Shows / Extra Credit Podcast
Extra Credit Podcast
Midweek Bible study at Colonial Heights Church. Artwork by Scott Erickson (scottericksonart.com)
cameroncombs.substack.com
Episodes
Extra Credit PodcastThe Deep Heart (Dr. Chris E.W. Green)
Scripture uses a variety of terms to describe the human self (e.g. body, soul, spirit, mind, and heart). Last week we discussed the human self in its…
Extra Credit PodcastYou Are (Not) a Soul With a Body
The Deep Unity of the Self What does it mean to be a human self? What constitutes it? We will all be familiar with a similar vocab bank: body, soul, spirit…
Extra Credit PodcastBone of My Bone: The Image of God as Intercession
Being Human as Vocation Becoming truly human is not just a matter of being, but of doing (hence the “becoming truly human”). In truth, being and doing are not…
Extra Credit PodcastHow (Not) To Be Moral
Sin: Blocking the Flow of God’s Love The way we speak about sin is key. The metaphors we use to speak about reality always end up “using” us. Our language…
Extra Credit PodcastSin: Separation From Ourselves
Curved In On Ourselves Last week I tried to argue that, contrary to much of what we’ve been taught, sin does not separate us from God. Many of us have heard…
Extra Credit PodcastSin Is (Not) Separation from God
It Takes Training To Be a Sinner The movement from Adam to Christ is the movement from being born from below to being born from above. It’s the movement into…
Extra Credit PodcastFrom Adam to Christ
Not “How” but “Who” Last week we began a study of what it means to be “truly human.” And we began with the truly human one: Jesus of Nazareth. It is not the…
Extra Credit PodcastJesus and Time: Creation Comes After Easter
God’s Hands in the Dirt A few years ago I noticed that there are many of passages in Scripture where God has his hands in the dirt. He’s a working-class God…
Extra Credit PodcastRuth, the Canaanite Woman, and Outsiders
"The tree of life, the cross of Christ, the center of God’s world..." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall Insider/Outsider Paradigm The book of Ruth, as…
Extra Credit PodcastRuth is Incarnation
“The last thing God needs is to be noticed.” -Chris E.W. Green A field trip with the old rabbis… Chapter four of the book of Ruth completes the primary…
Extra Credit PodcastBehold Him (Good Friday 2025)
A Good Friday sermon on John 19:1—30. So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in…
Extra Credit PodcastBiblical Bed Tricks
“Only good where evil was, is evil dead… That alone is the slaying of evil.” -George MacDonald, Lilith Naomi’s Plan: Risky and Risqué Chapter 3 of the book of…
Extra Credit PodcastRuth vs. the (Dead) Law
“Perhaps the self-same song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn…” John Keats, Ode to a…
Extra Credit PodcastRuth: A Subversive Love Story
“[Ruth is the] loveliest complete work on a small scale, handed down to us as an ethical treasure and an idyll.” -Goethe Subversion Many interpreters have…
Extra Credit Podcast"Death is not fatal"
“Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel makes him just a gardener.” George Herbert Already-Not Yet? We’ve let the explosive heart of the good news of…
Extra Credit PodcastA Theology of Israel
This week we turn to a very deep question, and one that has caused terrible problems in the church throughout its history: When Saul met the resurrected Jesus…
Extra Credit Podcast"In Christ" It's Personal
It’s not surprising that there is a wide range of opinions among New Testament scholars over what Paul means by the little phrase “in Christ.” Views range from…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Ethics of Being "In Christ"
To be united with Christ is not about some static identity that you and I now “have.” Being united to Christ touches you at the very level of your being so…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Unveiling of the Scriptures
“For only in Christ is there removed not the reading of the Old Testament, which keeps hidden the strength of grace, but the veil by which it is hidden.” -St…
Extra Credit PodcastWhat Is Faith?
We often refer to Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the Road to Damascus as a “conversion.” But it is an odd conversion. Paul does not leave behind his…
Extra Credit PodcastUnion With Christ: Covenant or Contract?
Over the past four years I’ve become increasingly convinced that the heart of Paul’s theology can be traced back to his encounter with the risen Jesus on the…
Extra Credit Podcast"She fed our Bread"
“He who sustains the world lay in a manger, a wordless Child, yet the Word of God. Him whom the heavens do not contain, the bosom of one woman bore. She ruled…
Extra Credit Podcast"God belongs to children"
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Angel of the Lord
Angelology has nothing to say to us if it is separated from Trinitarian theology. The one God the angels face is triune. Their worship of Father, Son, and Holy…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Satanic and the Demonic
“In the resurrection, the wounds of Christ do not disappear; they are glorified. Only the devil appearing as Christ has no wounds, being too vain to bear…
Extra Credit PodcastPrincipalities and Powers
This week we move to the middle tier of the angelic hierarchy to discuss dominions, powers, authorities (and principalities). Here is Dionysius the…
Extra Credit PodcastCherubim, Seraphim, and the Secret of God's Throne Room
Two questions have been on my mind in thinking through a theology of angels. First, why is it that in the story of Jacob’s Ladder (and again in John 1:51) that…
Extra Credit PodcastGuardian Angels and Angelic Hospitality
Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This week we take up the hospitality of angels and the…
Extra Credit PodcastJacob's Ladder: A Theology of Angels
When discussing a theology of angels we are met with a whole range of problems. Doesn’t the belief in angels belong to an older, more simple-minded time? What…
Extra Credit PodcastInterceding for Suicide Prevention
After a brief teaching on the power of sin Taylor Johnson led us through an incredibly meaningful time of prayer, interceding for all those affected by…
Extra Credit Podcast"The Psalms Are Truer than the Psalmist"
The disciples approach Jesus with a request: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his wonderful little book on the Psalms, says that we find the…
Extra Credit Podcast"Hitler and Israel, or on Prayer"
Last week we ended by saying that Jesus redeems his mother Mary (and all creation) by relying on her. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. God learned. He learned…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Root and Branch of David
Jesus is the healing of David and David’s story. To see the depth of wisdom in the David story we have to see David in Christ and Christ in David. A deep…
Extra Credit PodcastDavid and John Wayne
Flat readings of the David story often turn him into a sort of John Wayne character. A gunslinger, a good-bad guy that has to do what no one is willing to do…
Extra Credit PodcastKings and Shepherds
The David of 1 & 2 Samuel is a divided character from the beginning. Is he a little boy or is a valiant warrior? Is he pure-hearted or self-serving and…
Extra Credit PodcastDavid’s Ark?
