Podcasts about brueggemann

While it's still dark...things are not what they seem.While it's still dark...angels are at work.While it's still dark...evil is being overthrown.While it's still dark...Christ is risen!

While it's still dark...things are not what they seem.While it's still dark...angels are at work.While it's still dark...evil is being overthrown.While it's still dark...Christ is risen!

With his Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday—lowly and riding on a donkey—Jesus set in motion events that would forever redefine greatness. But can we perceive this greatness? Those who cling to a model of greatness exemplified by warhorse-riding conquerors like Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus are a theological anachronism—instead of living in an AD reality they're still stuck in a BC world.

 It's time for another installment of Marcato Radio! Once again, it's another non-stop collection of outstanding video game music. Some tracks you've heard before, and some you have not! Enjoy!

This week's gospel reading takes us to the home of Lazarus, where the sweet fragrance of Mary's worship contrasts the stench of death from the chapter before. Jesus, deeply moved, enters the dead places —not just in Bethany, but in our lives too. He is the Resurrection and the Life, the one who calls us out of darkness and into eternal life. 

The father's house in the first century Jewish world was a picture of security, provision, stability and love. It is the central point of all the activity in the story Jesus is telling in Luke 15. The youngest son leaves and returns to the father's house and the party that is thrown, the one the older son refuses to join, is held at the father's house. In this story Jesus reveals the heart of God our Father and we have the opportunity to ask ourselves, “Who do I identify with? The younger son or the older son?”  

 For this "Rebroadcast", Karl & Will share their episode originally released way back in June of 2014- "The Demo Scene (#116)!" Enjoy this blast from the past, where the guys explored this vibrant and unique VGM-adjacent scene!

In the midst of cancel culture, political polarization, and waging war comes a timely parable from Jesus. Our instinct to act in frustration and impatience, especially toward people, is challenged by Jesus' call for patience and trust in Luke 13. True wisdom is rooted in patience—trusting the slow, often unpleasant process of growth and redemption rather than hastily discarding what appears fruitless. Ultimately, we are called not to carry axes in judgment, but to follow Christ in carrying the cross, becoming agents of grace who, like the Gardener, offer time, care, and hope for transformation. 

