September 12, 2024 • 15 mins
In this episode, Nate asked Pastor Damein about the vision for the upcoming season of the All of Life podcast. This season, we're building on the learning event and sermon series, Following Jesus in Politics. We'll have guests like Mike Allen on the role of preaching in Presbyterian thought, Todd Deathrage on steering through tough conversations, and Robert Cunningham on the nuanced world of public theology and political ideologies. Don't miss our insights from key readings like David Koyzis' "Political Visions and Illusions" and Patrick Schreiner's "Political Gospel," all designed to enrich your understanding and challenge your perspectives.
We'll also venture into the oft-overlooked book of Leviticus, shedding light on its relevance today with the help of expert Dr. Jay Sklar. Our playful yet profound sermon series, "Leviticus is for Lovers," aims to reform how you perceive this book where Bible reading plans often die in the wilderness. We'll also add some more episodes along the way that were not mentioned, so stay tuned!
You can access the reading list we mention here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to another episode of the All of Life
podcast.
I'm your host, Nate Clavelin,and today I'm here with our
senior pastor, Damian Sheeter.
How are we doing, Damian?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good, it's good to be back.
It's been a while since I'vebeen on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's been.
Yeah, I was going to say, if wego way back to the first real
season of this podcast, 2019, itwas me and you a lot.
It was me, you and Ben.
We were doing all these Biblebook introductions and we've had
a lot of iterations in thepodcast since then.
But we are starting seasonseven this fall.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's a very biblical number, it's a very biblical
number.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a very biblical number.
It goes well with pairs, wellwith Leviticus, exactly Maybe
yeah, that's right, which that'sgoing to be one of the topics
we talk about.
But we're here today justreally to give a table of
contents for what you can expecton the podcast.
This fall.
We've got about six to sevenepisodes coming covering a
couple different big things forthe life of our church this fall
.
Damien, do you want to speak tothe first one of those?
(01:06):
We're talking about politics.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes.
So those of you who are with usand have been with us, every
fall or leading into the fall,at the end of the summer, in
July, we do a Following Jesus Inseries.
This year it was FollowingJesus in Politics, so we preach
four sermons and a few timesduring that sermon series, I
noted that over the fall wewould be releasing various
(01:27):
podcast episodes, and I thinkthe sense really is that we're
probably all going to be takingin at various levels, maybe
information or it's going to befilling our mind.
That is the presidentialelection that's coming up and
everything related to it.
I think one of the realities iswe wanted to offer some
perspective and thoughtfulconversations in this season,
(01:47):
both leading up to the electionand probably right after the
election.
So like, for example, we'regoing to have an episode with
Mike Allen that we did, where wetalked about the role of
preaching as it relates tocurrent events and how does the
preacher speak into currentevents, particularly thinking
about informing the congregationhow to think about something or
(02:08):
even applying something totheir life.
And there's this reallyimportant section it's 20-2
actually in the WestminsterConfession of Faith that says
that only the Word of God canbind people's consciences.
So we explore.
What does that mean?
What are the pitfalls that youcan go into on either side of
that?
So maybe not speaking enough orover-speaking.
We talk a lot about how wemight engage culture, but it's
(02:32):
all directly related to politicsand this season.
So that's the first episode.
I think that I had a great timetalking to Mike.
I think people will find itinteresting.
The other thing we have is werecorded, as far as I know, our
first live podcast in front ofan audience when Todd Dethridge
was here for our Following Jesusin Politics learning event
(02:52):
Friday night.
Right at the end of his content, with everyone there.
We took questions andeverything from the audience.
We recorded a live podcast andTodd basically told a little bit
of his story.
It's very interesting andreally explores in that podcast
the essence of what he talkedabout the whole weekend, which
(03:13):
really serves as a substructureof all types of hard
conversations, and politicswould be one of those.
And that is, for example, ourinclination to think primarily
in us versus them, categories,and how the Bible, and Jesus,
particularly in the Sermon onthe Mount, invites us to another
way.
And then finally, one other one, just as a heads up Robert
(03:35):
Cunningham.
Some folks will remember RobertCunningham preached at New City
earlier in the year.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Oh, that's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I don't even remember when that was In the spring.
Maybe I think it was before thesummer.
It that's right.
Yeah, I don't even rememberwhen that was In the spring.
Maybe I think it was before thesummer.
It may have even been longerago, but I know it was in 2024.