Chris Green argues that Scripture is written with “pitch” or “spin.” In baseball a pitcher puts spin on the ball he throws to the batter and depending on who…
Extra Credit PodcastWhose Son Is This?
“Whose son is this?” (1 Sam. 17:55) Saul’s question at the end of the David/Goliath story is perhaps the key theme of the whole story of David: Whose son is…
Extra Credit PodcastGrace Kills and Makes Alive
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul addresses the fourth and final major issue in the Corinthian church: some of them are denying the resurrection of the body. (In Greek…
Extra Credit PodcastJesus Is the Spirit of Prophecy (and Tongues)
This week we tackle 1 Corinthians 14 which brings a couple of difficult textual problems. Foremost among them being 1 Cor. 14:34-35 Women should be silent in…
Extra Credit PodcastBible Study with Bonhoeffer
In Acts 8 Stephen comes upon an Ethiopian eunuch seated in his chariot studying Isaiah 53. Stephen asks him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The…
Extra Credit PodcastJesus Refuses To Be God Without Us
From 1 Corinthians 11 onwards Paul turns to deal with issues in the Corinthians’ public worship gatherings. In chapters 12 to 14 Paul takes up the issue of…
Extra Credit PodcastWomen, Head Coverings, and Worship
Does God see gender as a barrier to women taking certain positions of leadership in the church or in the world? It’s a nagging question for many believers…
Extra Credit PodcastOur Hearts Burned Within Us
1 Corinthians 10 is the apex of Paul’s long and complex argument for why certain members of the Corinthian congregation should not eat meat sacrificed to idols…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Spirit Hymns Us In
In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul continues his extended argument about eating meat sacrificed to idols. Paul holds up his own practices as an apostle as an example for…
Extra Credit PodcastTo Know Him Is To Love You: Knowledge Puffs Up
After taking some time on the complicated issue of how Christianity relates to Judaism (or how the gospel relates to the Torah), we launched into 1 Corinthians…
Extra Credit PodcastSex Ethics: Singleness, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage
1 Corinthians 7 presents some interesting challenges. It has been widely misunderstood throughout church history, often with terrible consequences. If not read…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Church-Community: An Outpost of the Future
In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul continues to address the specific problems within the Corinthian community (lawsuits and sexual immorality), but with an interesting…
Extra Credit PodcastChrist Our Conscience
Before jumping into 1 Corinthians 5, this week we took some time to unpack the distinction between the heart and the conscience. The distinction is key, I…
Extra Credit PodcastOn the Conscience and the Heart (Or: How to Stop Judging Others and Yourself)
Last week we discussed the “secret” to getting along with one another in church: holding all our opinions and judgments with open hands and with a kind of…
Extra Credit PodcastSharing in the Suffering of God (Good Friday 2024)
Good Friday 2024 John 18:1—19:42 “Christians and Heathens” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1944 from Tegel Prison) I. People go to God when they’re in need, Plead for…
Extra Credit PodcastOn Quarreling and Rivalry (Or: How to Get Along with Each Other in Church)
We often use the term “spiritual immaturity” to describe Christians who don’t know enough yet. They need to expand their knowledge of Scripture. They need…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Paradoxical God
Last week we looked at the paradoxical nature of the gospel. This week we turn to see that the paradoxical gospel reveals the paradoxical nature of God’s very…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Paradoxical Gospel
Paul begins his letter to the Corinthians stressing the “paradoxical” (two competing ‘glories’ alongside one another) nature of the gospel. The glory, power…
Extra Credit PodcastThe Lord's Prayer
One of the beautiful things about the Lord’s prayer, as one early church father points out, is that it can be prayed by anyone at any time in any circumstance…
Extra Credit PodcastA Theology of Prayer
If the Apostles’ Creed is the heart of our faith, then prayer is the heartbeat of our faith; it is the life itself. This week we look at the first two words of…
Extra Credit PodcastResurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting
Throughout the Apostles’ Creed we are shown the value the Christian faith places on physical creation. God is the Creator of heaven and earth. Jesus is…
Extra Credit PodcastForgiveness of Sins: Christus Victor
We’ve been looking at different models of the atonement over the last couple weeks. This week we finish our discussion by turning our attention to one of the…
Extra Credit PodcastForgiveness of Sins: Recapitulation
This week we take a look at the primary way the New Testament and the earliest church understood the atonement: recapitulation. The word recapitulation sounds…
Extra Credit PodcastForgiveness of Sins: Problems with Penal Substitution
On first reading the ending of the Apostles’ Creed it can seem like the last few clauses have almost nothing to do with one another. We all have that one…
Extra Credit PodcastI Believe in the Holy Catholic Church
“No other God has a church. None other would want one.” -Robert Jenson The third article of the Apostles’ Creed opens with “Holy, Holy, Holy.” We believe in…