1st Sunday in October (Week 40) Faithful Servants (Micah 5:1-4 and 6:1-8; Ephesians 4:1- 5:2; Micah 1, 4-7)
Overview
What is the minimum requirement of a spiritual person? That is one of the two most common and significant questions asked in our emerging pagan world. The other question, of course, is this: “Which God deserves my ultimate obedience?” Either question may be asked first, but paradoxically the question of ultimate obedience is usually the second. Pagans tend to assume that one god is much like another, but it is only after we hear the answer about minimum requirements for spiritual living, and are shocked by the simplicity, direction, and cost of such obedience that we are driven to wonder just who this God is that should demand so much.
Team Meditation
Ephesians 4:22-24 22 Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
The early ante-Nicene church fathers (including Augustine, Gregory of Nazianzus, and other 4th-5th century Christian teachers) were convinced that the Bible could not be interpreted by reason alone. No matter how educated or intelligent a person might be, they believed only a pure heart that has absolutely surrendered to the mystery of incarnation could rightly understand (and teach) the truth of scripture. How different today! Today we think that all one needs are the right historical/critical tools, sharp logic, and official status in order to perceive the truth of scripture. But Gregory and his kind were right. There is deeper spiritual truth here, and those of you who lead music, read liturgy, preach and sing, will never be able to discover and communicate the riches of God’s purpose until you do all you can to have a pure heart.
Worship Theme
Micah 6:6-8 6 "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Before we shrug our shoulders and say “of course”, consider to what authentic spirituality is compared. Micah is saying that burnt offerings, rivers of oil, and even the ultimate sacrifice of our offspring is not enough for God. He is saying that it does not matter if you are a church member, a church matriarch or patriarch, or clergy. He is saying that the spiritual life is absolute dedication, 24/7, to the challenge of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly. Even the sacrifice of your own offspring is EASIER than this! So before we shrug our shoulders and wisely agree about the price of true spirituality, we might consider why Micah thinks it is the supreme challenge of living.
Worship Design
Small Group Discussion
Why is it so hard to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly? Who do you know that has ever done it … not just occasionally but constantly and reliably? Have you done it? Can you think of a single day, or even a single hour, in which you have been absolutely successful at it? What stopped you? What sidetracked you? What if failure to do it brought a more terrible judgment? We expect that failure to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly might bring a sad smile and encouragement to do better, or at worst a stinging rebuke and some troublesome penance. But what if your job depended on it? What if you knew you would be fired for failure? Divorced if you didn’t do it? Damned eternally for your lack? What then? Would you finally do it? Would you still fail? Would you fall on your knees and shout, as one did to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!”
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2nd Sunday in October (Week 41) Faithful Servants (Job 19, 42:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58; Job 1-2, 13-14, 19, 38, 40-42)
Overview
Team Meditation
Worship Theme
Worship Design
Small Group Discussion
3rd Sunday in October (Week 42) Faithful Servants (Nehemiah 8:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and 2:1-16, and 3:1-23; Ezra, Nehemiah 8, Ecclesiastes 3, and Proverbs 8 - 15)
Overview
Singlemindedness is one of the most important traits of leadership and of successful living. Know the one thing that is more important than anything else, which, if achieved, will set everything else in order, and pursue that one thing without any deviation. Let nothing sidetrack you or defeat you. Even if you fail a hundred times, get up and try again. Never give up.
Team Meditation
One thing Paul knows: Christ crucified. One purpose Paul pursues: the wisdom of God. That wisdom will set humanity free from sin and death. That wisdom is the key to salvation. That wisdom is not only the teaching of Jesus, but the experience of Christ. Paul singlemindedly pursues that goal. He does not allow his personality shortcomings, or his physical defects, or his incompetence as a spiritual entrepreneur defeat him. Sure, he will try to improve his acerbic manner, and overcome is physical ailments, and learn new things. In fact, he will do whatever it takes to achieve his purpose. Unlike most other people, who allow their attention to wander or be divided among innumerable competing priorities, he has one priority. Just one. And everything is shaped around it.
