Tag Archives: sermon on the mount

199-Praying NOT Performing

“What does it mean to pray like a hypocrite?”

If we’re honest, how often is prayer something we have to endure? How often do our minds wander? How often does praying make us uncomfortable? We’ve encountered prayers so long and verbose they have sermons within them. We see demonstrative prayers, sometimes standing in circles at restaurants, or bowing on blankets in airports, or threatening with a loud speaker in public venues. To whom are such prayers directed; God or everyone around? Jesus calls it hypocrisy. 

In today’s post and podcast we continue Jesus’ deconstruction of religious acts of righteousness and see beyond praying as performance. Join me now as once again we enter our hidden place where God dwells but religion can never come.

198-Giving NOT Performing

“What does it mean to be a church going hypocrite?”

When I was a church going pastor, I worked hard to distinguish myself from those who said one thing and did another. I wanted the world to see that there was a different way to do the faith. There was, but I couldn’t see it until I finally learned how to give without being hypocrite.

In today’s post we explore our charitable giving and expose the dirty secret that institutional religion doesn’t want us to see. Turns out Jesus is no more impressed with our modern churches than he was of the temple.  Join me now as we see beyond what motivates us to give and expose why we prefer the lesser reward of recognition to something more hidden.

197-Enemies and Perfection

“What do you think it means to love your enemies? Do you have any enemies?

In today’s podcast and post we reach the passage on loving our enemies. When viewed in the common framework, this passage is extremely difficult to understand, yet a lone apply. The additional command to be perfect just makes things worse.  

Join me now as we see beyond our enemy and discover what perfection is really all about. Learn why we can’t do perfect, but we can be authentic and that causes our enemies to disappear.

196- The Impulse to Retaliate

“What do you think about retaliation? Is there a time and place to get even?

In today’s podcast and post we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount and explore the impulse to retaliate. The ethos to retaliate is a vestigial residue from our pre-rational consciousness, it’s a low-level impulse upon which we have built the world. What would happen if we just let go of retaliation in favor of something more?

Join me now and we see beyond the impulse to retaliate and look closer at a far more powerful alternative.  

195- I Solemnly Swear

“Are you the kind of person that really needs to be proven right?” Is it hard to say “No” or let things go?

In today’s podcast and post we continue our series rediscovering the sermon on the mount as we take a closer look at the meaning behind taking an oath. We take oaths in court, or when we marry, or in certain kinds of jobs. It seems oaths and keeping promises are integral to the truth and to a society seeking to avoid corruption.

But what if oath taking has a dark side that remains invisible to us until its almost too late? Join me now as we see beyond oath taking and explore how it takes away our freedom and what the alternative might be.

194- The Divorce we Don’t See

Do you think you understand divorce? If you’re like most people, you probably see it as the very end of a marriage.

In today’s podcast and post, we continue our journey into the sermon on the mount as we reveal the wisdom behind Jesus’ teaching on divorce. We discover that what most of us think is a marriage is actually a legally binding divorce.

Join me now as we see beyond marriage as a powerplay and go deep enough to heal the wounds that keep us entombed in relationships of obligation, anger, or pain, as we discover the true meaning of love and divorce.

192- Adultery and Dismemberment

“What’s the real problem with lust and adultery?

Our world is saturated with sexual content. Lust and adultery are constant topics in all forms of modern entertainment and fewer and fewer people seem to be able to discern the line of sexual immorality, some even reject the notion all together.

In today’s podcast and post we take a closer look at lust and adultery. While most of the world thinks the problem is cheating or lying, we discover today that the problem is something far more common. Join me now as we see beyond our failed morality codes and discover the true meaning of the commandment against adultery.

190- Way Beyond Anger

“How much of your life is spent feeling angry? Do you struggle with anger?”

In today’s podcast and post I continue our study of the sermon on the mount and examine an area that imprisons countless people. Some people live in so much anger that they don’t know how to live without it, nor want to.

Join me now as we see beyond anger and learn why it is a prison for so many people. We’ll learn why Jesus’ antidote to anger is NOT to run to God, and why most of us will prefer the living hell of anger instead of healing and liberation.

189- Freedom from Fundamentalism

“Do you see yourself as a fundamentalist?”

I’m willing to bet that you answered “No!” We often think fundamentalism is solely the jurisdiction of religion. While religious fundamentalism abounds in the headlines, we must look closer and see how fundamentalism oppresses everyone in every walk of life.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a message to people who were oppressed and thought the world was too far gone and needed some other kind of external intervention. Join me now as we see beyond our own inner fundy and explore an unconventional and unpopular way of liberating us all from the tyranny of fundamentalism. 

188- The World is the Margarita; You are the Salt

“What does it mean to be Salt and Light?

If you are like most people, you are probably disregarding this post as “Stuff you already know.” Yes this is perhaps the most familiar sermon subject in the world, but given that “everybody knows this”, why do you suppose there has been so little transformation around it? Why is there so much confusion on what it actually means?

Join me now as we continue our examination of the Sermon on the Mount and we learn to see beyond the Salt and Light and look closer at the intended audience. This fundamental shift requires a wider more inclusive interpretation which allows us to see beyond everything.