Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

We consider a couple of prominent Bible passages that superficially seem to back up the "fire and brimstone" sermon that I once heard from a rather strident pastor.  But we look at these passages more closely.  We consider whether God really is vengeful and violent.  We consider an alternative interpretation of these New Testament passages - and see if perhaps there is a common misinterpretation of the message of God, in both the Old and the New Testaments.

We consider an ancient landfill found in Egypt - which contains the oldest known New Testament fragments ever found.  We look at the very negative view that the ancient Jews had of garbage or refuse of any kind and what this means for God choosing to preserve his most ancient New Testament Word in a landfill.  We also consider a man I once met who worked in a landfill and how ashamed he was of his work.  Little did he know that he worked in the sort of place that has become beloved by archeologists and is a primary reason why future generations will have no choice to trust that the New Testament Word of God is real, not faked, not forged - and very dependable.

We consider something that I have had trouble conveying in my church and in my podcasts: how we know that we can relax and depend on God to take care of us.  We do this by looking at the Book of Esther, an ancient Hebrew story (and not really "history") about a woman who saves the entire Jewish people from annihilation.  God is never mentioned in the story.  Neither is prayer, the history of the Israelites, the covenant with God, or theology ever explicitly mentioned.  Yet, we see that this is a deeply spiritual book - and therein lies our secret.

When I was a boy, a girl went missing while playing Hide and Go Seek with some of us.  Her mother ended up offering a prayer, which I later identified, I believe, as the Prayer of Manasseh, from the Apocrypha.  We look at the history of the evil King Manasseh from the Kings and Chronicles Books, and at this prayer which is attributed to him (which he certainly did not write).  From the beautiful, poetic prayer we can learn a lot about why to pray and how to pray.

When I was a young kid in school, I was exposed to a boy who would probably now be called "neurodivergent".  I ended up learning a lot about what it means to be different, but still be made in God's image.  We look at Samson, a sinful, arrogant, corrupt, even laughable man who is manipulated by God to serving despite his apparent desire to dishonor his position as a Nazarite.  We look at the many lessons we learn about what God can do with someone or some situation that seems imperfect.

We look at a story from Judges: the female judge Deborah and how her army destroyed the far more advanced army of their enemy.  In the Bible, it is an epic of the Iron Age of the Canaanites vs. the Bronze Age of the Israelites.  We study both the prose and the poem version of this story.  We see how with God's help, the rag tag Israelite army destroys the experienced Canaanite army which is invading on their iron chariots.  We look at how this applies to us today - and we consider more than just the lesson that we need God's help.

My father served in the Pacific in World War II as a Marine and the leader of a combat unit.  We look at three stories of resurrection, of rising from spiritual death: the return of the exiles from Babylon, the rise of Christ after death, and the growth of the Christian church in very recent times.  We also look at how my sister serving as a foreign exchange student healed my father and allowed him to rise again.

We look at the traditional view of Holy Week, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, to the gruesome crucifixion, to the glorious resurrection.  We note that low point between the ride into the Holy City and the rise of Jesus from death.  But we consider a somewhat different view - that the crucifixion does not break the joy from Palm Sunday to Easter.  We look at Jesus' last words on the cross and how they have been traditionally very misinterpreted.  We see that things are different than we have viewed them in the past.  We also look at an encounter I had as a kid with a family riding donkeys, and how we can see this as a lesson about why Jesus chose to ride a seemingly humble, if not ridiculous, animal into the city of his forefathers.

I once spoke with a highly educated physicist who was a psychiatric patient.  We call her Annie.  She talked to me about the Newtonian misconception of gravity as a force, when it really has more to do with the bending of spacetime.  We consider the biblical story of the invasion of Canaan, and the evidence to counter and to defend the validity of this story.  We then get back to the bending of spacetime - and we see that there is something very deep we can learn about advancing our faith.

I once saw John Wayne in a fancy mens store.  I was a boy, and was with an older volunteer who was buying clothing for a kid whose family had no assets.  We look at her bold behavior.  We consider several passages from the Bible that all tell us how we should behave when living out our faith.  We see that this volunteer, this older woman, truly followed the instructions of God as she approached John Wayne.