It was a calendar year, yeah.
But Robert has his own ministrycalled Christ for Kentucky and
he really leans into what iscalled public theology and he
just did everyone a great favoron his podcast, which is he took
(04:01):
a political scientist namedDavid Koitsis who had written a
book called Political Ideologiesand Illusions and there's a
subtitle that's escaping me.
But the book's fantastic, butit is sort of dense if you're
not used to engaging that sortof thing.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And I've tried to.
There have been two times whereI recommended it to people and
both vehemently responded andsaid don't ever recommend this
to someone again and say thatit's not academic.
So but the point is is thatRobert was on their side and he
knew that that's what it was.
And so he's done everyone afavor of synthesizing David
Koitsis' thoughts over severalepisodes.
(04:38):
So in the interview with RobertI'm trying to distill all of
that work into one episode.
But just so it's not a secret.
My desire is this episode wetsyour appetite enough to where
you go listen to all of Robert'sepisodes.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah Well, and let's double click on that a little
bit, because I remember when wefirst started talking about how
we might approach a followingJesus in politics either
learning event or something likethat that Koizet's book was at
the top of the list of we thinkthis is the most helpful thing
and we'd been trying to figureout, but I don't think we
recommend everyone read it or wedo a book club on it.
(05:12):
It's like we want to figure outsome way to distill down this
information.
But I'd mentioned that book tosay there was actually a number
of books that we read thatinformed the sermon series or
that informed other things thatwe're doing.
I figured we could just mentiona couple of them real quick
here.
I know Patrick Shriner's got abook that you read.
I read, yes, political Gospel,political Gospel.
(05:33):
That one actually felt like youcould probably recommend it
easily too, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I think that that would be.
It's a very accessible book.
I think it's a thoughtful book.
It would be toward the top forsure.
I would say, hey, if you'reinterested in reading some books
on this topic, that's a goodone.
And in fact, if you read it,there will be at least two
illustrations that I used in oneof the four sermons or one of
the three sermons that Ipreached, and I said, hey, I
(05:59):
heard an illustration and it wasfrom this book from Patrick
Schreiner.
So there are lots of helpfulillustrations.
Um, there are some other booksthat you you thought to mention
too, right?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, preston Sprinkle had a book called
Exiles that just came out.
It was really useful, um, andwe talk a lot about exilic
discipleship and just what isour place in the culture, and so
he really doubles down on thattheme, but particularly as it
relates to politics, not justdiscipleship in general.
Yeah, and that was a reallyuseful one.
I'm trying to think of theother one that was really really
(06:30):
good.
I mean Coyces is good,schreiner's good, it was Michael
Ware, that's it.
His book, the Spirit of OurPolitics, we thought was really
really useful In some waysbecause he's drawing on Dallas
Willard, which we draw on for alot of things here, and he's
kind of applying Dallas Willardto the posture we bring to
politics and so we used some ofthose books in leadership
(06:53):
training.
We put together a handout.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yes, if we could recommend one book that's not
politics but super helpful, andyou read this one as well the
Super Communicators by CharlesDuhigg related to politics is by
helping us understand anddistilling types of
conversations and showing how alot of conflict not all, of
course, but a lot is boiled downto miscommunication because
(07:27):
we're having differentconversations but we think we're
having the same type ofconversation.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Right, yeah, the classic.
I mean we won't go through hiswhole typology, but you can.
A lot of sitcoms are basedaround one of the things he
highlights, which is one personis having a what are we going to
do?
Conversation and the otherperson is having a how do I feel
?
Conversation, yeah, or viceversa, and they're just they're
talking about the same subject,but just one is thinking
(07:51):
strategy, the other is thinkingsubjectivity, emotion, yes,
trying to work things out, andit's like classic sitcom.
Trope of miscommunication.
You're right, totally.
That's a great example.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, so that would be a really excellent book to
read, that would inform yourcuriosity about communicating or
just in general, engagingpolitics, but also more broadly,
for sure.
So I think it'll be good to, asyou said, give these resources
in the show notes so people cango to their favorite place of
buying books or audio books.
And, exactly right, give it alook.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, I was going to say we could just sit here and
talk books all the time.
But we won't do that.
We'll put it in the show notesso you can get our recommended
reading list.
There's a bunch of thingsmostly that I read but that you
read as well.
That kind of formed thebackground.