A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent by the Rev'd Dr. Matthew Colvin In Dante's Inferno, the Italian poet's lurid imagination has created a special circle of hell as a punishment for thieves: because they are sinners who did not distinguish between what was their own and what belonged to someone else, they are punished (in Dante's imagination) by a blurring of the lines distinguishing their own bodies and nature from those of something else: monstrous lizards chase them down as they run in terror, and when they catch up with them, they jump onto them, clasp them with their four legs, and fuse their lizard bodies together with their human bodies, producing a horrific human-lizard hybrid. It is one of the creepiest and most disgusting punishments in the Inferno, and when I read it, my skin crawls. A similar revulsion is evoked by parasites. My fellow American missionaries in the Philippines used to joke, whenever they came back to the United States and got a stomachache, that it was caused by their Philippine parasites becoming unhappy with American food. My wife has seen a pregnant woman cough up a five inch worm, still twitching. I could multiply examples, but you get the point: parasites are uniquely disgusting because they violate our bodies and live inside us against our will. Demon-possession is like this, except that the violation is even more severe: a malevolent and powerful spiritual entity dwelling within a human being, controlling his speech and actions, his mind and body, against his will. This sort of parasitism is subtly implied in an oddity of the language in Luke 11 :14: “And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute.” Who was mute? The gender of “it” is neutered, which matches the word for demon, daimonion. Yet the very next sentence says, “So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke.” Do you see how the properties of the demon are the properties of the man it possesses? This should make your skin crawl. It's very evil. The sorts of frightful scenes of violence depicted in the movie The Exorcist are not actually far fetched in comparison with the actions of demon-possessed persons in the Bible: cutting themselves, breaking chains, attacking people and “prevailing against them so that they flee naked and wounded”, speaking with other voices, throwing the possessed person into fire or water. No wonder the Jews wanted to get rid of demons. One of the marks of a great rabbi was that his teachings were authenticated by miracles, including the exorcism of demons. This was a popular piece of Jewish wonder-working. Acts chapter 19 speaks of “vagabond Jewish exorcists”. The historian Josephus tells how such people operated: “I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this: He put a ring that had a Foot of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man.” – Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. By contrast with this, Jesus simply commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. There is no struggle; when demons see that Jesus has arrived, rhey normally beg for mercy before he even says anything. And it is interesting to hear the language they use. In Luke 4, “Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are— the Holy One of God!”” (Luke 4:33-34) and again, in Matthew 8: “And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”” (Matthew 8:29) Before the time. These demons know that they are doomed (so their wickedness is also deliberate sin against knowledge), and what's more, they know there is a scheduled day in history when they are to be destroyed. What's surprising to them is to discover that that day has suddenly come forward and is upon them already in the person of Jesus. It is very much like the exchange between Martha of Bethany and Jesus when he comes to raise Lazarus in John 11:23: “Your brother will rise again.” “Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” The expected future resurrection — that event “at the last day” — turns out to have a human face, and he is here now, in 33 AD. So with the demons: they think that they can continue to possess people until the resurrection and judgment, unaware that in the person of Jesus, the judgment is upon them now. 33 AD. Anno Domini. Jesus, from the moment of his baptism in the Jordan river, began to announce that He was himself the fulfillment of the OT's prophecies of the coming kingdom of God. His healings and driving out demons; his parables and commandments; His baptism and transfiguration — everything spoke of His office as the Messiah, “a savior, who is Christ the Lord”. When John's disciples ask Jesus, “Are you the coming one, or do we wait for another?”, He had no need to plead his own cause and use persuasive arguments to convince them of His messiahship. His answer is “Go and tell John the things that you see and hear: “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” That is to say, His actions already matched the job description that Israel knew from the prophets, especially Isaiah. His vanquishing of demons was a sign with the same meaning as the others: behold, your King. And yet we are told by the fourth gospel that Jesus “came unto His own, and His own did not receive Him.” So we are confronted with the question: Why did they refuse to believe in him? 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” This is why the ascribing of Jesus' miracles to the devil is unforgiveable — not that it is especially worse in seriousness than, say, blaspheming against the Father, but that it removes the possibility of salvation. If you mistake the fireman for a bad guy, you're not going to let him remove you from a burning house. 