If You Grick the Lure: Jesus, Salvation, and Divine Self-Investment

This one comes to you from my backyard in Greensboro, with Ross the rooster crowing us in and a herd of adolescent chicks wandering through the frame. Bo texted before dawn that he had something I'd either love or cringe at. It turned out to be a new street-preacher character: the reverse Westboro, yelling across the park, "Hey! Good news! There's no hell!" His diagnosis is liberal laryngitis. Progressive Christians think they have better news than the fundamentalists, so why do we go so quiet about it?

The intro was only 18 minutes this week (growth), and then we finally cleared last week's leftovers. What does it mean to say Jesus saves once you've ditched hell and redemptive violence? I gave the CliffsNotes of Divine Self-Investment, and Bo gave Genesis without a fall. Then: what happens to us after we die, what it looks like to trust God on an ordinary Tuesday, how progressives should worship, and how to find community as a post-evangelical in the Bible Belt. Somewhere in there Bo coined GRIC, the God revealed in Christ, and I used it as a verb. At one hour 36 minutes, Bo declared it the most satisfying full-circle moment we've ever had. He's been waiting 15 years.

Mentioned in this episode

Support Bo's bike ministry: paypal.me/freeforallbikes

Join Andy Root and me in Bonhoeffer's house in Berlin, summer 2027: bonhoeffertrip.com

Come to Berlin with us. In June 2027, Andy Root and I are leading two Rise of Bonhoeffer travel-learning weeks. The Seminar (June 12–17) reads Bonhoeffer’s sources where they were fought over — Luther in Wittenberg, Schleiermacher and Barth in Berlin, the prison letters in his own house. The Pilgrimage (June 17–22) is for pastors and faith leaders, built around Bonhoeffer as a working minister in a time of resistance. Twenty-two seats each, back to back so you can do one or both. Early bird pricing through January 31. Details and registration at www.BonhoefferTrip.com

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UPCOMING ONLINE ADVENT CLASS: Tear Open the Heavens: Advent for Indifferent Strangers

Most of us are running faster just to stay in place, and the one season that asks us to wait gets swallowed by the busiest month of the year. Meanwhile, the neighbors have changed: fewer people argue with the church, and more have simply never heard the story. This Advent, Andy Root and Tripp Fuller take up Isaiah’s prayer, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,” and ask what it means to