A very successful man who was in the hospital in great pain reminded me of an important Bible passage about humility: the apparent Creed that we think Paul inserted into his letter to the believers at Philippi.  We consider Creeds in general, like the Apostles and the Nicene, and then look at this beautiful, rhythmic passage of Paul's.  We then consider why Paul's poem might be a much better Christian Creed for today.

Years ago, when I had an as-yet untreated corneal disease, I had very limited vision.  I once accidentally stepped into a coffee cart line in a hospital lobby, and without meaning to, cut off a number of people.  I got yelled at loudly - and felt both angry and embarrassed when the woman who yelled at me didn't seem to care that I couldn't see well.  We look at a few quotes, from Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Ecclesiastes, that have to do with how we treat others, how God looks after us, and our duty to take care of other people - and to see things from their perspective.  There was another, very real reason why I had no business being unhappy with this woman.

When I was a boy, the cross on the top of my church was covered with gold leaf.  We consider the First Temple, Solomon's Temple, which King David declared "will not be for man".  We consider an amazing vision of the Prophet Ezekiel: a valley of dried and disconnected bones rising up and reforming the lost people of God.  We consider the result of the gold leaf being put on the cross of my childhood church by a person who was honoring himself and not God - and the greater issue of God speaking to us, sometimes very dramatically and sometimes very quietly.

My wife and I once saw a side-dump trunk tip over and completely bury and crush a car - with a man still inside.  It seemed like the perfect example showing that we can die at any time.  We look at the Lord's Prayer, its text from the Gospels, what it really meant (as opposed to what we might think it means), and we consider how it relates to us today.  We look at the Lord's Prayer as the perfect prayer to offer at any time we are in need - and to offer every single day.

When I was a boy we used to look for particularly salacious or gross stories in the Bible and talk about them on the playground at recess.  My favorite one is the bread that God orders Ezekiel to bake - by cooking it over human poo.  We look at the Old Testament purity laws and what they were really meant to inspire in the People of God.  We look at what they mean for us today.  We consider how we can be "pure" in the eyes of God - in a spiritual sense.

I once spoke with a young woman who had been badly traumatized in life.  She understandably had a jaded feeling about the ability of Christianity to change humanity.  We look at two similar stories in the Gospels, about the "Second Coming", or the "Parousia" in Greek.  We look at this from the perspective of a spiritual, not a physical, second coming - and what this could mean for those of us who still believe that people could transform this world before Jesus comes again.

We look at the four famous "Servant Songs" from Isaiah.  We also consider Sister Marie, who was one of my boyhood teachers - and what she told me about the use of Jewish scripture and our relationship to the Jewish people.  As it turns out, there is strong disagreement between Christians and Jews as to what these "Servant Songs" mean.  This leads us to the much bigger question of how to interpret the Bible as a whole.

I once met a man who had lost one foot and had just been told he would lost part of his other foot.  He had something to say about how this relates to faith.  We look at the age old debate of salvation through faith vs. salvation by acts.  We consider a bit of a different perspective to try and see if we can find a way out of the seeming conflict.  Is there a way to look at faith that does more than conclude that a person with faith will want to live out that faith?  Just what does it mean to have faith?  Perhaps that tells us what really matters.  

A buddy of mine, long ago, once gave me surfing lessons.  I grew up near the ocean and was aware of its dangers.  Sure enough, my first time on a board, I ended up under water, spinning, trying to discern up from down.  We look at the Book of Revelation, specifically how it uses the Sea as a metaphor for the chaos of the world and the power of God.  From this we draw the bottom line: the true message of Revelation, written by John of Patmos, based on visions of his from his years of exile on that rocky island.

I once prayed with a man who was watching his grandmother pass away; she had largely raised him.  I prayed for a joyous eternity in the Kingdom.  He asked me if the story of Jesus in the New Testament was engineered to match Old Testament prophesy, and therefore, Jesus wasn't really the Messiah promised by the prophets.  We consider the classic passage in Micah that predicts a savior born in Bethlehem.  We look at the aspects of this prophesy that some say were used to tailor the story of Jesus' birth.  We consider the issue of faith, of believing in Jesus, and how questions like this should impact us.