16 Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven. These people are “testing him” – the same verb used of Satan's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and indeed, their request for a “sign from heaven” is a renewal of Satan's suggestions that Jesus should perform a gratuitous miracle to force people to believe in Him. Let's remember that He has just cast out a demon. So they are asking for another miracle to authenticate the first miracle. What end will there be of such doubt? If miracles could compel faith, these people would have believed already. Jesus' reply has three parts. His first response is to point out how illogical it is to imagine that Satan, whose goal is to oppress human beings and subject them to demonic power, would sabotage his own work by freeing anyone from demonic power. His second argument is even more pointed, and to understand its full force we must recognize the echo of the OT and the narrative situation that echo calls up. He asks them, “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God (ἐν δακτύλῳ θεοῦ), surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This is a very direct reference to a prominent Old Testament passage, Exodus 8:17-19. It is near the beginning of the ten plagues. Already Moses has inflicted two plagues on Egypt: he has turned the water to blood, and he has brought forth frogs on the land. Amusingly enough, Pharaoh's magicians did so with their enchantments — with the result that there was even more water turned to blood, and even more slimy frogs hopping around Egypt. Pharaoh's administration kept the Israelites in bondage not only by physical whips and brutal oppression, but also by projecting a spurious aura of competence and knowledge, so that they have a wise ability to control events. We see this in our own day, when the Federal Government has so thoroughly persuaded everyone that it can save us, that when a hurricane strikes a coastal city, there are people who blame the Federal disaster relief agencies and the government for not doing more; when evil people shoot schoolchildren, the government must “do something about it”; and our diets must be dictated to us with a food pyramid based on scientific research; synthetic pharmaceuticals must be prescribed for every ailment according to the wisdom of scientists. These wonder-workers are able to put a man on tbe moon; how, then, can we doubt their wisdom. Do not even imagine that there is another way, or another truth. So it is in Egypt bedore the Exodus. As in our day, so in Egypt there was a “ fascination with wisdom, which, in addition to imitating the great regimes, represented an effort to rationalize reality, that is, to package it in manageable portions”. In our day, this wisdom is technological, statistical, scientific. In ancient Egypt it was priestly and magical. And so, even though it means more water turned to blood, and more frogs on the land, Pharaoh's magicians must by all means show that they can replicate the miracles of Moses. The wizard's duel is crucial to maintaining the supremacy of Pharaoh's regime. He has the best magicians. Anything Moses can do, they can do too. But then, something happens: Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast…Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” As one writer (W. Brueggemann) comments: “The Egyptian empire could not! The gods of Egypt could not! The scientists of the regime could not! The imperial religion was dead! The politics of oppression had failed! That is the ultimate criticism, that the assured and alleged power of the dominant culture is now shown to be fraudulent. Criticism is not carping and denouncing. It is asserting that false claims to authority and power cannot keep their promises, which they could not in the face of the free God, [the God of Moses]. It is only a matter of time until they are dead on the seashore.” Jesus' words, “The finger of God” call up in his listeners' minds the contest between Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh. Jesus' accusers are failing to recognize that He is in the position of Moses and Aaron. They and their “sons” — that is, their disciples — are in the place of the magicians of Pharaoh. By whom do they cast out demons? Oh, that's right, they don't. They cannot do what Jesus has done, so they are discredited as judges — and this in the Biblical sense of the word (think Samson, Deborah, Barak). They cannot save. By connecting his actions to Moses' miracles in the Exodus, Jesus is implying that He is the agent of a new Exodus; that the time of salvation has come. Those who oppose that salvation and ascribe His work to the devil are in the position of Pharaoh and Pharaoh's magicians: not only are they powerless to do what He does, but they are actually opposing God's salvation. Jesus' deliverance of the mute, demon-possessed man is actually an instance of that basic conflict, and a preliminary step to the ultimate conquest and final defeat of Satan. He compares himself to a violent house-robber who has defeated the strong man guarding the house; and he contrasts that image with the ineffectual efforts of others before him. A friend of mine once had bats and squirrels living in his attic. By careful use of humane traps, he eventually got rid of them, and raccoons moved in. Once that happened, he decided the time for gentleness was past, and he got his .22 and a dog. Just like that, Jesus suggests that the house of Israel has been cleansed of its idolatry, but it is now suffering something far worse: nowhere in the OT do we hear of anyone possessed by a demon. But demons are seemingly lurking everywhere in the gospels. Past cleansings of Israel have been ineffective, like a situation where seven worse demons move into a man who used to have one. Jesus' intention — for those whom he drove demons out of; for his people Israel; and ultimately for the world, is a permanent and effectual pest-removal. But notice the scenario that Jesus describes: When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. 23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. This is the prelude to a thorough plundering of all of Satan's dominion over this fallen world. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus? He took him up on a mountain and offered him all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship him. It is a real estate transaction: that is the significance of taking Jesus up on a mountain and showing him all the kingdoms. God does a similar thing with Abraham, telling him to look at the land of Canaan, “for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” (Genesis 13:15) Satan was offering to trade Jesus the kingdoms of the world. Jesus refused, because he does not make bargains with Satan. His intention is to defeat him, and disarm him, and take away his dominion. And the Bible shows us how that happened: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.” (Revelation 20:1-3) The Gentiles are no longer under the domination of demons. No one is worshipping Thor or Zeus or Baal anymore. And when Satan is released one last time, it is only so that he can be thrown into the lake of fire after he shows how unrepentant he is. So, with the house cleansed, what happens now? God has got rid of the demons, and He intends to dwell in this house Himself. Our gospel lesson closes with Jesus' response to a woman in the crowd who calls his