Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.
Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.
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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
#150 - Jesus is NOT My Homeboy {Reflections Re-Release}
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“Jesus is my homeboy” might sound like a throwback slogan, but it opens a serious question: what kind of God are we actually looking for? We start with the comfort of a Jesus who feels close, relatable, and knowable, and why that matters when you grow up feeling unseen, insecure, or like you don’t quite belong. That picture of God as friend can be healing, and it can be true, because Jesus shows us what God is like.
Then we widen the frame. Over the past decade, I’ve become fascinated by the God who is wild and untamed, the transcendent God of mystery who cannot be controlled, predicted, or reduced to a slogan. Think fierce wind in the trees, the force of an ocean wave, and the moment in Job when God speaks out of the whirlwind and reminds us just how small our explanations can be. We explore Rudolf Otto’s idea of mysterium tremendum et fascinans: a holy presence that is terrifying and magnetic at the same time, the kind of awe you can’t look away from.
Finally, we land on a tension that can deepen your faith if you let it: God is not safe, but God is good. Like Aslan in Narnia, the power is real, the mystery remains, and trust is still possible. If you’ve been craving a bigger view of God without losing the warmth of grace, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what helps you hold closeness and awe together.
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Olivia Reintroduces A Favorite Rerelease
SPEAKER_00Hey everyone, Olivia here. Pastor Ryan is on sabbatical this summer, so I will be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes from the Reflections podcast. Today's episode originally aired in June of 2024. The title is Jesus is not my homeboy. Pastor Ryan starts by talking about the famous Jesus is my homeboy t-shirts that were popular when he was in his early 20s. Which means this episode doubles as both a theological reflection and a reminder of Pastor Ryan's age. Boom, roasted. Then again, I just quoted the office, so I'm not exactly helping my case either. Enjoy.
The Jesus Is My Homeboy Era
SPEAKER_01What is up, everybody? My name is Ryan, and welcome to our Reflections podcast. This is our weekly, or I don't know, I think it is weekly, weekly podcast where where I get on here and I just talk about some things that I find interesting. I'm in here in our studio. Mike is our producer. What's up, Mike? Hey, this episode is dedicated to Mike's aunt. Her name is Kathy. Kathy and her new husband, Ken. This is for you guys. I don't know if you listened to our Reflections podcast, but maybe you'll start. They got married last night, so congrats to you two. Two lovebirds, man. Love is in the air, Mike. Which reminds me, dude, uh, this is apropos of nothing, but um hey, when I was when I was in my early 20s, there was this popular t-shirt that people, uh Christians would wear, and on it it had a picture of Jesus, and it said, Jesus is my homeboy. Do you remember did you ever see those shirts?
unknownI I recall seeing things like it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. They were like all the rage amongst the Christians in my in my twenties. I think it was because the we were like kind of we were on the border of like Gen X, and Gen X is always gonna be a tad rebellious, and and I think it was sort of like it it felt just sacrilegious enough for the young people to kind of flaunt it to their baby boomer parents or whatever the case might be. But but I liked it. It was good. For me, it was actually a message that I needed to hear because when I was younger, I needed to know this about God. Like Jesus was knowable, and so in the stories, you can read about him and you can kind of know what Jesus is like, and therefore, according to like the scripture that says that Jesus is the image of God. If Jesus is knowable, then God is knowable. And so in the stories, Jesus is very different than me, but also he's a lot like me. I mean, he's a human, he was like a friendly person in the stories, at least as I was taught them. He was like a brother to me, like a friend to me. He was like one of us. I mean, he was uh he was a human. And uh and so these this shirt was actually, you know, kind of fitting for many people because it was like, hey, Jesus is like one of us. And as a young boy or a young man, this image of God, like Jesus as my friend, my homeboy, a human who knew me and accepted me, was just what I what I needed to hear for me anyway. I mean, I grew up, like maybe many people, but I think for me, growing up in a divorced home and lots of experiences I had, we moved a lot. I grew up and I often would feel insecure, like I didn't belong, like I was maybe even in many cases or settings, like
A Knowable Jesus For Insecurity
SPEAKER_01I wasn't seen. And so this image of a God who saw me, who was like a homeboy, a brother, a friend, uh, one that could relate to me was actually it resonated with me deeply on many levels. Now, I theologically, I I had no idea how accurate this was or wasn't, but in the moment, I it felt like I needed to hear this kind of a message as a young man.