So one big thing we're doingthis fall is the politics
episodes.
The other thing that we'vetraditionally done and we
mentioned earlier, we did bookintroductions to go with CBR on
(08:43):
this podcast.
The other thing we had beendoing was kind of sermon support
and just alleviate some of theburden on the preachers.
You don't have to get into allthe nitty gritty details or
background or big picture things.
We're just going to recordthematic episodes with Mike.
Allen has done a lot of thesefor us, but with Leviticus this
fall we thought it would beuseful to Not that Mike can't do
(09:04):
this.
Mike did a great episode onLeviticus.
You guys can listen to it.
It was a couple months ago forthe reading plan.
Oh, that's right, but we'regonna get an Old Testament
professor who's really leanedinto Leviticus in a way that
none of us else, none of therest of us have.
And so tell us a little bitabout who we're talking to, for
that.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, so Jay Sklar is his name, dr Sklar and Jay was
a professor of mine at CovenantSeminary when I was there and he
was young then and he's stillyoung he was probably in his
late 30s whenever I was there.
But what's unique about Jay asit relates to Leviticus is that
he's really given his life, forthe last over 20 years of
(09:41):
scholarship and study, tounderstanding the first five
books of the Bible thePentateuch and, in particular,
leviticus.
So he wrote his dissertation onLeviticus.
He's written two commentarieson Leviticus and on his website
it actually says he's given hislife to understanding Leviticus
and the two books surrounding itbecause of the context, but
really the first five books ofthe Bible.
(10:01):
So Jay is fantastic.
I can't wait to record thispodcast with Jay and release it
to everyone, because Jay has aspiritual gift of
self-deprecation.
In other words, why wouldsomeone give their life to
Leviticus?
But then on the flip side, hekind of he woos you in with
humor and then makes you realizehow important Leviticus
(10:23):
actually is and how we'reweirded out, primarily because
of the cultural differences but,there's so much there for us,
and so what I love about Jay,among many things, is he can
take things to the bottom shelf,and I think that's what we need
, because all of us are sounfamiliar with Leviticus.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, it definitely feels like a book that needs
decoding in a way that Exodusdidn't.
To some extent we did a lot ofheavy lifting with Genesis and
some background podcasts on that, but for the most part you can
read through Genesis.
There's a clear storyline,compelling characters, and you
still have that in Exodus.
And then all of a sudden youget to Leviticus and there are
stories, but it's just listafter list of things to do when
(11:04):
you bring your animal to thetemple and stuff to not eat or
wear or do, and you just sort ofyou get bogged down in like
what are we doing here?
Because you need someone tokind of guide you through.
What are the actual big picturethemes of what's happening in
this book?
Why is this book the center ofthe Pentateuch?
Why is it like that's right, itis the climax in a lot of ways
(11:24):
of the first five books, butit's as you mentioned in your
sermon this past Sunday it'swhere a lot of Bible reading
plans go to die.
You're just sort of like I'mgonna read through the Bible in
a year and you finish Exodus andyou're like, okay, two books
down and then you just somewherein Leviticus 7, 8, 9, 10, you
just hit a wall Totally, and Ithink if people do make it
(11:45):
through Leviticus, usually theresponse is something like I'm
so glad we don't have thatdoesn't apply to us.
I'm so glad we don't have to dothat.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And Jay will regularly speak to.
That's an understandableresponse, but it's not the ideal
response to Leviticus.
There's so much more.
Yeah, and so Jay will help us.
There's so much more, and soJay will help us explore that so
much more, and hopefully we'lltouch on a lot of it too in the
sermon series itself, but don'tmiss that episode with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Dr Sklar, that's going to add a lot of helpful
context that we just we don'thave the time for in the time
that we're devoting to Leviticus.
Yeah, that's right.
It it also.
I think it also speaks to somepeople may know this, but
calling the sermon seriesLeviticus is for lovers.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Obviously we're playing on the Virginia State
theme, yes, which I saw a bumpersticker of Virginia is for
lovers yesterday here in Orlando.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Oh, look at that, which is amazing.
They're down here.
They heard what we're doing.
They're coming to investigate.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes.
So the idea I'm glad youbrought that up is that first of
all hopefully it'll bememorable Leviticus is for
lovers, but really Leviticus isabout loving God and loving
neighbor.
So the holy God calls hispeople to himself in covenant
and he says I'm going to move inthe neighborhood.