Worship Theme
Nehemiah had one goal: restore Jerusalem. Judah, the last tribe of Israel, had been defeated and evicted from their ancestral home for generations. The temple that was the heart of their religion had been demolished, but the heart of the people remained strong through the efforts of Esther and wise men and women who read the Law and remained true to the Lord. Now Nehemiah returned to rebuild Jerusalem. He allowed nothing to distract or defeat him.
It may be that you are the last member of your family, or the last of your friendship circle, or the last of your neighborhood to remain loyal to religion. The pagan world has demolished or denigrated the church as an institution, but your heart has remained loyal to the experience of Christ. Now, with singleminded purpose, you are called to rebuild the church as the model of integrity, beacon of hope, and place of prayer God intended it to be. Rebuilding the church will not be easy. Many enemies will attack you. But you remain singleminded in your purpose and will succeed.
Worship Design
Small Group Discussion
The ancients respected wise words. Of course, wisdom was often hard to discern in the present moment. It is only in retrospect that we can tell the difference between the fake and the authentic. True wisdom would be about loving justice, and about loving kindness, and about walking humbly with the Lord. True wisdom would point toward hope and redemption. In the end, the proof of true wisdom lay in wisdom itself. This “spirit” of wisdom was often personified by the ancients as female. Wisdom was a “she” … like a wise mother who could counsel her children in the ways of life.
The same distinction was made by the ancient church. Jesus was the “wise teacher”. His words were sacred. They knew them to be true, because he himself authenticated them. He both spoke words, and he was The Word. He was the embodiment of wisdom. He was the “wisdom of God”. So when we read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, Christians not only hear Christ speaking. They see Christ.
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4th Sunday in October (Week 43) Faithful Servants (Jeremiah 31:27-34; Luke 14:15-35; Jeremiah 11-13 and 17:5-18 and 18:1-6 and 31:27-34)
Overview
Faithful servants do one thing over and again. They hold people accountable for the fracturing of covenant, and hold out the possibility for the renewal of covenant. God loves you … you love God; you love God … God loves you. Today many churches are using the trendy congregational response: “God is good … all the time; All the time … God is good.” The trouble is that this is only half the covenant. The other half of the covenant is that we should be obedient all the time, and all the time we should be obedient. That’s the part we forget. Faithful servants do not just remind people of God’s goodness. They also remind people of our call to obedience.
Team Meditation
Luke 14:26-28 26 "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”
These are among the “hard sayings” of Jesus, that are particularly stressful for members of small, family churches to hear. It is commonplace to hear Christians … and even Christian leaders … claim that the “family comes first”. Parents, spouse, children … and by extension the “family” of small church members … are what is all-important for our budget, energy, and attention. So we think, and Jesus says we are wrong. Jesus … and following Jesus in mission … comes first. There may or may not come a time when you have to choose between discipleship or family, but in the depths of your heart there must be a clear priority. This is what Christian maturity is all about. This is the covenant engraved upon your soul. God comes first. Period. And there will be times when “family” will take second place to “God’s mission”.
Worship Theme
Two the most common descriptive metaphors for human anxiety are rooted in Bible times: “sour grapes” and “teeth on edge”. Human pride and selfishness (particularly severe in affluent western societies) are plagued by these experiences. We are forever “eating sour grapes”, which means that we love to dwell on our misfortunes and blame others for our mistakes. We are forever “setting our teeth on edge” because life doesn’t follow our personal desires and remain in our comfort zones. The root cause of this anxiety is that we stray from God’s covenant of love and obedience. We are like petulant children who want to eat what is bad for us, and then have a tantrum when we get sick.
God wants us to “grow up”. Mature faith means that the covenant of love and obedience is not longer imposed from outside. It is not a set of rules that, at best, we resentfully follow. Mature faith means that the covenant becomes a habit. It is an automatic response. It is engraved on our hearts, so that we don’t even need to think about it. Our hearts instinctively fly to God; God’s love automatically touches our spirits. As children, we think adulthood to be abnormal. It’s an effort. As adults, we recognize such behavior is truly “normal”. It is the effortless way mature believers behave. The prophets call us to “grow up”.