Meeting The Wild Untamed God
SPEAKER_01But here's what I've noticed. In the past probably 10 years, I have discovered and become deeply fascinated with another aspect of God. Not that Jesus is my homeboy, but rather what I call the wild and untamed God, or the God of mystery, the God who is utterly other and unknowable. And so I look, I know that in Jesus we know God, but there's there also has to be some parts and bits and pieces of God that are utterly unknowable. If we knew everything about God, that would probably make us God, wouldn't it? There must be some parts of God that are unknowable and mysterious, and the theological word is transcendent, meaning one that's above or other than. And so this God, this wild and untamed, mysterious God, is not my homeboy. This God, rather, is what I might sense when I hear the fierce wind in the trees of the forest at night. Like you ever try to catch the wind? Listen to me. I sound like I sound like a Garth Brooks song. Like was it roping the wind or something? Anyway, uh, you ever try to stop the wind from blowing? It's not possible. Or this God, this wild and untamed God, is what I feel like when I'm in the ocean and I'm utterly crushed by a wave. Like you ever stand in front of a wave in the ocean? I mean like a big wave. You ever try to stop the wave? I mean, it's it's impossible. You cannot tame a
Job And The Whirlwind God
SPEAKER_01wave. I love it. There's this there's this uh passage in Job where Job, like the first several chapters of Job, Job and his friends are arguing about why all these things happened to Job, and they're indicting God and they're offering all these explanations, and then God speaks up. And I love it. And he it says the the text says that God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind. And what you're about to hear is like the God who's mysterious and divine and and utterly other and unknowable. And this God says to Job, basically, Hey Job, were you there when I hung the foundations of the earth? Were you there when I held back the seas? When I created the stars and hung them in the sky, and begins to put Job in his place. Job thinks he knows everything about God, and that him and his friends can sort of wax philosophic about God and why all these horrible things happened to Job. And God basically tells Job, Job, you don't know anything, dude. Sit down and you be Job and I'll be God. I love it. Like this God is wild. I would say dangerous, even, like mysterious. It's what Rudolf Otto, the famous sent uh the famous Lutheran pastor, he once calls the Mysterium Tremendum et Fasinans, which basically is this fancy way of saying this mysterious, majestic, fear-inducing and terror-inspiring, and yet utterly attractive in spite of the fear. This is God, like like the sun, perhaps. Like it's beautiful and terrifying at the same time. And by the way, this is actually a more appropriate way to look at Jesus, I would argue. I mean, Jesus was not a softie. He was very, I mean, look, he's very kind and gentle, absolutely. But look, Jesus was
Awe And Terror In Encounters
SPEAKER_01a radical apocalyptic prophet who was not afraid of powerful people and goes around basically proclaiming an eschaton or an end of the time, which is terrifying and fascinating at the same time. And like you cannot look away from it, yet it's utterly earth-shaking and frightening. And you'll notice whenever that people in the Bible have encounters with God, they experience almost simultaneously like both awe and wonder, and also terror at the same time. It's wild. Like there's that moment when Jesus is in the boat at night and the disciples see him, and they're they're terrified. The text is they're terrified. They think he's a ghost, actually, they're so scared, but they can't look away. And I love it. This is what Mysterium Tremendum et Fasinans means. There's a scene in one of my favorite books, uh, The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe, where the kids, the Pavenzi children, make their way through the wardrobe into Narnia, and they meet this family of beavers, and the beavers and them are having
Aslan Is Not Safe
SPEAKER_01the conversation. I mean, you know, like you do when you meet a family of beavers, you go to their house and have some yummies and you talk. Anyway, and the beavers are like telling these kids about this lion named Aslan, and the and he sounds great, and the kids are like, Oh, this is wonderful. So Aslan, okay, so he's safe then. And the beaver's like, what are you talking about? Safe. Of course he's not safe. He's a lion. I'm like, that's so good. Lions aren't safe. You ever been around a lion? But they say he's not safe. He's a lion, but he's good. And so if God wasn't safe, we we would and should live in terror. This is what the ancients and the pagans, I think, in many in many cultures, they live in fear of their gods because they don't know if their gods are good or not. They they see the gods as all-powerful, but the they're fear-inducing only because they don't know if they're good. But God is good, and so we can trust him. It doesn't make the mystery of God go away. God is still mysterious and awe-inspiring and frightening on many levels, but but we know that he's good. It doesn't remove the fear. He's a lion, he's not safe. He held back Leviathan, which is in the book book of Job. He tames the waters of chaos, he can he hangs the moon in the sky. He's he's God, he's mysterioum tremendum et fascinants,
Trusting God’s Goodness
SPEAKER_01but he is indeed good. So listen, perhaps Jesus is in fact your homeboy, and I love it. Great. But may you also today catch a glimpse of this mysterio tremendum et fascinans, this mysterious, divine, other, transcendent being and fierce force of God that is both awe-inspiring and attractive and also a bit terrifying. But may you also, then, in in addition to feeling the terror and fear and jaw-dropping power of God, may you also know in the deepest parts of your souls and trust that God is good. Amen. Love you guys. Peace.
Final Blessing And Ways To Connect
SPEAKER_01Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you can check us out online at clcelkriver.org. Peace.