mother blessed: “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts which nursed you!” Mary is certainly blessed. But that blessedness was not merely a matter of giving birth to Jesus. Remember that Mary responded to the angel, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” Mary, as a symbol of faithful Israel, submits herself to God and to His purposes. The result is that God honors her obedience by coming to dwell within her. So too with us. “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it,” for God dwells with them. Now that raises one last issue. I have a number of different quotations I'm going to share with you concerning the relationship of obedience and bodily resurrection and our individuality. Some of you have read CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters? They are a series of fictitious letters in which Lewis pretends that one demon, a senior demon who has a lot of experience, is writing to a junior demon all kinds advice about how to tempt a man and lead him to Hell. C.S. Lewis said this was the most difficult of all his works to write. There was something oppressive and depressing about channeling an evil voice and writing in this style for so many pages. Well, here's what Uncle Screw tape advises his junior devil Wormword about human beings:what God wants to do with human beings. He says, “But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself--creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.” Still distinct! Remember what was so creepy about that demon possessed man in our gospel reading this morning was that he didn't seem to be himself. And the demon speaks out of him. The demon is mute, and he is mute. He's lost his distinctiveness. It's like that Dante lizard people, fused with the demon. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher, not a Christian. In fact, he was a persecutor of Christians, even though he has a reputation as a wise emperor. We happen to have his private journal Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, everything he was thinking about his spiritual life. Even though he's the wealthiest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world, the emperor of Rome, we can tell from reading what he writes in his meditations. He was terrified of dying. He was not looking forward to it, and he was desperate for any philosophical help that could give him some comfort, some assurance in the face of this terrifying fact of death that seemed inevitable. His solution to the problem was to cling to the hope that his rational soul, his rationality, his sense of reason, was divine. The body, it's going to rot; it's going to disappear. It's going to become collrupt, but the soul, the rational soul, when you die, it's going to be caught up into the divine fire and become one with God. In Stoicism, they thought that the sun is God, the divine fire that everything else that's rational in the universe is a little bit of the divine fire. It's in your soul. And so when your body dies, whoosh! — Up your soul goes and joins God. If I were to take two flames and join them together, there'd be one flame. That's the way they think about it. And so Marcus Aurelius says,  “That's not the person your mother gave birth to. And that divine fire is not part of your body that your mother gest stated and gave birth to. Then he asked his question, the mask slips for a minute and he says, “But what if you're inextricably linked to it through your sense of individuality” — meaning, what if you're really tied to your body by being an individual human being? What if that's what makes you an individual human being is that you have a body that is the center of your consciousness and your agency and you look out of your eyes from your body and you interact with other people and shake hands with them and embrace them and speak to them face to face and see them, and they see you because you have a body and they have a body. And that's what it means for you to be an individual. So if that's what it means for you to be you, is that you have a body, then it's not much comfort to think that your soul is going to be absorbed into the bigger fire of God. Then where are you? There's God, but where are you? So he says, “What if you're inextricably linked to the body through your sense of individuality?” And he he can't answer the question, so he immediately says, “That's not what we're talking about here.” “I don't want to think about that.” It's so scary. It really would feel like standing on the edge of a deep abyss. if when you die, you lose your individuality and you're not you more. Because you'll have body anymore, and you've been absorbed into God. That's not that different from what Screwtape was talking about: the demons would like to absorb you. Marcus Aurelius shies away from the full force of his own pantheism and from the horrible consequences that it has for individuality. Two more quotations. In Job chapter 19, we have those famous words of Job about resurrection. He says, “I know that my Redeemer lives and that the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold him. I, and not another! My heart faints within me.” Job says he's going to see God. Job in his individuality and his identity is going to see God because he's going to have a body and eyeballs that look at him. One last business. On the day of Pentecost, we have some fire, but it isn't individual souls getting absorbed into God. Rather it's tongues of fire coming down from God and resting on individuals who are filled with God's Spirit, and when they are filled, do they lose their individuality? No, they start speaking, respectively, all their different languages that their hearers know from where they grew up. So when God fills us with His spirit, he doesn't rob us of our identity. He doesn't absorb us into himself, but he fills us with himself and makes us more who we are, and that is why the resurrection of the body that we confess in our creed is a great comfort because it assures us that we, each of you individually, who you are when you are raised from the dead, you “and not another” will see God and be in relationship with him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you that you've given us victory over Satan and his demons, that you have assured us that you have called us to yourself. You have given us your spirit and you desire to dwell within us and make us into a holy temple fit for your dwelling. Help us by faith to cling to Christ in whose service is perfect freedom. We pray in his name. Amen.

