Embracing Our Identity as Sojourners in Christ

1) "I want to be careful to remind you that the only reason we're all here today is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If Christ has not been raised, we are of all people most to be pitied because we're fooling ourselves. The grave was empty. Jesus was raised. Incorruptible. Unkillable. And permanently so. The final thing I want to say up front is yet another reminder. We have been born anew to a living hope." [10:50] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "The kingdom of God erupts unexpectedly and I believe that God wants you to watch out. Watch out because it's going to erupt unexpectedly in some of your lives and it's going to erupt unexpectedly in this room. And during worship I actually felt like the kingdom of God erupted unexpectedly in this room. I had this picture of the floor behind me kind of like bubbling up and the kingdom of God erupting like a volcano in the middle of the church. Praise be to God." [07:30] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Christians are the living in the land of the dead. That's right. Christians have laid hold of eternal life in Jesus. We've been filled with the Holy Spirit who is the Lord, the giver of life. So we're sojourners here. You know, it's almost Halloween. And so, you know, we see the specters of zombies all over the place. Iowa City really likes to live into this Halloween stuff because everyone likes to think of themselves as pagan, even though they don't really want to fully accept all that that means. Well, some of them are. You know, we have tarot card readers down at the farmer's market now. Reminds you of the Greco -Roman world sometimes." [21:15] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Peter begins by reminding the church of their identity, their sojourners. Peter's already been doing a lot of identity work in his letter to the churches, telling people in all these churches he's writing to that they are living stones of the end times temple, which is the body of Christ. He's told them that what once applied only to Israel, who had been circumcised according to the flesh, now applies to all men and women alike who have their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirits. And like with all of us, formerly said of Israel according to the flesh, Christians are now a chosen race, he says. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession." [16:20] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "The Christian message is so radical. So capable of turning the world upside down. That Christians can easily start thinking that they can show disrespected governing authorities. I mean, for goodness sakes. Don't you want to kind of laugh at this guy, Herod? Like, dude. You could have given glory to God. But you made yourself a god instead. And that's exactly what Caesar is doing, by the way. And if you know that all these bozos in charge are being self -aggrandizing. Asking the nations to worship them instead of the one true Lord. You kind of don't want to show respect to that. Like I've been saying." [31:57] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "So here's the challenge for this week. Here's the one one particular thing I'm going to ask of you. It's not overly particular, so you can figure out how to do it all on your own, okay? As a spirit leads. This week, I would like to invite you to treat a few people like they're the president of the United States. Even if, or especially if, you would never want them to be in charge of the country. Perhaps the place to start is with a child. No one wants a kid running the country, right? I would have mandated nerds for dessert at every school lunch." [41:43] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)