Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S2-E12 | Everyday Eurasia |  Deirdre Brower

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S2-E12 | Everyday Eurasia |  Deirdre Brower · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  This week we will join the NCM team from Eurasia.
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  Today we will listen to Deidre Brauer.
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  Deidre is principal of Nasrin Theological College in
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  Manchester, United Kingdom. The work explores Christian
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  leadership, justice, and Wesleyan theology in and for the
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  church and educational context. I'm reading today from Psalm
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  146. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
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  my soul. I will praise the Lord all my
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  life. I will sing praise to my God as
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  long as I live. Do not put your trust in
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  Princess, in human beings who cannot save.
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  When their spirit departs, they return to the ground, and that
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  very day their plans come to nothing.
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  Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is
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  in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and
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  earth, the sea and everything in them.
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  He remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the
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  oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
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  The Lord sets prisoners free. The Lord gives sight to the
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  blind. The Lord lifts up those who are
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  bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous.
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  The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the
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  fatherless and the widow. But he frustrates the ways of
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  the wicked. The Lord reigns forever.
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  Your God, O Zion, for all generations, praise the Lord.
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  I love this passage. I think it reminds us that the
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  very centre of our faith, there's this idea that our whole
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  beings are to praise the Lord. We are to be focused on trusting
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  God and God alone. When we look around us, we can
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  see why. When we trust in Princess or
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  political leaders or national rulers, sometimes even the
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  structures around us, we realize that that trust is misplaced.
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  None of them can save us. Instead, they're just mortal
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  like we are. Their plans are frail and
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  fragile. And so where do we look for what
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  the future can be? Where do we look for the source
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  of our dreams? Where do we look for the way we
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  spend our days? Where do we look for how we
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  commit our lives? And we're reminded by the
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  psalmist that we look to God, the God who offers us hope, the
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  God who sends help, the God who is above everything else,
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  outlandishly, wildly above, unbelievably, mercifully, below
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  the heaven and the sea, the depths, the breadths.
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  God remains faithful forever. But God's faithfulness is
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  attached to a very particular idea.
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  God isn't satisfied with just a thronely lording it over.
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  No, not at all. God as described isn't about
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  wealth or performance or thunderbolts and lightning.
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  Instead, God in these psalms is described as the one who sees
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  the oppressed on their cause. Those who are violated by life,
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  those who are exploited, those who are hungry and poor, those
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  who are trapped, those who are in prison.
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  God's eye is on them, and God also heals.
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  He gives sight to the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are
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  folded over on themselves. And Oh my goodness, at the heart
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  of this Psalm we are reminded that God loves those who live
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  rightly and justly. That God's eye is on the
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  foreigner. Isn't that interesting?
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  The alien in our midst God sees and watches over.
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  God sustains the orphan and the widow, the one who is
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  heartbroken by life. God is described as getting in
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  the way of the ways of the wicked, an obstacle to people
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  who would oppress or despise or reject or exploit.
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  The very heart of this Psalm is this idea that God's self is
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  utterly compassionate, turned towards people who desperately
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  need to know that God is on their side.
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  Whenever I read this Psalm, I'm reminded of Jesus's own job
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  description, as someone calls it, from Luke chapter 4, where
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  full of the Spirit, everybody's praising him, and he goes into
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  this hometown space, the synagogue, and he goes into the
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  Sabbath gathering. And as is exactly what he does
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  every week, he stands up to read.
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  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah is what he chooses.
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  He found the place in the scroll where it's written.
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  The Spirit of the Lord is on me. He's anointed me to proclaim
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  good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom
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  for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.
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  To set the oppressed free. To proclaim the year of the
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  Lord's favour. Isn't that amazing?
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  Jesus himself says that in the whole of his life this is who he
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  is. Good news for the world.
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  In the central idea of this, there's compassion, there's
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  justice, there's gospel, there's freedom, there's liberation,
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  there's healing, there's an end to all oppression.
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  Does that excite you? I think what strikes me about it
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  most is how hopeful it is that we too can be participants in
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  this kind of grace. What do you do with your days?
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  How do you reflect Jesus? How do you think about what God
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  wants of us? How do you offer from the whole
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  of your being praise to God and a life that reminds people that
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  Jesus is good news? I think that for all of us, we
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  who are Nazarenes, woven into our DNA, is the possibility that
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  we participate in bringing life into the world in all its
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  fullness because the Spirit of God is also upon us and we serve
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  in Jesus name. We're a good news people.
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  We offer the possibility of transformation of people's lives
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  full of new imaginings for who they can be, because God never
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  forgets them, sees them, loves them and graces them with His
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  very present. We are part of turn around the
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  world ING. We are part of upside Downing
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  the world ING. We are part of transforming the
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  world, not in our own strength, but because this is the very
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  heart of the God we praise. So, friends, praise the Lord,
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  praise the Lord and my soul, praise the Lord all your life.
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  Sing praise to your God as long as you live.
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  Don't put your trust in Princess, in humans who cannot
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  save. Instead, remember that we are
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  called to praise the Lord in all generations, full of compassion
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  and hope and grace and sight giving, food giving world making
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  people, liberating faithful service.
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  I'm going to pray for us, Lord. I pray for my friends across the
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  Eurasia. May we be people who are so
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  attuned to your spirit that we breathe.
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  And as we breathe, we receive. And as we receive, we give.
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  Oh God, please help us to be people of love.
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  Please shape our lives about being good news, not just in our
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  words, but also in the way we live in the world.
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  Help us in our homes to be good news.
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  Help us to be wonderful neighbors, reminding people that
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  Jesus sees them and loves them. God, help us to be practical
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  servants, offering ways of hope amongst those who have no hope.
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  And God, where we're exhausted and on our knees, I pray that
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  you would strengthen us for your Spirit upon us and renew us and
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  refresh us. And oh God, please, in the name
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  of Jesus, set your Kingdom up in our midst, that in our time,
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  your church might look more and more like Christ, who we serve.
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  God, for each of us today, wherever you place us, may we
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  brightly shine stars of hope in the midst of a deep and dark
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  night. May we never run out of praise
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  to you. For you, O God, our good, grant
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  us your peace. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.