Healing Eden, Part 16: Israel Demands a King

In our study of the biblical story from Genesis to Revelation we arrive at the anointing of King Saul – the first king of Israel – an occasion of very mixed emotions. For Israel, at least at the beginning, it's moment of great joy, as they think having a king is the cure for what ails them. And, as we'll see, Saul absolutely looks the part of royalty. But when it comes to actually ruling in obedience to YHWH, that will be a different story. Which is going to be the problem with the monarchy in Israel for centuries. For Israel's desire to "be like the other nations" is going to be far-too-fulfilled. And that's a problem that we will trace in future weeks. For now, we focus on Saul and the manner of his calling – which ultimately reveals a God who despite Israel's efforts to self-sabotage - will not abandon his people to their fate. So this story is ultimately a lesson in hope. And, as always, I'd love to know what you think about it – about the sermon, the series…the podcast as a whole. Or I'd love to have you come and just say "hi!" If you're up for it, you can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: 1 Samuel 9:1-4, 9:25-10:16 (NRSV). 

As Israel's sufferings grow, she thinks she has struck upon a solution: a king! If only God would grant Israel a king, she would finally be "like the other nations" (and therefore suffer less?).  It is an impulse literally as old as the Garden of Eden - to imagine that if only we could wrest more control of our lives from the universe (i.e., God), we would know how to cure what ails us. If God would only give us a king (...a particular political party, a charismatic leader, a ...?) we would have the means by which to achieve virtue and therefore peace and love, right??? In this episode we examine Israel's desire for a monarch, as well as God's surprising, somewhat heartbreaking, capitulation (God grants Israel's wish, albeit with warnings!). It's a story filled with political longing, spiritual amnesia, and that seemingly eternal human tendency to give our allegiance to the wrong thing, at the wrong time, for all the wrong reasons. Which is why it is a story that fits us perfectly today, as we struggle once again to know how best to govern humans in a broken world. And, as always, I'd love to know what you think about it – about the sermon, the series…the podcast as a whole. Or I'd love to have you come and just say "hi!" If you're up for it, you can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: 1 Samuel 8:1-22 (NRSV). 

If you've been with us for the journey thus far, you know that Israel as a people have been set apart – called by God to a unique, priestly identity in the world. Israel is to be the means by which the love of God is ultimately made manifest to all the nations of the earth. But it requires that Israel be uniquely devoted to God as God is devoted to Israel. Today we find ourselves roughtly 200 years after the Exodus (and the giving of Torah) and Israel's devotion is crumbling rapidly; in no small part because one of Israel's key leaders – the priest, Eli - is allowing for all sorts of corruption to occur right under his nose in the place of Israel's worship! And it is fundamentally undermining the health of God's people. Yet Eli shows no signs of amending his ways. And the key question is whether God is going to let this go one unchecked. Or will God intervene to re-establish justice in the land? And so if you've ever felt frustrated by the failures of institutions…ever looked at the moral compromises of our age and wished someone—anyone—would stand up and say something… ever wondered whether God takes up the cause of justice…then this story is is for you! And I'd love to know what you think about it – about the sermon, the series…the podcast as a whole. Or I'd love to have you come and just say "hi!." If you're up for it, you can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: 1 Samuel 3:1-4:1 (NRSV). 

With this episode we step into the story of a woman named Hannah — whose deep personal pain symbolically reflects the larger, spiritual state of Israel, as she lives in a time (the end of the age of the Judges) when the whole project of salvation seems to be hanging by a thread. Israel is constantly turning away from YHWH and facing judgment for it – and it seems God may be reaching his breaking point. Indeed, the very covenant of salvation itself feels very much in jeopardy. But through Hannah's tears of lament, God begins to move very graciously for her and, through her, for Israel – preparing the way for Samuel, for David and ultimately, for Jesus. It's a reminder that the story of salvation almost always begins in moments that feel hopeless - when all we can do is pray to God out of our fear and grief. It's right about then, that God shows up to save anew…! I also mentioned in the introduction that all four installments of Rev. Mike Regele's course, A Primer on Christian Nationalism: What It Is, Why It's Not Christian, and What We Can Do in Response, are now available (along with his PowerPoint decks) on the Canvas website. It is a truly outstanding piece of work that explains both the inner logic of Christian nationalism and how we might most constructively respond to it. Highly recommended!! And if you have thoughts on the sermon, the series, the podcast..., I'd love to hear them. You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: 1 Samuel 1:1-18 (NRSV) 

Today we turn our attention to understanding the book of Judges, where Israel, newly settled in the Promised Land, faces a different kind of battle—no longer combat with swords and spears, but with the temptation to adopt the culture of those around her. Surrounded by Canaanite customs and religion, God's chosen people begin to lose sight of who they are, as they attempt to trade faithfulness for what feels like security. For Israel, YHWH may have delivered them from captivity in Egypt; but that was a long time ago. And life in Canaan presents new challenges, challenges for which, perhaps, the gods of the Canaanites are better suited…? What's so wrong with a dash of pagan worship here or idolatry there, if it brings the rain or secures the harvest? The short answer: If you're YHWH's priestly people, a lot! And as we'll see, this temptation to replace faith in YHWH with obedience to the deities of the larger culture is hardly limited to the ancient past. We, too, are inclined to hedge our bets – to put our trust in the gods the locals worship so devoutly: power, wealth, security, status…, if they can only grant us comfort and peace. It's not a trade worth making. But it's a trade even many in the church today are attempting! Interested in Rev. Mike Regele's class? Here the link to A Primer on Christian Nationalism: What It Is, Why It's Not Christian, and What We Can Do. (It really is oustanding! I hope you'll take a look or listen!) And if you have thoughts on the sermon, the series, the podcast..., I'd love to hear them. You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Judges 2:1-23 (NRSV) 