Following the Transfiguration Jesus enters the second half of his ministry—which is essentially a slow, steady March On Jerusalem. Jesus leaves Galilee and begins a weeks-long journey toward the holy city, toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward the kingdom of God arriving through his death, burial and resurrection. This final march on Jerusalem is what we remember during Lent.

In this episode, Karl & Will finally get around to something that's been hanging for over 3 years...Greatest Hits 2021! That's right, the true final installment of the Greatest Hits series, that was never done due to the transition of the "new" era. Just like the previous installments, this is nothing but bangers. Enjoy some top-shelf VGM!

As we enter the season of Lent, the Lectionary appropriately takes us to the temptation of Christ. Before Jesus ever preached a sermon or worked a miracle, he faced off with the devil in the wilderness. And perhaps no one has explored the the temptation of Christ in a more profound way than Fyodor Dostoevsky did in his famous parable of "The Grand Inquisitor."

Jesus is the kingdom of God in person. And Jesus is the one who now fills all things everywhere with himself. What happened to Jesus on Mount Tabor when he was transfigured in appearance from an ordinary Galilean Jew into his true appearance as the glorious Son of God, is what will happen in the eschaton to all of God's creation.

 For this "Rebroadcast", Karl & Will share their episode originally released way back in September of 2013- "The Human Touch (#76)!" Enjoy this blast from the past, where the guys explored the significance of the human element in video game music!

In his Sermon on the Plain Jesus tells us that God is our Father, and that our Father is merciful; and because we are children of God, we should be merciful just as our Father is merciful. Jesus calls us to mercy, not merely because mercy is a superior ethic or because mercy tends toward peace, as true as that is; rather, Jesus calls us to be merciful because that is what God is like!

There is no easy alliance between the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God, and all attempts to create an easy alliance between these two kingdoms are misguided and doomed to failure. The kingdom of the world is founded on greed and war—Mammon and Mars. The kingdom of God is founded on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, these two kingdoms are organized around irreconcilable values. The kingdom of the world values economic power and military might, while the kingdom of God values co-suffering love and divine mercy.

In this laidback and feel-good episode, Karl & Will spotlight on the obscure but fantastic score to the DS game LovePlus. This score was first featured in last year's Handhelds-themed Show and Tell episode. Enjoy, and Happy late Valentine's Day!

When Simon Peter first got a glimpse of who Jesus really is, his initial reaction was one of fear. The transcendent and holy otherness of Jesus simply overwhelmed Simon Peter. But the Lord's response to Peter's fearful reaction can be understood as something like this: Don't be afraid of me, follow me. If you follow me, I will make you into a new person—the person you were always meant to be.

 For the second "Rebroadcast", Karl & Will share their episode originally released way back in November of 2013- "Super Mario 64 (#86)!" Enjoy this blast from the past, where the guys celebrate one of their most nostalgic scores of all time!