But the problem is, how can aholy God live in the midst of an
(13:04):
unholy people, and so how doeshe dwell with them and they
receive his love and respond?
And in many ways that wouldhave been the burning question
to the Israelites at this time,and Leviticus is an answer to
that.
But, it's also when you read thecase law and other purpose
statements in Leviticus.
It's also that God's people areto be holy, like him, so that
(13:28):
they can represent him among thenations, which is loving their
neighbor so lots of case lawsabout.
So it's receiving the love ofGod and responding to that love
and then loving your neighbor asyourself, and this really is at
the heart of Leviticus, whichis another reason why we call it
.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Leviticus is for lovers, lovers of God and lovers
of neighbor.
Yeah, which Leviticus which isanother reason why we call it
Leviticus is for lovers loversof God and lovers of neighbor.
Yeah, which really.
I mean those are twin themes ofthings we've focused on at New
City.
The common rhythm is builtaround those two things, so it
really there is a lot of thingstying it together, even though
it feels like, oh man, I gottado Leviticus Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, We'll have to do a little bit of work to bring
that to the surface, but itreally is just below the surface
how it ties with a lot of ourother themes here at New City.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, so it's going to be an exciting fall.
So this is a subtle shift thatwe've kind of done over the past
few months to years maybe, ofreally letting the podcast just
sort of rest at the same timethat we're resting in our
ministry calendar, and so a lotof these episodes we're talking
about they're coming outSeptember, october, november,
(14:25):
and then you're probably notgoing to hear much from us
December, january, and thenwe'll pick back up in February
with stuff for the spring thatwe'll tell you about then.
But, damian, it's been great tochat with you for a little bit
and get a preview of what'scoming up ahead.
I'm looking forward tolistening to these episodes,
maybe recording a few as wellmyself, and kind of see where
the fall takes us.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yes, absolutely.
I would just encourage you allto engage the podcast and follow
along, because, of course, wewant to.
We want to release a handful ofepisodes this fall related to
these topics that we reallythink will be helpful, and so
we're going for quality overquantity.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, so don't look for one a week, but they're
going to be, they'll come out ata regular interval.
Yeah, exactly, don't look forone a week, but they're going to
be.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
They'll come out at a regular end.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, thanks, nate.
It's been good to chat aboutthis with you.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Welcome to another episode of the All of Life
podcast.
We're here starting our newestseason and today actually just
cut this.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I'll just edit this later.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now, right now.
No, I'm going to leave it.
I'm just going to let it keepplaying.
I don't want to create a newfile.
I realized right as I started Ineed to see what season we're
starting Season seven, okay,this is a good year.
It is a good year, all right,take two.
Welcome to another episode of the All of Life
podcast.
I'm your host, Nate Clavelin,and today I'm here with our
senior pastor, Damian Sheeter.
How are we doing, Damian?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good, it's good to be back.
It's been a while since I'vebeen on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's been.
Yeah, I was going to say, if wego way back to the first real
season of this podcast, 2019, itwas me and you a lot.
It was me, you and Ben.
We were doing all these Biblebook introductions and we've had
a lot of iterations in thepodcast since then.
But we are starting seasonseven this fall.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's a very biblical number, it's a very biblical
number.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a very biblical number.
It goes well with pairs, wellwith Leviticus, exactly Maybe
yeah, that's right, which that'sgoing to be one of the topics
we talk about.
But we're here today justreally to give a table of
contents for what you can expecton the podcast.
This fall.
We've got about six to sevenepisodes coming covering a
couple different big things forthe life of our church this fall
.
Damien, do you want to speak tothe first one of those?
(01:06):
We're talking about politics.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes.
So those of you who are with usand have been with us, every
fall or leading into the fall,at the end of the summer, in
July, we do a Following Jesus Inseries.
This year it was FollowingJesus in Politics, so we preach
four sermons and a few timesduring that sermon series, I
noted that over the fall wewould be releasing various
(01:27):
podcast episodes, and I thinkthe sense really is that we're
probably all going to be takingin at various levels, maybe
information or it's going to befilling our mind.
That is the presidentialelection that's coming up and
everything related to it.
I think one of the realities iswe wanted to offer some
perspective and thoughtfulconversations in this season,
(01:47):
both leading up to the electionand probably right after the
election.
