1st Sunday in August (Week 32) David’s Legacy (2 Samuel 7:1-29; 1Timothy 1:12-17, 3:10-13, 6:11-16; 2 Samuel 5 – 7, 11 – 12, and 18)
Overview
I read an editorial about the war in the Middle East that paraphrase the philosopher Santayana’s famous saying. It said, “Those who do not interpret the lessons of history from the past, and likely bungle the affairs of history in the present.” We all know that history is written after the fact, and the outcome changes how we tell the original story. At the time, one doubts that David was all that confident about being made king of Israel, and not at all sure that he would build a temple (or anything else, for that matter). Change a few circumstances, and perhaps the historical “record” would be change the name of the leading protagonist from “David” to “Saul”. More to the point, one wonders if the historians who interpreted the David’s story after the fact were not prone to exaggeration. Little did they know that David’s kingdom would fall victim to internal corruption and external enemies, or that the future of his “kingdom” would be of a spiritual rather than temporal nature.
Team Meditation
1 Timothy 6:11-21 11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. … I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; 15 and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. … 20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.”
Paul is trying hard to learn the lessons of history so that his disciples will not bungle the future. One of the lessons he has learned is not to be overconfident about the integrity of human nature or the outcomes of events. Unlike the Old Testament historians reflecting on the reign of David, he has a kind of “positive pessimism” about the future. The keyword is “trust. We don’t know what the future holds, although we know it is in God’s hands and will end with the fulfillment of God’s purposes. Today and tomorrow, however, are uncertain. Hold fast to what has been entrusted to you. Guard what is really precious … the experience of Christ and the confidence of God’s abiding love … but don’t become to attached to everything else.
Worship Theme
Never has there been a time like this. Never has there been such danger from violence, plague, natural disaster, and hatred. But is that true? The fact is that as dangers as our situation is today, life has been just as dangerous many times before. One of the lessons we need to learn is that we are not all that special, and unfortunately we are just as stupid and selfish as our ancestors. Failing to learn from their mistakes, we bungle our present days all over again.
Yet there is something else. Somehow our ancestors survived. They repented, reformed, changed, and surmounted the dangers to transform their world. So before we give in to despair, we need to learn that lesson, too. How did they do it? By faithfulness. They did it by eliminating everything that was unimportant, and holding fast to what was essential. That is how we can do it today.
Small Group Discussion
What is it about David’s life and life work that prefigures the coming of Christ? The ancient Israelites experienced David’s victory and reign as a glorious time of peace and prosperity, liberated from oppressive enemies. But it was also a time of accelerated spiritual formation. It was not just the construction of the Temple, but a renewed sense of spiritual discipline and faithfulness among people. David provided a model for how all-too-human people could still align themselves with God’s will. Finally, there was an openness in David’s kingdom to elevate respect and support for the poor and downtrodden … and to welcome strangers from other cultures into a wider fellowship.
All these benefits would be “spiritualized” as a kind of metaphor for the saving power of God in Christ … the descendant of David.
2nd Sunday in August (Week 33) David’s Legacy (Psalm 22 and 23; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-24; 1 Kings 1:1 – 3:28 and 8, and Psalms 1, 8, 19, 22, 23, 42, 46, 77)
Overview
One of the reasons music is the most significant learning methodology of the 21st century is that more can be revealed in a metaphor than in a statement. You can understand more about a human being through their singing than through their talking. And you can overcome more adversity with a song in your heart than with a book in your hand.
Team Meditation
God has not destined us for wrath, but for salvation. His will is ultimately benevolent. Therefore, hang in there! Keep on! Trust the Spirit! Test the world! Love like there really is a tomorrow! Sing even in the darkness! All too often worship leaders grow frustrated and even angry with the childishness or obtuseness of seekers. Don’t give up on them, because God has not given up on them. God has not destined them for wrath, nor does God intend to lose them just because they are superficial, obnoxious, or shortsighted. Why should you? God has destined them for salvation, and will do everything (even sacrifice his own Son on the cross) to make that happen. Can you do less?
Worship Theme
It’s hard to just read a song. You need the melody and the rhythm to fully appreciate the significance of the music. Inevitably the psalms are a bit dry. If only we had David at the microphone, and could listen to his back-up band! We could feel in our hearts the extremes of prayer, and the pressures of the human condition, in psalms 22 and 23. The one is filled with indecision; the other is filled with confidence. The one is sung in the mist of pain; the other in the midst of victory. Both define our existence. The best songs are the music of hope. David might have sung in types of music … rap, country, rock, jazz, bluegrass, classical, and everything else. One thing, however, distinguishes his music from all other performers. He experienced the worst and the best life could offer … but he never lost hope and he never surrendered to arrogance. How many singers today could claim anything like that?
Small Group Discussion
The wisdom of Solomon built a temple, but unfortunately the stupidity of his scribes led them to tell us the least important things about it. We know about its size and construction, but nothing about its worship and (more importantly) its music. Temples are simply a place where God’s “music” can be celebrated. Of course, I don’t mean any particular genre or instrumentation of music. I mean that the temple is really about experiencing the music of the divine, or the spirit that sings in our hearts and is echoed by our voices.
This lack of wisdom is revealed most often in the established church. We tend to describe our church according to location, size, décor, floor plan … and fail to mention its spirit or describe how God’s “music” sings in our hearts and echoes from our lips. We have a great music program … but do church people experience God as “music to their ears” and “refreshment for their hearts”? If they do, why don’t they tell people about it? If they don’t tell people about it, do they really feel it?