It's astonishing how angry some people will get if you try to take away their religion of revenge. They're terribly upset by the idea that God might give divine favor to those they deem unworthy of it—to those who do not belong to their kind of people. The very idea that God might have mercy on all is condemned as blasphemy. This is exactly what Jesus encountered when he preached in his hometown of Nazareth.

Jesus is the fulfillment of Scripture, and all Scripture is fulfilled in Christ.This may sound like a simple statement, but it's actually an essential foundation for good theology.Scripture is not fulfilled by “biblical principles applied to your life.”Scripture is not fulfilled by geopolitical events speculated as “end time signs.”Scripture is not fulfilled by the modern nation of Israel or any other nation.All Scripture is fulfilled in the Word of God made flesh who is Jesus Christ.

 In this long-overdue spotlight, Karl & Marty celebrate the incredible (and clearly over-looked) score to Kirby: Triple Deluxe! Enjoy some absolutely stellar Kirby music by the two series masters- Ando & Ishikawa!

Most of Jesus' miracles involve dire circumstances—disease, death, danger, demons, and so on. But in Jesus' very first miracle there is none of that—no deadly storm, no one is dying, there are no demons; it's merely a wedding feast that is running low on wine. Some would dismiss this as “first world problems.” But Jesus doesn't do that, and we're surprised by a gratuitous miracle. There's an element of whimsy in the miracle story of Cana of Galilee that makes it particularly endearing.

Just a quick safety update regarding the L.A. fires.

Why was Jesus baptized for repentance by John the Baptist? (Yes, Jesus is willing to participate with us in our repentance. But there is something deeper.) Jesus is not so much being baptized by the waters, as he is baptizing the waters. Jesus is sacramentally consecrating the waters so they become mighty waters—the mighty waters of salvation.

To actually celebrate the Twelfth Day of Christmas may seem strange and overly religious to some, but in a secular age determined to rush past the holy, it's an act of sacred resistance. And the final day of Christmas is a good time to meditate on the Logos in adolescence.

For the first "Rebroadcast", Karl & Will share their episode originally released way back in March of 2014- "East and West (#101)!" Enjoy this blast from the past, where the guys explored the two main cultures in gaming and game music!

"Hope builds a bridge across the abyss into which reason cannot look. It can hear an undertone to which reason is deaf. To the hopeful, the world appears in a different light. Hope gives the world a special radiance; it brightens the world."–Byung-Chul Han, The Spirit of Hope

 In this episode, Karl & Will spotlight on a Super Famicom RPG score you probably have never heard of before. But don't let that fool you- the music of Dual Orb II is INCREDIBLE. Enjoy this spotlight on a 16-bit diamond in the rough!

Shepherds, though now romanticized in Nativity scenes, were at the bottom of society. These were not landowners but hired hands who watched over the sheep by night; sleeping, if they did, on the cold hard ground. That these simple shepherds and not the high and mighty were the first to know the greatest news of all was entirely in keeping with Mary's prophetic song:He has shown the strength of his arm,He has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,And has lifted up the lowly.

In our contemporary context we need a Christianity formed by the Magnificat. In the American superpower we are typically inclined toward ideologies of success and anthems of strength. But the grace of God does not run uphill toward the pinnacles of success and strength, it rolls downhill toward the low places of humility and trust.

Mary as the Mother of God is both a holy and unique mystery, and an enduring archetype.

 It's time for another installment of Q&A! Karl & Will chill out and answer some great questions from the marcato discord community! They also each share an awesome non-vgm track. Enjoy!

John the Baptist drinks no wine, because he's not the one who brings the party, he only prepares the way. The party begins when Jesus turns the water to wine at the wedding feast of Cana. John is Advent; Jesus is Christmas.

For the second episode of Nintendo Month '24, the guys present an exciting installment of "Series Spotlight" on Donkey Kong! Enjoy some iconic and incredible VGM composed for the beloved ape, as well as some interesting discussion! (previous version had an audio glitch, apologies!)