So like, for example, we'regoing to have an episode with
Mike Allen that we did, where wetalked about the role of
preaching as it relates tocurrent events and how does the
preacher speak into currentevents, particularly thinking
about informing the congregationhow to think about something or
(02:08):
even applying something totheir life.
And there's this reallyimportant section it's 20-2
actually in the WestminsterConfession of Faith that says
that only the Word of God canbind people's consciences.
So we explore.
What does that mean?
What are the pitfalls that youcan go into on either side of
that?
So maybe not speaking enough orover-speaking.
We talk a lot about how wemight engage culture, but it's
(02:32):
all directly related to politicsand this season.
So that's the first episode.
I think that I had a great timetalking to Mike.
I think people will find itinteresting.
The other thing we have is werecorded, as far as I know, our
first live podcast in front ofan audience when Todd Dethridge
was here for our Following Jesusin Politics learning event
(02:52):
Friday night.
Right at the end of his content, with everyone there.
We took questions andeverything from the audience.
We recorded a live podcast andTodd basically told a little bit
of his story.
It's very interesting andreally explores in that podcast
the essence of what he talkedabout the whole weekend, which
(03:13):
really serves as a substructureof all types of hard
conversations, and politicswould be one of those.
And that is, for example, ourinclination to think primarily
in us versus them, categories,and how the Bible, and Jesus,
particularly in the Sermon onthe Mount, invites us to another
way.
And then finally, one other one, just as a heads up Robert
(03:35):
Cunningham.
Some folks will remember RobertCunningham preached at New City
earlier in the year.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Oh, that's right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I don't even remember when that was In the spring.
Maybe I think it was before thesummer.
It that's right.
Yeah, I don't even rememberwhen that was In the spring.
Maybe I think it was before thesummer.
It may have even been longerago, but I know it was in 2024.
It was a calendar year, yeah.
But Robert has his own ministrycalled Christ for Kentucky and
he really leans into what iscalled public theology and he
just did everyone a great favoron his podcast, which is he took
(04:01):
a political scientist namedDavid Koitsis who had written a
book called Political Ideologiesand Illusions and there's a
subtitle that's escaping me.
But the book's fantastic, butit is sort of dense if you're
not used to engaging that sortof thing.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And I've tried to.
There have been two times whereI recommended it to people and
both vehemently responded andsaid don't ever recommend this
to someone again and say thatit's not academic.
So but the point is is thatRobert was on their side and he
knew that that's what it was.
And so he's done everyone afavor of synthesizing David
Koitsis' thoughts over severalepisodes.
(04:38):
So in the interview with RobertI'm trying to distill all of
that work into one episode.
But just so it's not a secret.
My desire is this episode wetsyour appetite enough to where
you go listen to all of Robert'sepisodes.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah Well, and let's double click on that a little
bit, because I remember when wefirst started talking about how
we might approach a followingJesus in politics either
learning event or something likethat that Koizet's book was at
the top of the list of we thinkthis is the most helpful thing
and we'd been trying to figureout, but I don't think we
recommend everyone read it or wedo a book club on it.
(05:12):
It's like we want to figure outsome way to distill down this
information.
But I'd mentioned that book tosay there was actually a number
of books that we read thatinformed the sermon series or
that informed other things thatwe're doing.
I figured we could just mentiona couple of them real quick
here.
I know Patrick Shriner's got abook that you read.
I read, yes, political Gospel,political Gospel.
(05:33):
That one actually felt like youcould probably recommend it
easily too, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, I think that that would be.
It's a very accessible book.
I think it's a thoughtful book.
It would be toward the top forsure.
I would say, hey, if you'reinterested in reading some books
on this topic, that's a goodone.
And in fact, if you read it,there will be at least two
illustrations that I used in oneof the four sermons or one of
the three sermons that Ipreached, and I said, hey, I
(05:59):
heard an illustration and it wasfrom this book from Patrick
Schreiner.
So there are lots of helpfulillustrations.
Um, there are some other booksthat you you thought to mention
too, right?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, preston Sprinkle had a book called
Exiles that just came out.
It was really useful, um, andwe talk a lot about exilic
discipleship and just what isour place in the culture, and so
he really doubles down on thattheme, but particularly as it
relates to politics, not justdiscipleship in general.
Yeah, and that was a reallyuseful one.
I'm trying to think of theother one that was really really
(06:30):
good.
I mean Coyces is good,schreiner's good, it was Michael
Ware, that's it.
