1^st Sunday in June (Week 23) Israel’s Covenant (Exodus 3:1-17; Luke 9:28-50; Exodus 1:1 – 4:17) 

Overview 

The ancient world made no distinction between existence and action. To exist meant to act: influence, impact, work, and cause change, make a difference. This is different than modern thinking which distinguishes passivity from action. Thus, modern people speak of  “mere existence”, as opposed to “real living”. To the ancients, it was impossible to believe in God and not believe God would act in decisive ways to change history. God is never just an ideal of the mind, or an abstraction of philosophy, to be contemplated at leisure. God acts, and by acting, demands a response. The debate about the “existence” of God, therefore, is much more than a philosophical exercise. The outcome determines one’s own fate … and the hope of the world. If God exists … he will indeed act! 

Team Meditation  

In my book Why Should I Believe You? (Abingdon Press, 2006) I use Dante’s journey through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso to illustrate the journey of church leadership from discredit to redemption. Understand that for postmodern people, the success or failure of worship as an experience of divine grace depends less on what you do, and more on who you are. Yes, the public does value excellence in music, preaching, liturgy, and so forth. However, what causes them to return every week has more to do with your credibility as a spiritual leader. How well do you model and mentor the spiritual life; how transparent are your spontaneous deeds and unrehearsed asides to the Holiness of God. Does worship “transfigure you”? Do you so surrender to God’s power and presence, that your “countenance” is altered, and your radiate a dazzling light? Most worship leaders are trying hard to look good, and they covet the handshakes and praise after the service. Credible spiritual leaders are simply trying to point toward God, and covet only the praise of God. This will be revealed more in how you handle mistakes and unpredictability … not in how you achieve excellence and manage Sunday morning. 

(I encourage you to read Why Should I Believe You? this year during the Disciple Cycle, especially the last pages about Dante’s journey as a paradigm for the descent into discredit, and the ascent back to credibility.) 

Worship Theme  

When God chose Abraham and Sarah for a special covenant, in which through their obedience they would become a great nation, Sarah laughed. When God chooses Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses scoffed. “Are you talking about me? You can’t be serious!” Abraham was poor migrant worker; Moses was a murderer on the run. God chooses unlikely people. In Moses case, however, God promises a more active role. Moses will not be in any doubt about God’s will, but God will speak and act through him. When Moses enters a room, God will enter the room. When God wants to speak, Moses will know what he intends. Moses comes closer than anyone else other than Jesus in knowing God’s name … in experiencing the Holy in all its mysterious power. The question is, can Moses live up to such expectations? Can he endure being so close to God?  

Small Group Discussion  

Consider the fact that most Biblical leaders are reluctant to obey God. Even Jesus will model the common Biblical pattern of reluctance as he prays in Gethsemane that “this cup might pass from me”. Why such reluctance? You might think that met God face to face, experienced miracles like the healing of his hand and the transformation of a rod into a snake, Moses would be delighted to obey God. God even reassures Moses of constant strength, and promises to rescue him if he is in trouble. Yet still Moses is reluctant. He makes excuses, saying that he is not smart enough, eloquent enough, to accomplish God’s purpose. If you stood before God, and God commanded you to follow, would you be reluctant? Why? Is it because God demands scary things? Or that God demands total self-surrender? Or that God is not always clear about his will? Is it a lack of knowledge that holds you back … or a lack of courage … or a lack of faith? 

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2^nd Sunday in June (Week 24) Israel’s Covenant (Exodus 12:1-39; Mathew 14:1-33; Exodus 4:18-6:13 and 6:28-14:31) 

Overview 

Thoughtful, modern people cannot help read the story of the Passover without feeling considerable ambivalence. This is the last, and most terrifying, judgments on the Egyptians that finally provoke Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. On the one hand, the slaying of all the Egyptian first born sons reveals God’s absolute demand for justice. The Israelites had been enslaved for generations, and who knows how many victims died? Now the Egyptians suffer death in a manner that cuts off their hope for their next generation. There is a kind of “balance” to God’s righteousness. On the other hand, we cannot help but think of the many innocent babies slain, the lamentation of their mothers, and the seemingly equal and indiscriminate grief shared out among families some of whom, surely, where not so bad. If God’s grace revealed in the New Testament seems radical and universal, so God’s wrath in the Old Testament often seems just as radical and inclusive. What God does, God does thoroughly and absolutely. 