Jesus of Nazareth being interrogated and ultimately condemned by Pontius Pilate is one of the most dramatic moments in the gospel story, and one of the most strangely fascinating moments in human history. Jesus on trial before the Roman governor of Judea establishes a historical context for the crucifixion. Indeed, it creeps into the Creed: “He suffered under Pontius Pilate.” If we enter into the theological depths of this historical moment, we discover that though on the surface Jesus is on trial before a Roman governor, in reality the world was on trial before the King of Kings.

In his Olivet Discourse Jesus predicted that the Temple would be destroyed, saying “all will be thrown down.” This came to pass a generation later when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem. But if Jesus' words are words that “will not pass away,” what do these words say to us today, these words that—“all will be thrown down”?

Psalm 130 invites us to wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. Our souls wait for the Lord because there are no quick and easy paths on the road to spiritual formation. Waiting is inevitable. Waiting is baked into this ancient Christian faith we have received. Instead of a hurried dash through a department story, the Christian life is more like a slow walk down a wooded trail. The Christian life is a slow walk interrupted by moments of grandeur. Most of our days are spent waiting patiently on God. But we don't wait alone. God the Holy Spirit gives us faith, hope, and love to empower us in our waiting.

 It's Nintendo Month!! For the first episode this year, Karl & Will spotlight on the super underrated and maybe even forgotten score to Nintendo Land, by Ryo Nagamatsu! Enjoy some delightful Nintendo VGM!

Let nothing disturb youLet nothing frighten youAll things are passing awayGod never changesPatience obtains all thingsWhoever has God lacks nothingGod alone suffices–Teresa of Ávila

In Mark's Gospel bar-Timaeus (son of Timaeus) is the only person Jesus healed who is given a name. The blind beggar bar-Timaeus is also the first person in Mark's Gospel to identify Jesus as the Son of David. So who is Timaeus and why does it matter?

It's time for a seasonally appropriate edition of Discord Discotheque! This time around, the theme is “The Undead”. Enjoy some amazing VGM hand-picked by the wonderful marcato bros discord community!

The problem that James and John and the rest of disciples had, was that they thought Jesus could be contained in their own ambitions and agendas; that Jesus could be contained in the systems and political structures of the world they already knew. But they were wrong. They were wrong because Jesus is the uncontainable Christ.

The faith of Abraham is a pilgrim faith that confesses the kingdoms of this world are all transitory and passing away, and that the only eternal kingdom is the kingdom of the heavens, where Jesus Christ reigns at the right hand of God.

 In this episode, the guys share Will's cozy and personal solo piano album "Letters To My Family" in its entirety. Enjoy!

Philip the Evangelist rode in a chariot with the Ethiopian Eunuch on the Gaza Road two thousand years ago. Brian Zahnd road on a train with Yu in Paris on the day Derrida died. The two stories are not entirely different.

No matter what cripples us, no matter what issues we have, no matter how many dark spirits afflict us, Jesus is the one who recalls us to life.

 In this exciting first episode of this new category of episodes, Karl & Will spotlight on 2 amazing and underrated NES soundtracks! Rollergames and Choujin Sentai: Jetman! Enjoy some top tier NES music!

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Puddleglum tells the underworld witch, "I'm on Aslan's side even if there is no Aslan. I'm going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't any Narnia." In this story C.S. Lewis is doing more than telling a children's fantasy, he is portraying what it means to "walk by faith."

Bread on the table is ordinary, but bread in the hands of Jesus becomes extraordinary. Bread in Jesus' hands during the Passover meal became an extension of Jesus' very flesh. During Jesus' teaching ministry, bread became a feast for 5,000 people. During a meal with two disciples in Emmaus, bread became a revelation of Jesus in their midst. And we are like bread. Jesus takes us, blesses us, breaks us, and gives us to the world making our lives extraordinary.