3rd Sunday in August (Week 34) David’s Legacy (1 Kings 19:1-21; 2 Cor. 11:21-12:10; 1 Kings 16:29 – 22:40)
Overview
David’s greatest virtue was that he always, always listened for God. He sought God’s will; searched for God’s way; and rested in God’s grace. The leaders that followed him found that hard to do. So do we. It is hard to distinguish God’s whisper in the midst of the distractions and temptations of life. It is easy to mistake God’s will as our own; or to miss God’s guidance when we are fascinated by glory and power. The real key to happiness, however, is to take time and spend energy to really, really strain to hear the voice of God.
Team Meditation
2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Worship teams often get lost in their quest for quality. We become so performance driven that every failure brings enormous guilt. We erroneously conclude that only our best performance will be able to break through sin to help a seeker experience Christ. Not so. In fact, it’s just the reverse. God is more likely to speak through our failure, use our inadequacy, and communicate grace through our weakness than our strength. Then seekers know that it is not your voice, or your music, or your performance … but God’s spirit and grace … that has touched their lives. Do not feel guilty about your mistakes. Dedicate both your success and your failure to the Lord. He can use it all.
Worship Theme
Even people that want to do God’s will have trouble hearing God’s voice. You might think it would be otherwise. Surely the pastor, the priest, the saint, and the guru would have no trouble hearing God speak. Call them up, and say “what should I do, Reverend” and you expect an immediate and confident reply. Surprisingly, you rarely get it. The more spiritual you become, the more you realize how hard it is to hear the voice of God. It becomes less and less easy to tell people what they should do, or even to know how you yourself ought to act. The mark of a holy spiritual guide is not that they can tell you what God wills, but that they can help you yourself listen for God’s speech. Only you can hear the whisper. No one else can do it for you.
Small Group Discussion
It’s helpful to reflect on our mistaken notions of God, so that we can train ourselves to discern God’s real voice. How often have you been deceived by the thunder? By the charismatic personality? By the appealing twist of logic? Or by the lure of your own desires? In retrospect, you may well wonder what you ever saw in that voice that made you believe it was God.
Now reflect on the times you really did hear God’s voice. What did it happen? In what context were you listening? What did it say? How did you feel? What did you do? We are prone to think it arrogant that “little old me” should hear the voice of God. Yet God speaks to anyone who sincerely desires to be faithful. Perhaps that is the challenge. Do you really desire to hear God in the first place?
4th Sunday in August (Week 35) David’s Legacy (2 Kings 5:1-14; Luke 4:23-30 and 17:12-19; 2 Kings 2; 4:1-5:19; 13:14-21)
Overview
The instinct of humanity is to desire healing. God has implanted this instinct in us. It is as much of an instinct as searching for food or avoiding pain. We naturally, instinctively, know that we are somehow broken, unclean, or sinful and yearn to be healed. On the other hand, the compulsion to heal is the nature of God. The act of healing defines who or what God is. God is the one who can heal humanity. More than that, God is the one who wants to heal humanity.
Team Meditation
Jesus calls us to go even further than Elijah. Elijah waited for the supplicant Naaman to come to him; and he expected the supplicant to have enough self-awareness to be able to open his heart and ask for help. Jesus does not expect this. Jesus is willing to go the supplicant before they even think of coming to him; and even when they rebuke and reject him, Jesus is able to look into the inner heart to see the enslaved human being who cannot even speak for themselves. It’s not the real person talking (shouting, mocking, deriding, angry); the real person is locked inside somewhere yearning to escape. Jesus knows this, and reaches unbidden into the prison of a human’s life to set them free.
Worship Theme
The Old Testament has paradoxical views about justice, constantly contradicting what pop culture expects. This is true of David’s and Solomon’s kingship as well, and the reason they were seen as so wise. They could penetrate beyond the surface to true justice.
Who deserves God’s blessing? It is not just the faithful … but also the supplicant. God favors anyone who is truly humble, in profound need, and ready to be healed at any price, regardless of their “profession of faith” or “church membership”. So God heals Naaman … a foreigner, a pagan, but a truly humble supplicant. Naaman does pay a price for his healing, but it is not in cash. He pays a price in his willingness to change his heart. Having received generosity, he now becomes generous as never before. He will probably jeopardize his position at the Syrian court. He will not be just a general, but a man of compassion. The realignment of his life and soul is the price he is willing to pay for physical healing.
Meanwhile, Elijah’s own servant Gehazi shows all the outward signs of obedience and humility … but inwardly he will lie to feed his greed. Never having been healed, he will never be generous. Never willing to be a true supplicant, he will never know compassion.
The point is that Elijah knows. God knows. God can tell the true supplicant from the hypocrite. God knows the hearts of men and women.
Small Group Discussion
If the instinct of humanity is to seek healing, and the compulsion of God is to heal, then why are there so many “sick” people in the world? We begin to understand the complexity of the human condition when we realize that physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual “wellness” or “sickness” are all related to each other. Each depends on the other and connects with the other. One who does not seek emotional wellness, will never fully experience relational wellness. One who does not seek spiritual wellness will never fully experience physical wellness. If we submit our bodies for God’s healing, but withhold our hearts, we can never be fully healed.
The examples of healing the Bible all reveal or imply a more comprehensive, holistic, wellness. Physical healing is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It is a sign that a far more profound healing has taken place.
Is it possible that ever the healthiest human being is only partially well? Or that even the sickest human being is only partially unwell? When we reach out to God for healing, we are yearning for more than we know. God wants to make us all well … totally well … free from corruption and death.