Quick Summary:

While teaching at Holden Village, Belfast pastor Gary Mason unpacked the story of generations of "bad theology" and violent acts between Protestant and R. Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. His insights, combined with Paul's ironic image from the final chapter of Ephesians, remind us where true power is to be found: in the one who emptied himself and became obedient to death on a cross.

In our weaponized culture structural forces with evil intent seek to justify violence against the enemy. Jesus offers an alternative. His power is expressed not through coercion but through a love so mature and all encompassing that it casts out all fear.

Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat our condition: we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. But he asks us to trust that we won’t be left in that bondage. That he’ll keep after us and work within us until those shackles our gone.