Transforming Lives Together Podcast

It’s no surprise, during this time of year, to find stores, homes, offices, streets, maybe even vehicles, decorated with tinsel, lights, and greenery. It seems as though beautiful things are everywhere you look; in the sights, sounds, and smells of the Christmas season, and it is hard not to feel a little more joyful, and a little more hopeful. At the heart of all of this beauty is longing, and as Fr. Thebeau explains in his sermon, this longing can only be satisfied in the Beautiful One, Jesus Christ. Christ’s advent not only revealed to us the source of true beauty, but by His incarnation, death, and resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life in the Beautiful World to come: paradise.

SET APART TO LIVE AS ONEOne of the wonderful things about the Body of Christ, the Church, is that, though we are made up of many members, we are all one in Christ through the Holy Spirit. This unity transcends race, region, culture, gender, age, and financial status. As we will see in our lesson for this week, Jesus prays that our union with one another and with God through Him would bear witness to the world of the reality of Christ and the love of the Father through Christ.

TO KNOW CHRIST IS TO HAVE LIFEWhen it comes to advancement upon the career ladder, sometimes hard work and a solid education are not enough. As the saying goes, “it’s all about who you know.” Relationships are the foundation of human society, and as we will see in our lesson for this week, a relationship with God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation for eternal life. Just as a branch cannot live apart from the vine, so we cannot live apart from Christ.

WE SHALL OVERCOMEOne of the most prolific gospel songs associated with social justice movements through the years has been “We Shall Overcome.” The words are quite simple, yet these simple words brought about unity and resolve in the face of injustice and oppression:We shall overcome,we shall overcome,we shall overcome someday!Oh, deep in my heart I do believewe shall overcome someday!As Christ explains in our lesson for this week, we will face a lot of trouble in this life, but that trouble will last for a moment and we will no longer need to fear sin, death and the devil because He has overcome them all and, in Him, we too shall overcome.

ANOTHER HELPERIt goes without saying that our world is full of trouble. For those of us who believe it can be even harder to bear because we see a world where many have rejected God, but we also have hope because Christ overcame the world and His life now lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Christ explains, in our lesson this week, that it was for our good that He departed this earth and went back to the Father so that His Spirit might be poured out on all who believe.

FRIENDS OF GODIsrael was called to be a peculiar people, a nation set apart, different from the rest of the world. This position wasn’t for the purpose of simply being an exclusive group, but rather to be a light to the other nations, a living testament of the Triune God. Through Christ we have been brought into this special relationship where we, like Abraham and Moses, are considered friends of God, and like Israel, our position is to serve as a light to the world: a living testament of God in Christ. This, of course, will put us at odds with the darkness in the world, and will cause many of us to be persecuted for our faith.

LIFE IN THE VINEMuch of the Book of Ecclesiastes can sum up our postmodern culture today. Whether the pursuit is labor or pleasure, it is ultimately empty of meaning. To tie it to our lesson for this week, this is life outside or disconnected from the vine. Life that is really no life at all. Christ is the True Vine, and we, as the Apostle Paul puts it, have been grafted in by the grace of God. The call for us is to remain in this Vine, to be faithful to Him as He works in us to bring about the fruit that will last.

WHAT ARE THE FOUR MARKS OF A TRUE BELIEVER?While the term “Christian” was initially used, possibly as an insult, by those outside the Church to describe those in the Church, it was embraced by the Church because the word meant “those belonging to Christ”. But what does it mean to belong to Christ? What does it look like? In Jesus’ final instruction to His disciples before His eventual arrest, He sets the vision for the Church, that our communion with Him and with one another should be marked by prayer, obedience, love, and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

A NEW COMMANDMENTMuch is made about love in our society. We see this appeal to love or find love through various spheres of influence, yet much of what we find outside of the church carries with it an emptiness rather than a fullness because it is love separated from the source. In our lesson for this week, we see that the commands to love God and love our neighbor find their fulfillment in Christ and are fleshed out through following His example.

THE SON OF PERDITION Judas Iscariot was one of the more complicated figures among the twelve disciples. He was a member of the zealots, who desired to overthrow the Roman government, and he was a thief, known for pilfering the money purse he was responsible to oversee as treasurer. Still, Judas was chosen to be one of the twelve, and was dearly loved by Christ, which made the betrayal that much more painful. As we will hear in our lesson for this week, Judas had a choice, and he chose his own interests over the interests of his friends.

WHAT REALLY MAKES ONE GREAT?In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul describes Jesus’ attitude during His earthly ministry as, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:6-7‬ ‭NIV‬‬). These words echo throughout our lesson this week as Jesus demonstrates His love and humility by washing His disciples feet, showing that to be considered great in the Kingdom of God you must be a servant to all.

NO CROSS NO CROWNWith His gaze looking ahead to His inevitable death, Jesus knew what it would take to bring about the fruit of salvation. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame...” Christ’s example of self-sacrifice and faithful devotion is not easy, in fact, it is impossible to follow without the Holy Spirit working in us, “to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose,” as Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians. Still He invites us to walk in the Light, and that walking means choosing to deny ourselves and carry our cross, much like Jesus did only a few days later.Jesus’ call in chapter twelve is a challenge to all who would come after Him as we continue with “Life’s Meaning and Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John.”

