We are called to work because God also worked - He created the world! We can work for God by using our gifts for others. We also need rest from our work, which comes from our security in God through Christ.

The Pharisees pose a controversial question to Jesus when they ask him if they should pay taxes. Jesus responds with a revolutionary answer: He refuses political complacency, political simplicity, and political primacy. Jesus then models a revolutionary idea, showing his followers that the way to gain power is to give it away.

Jesus introduces a revolutionary kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount. He contrasts the pattern, power, and product of two kingdoms: the old one which we are currently under, and the new one which is to come. Jesus' teaching goes against every natural instinct, and represents a reversal of the world's values.

The Easter story tells us of a new beginning after disaster - that after death there is life. If you spiritualize the resurrection of Jesus, you will have comfort but not the truth. The message of Easter is that right now, Jesus has flesh and bones. This changes the way you think, the way you live, and the way you feel.

In addressing Israel's exile, Jeremiah poses the question of why we long for home. This world can't sustain us, so how we can get home? The answer is in Jesus' sacrifice, which gives us the gift of a fully sustained life in our relationship with God.

Historically, the gospel has been particularly empowering and compelling to the poor and the oppressed. Seeing what Jesus did for us, no matter what our socioeconomic position, frees us from being controlled by what is on the surface and teaches us to love and identify with the poor.

The modern critique of religion comes from Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. Freud claimed that religion is psychological self-justification, that we created God to assuage our guilt and fear. Marx claimed that religion is a sociological self-justification, that we created God to exclude those unlike us. Nietzsche said that religion is nothing but a power trip, an attempt to use God to accrue power over others. However, Jesus himself critiqued religion and turned it on its head.