Team Meditation  

The “soap opera” that was Herod’s court included Herod himself, lusting after his brother Phillip’s wife named Herodias, who in turn had a beautiful daughter. It also included John the Baptist, who condemned Herod’s behavior. There is a party. The daughter dances, leering Herod makes extravagant promises, and John’s head is delivered on a platter. Unfortunately, the church is often a “soap opera” in which sexuality is never too far  removed from spirituality … mainly because the desire for God is easily confused with desire in general in heat of the party. Dante envisions a fitting punishment in the Inferno of our hearts. He imagines a “hellish hurricane, which never rests” driving us with its violence, “wheeling and pounding” to harass us between conflicting winds. 

Curiously, Matthew places the story of the tempest soon after the “soap opera” about Herod. The disciples are storm tossed in a “hellish hurricane”. We are not quite clear what temptations the tempest symbolizes, but to their rescue comes Jesus. He walks upon the turgid sea as if it were nothing. Peter tries to walk out to meet him, but loses eye contact, frightened by the tempest of his own stormy heart, and begins to sink. Christ reaches out and saves him. The key to surviving temptation is faith … fixing one’s eyes on one’s true love, Jesus Christ. 

Worship Theme  

One of the big differences between western and eastern cultures lies in how we assign moral responsibility. In the west, moral responsibility starts with personal responsibility. We assume that we should be held accountable only to those results that each of us, personally, has committed either by acts of commission or omission. Personal culpability diminishes rapidly the further away the action is from oneself. I am sort of responsible for my children and immediate neighbors; not very responsible for my grandchildren and municipal government; and not responsible at all for my descendants and strangers in state and national leadership.  

Eastern culture sees it differently … and ancient people did too. They assume we should be held accountable for the results that our community (nation, tribe, or clan) commits by acts of commission or omission. Even if I personally did not do the deed; and even if my grandchildren, neighbors, or elected officials did things for which I was not aware; still I personally am held accountable along with everyone else in my tribe. Not only does our DNA cause our descendants to act in certain ways, but we create a larger society made up of positive or negative habits that extends far beyond our homes and survives our short lives.  God not only judges you, but judges what you have helped shape, and the legacy you leave behind. 

Small Group Discussion  

Exodus 6:2-9  ² And God said to Moses, "I am the LORD.  ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.  ⁴ I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they dwelt as sojourners.  ⁵ Moreover I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold in bondage and I have remembered my covenant.  ⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, `I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment,  ⁷ and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  ⁸ And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.'"  ⁹ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel; but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel bondage. 

Just as Moses is reluctant to obey God, so also the people of Israel are reluctant to follow Moses. One would have expected enthusiasm, but instead there is suspicion and alarm lest false hope make their situation even worse. It is always easier to endure the hardship you know, than risk an unpredictable future. How do you see this principle playing out in your personal lives? How do you see this reluctance to seek freedom operative in your congregational life? And how is this visible in the outreach work of your church? 

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3^rd Sunday in June (Week 25) Israel’s Covenant (Numbers 20: 1-13; John 4:7-42; Numbers 11:1-14:25; 17; 20; 22; 27:12-23)

Overview

There comes a time at least once in your journey, when the crisis comes and you simply have to have faith. The Israelites found themselves in the Wilderness of Zin, the worst desert in life imaginable, and there was no water whatsoever, and God hadn’t provided the usual Manna, or quail, or other necessities in the wilderness. Can God bring water out of a rock? There’s a desert … here’s a rock … and we are “caught between a rock and a hard place.” Do you have the courage to still believe?

Team Meditation

So long as we rely on physical water, we will thirst again. There will be yet another time of spiritual draught. There may even come that time of crisis, in the desert of our lives, when we are dying of thirst and the situation seems hopeless. Maybe there will be a Moses to strike the rock and miraculously give us water, but maybe not. What becomes clear to the Samaritan Woman at the well is that what is needed is not a new Moses, but a different kind of water. What is needed is not a better place to worship, but access to grace anywhere you live. That’s Jesus. He is the “living water”, and those who partake of Christ will never thirst again.