Our guest for this episode is Fr. Bryan Wandel. Fr. Bryan is the rector of Church of the Atonement, an Anglican church plant in the City of Buffalo, and host of The Nickel City Forum, which is a bi-monthly gathering to learn about and discuss big idea topics in theology, ethics, and culture. Together we talked about the challenges of planting an Anglican church in the City of Buffalo, work-life balance, and what Church of the Atonement is doing to serve and build relationships within their community. Here is our conversation...

THE ROAD TO CALVARY IS PAVED WITH UNMET EXPECTATIONS Our expectations can mislead us, especially when we expect God to work in a certain way. Judas’ expectations were challenged when Jesus defended Mary’s use of expensive perfume to anoint His feet. The crowd’s expectations of Jesus being the king who would raise up an army to overthrow the Romans were also challenged as He rode into Jerusalem not on a warhorse, but on a young donkey. Unmet expectations can lead us down the path of surrender, where we recognize that God’s ways are not our ways, and that His ways are better, or it can lead us down the path of rejection, where we shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” with the rest of the angry mob. As we near the final days of Jesus, we will see that many will choose the path of rejection which will ultimately lead to His death.In what appears to be a high point during Jesus’ ministry we begin to see the seeds of rejection that will eventually lead to His arrest, trial, and execution as we continue with “Life’s Me

LAZARUS COME FORTH!In our Twenty-Fifth Episode Jesus demonstrates His power over life and death, raising Lazarus from the grave, as we continue with “Life’s Meaning and Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John.”With so much that can and does go wrong in our world, it can be hard to see the silver lining. Bad news seems to dominate the airwaves, and even in moments of peace it feels more like the calm before the storm. It’s in these times that we need to be reminded of Paul’s words in his letter to the Romans where he writes, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:38-39‬ ‭NIV‬‬) No matter what we face in this life, God’s love is with us in Christ. This is the very same love, and the very same God who, in our lesson for this week, raises Lazarus from the dead.

LIAR, LUNATIC, or LORD?C. S. Lewis posed this question in his book “Mere Christianity” and it fuels the debate we find in our Twenty-fourth Episode as we continue with “Life’s Meaning & Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John.”In part 2 of Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis’ writes, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.” We find this dilemma in our lesson for this week as the people and the religious leaders debate over who Jesus is; with some believing, some unsure of what to make of Him, and some rejecting Him to the point where they pick up stones to kill Him.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERDThese words from Psalm 23 find their meaning in Jesus as we continue in our TWENTY-THIRD EPISODE with “Life’s Meaning & Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John.”The purpose of anything that is considered counterfeit is to deceive us into thinking it is what it appears to be; the real thing. This is ultimately done to take advantage of us and to steal that which is valuable. While the saying “ignorance is bliss” may be popular, it is certainly not true, and many have lost much at the hands of these ‘false shepherds’. We must know the real thing in order to guard our hearts against the counterfeits of this world. In our lesson for this week, Jesus identifies the counterfeits as being those who climb over the wall or enter the sheep pen through any other way instead of through the gate. As our Lord puts it, the one who enters another way is “a thief and a robber.” The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Jesus i

SEEING AND BELIEVING In our TWENTY SECOND EPISODE Jesus heals a man born blind and confronts the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders as we continue with “Life’s Meaning & Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John."During his early years, John Newton had a reputation for being a profane and debaucherous young man, who would spend much of his time working on merchant vessels and slave trading ships. But on one fateful voyage, while caught up in a terrible storm, the trajectory of his life would change as he put his faith in Christ. Now you may not be familiar with John Newton’s story, but you may be familiar with the words to his most famous hymn, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.” In these words, John Newton likens his conversion to that of a blind man receiving his sight, much like the blind man in our lesson this week whose eyes were opened not only physically to behold Jesus’ face, but also s

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE!These are the words of Jesus in our TWENTY FIRST EPISODE as we finish up chapter EIGHT of John’s Gospel. In our struggle with sin, denial can be a very dangerous position because it blinds us from seeing our bondage. As the Apostle John writes in his first Epistle, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”(‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬). Jesus says in our lesson for this week that it is the Truth that sets us free. This Truth is not simply acknowledging our bondage to sin and our need for a Savior, but it is the Truth of who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God and He is the one who has come to set us free from the power of sin and death. In Christ we are no longer slaves, but, as the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, we are “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29 NIV).

ENTRAPPING LIGHT In our TWENTIETH EPISODE the scribes and the Pharisees try to ensnare Jesus as we continue with “Life’s Meaning and Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John.”Hello and welcome to the Transforming Lives Together Podcast.The Apostle John writes at the beginning of his Gospel that in Jesus “was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (‭‭John‬ ‭1:4-5‬ ‭NIV‬‬) As Fr. Ward points out in our lesson this week, this truth found in chapter 1 of John’s Gospel is illustrated here in chapter 8. Jesus is the Light of the world, and though the darkness, which is represented in the thoughts and intentions of the Scribes and the Pharisees, tried to entrap and snuff out the Light, the darkness could not overcome it. Instead, the Light shines into the darkness and illuminates the contrasts between Jesus and the religious authorities.