Small Group Discussion
Who do you really trust? (See Jer. 17:5-18) Who or what really shapes your life? (See Jer. 18:1-6). When and how will the covenant be fulfilled? (See Jer. 31:27-34). These are the questions that best the ancients, and the same questions beset us today. Talk about each question, and read the relevant scriptures. Be sure to take it personally! Do not speak in generalities.
Now take the conversation deeper and challenge one another to prove it! If you think you really trust God, rather than humans, then prove it! If you really believe God shapes your life, prove it! You prove it by giving examples about your own behavior … tell stories about how your thoughts and deeds demonstrate your convictions. Prove it! Along the way, you will begin to uncomfortably discover how too often break the covenant rather than fulfill the covenant.
Christians believe that the prophets looked forward to the time when God would fulfill the covenant on our behalf. If covenant needed to be engraved in the heart, then external coercion (fear, worry, and other negative motivations) would not do it. Humanity must joyfully become obedient … the very thing they cannot or will not do. Jesus, full human and fully God, is the fulfillment of the covenant. He does what humanity cannot do; he gives what only God can offer.
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5th Sunday in October (Week 44) Faithful Servants (Isaiah 6:1-8; John 6:41-69; Isaiah 1, 6:1-8, 9, and 11)
Overview
Faithful servants go forth. They do not stay behind. They do their thinking on the run. They do their praying on the road. Most modern church people want to delay the departure as long as possible. They insist on three years of theological training; countless meetings for strategic planning; surveys to determine risk management; and time off to visit home. Faithful servants simply go forth.
Team Meditation
Our affluent culture of supermarkets creates the illusion that there are many sources of nourishment. Ancient people, and the desperately poor today, realize that it all comes down to bread. Bread is the single, fundamental nutrient that is associated with survival. When Jesus says he is “bread”, this is what he implies about his person and his salvation. Jesus’ comparison of himself to “bread” confronts skeptics with this paradox. Does he really expect people to “eat him up”?
Yes, he does. The very nature of Jesus Christ … all the nutrients that make him fully God and fully human … must be absorbed by the human mind, body, and spirit. God must infuse the human in order to rescue the human, just as bread must be absorbed into the body if the body, mind, and spirit is to survive the threat of death. Christ is not philosophy of which we must be convinced. He is not a principle with which we ought to agree. He is not a dogma we are supposed to repeat. He is “bread”. Eat him up.
Worship Theme
Here we see the eternal dialogue between God and church. God asks: “Who will go?” The church asks “How long will it take?” There are no conditions for going forth and following God’s call, but the church is always trying to insist upon conditions. We want time limits, assurances, and pension plans. Once we have served our term as pastor, board members, Sunday school teacher, then somebody else ought to take our place so that we can rest, relax, and enjoy “personal time”. I think this is why the seraphim used a hot coal to sear Isaiah’s lips. “What do you think we are playing at?” they say. “Do you think God’s mission has to make allowances for your ‘private time’? Do you seriously believe your smiles are more important than the redemption of humanity?” Perhaps Isaiah’s scarred face will remind him … and others … of the ultimate urgency of God’s plan. So many Christians express such surprise that God’s mission might hurt. It might hurt their lifestyles, bank accounts, relationships, vacation plans, and egos.
Nevertheless, God is compassionate for our weakness. We do have limitations of persistence and endurance. We are, after all, “only human”. So there is a timeline. The mission will last through all manner of struggle and trial, until we realize that there is just one seed of hope remaining, and we are utterly dependent on God’s grace. That seed is the Christ.
Small Group Discussion
The prophecies of Isaiah, in particular, have guided Christians to look to Christ. Perhaps the retail industry is right in starting to anticipate Christmas in October!
Begin now to develop your “Christmas list”.
Start by listing the deepest yearnings and needs which you know lie in the lives and hearts of people you know. Do not use generalities. Refer specifically to people you know by name, even if you do not actually name them to the group. Be specific in your own mind. What are individual you know most deeply seeking?
Now go deeper and begin to share your own list. How are you broken, and longing to be healed? How are you lost, and looking for guidance? How are you lonesome, and looking for companionship? How are you anxious, and looking for hope?
And now develop the list another way. Identify where you see glimpses of God right now. Where is Jesus already appearing in the world? What exactly are you preparing to CELEBRATE this Christmas?