Worship Theme

The crunch for Israel came in Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin. It must have been something like Death Valley, with not so much as a dried up spring to give hope. The greatest blow to their morale must have been the death of Miriam. She was part of the “original three” (Moses, Aaron, and Miriam), and Miriam had led the Israelites out of Egypt dancing and singing. With her death, the people were ready to give up. So they “contended with the Lord”, and Moses and Aaron sought God on their behalf. They had murmured and grumbled before, but now they were in outright rebellion. So Moses and Aaron struck the rock, and the water miraculously gushed forth. The place would be known as the waters of Meribah (where the people contended with the Lord). Do you have faith … or do you not have faith … that is the question.

The real hope of faith must lie in your hearts, and not just with your leaders. God holds the leaders accountable for what is in the hearts of the people, and holds the people accountable for remaining steadfast in their faith. True, the Israelites received water and their faith was justified, but now Aaron died as well. Only Moses was left of the original three … and as we shall see, he did not reach the Promised Land wither. Indeed, none of that generation of travelers entered the Promised Land, because when push came to shove, they did not have faith. Their children did enter the land … and in the end only Jesus could save them.

Small Group Discussion

Numbers 11:18-20  ¹⁸ And say to the people, `Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.  ¹⁹ You shall not eat one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,  ²⁰ but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come forth out of Egypt?"'"

The Exodus is a story of continuous hardships and rebellions against the Lord. The people complain, and God comes to their rescue, but God is clearly getting impatient. The complaints are always about food. They ate well in Egypt, and apparently many only left Egypt because of the promise they could eat even better in the Promised Land (“flowing with milk and honey”. Read carefully, and one gets a good idea of a good diet in ancient times. These were people for whom the stomach mattered.  The text above reminds one of Dante’s imagined judgment on the gluttonous in the “Inferno”. He imagines the gluttonous in the third circle of hell where there is unending, heavy, accursed rain, hailstones, sleet, and snow … making the earth muddy, filthy, and smelly. Here are the gluttonous, unable to taste their food, admire the table service, or relax in comfort. (See Canto VI). How much of your life and lifestyle revolves around food? And why do you think Jesus compared himself to “bread from heaven” and why Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work) (John 4:34)?

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4th Sunday in June (Week 26) Israel’s Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:12-22 and 11:18-21; Romans 7:4-25; Exodus 15, 20, 32, 34; Deuteronomy 10:10 – 11:32)

Overview

What does the Lord require? God requires that you fear the Lord, walk in his ways, love him and serve him with your whole heart and soul. It is a complete and absolute claim upon your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Team Meditation

There are basically two kinds of people who do NOT live in absolute obedience to God. They do not fear God, but are loyal to themselves; they do not walk in God’s ways, but follow their own impulses. They do not love and serve God, but love and help themselves. They usually travel in pairs … each one living off the other. Dante calls them the “avaricious” and the “prodigal” (see canto VII). The former obsessively accumulates wealth; the other compulsively spends wealth. Their punishment in the Inferno is to ceaselessly roll heavy weights in opposite directions, until, bumping forcibly into one another, they go in the opposite direction only to have it happen all over again. Meanwhile, the continually revile one another, shouting “Why do you hoard?” and “Why do you squander?” Neither gives a thought to the fact that there is an alternative to hoarding and squandering, and that is surrendering everything for the love of God. Keep the image in mind when next you have a budget meeting.

Worship Theme

There is an intensity and focus about loving the Lord so completely, which is why the Old Testament uses the metaphor of “circumcising your heart” and the New Testament employs the rite of baptism so that you can be born again. God’s love claims you absolutely; and demands unconditional loyalty. This is only possible in Christ who reveals the fullness of God and empowers us to surrender to God. Just as the Israelites were commanded to “write their obedience as frontlets before their eyes” (ritually performed by binding phylacteries or little boxes around the head with this verse within it), so Christians model the way of Christ in every thought, word and deed for the children and the world.

Small Group Discussion

Without looking it up, write down all Ten Commandments. Are they adequate? Is something left out? Is something needlessly added? Are their any surprises? How many times in the past week did you personally break or bend one of the commandments? On a scale of 1 – 10, how rigorously aligned is your life to the call to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength? Give at least 3 ways in which you intentionally taught your children about the love of God this past week?

All these questions are about accountability. The Bible believes deeply in accountability. By the way … it was Dante who said that the road to hell was paved by good intentions.