Today we arrive on the cusp of Canaan, that is to say: the promised land. After a generation of wandering in the wilderness, Israel arrives at last on the eastern bank of the River Jordan. And what lies ahead of them – according to the book of Joshua – are many, bloody battles necessary to secure Israel within Canaan's borders. (For the modern reader it makes Joshua difficult to interpret as it sure seems like God might be commanding… genocide?) But even if the battle scenes are not the whole story, Israel still enters Canaan in a very precarious position. God's people are the weaker party. And if the Canaanites resist their arrival, Israel could easily be destroyed. So as Israel prepares to cross their Rubicon, Joshua gives an impassioned speech about God, and about faith and about the role of God's priestly people in the world. It's a speech that we might do well to hear again today as circumstances – at least for some of us - feel more than a little precarious at present. (This sermon was originally preached in Feb. 2025, but it feels even more true today!) And I hope – in the words of Joshua – it will help you not be dismayed. Have a thought? A comment? A question? Or just up for saying, "helllo"?  I'd love for you to get in touch! You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Joshua 1:1-18 (NRSV) And here is a link to the map of Canaan. 

In this episode we arrive, alongside Israel, at Mt. Sinai where God gathers the whole of his people to receive the Ten Commandments. But rather than looking at the specific, nuanced meaning of each of the commandments (we recently did this in the series The Abundant Life), we focus here on the larger question of: why? Why does God's journey with his newly established people begin with a set of instructions about what thou shall and shalt not do? Is God, in the end, one, giant rule-giver in the sky - testing individuals to see who qualifies to receive blessings here and now, or perhaps in the hereafter? Is faith mainly a moral act? (Many strains of Christianity have certainly argued for something quite close to this!) Or is there another purpose in these "commandments"? A purpose having far more to do with love and health than determining a person's moral goodness? I, obviously, think the latter. Specifically, I think that the 10 commandments are ultimately about establishing love as Israel's fundamental way of being in the world. And in this sermon I will hope to make my case! Have a thought? A comment? A question?  I'd love for you to get in touch!  You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Exodus 19:1-6, 16-20:17 (NRSV)

Today we turn our attention to events immediately following the exodus - as Israel makes her escape from centuries of slavery in Egypt. For God has acted with mighty power to save, and our first imagination is that - under divine care - Israel will be safe evermore. But as Israel flees into the Sinai desert, she soon discovers that Pharaoh is in pursuit with the full might of the Egyptian army. And as the Egyptian chariots approach, Israel finds herself trapped by the Red Sea. And has her toes touch the water, Israel - and we - are forced to learn an essential lesson of the life of faith: in this age, salvation is not so much a once-for-all event, but a process by which God continually rescues his beloved people. If you've ever felt trapped in your own life and circumstances between the Red Sea in front and the Egyptian army behind, this is the sermon for you! Have a thought? A comment? A question?  I'd love for you to get in touch!  You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Exodus 14:5-29 (NRSV)

The exodus from Egypt becomes the gravitational center of the Old Testament as it forms Israel's image of what it means to be saved! After centuries of suffering, God acts with incredible power to break the bonds of Israel's slavery and leads her to new freedom under God's direct care. It is a story of divine strength and mercy and directly foreshadows a larger salvation that is to come when God breaks the ultimate bonds of sin and death. But…, the exodus also comes with immeasurable suffering as God's deliverance for Israel is matched by God's judgment upon Egypt – the death of the firstborn of every creature that has not be set apart for salvation. It is a horrific scene of divine violence, and it begs the questions: What are we to make of a God who would do such a thing? And how on earth do we reconcile this image of God with Jesus of the cross? In this episode we'll explore God's saving mercy (Exodus), and the Passover and wrestle together with the God of rescue and of judgment. Have a thought? A comment? A question? I'd love for you to get in touch!  You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Exodus 11:1-10, 12:21-37 (NRSV)

After more than 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the cries of God's people rise to heaven — and are heard! God's response? A call to Moses from the burning bush and a revealing of the Divine name ("I AM") – a name that speaks to far more than eternal existence, but of unending compassion and grace. It is in this encounter that God reiterates the promise to save (making the Exodus something of a preview of salvation to come) and which reminds us again that we have a God who hears our pain, remembers the covenant with Abraham, and who acts not as a distant observer but as the One who is present with us in the midst of hardship. Have a thought? A comment? A question? I'd love for you to get in touch! You can reach me anytime via the contact link at jesusat2am.com, by sending me email, chatting with me on BlueSky, or finding me on Facebook or Instagram.  And while you're at it, might you be up for supporting the podcast? You're tax-deductible gift to Canvas is a major help. As are your prayers, your online reviews, telling a friend or two! Want to follow along with the biblical texts for this sermon? Here's the link: Exodus 2:23-3:15 (NRSV)