His book, the Spirit of OurPolitics, we thought was really
really useful In some waysbecause he's drawing on Dallas
Willard, which we draw on for alot of things here, and he's
kind of applying Dallas Willardto the posture we bring to
politics and so we used some ofthose books in leadership
(06:53):
training.
We put together a handout.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yes, if we could recommend one book that's not
politics but super helpful, andyou read this one as well the
Super Communicators by CharlesDuhigg related to politics is by
helping us understand anddistilling types of
conversations and showing how alot of conflict not all, of
course, but a lot is boiled downto miscommunication because
(07:27):
we're having differentconversations but we think we're
having the same type ofconversation.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Right, yeah, the classic.
I mean we won't go through hiswhole typology, but you can.
A lot of sitcoms are basedaround one of the things he
highlights, which is one personis having a what are we going to
do?
Conversation and the otherperson is having a how do I feel
?
Conversation, yeah, or viceversa, and they're just they're
talking about the same subject,but just one is thinking
(07:51):
strategy, the other is thinkingsubjectivity, emotion, yes,
trying to work things out, andit's like classic sitcom.
Trope of miscommunication.
You're right, totally.
That's a great example.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, so that would be a really excellent book to
read, that would inform yourcuriosity about communicating or
just in general, engagingpolitics, but also more broadly,
for sure.
So I think it'll be good to, asyou said, give these resources
in the show notes so people cango to their favorite place of
buying books or audio books.
And, exactly right, give it alook.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, I was going to say we could just sit here and
talk books all the time.
But we won't do that.
We'll put it in the show notesso you can get our recommended
reading list.
There's a bunch of thingsmostly that I read but that you
read as well.
That kind of formed thebackground.
So one big thing we're doingthis fall is the politics
episodes.
The other thing that we'vetraditionally done and we
mentioned earlier, we did bookintroductions to go with CBR on
(08:43):
this podcast.
The other thing we had beendoing was kind of sermon support
and just alleviate some of theburden on the preachers.
You don't have to get into allthe nitty gritty details or
background or big picture things.
We're just going to recordthematic episodes with Mike.
Allen has done a lot of thesefor us, but with Leviticus this
fall we thought it would beuseful to Not that Mike can't do
(09:04):
this.
Mike did a great episode onLeviticus.
You guys can listen to it.
It was a couple months ago forthe reading plan.
Oh, that's right, but we'regonna get an Old Testament
professor who's really leanedinto Leviticus in a way that
none of us else, none of therest of us have.
And so tell us a little bitabout who we're talking to, for
that.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, so Jay Sklar is his name, dr Sklar and Jay was
a professor of mine at CovenantSeminary when I was there and he
was young then and he's stillyoung he was probably in his
late 30s whenever I was there.
But what's unique about Jay asit relates to Leviticus is that
he's really given his life, forthe last over 20 years of
(09:41):
scholarship and study, tounderstanding the first five
books of the Bible thePentateuch and, in particular,
leviticus.
So he wrote his dissertation onLeviticus.
He's written two commentarieson Leviticus and on his website
it actually says he's given hislife to understanding Leviticus
and the two books surrounding itbecause of the context, but
really the first five books ofthe Bible.
(10:01):
So Jay is fantastic.
I can't wait to record thispodcast with Jay and release it
to everyone, because Jay has aspiritual gift of
self-deprecation.
In other words, why wouldsomeone give their life to
Leviticus?
But then on the flip side, hekind of he woos you in with
humor and then makes you realizehow important Leviticus
(10:23):
actually is and how we'reweirded out, primarily because
of the cultural differences but,there's so much there for us,
and so what I love about Jay,among many things, is he can
take things to the bottom shelf,and I think that's what we need
, because all of us are sounfamiliar with Leviticus.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, it definitely feels like a book that needs
decoding in a way that Exodusdidn't.
To some extent we did a lot ofheavy lifting with Genesis and
some background podcasts on that, but for the most part you can
read through Genesis.
There's a clear storyline,compelling characters, and you
still have that in Exodus.
And then all of a sudden youget to Leviticus and there are
stories, but it's just listafter list of things to do when
(11:04):
you bring your animal to thetemple and stuff to not eat or
wear or do, and you just sort ofyou get bogged down in like
what are we doing here?
Because you need someone tokind of guide you through.
What are the actual big picturethemes of what's happening in
this book?