I came upon a man at the San Francisco airport who was reading his Bible, studying a passage from the New Testament where Jesus speaks of himself as being a Temple.  The man at the airport had had a severe conflict with his brother, another Christian, over a Bible translation, and was wishing that we could, as people of faith, come together as true community.  We consider the view that as Christians, we are collectively, like Jesus, the Temple.  We look at modern technology, which could be used to create an Internet Temple.

I once walked into my L.A. apartment to discover a burglar leveling a cutdown pump action shotgun at me.  We consider the warnings that God sends our way from time to time, reminding us of our mortality.  We know that we will die - that this life is very temporary.  Are we ready?  We look at the issue not of dying, not of going to Heaven, but of the final End Times, what will happen - how this should change our behavior and our mindset right now on Earth.

I had a student in a class of mine once who had recently been treated for bone cancer in her spine.  She was using a cane.  She talked to me about faith and Heaven, and the fears she had when she was sick.  We discussed the issue of what it means to believe.  Today, we look at the Book of Joel, in particular at a passage referenced in Acts that says that all people will one day be able to accept God.  This serves as a critical motivational factor for Acts: to fulfill an ancient prophecy.  We consider the larger issue of who can believe, what it means to believe, and if there are alternative ways to "believe".

I once visited a woman who was almost a hundred years old and was about to die.  She expressed some sadness that she had not given enough as a Christian.  We reflect on the Book of Acts and the common misunderstanding that the early church was somehow rigidly socialist.  We consider the real gift we are supposed to give, the gift that does not involve personal assets.  We also consider what it means to lose a loved one who is very elderly.

We look at the very dramatic Psalm 137.  It tells of the fall of Babylon and the longing that the exiles have for their holy city and destroyed Temple.  We consider two people I met who reacted in very different ways to the feeling they had been harmed by others.  We look at why the Babylonian invasion is such a major cornerstone in the history of the Israelites.  We consider its use as a metaphor in both the Old and New Testaments.  We consider today - and how we should react to betrayal and loss.  

We look at the spaghetti and butter sandwiches that I ate as a kid in grammar school.  We consider Grace.  We look at three issues: first, whether it is a real thing or something invented by us or by New Testament writers; second, different variations or applications of Grace in our lives, and 3, how to measure Grace.  We see that this last issue has a lot to do with the butter in those sandwiches.

A student once asked me for advice on how he should react to his family, especially his father, who did not approve of him being baptized a Christian.  I gave him a lesson that I learned from Acts.  In this book, we see "the Way" spread to Jews in Jerusalem and then to Gentiles outward in the Roman Empire.  There is a turning point midway through Acts that is carefully engineered by God when the first Gentile, Cornelius the Centurion, is converted.  We learn from this what a great gift it is to have faith...

I was once toured around Jerusalem by a 12 year-old boy named Yaakov.  He showed me many sites, including a number of Christian sites, as he knew I was a Christian.  He also talked to me about the evolution from Temple to Rabbinic Judaism - something that is critical to understanding the theological underpinnings of the Book of Acts.  We consider this new movement that is called "the Way" in Acts, and we see what it has to do with the end of Temple Judaism.

I once was asked to sit with a Buddhist patient who was passing away.  She asked me to recite a mantra with her.  We look at the Prophet named Habakkuk.  We see that he offers an unusual message for a Prophet.  He doesn't simply warn people that God will punish his people for their wayward means.  He offers us an upbeat message of hope no matter what happens.  We consider prayer, and the relationship between the practice of reciting a mantra and reciting a prayer.  We see that both offer peace for someone who is seeking perseverance and calm.

We look at how the grammar school I went to long ago managed to ensure that all people, including the less well off, were given equal justice.  We consider Amos, the minor prophet, and the prophet who preached about justice and righteousness.  He was from the southern kingdom but preached in the north, all during a time of great prosperity.  The book is beautifully written in stunning poetry.  We consider the lessons it teaches by examining a number of passages and analyzing them carefully.

I was once approached in a hospital parking lot to pray with the father and sister of a badly injured young man.  We look at the Book of Daniel, and at other Bible passages, where we are told to pray with others and to share our faith with others and to make spiritual decisions with other believers.  We see the power of doing this.  We learn that just as Daniel was able to do what seemed impossible, by praying with fellow faithful we too can do so much more.

