that Mark and Matthew tell different versions of the fig tree/money changers/prayer story - and we consider what this means.

I was once at the hospital, with an elderly man who was holding the hand of his dying wife.  He had been the founder of an electronics firm that made advanced computer components.  He said that computers were the most dangerous invention ever.  He expressed, in a more aggressive fashion, that our modern addiction to digital information, in the form of videos, web pages, social media, texts, etc., and our belief that Google can truly enlighten us, is leading us to a new age of Gnosticism.  We consider the history of Gnosticism, and what we need today to regain our natural, pure relationship with the true source of spiritual knowledge.

When I was a boy, someone stole a shotgun from a police car - and the only witnesses were kids who all described the thief very differently.  We use this as a sort of "negative" analogy and consider the four Gospels of Jesus and what we should think of their differing stories about Jesus, the way they differ in the order of events, and their somewhat different foci.  Is this a problem - or is this actually a good thing?

We look at two ancient prayers that are very similar - both are called "Creeds".  We consider why they were written, what they mean, and how they differ.  We look at the broader issue of differentiating mechanical beliefs from a deep seated, personal, holistic notion of faith and what it means to emulate Jesus.  We also consider a very large rat that was living in my garage.

My father's father served in the trenches in World War I - and came home very mentally ill.  He proceeded to abandon his family and live on the street (in Quebec) - and commit violent crimes.  We look at the millstone metaphor of Jesus'.  He told us that it was better to put a millstone around our necks and jump into the sea than draw someone away from a life of faith.  We'll look at this story, at Capernaum (where ancient Israel made massive millstones and where Jesus was speaking from), and at why my grandfather thought that he was living by this lesson.

We consider a passage from Isaiah - from three different translations.  We focus on one word from Hebrew that is translated alternately as "wait", "trust", and "hope".  Which translation is correct?  We decide which is the best translation, and from this, we determine that there is a huge lesson in this passage about how Christians should live their daily lives.  It tells us what to do when nothing seems to be happening, when God does not seem to be active in our lives.  It gives us an opportunity to use our time in the most fruitful and faithful way possible.

We look at the Gospel of John, the thoughtful, literary Gospel, from which we derive much of what we believe.  We see that Scripture can be very subtle and can be filled with double entendres.  Looking at the foot washing scene in John as a primary example, we consider the depth and the nuances that are often missed by modern readers of English translations of the Bible.  We see just how magnificent of a gift is Scripture.

We look at a book that most Christians are not that familiar with - Malachi.  He is "the Messenger" from God who tells us that God will refine us like gold and silver.  We look how God works to refine us, largely by building our confidence that we can indeed live as godly, good people.  We consider what we as Christians look to as our leader through life.  We don't have a prophet like Malachi as our Messenger.  Who do we have?

We look at the word "logos" ("λόγος") in the Bible.  We look at its true, deep meaning, a meaning that is very difficult for a non-Greek speaker to appreciate.  We discover that translating this word correctly and looking at the magnificent, poetic intro to the Gospel of John, we learn about our role as the faithful, the reason Jesus came to us, and what we can find in the face of God.

We look at rendering of 3D wireframe images inside a computer into 2D, simulated 3D full color video.  We draw an analogy of God rendering us from empty wireframes devoid of color and life into full color living human beings who have been forgiven.  We consider Psalm 116, which notes God has rescued the Psalmist from Sheol or Hades, and which asks how the psalmist can render an appropriate act of thankfulness to God.  Finally, ask what we can do today to render our thanks to God.

The title of this podcast comes from something my boy, who is 32, said when he was 3.  We're going to look at the derivation of the name "Jesus", and learn some intriguing things about it.  This will help us understand a parallel between the story of the conquest of Canaan with the story of Jesus.  It will teach us something about language.  It will also teach us something about what really matters on this Earth.

For a millennia and a half, the Silk Road provided a vast avenue of exchange for trading commercial products, carrying on philosophical discussion and for the transmission of faith.  We look at how this might have impacted the development of Christianity.  We also look at the new Silk Road - the Internet, and we consider its positive and negative impacts on Christian faith.

We look at the Book of Acts of the Apostles - which is very inappropriately named - and how it tells us of the incredible missionary journey of the Holy Spirit.  We learn of the immensely deeper and inspiring sense that the earliest believers had of the Holy Spirit, compared to our modern notion.  We see that we do not have to wait for Jesus to return, as the Holy Spirit is already alive, within us.  We see just what the Holy Spirit can do to our lives.

We look at the apocryphal book, the Book of Tobit.  It is a wild tale in which a man marries a woman who has had seven previous bridegrooms die before the marriage was consumated, a man is blinded by bird crap, and an angel disguises himself as a man.  It is also a tale that tells us just what it means to be a Christian.  We will also look at how the Grateful Dead apparently named their band...

We look at the Genesis story of creation: many call it a useless myth, and say that we need to focus on the real, scientific way in which we came into existence.  We see that there is tremendous truth in the Creation Story, and that in it we see the most critical facts about why we exist and what we are meant to do on this planet.  We discover that the myth is truth. (THIS IS A REPOST.  THE ORIGINAL SOUND FILE BECAME CORRUPTED.)

I once had a student in one of my university courses come to my office after not having done any work all semester.  Without asking if anything was wrong, I launched into a professorial lecture about how he should have been doing what I told him to do if he wanted a decent grade, and no, I would not give him an incomplete.  He would fail.  He broke down sobbing - and I learned that something very bad was indeed wrong in his life.  We look at the parable of the man who insists on sitting at the seat of honor at a banquet.  We look at what it means to live by one of the core beliefs of being a Christian, and that is to be humble.