Why is this book the center ofthe Pentateuch?
Why is it like that's right, itis the climax in a lot of ways
(11:24):
of the first five books, butit's as you mentioned in your
sermon this past Sunday it'swhere a lot of Bible reading
plans go to die.
You're just sort of like I'mgonna read through the Bible in
a year and you finish Exodus andyou're like, okay, two books
down and then you just somewherein Leviticus 7, 8, 9, 10, you
just hit a wall Totally, and Ithink if people do make it
(11:45):
through Leviticus, usually theresponse is something like I'm
so glad we don't have thatdoesn't apply to us.
I'm so glad we don't have to dothat.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And Jay will regularly speak to.
That's an understandableresponse, but it's not the ideal
response to Leviticus.
There's so much more.
Yeah, and so Jay will help us.
There's so much more, and soJay will help us explore that so
much more, and hopefully we'lltouch on a lot of it too in the
sermon series itself, but don'tmiss that episode with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Dr Sklar, that's going to add a lot of helpful
context that we just we don'thave the time for in the time
that we're devoting to Leviticus.
Yeah, that's right.
It it also.
I think it also speaks to somepeople may know this, but
calling the sermon seriesLeviticus is for lovers.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Obviously we're playing on the Virginia State
theme, yes, which I saw a bumpersticker of Virginia is for
lovers yesterday here in Orlando.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Oh, look at that, which is amazing.
They're down here.
They heard what we're doing.
They're coming to investigate.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes.
So the idea I'm glad youbrought that up is that first of
all hopefully it'll bememorable Leviticus is for
lovers, but really Leviticus isabout loving God and loving
neighbor.
So the holy God calls hispeople to himself in covenant
and he says I'm going to move inthe neighborhood.
But the problem is, how can aholy God live in the midst of an
(13:04):
unholy people, and so how doeshe dwell with them and they
receive his love and respond?
And in many ways that wouldhave been the burning question
to the Israelites at this time,and Leviticus is an answer to
that.
But, it's also when you read thecase law and other purpose
statements in Leviticus.
It's also that God's people areto be holy, like him, so that
(13:28):
they can represent him among thenations, which is loving their
neighbor so lots of case lawsabout.
So it's receiving the love ofGod and responding to that love
and then loving your neighbor asyourself, and this really is at
the heart of Leviticus, whichis another reason why we call it
.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Leviticus is for lovers, lovers of God and lovers
of neighbor.
Yeah, which Leviticus which isanother reason why we call it
Leviticus is for lovers loversof God and lovers of neighbor.
Yeah, which really.
I mean those are twin themes ofthings we've focused on at New
City.
The common rhythm is builtaround those two things, so it
really there is a lot of thingstying it together, even though
it feels like, oh man, I gottado Leviticus Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, We'll have to do a little bit of work to bring
that to the surface, but itreally is just below the surface
how it ties with a lot of ourother themes here at New City.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, so it's going to be an exciting fall.
So this is a subtle shift thatwe've kind of done over the past
few months to years maybe, ofreally letting the podcast just
sort of rest at the same timethat we're resting in our
ministry calendar, and so a lotof these episodes we're talking
about they're coming outSeptember, october, november,
(14:25):
and then you're probably notgoing to hear much from us
December, january, and thenwe'll pick back up in February
with stuff for the spring thatwe'll tell you about then.
But, damian, it's been great tochat with you for a little bit
and get a preview of what'scoming up ahead.
I'm looking forward tolistening to these episodes,
maybe recording a few as wellmyself, and kind of see where
the fall takes us.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yes, absolutely.
I would just encourage you allto engage the podcast and follow
along, because, of course, wewant to.
We want to release a handful ofepisodes this fall related to
these topics that we reallythink will be helpful, and so
we're going for quality overquantity.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah, so don't look for one a week, but they're
going to be, they'll come out ata regular interval.
Yeah, exactly, don't look forone a week, but they're going to
be.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
They'll come out at a regular end.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, thanks, nate.
It's been good to chat aboutthis with you.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Welcome to another episode of the All of Life
podcast.
We're here starting our newestseason and today actually just
cut this.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I'll just edit this later.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now, right now.
No, I'm going to leave it.
I'm just going to let it keepplaying.
I don't want to create a newfile.
I realized right as I started Ineed to see what season we're
starting Season seven, okay,this is a good year.
It is a good year, all right,take two.
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