In 2022, Vladimir Putin did what ancient kings in the Old Testament did: he invaded another nation - and he did it on his own.  We look at the Book of Daniel, and how it proports to be about the Babylonian exilic period, but perhaps was written hundreds of years later, when the Jews were fighting the Greek speaking Seleucids.  We look at this book and ask the question: Is Daniel simply a prophesy after the fact, or is it something that we should take in a more general context?  Was Daniel doing something wrong if he claimed to be writing about a much earlier period, but was doing it for a faith-based reason?

We look at a (very) non-canonical book called 1st Enoch, which tells us the story of the Prophet Enoch, who lived before Noah.  (But this was not written until just before the life of Jesus).  It tells us about the Watchers, evil angels who create a race of giants on Earth.  We see that there was apparently some influence of this book on the New Testament.  We consider what this means for us today - especially with respect to how we should live with humility and love.  We also look at professor I knew who was quite arrogant and pissed off the queen of his country.

I once had a neighbor who kept me up all night with loud rock and roll.  Then one day, there was a massive car accident in front of our two buildings.  I discovered that just as we see in Obediah, my neighbor apparently had learned a lesson.  In Obediah, we see a people called the Edomites who assist the Babylonians in conquering the people of Israel - the neighbors and linguistic cousins of the Israelites.  We look at the typical, simplistic theory of Obediah, one that has to do with God's vengeance - and then we look a little deeper.

We consider the progression of idol worship from the Old Testament to the time of Jesus - to today.  We also consider a man I met who collected restored classic cars and another man who owned a wall of expensive guitars, but who could no longer play them because he had developed a disability.  We consider that question of how we end up like our idols: blind, deaf, and spiritually lifeless.

My mother believed in miracles - and when I was born very sick, she baptized me herself, because at the time, the Catholic Church taught that unbaptized babies that died went to Limbo.  We look at the miracles of Jesus, and how the Synoptic Gospels refer to them as "deeds of power", while John refers to them as "signs".  We see that there is a very deep reason why John does this - and we consider how this reveals the very theological nature of the Gospel of John.

I once spend four hours in the middle of the night with a man who was dying from COPD.  A nurse had called me so that he would not die alone.  I heard his last words.  We look at the final words of Jesus as he was dying, which vary from Gospel to Gospel - significantly.  We consider this: Were some of the Gospel authors wrong about Jesus' last words on the cross?  Or were their goals something other than the obvious?  Were they trying to communicate some greater truth?  We consider the bigger issue: what do we mean when we say that the Bible is indeed the truth?

When I was an academic, I was exposed to a lot of anti-Christian diatribe.  Christians, I was told, are corrupt, selfish, and use their faith as a political weapon.  We look at the story of King Josiah in the Bible and how some think that he manipulated parts of Scripture, of our Old Testament, to suit his political purposes.  We then consider what would happen, what our planet would be like if all political leaders everywhere truly lived like Christ.  We also consider what our obligation is as truly sincere believers.

I once spent time with a couple who had just lost their only, very young child, their daughter.  Like many other people who have lost loved ones, they asked about Heaven.  We take a survey of Heaven, looking at the current Evangelical interpretation, and then stepping back and walking through time, from the 100's A.D. to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to the emergence of the "Social Gospel".  Our goal is to see what Scripture tells us about the nature of Heaven, and to consider the highly varied interpretations of Heaven that have emerged from the minds of Christian Theologians.  Then we ask the question: What does it all mean?

Our conventional notion of Hell is not necessarily what we would derive from reading the New Testament.  We look at three somewhat different theories about the nature of Hell - all of them reasonably backed up by the Bible.  We also look at my father's father, who ran off when my father was a tiny boy.  My father never found his father, although he sought him out his entire life.  We see how this relates to the third of the three theories of Hell: Annihilationism, Eternal Punishment, and Restorationism.  We also consider why the Bible might deliberately be ambiguous about the nature of Hell.

The apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas gives us stories about the boy Jesus from the age of 5 to 12 - and it portrays him as precocious at best, and perhaps even evil-minded at worst, as Jesus struggles to understand his powers and his identity.  These stories have been widely read since the second century, and ancient manuscripts have been found in many languages.  We look at what these stories are, and what they tell us about what ancient Christians thought of the child Jesus.  We see what this means for us today, as people raising children, and as adults who, like the apocryphal version of the child Jesus, always have room to grow.

There is a Christian community on the outskirts of Cairo, up in the mountains, that is built into a huge cave.  The people are called the "Garbage People" by the general population of Cairo because they scratch out a living collecting garbage by hand and sorting it into recyclables.  We consider the Gospel of Mark - written by the man who founded the church that became the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt.  We consider persecution - faced by the Garbage People - and we consider the need to be giving, faithful people.

I once spoke to a young woman whose father had just died in a bike vs. car accident.  She told me that while her father had deep faith, she could not believe the "myths" in the Bible.  She read to me from Matthew, about the faithful being able to move mountains.  In this episode, we look at some of the Bible stories that are difficult to interpret literally, like the Creation story.  We consider why the literalist view is actually harmful and not simply misguided.  We consider the depth of the Bible and how a non-literalist view can indeed allow us to "move mountains".

I once spoke to a woman who was struggling to show true empathy for her mother, who was an alcoholic and had given this woman many terrible childhood memories.  She felt that there was no way she could care for her now very sick mother - and she wished God could send an angel to come from Heaven and care for her mother for her.  We look at angels in the Bible, in particular, in the Book of Daniel.  We see God send these heavenly beings to rescue people.  We also consider how this woman with the sick mother solved her dilemma of trying to show genuine love for someone she couldn't help but resent.

I once spoke to a young schizophrenic man who talked to me outside, after it had rained.  I was about to sit down on a very wet bench when he did something very kind.  We look at the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel that has a number of unique parables in it, including the Good Samaritan.  We look at the traditional interpretation, and we look at a more theological interpretation.  Then we look at the impact that this schizophrenic man had on me.

When I was a professor, I once had a French student accuse me of Xenophobia, of giving her a bad grade simply because she was French.  I was quite worried that this could explode into a serious problem, as universities want students to be happy and do not want claims like this making their way into the press.  I ended up putting my mother on the phone and letting her talk to this student.  The interesting part is that my mother was French.  We look at the Book of James.  We examine whether it was truly Jesus' kid brother who wrote it, and what it teaches us about dealing with problems, and interacting with people who are suffering.

When I was a young guy, I bought my first car with a steering column lock.  It locked up on me - with a key in the ignition - as I was taking a freeway curve at 75 miles an hour.  I went off a small cliff.  Yes, I said a quick prayer to God.  We look at Jeremiah, Isaiah, and a Psalm to learn just what we should be doing with our lives BEFORE we turn to God for help.

I once spoke with a man who had been undergoing treatment for cancer, but who was at the end of effective treatments.  It was time to let go, and as he put it, welcome the Kingdom of God.  But he had an adult daughter who was going through an extremely difficult time - and he wanted to be there for her.  So he had decided to continue treatments so that he could live a bit longer - even though he would suffer.  We look at the issue of "theology", what it is, and what it means to truly understand Scripture and what it tells us about God and our relationship to God.  We see how this man's understanding of theology ended up impacting his final decision about remaining alive.

I picked citrus with migrant workers when I was a boy.  They were paid partly by being given food in the field, which they insisted on sharing with me - who wasn't supposed to get any of that food.  They also picked the tops of my trees, to keep me safe.  We look at the Book of Lamentations, and a passage that focuses on the harsh impact on children as a result of the Babylonian invasion and slaughter.  We consider just what it means to be giving, especially to children, and who are most likely to give.  We also consider how my mother thanked the men who fed me.

I once visited a recently retired reverend whose wife had just left him and who was terminally ill with heart disease.  We talked about Paul's thorn in his side, and how this reverend was unable to handle the huge thorn in his side.  We consider the way that God created us: imperfectly, with imperfect lives.  We see that humility is the product of suffering, and that it has a number of major benefits, ones that greatly outweigh the benefit of having our thorn removed.