1st Sunday in September (Week 36) David’s Legacy (2 Kings 19:20-34 and Psalm 137; John 15:1-27; 2 Kings 17; 18-20; 25 and Psalm 137 and 2 Chronicles 36:15-23)
Overview
God’s covenant is very simple. If you are perfectly faithful to God, and God alone, then God alone will save you; but if you are unfaithful to God, and worship other gods, then the one and only God will punish you. True, that punishment is ultimately intended to provoke you to repentance, and God longs to forgive you, but the expectation is always absolute faithfulness. Unfortunately, what is so simple is also very hard … perhaps impossibly hard. No matter how hard we try, absolute faithfulness seems to escape our abilities.
Team Meditation
This is the greatest lesson of salvation history: we need help! Absolute faithfulness just isn’t in us. Left on our own, we can’t do it. So God sent his Son to the rescue. The metaphor for the help we need is the “true vine”, because our inability to be faithful seems more like a genetic flaw than a moral failure. It’s as if we need a bone marrow transplant, a blood transfusion, or a new heart. The idea of being “grafted” onto the True Vine (Jesus Christ) is perfect. The fluid that gives life to Christ flows into our dead and dying bodies, replacing the old with the new. We are not the same organisms we once were. Faithfulness becomes an actual possibility, and not just an ambitious dream.
Worship Theme
Hezekiah was faithful to the Lord; and the Lord delivered Israel from the Assyrians. What probably happened was a deadly plague that killed many in Assyria’s army, followed by a palace revolution in which the old king was assassinated. That gave Israel about 15 years to reform. Unfortunately, Hezekiah couldn’t solidify the loyalty of the people, and his own son wandered once again to worship other gods. Assyria would return … and this time it would be the end of the northern Kingdom. Only Judah would survive for a few more years, until God lost patience with their faithfulness as well.
The Babylonians would conquer Assyria, and along the way overwhelm Judah. The tribes of Israel were carried off into exile by the Assyrians and lost to history, but the tribe of Judah would survive as a community in Babylon. Oh, how they regretted their unfaithfulness! The repented in their anguish, and God rescued them. Promises made … promises broken; consequences warned … consequences experienced; repentance offered … acceptance revealed. The revelation of Jesus Christ reveals that this salvation history is not a linear progression, but a cycle of life. It can start with acceptance revealed … and end with promises made.
Small Group Discussion
What does it feel like to be rejected? Let the group list the various stages of emotion: hurt, anger, despair, and so on. The deeper the love experienced, the harder it is to deal with rejection. Has rejection caused anyone to stop eating, sacrifice career, stop caring about themselves, or even contemplate suicide? Now imagine if the greatest love of your life … a love that has followed you for generations to your distant ancestors … seems to reject you? That is the wail of abandonment experienced by the people of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah revealed in Psalm 137. It is how they felt in exile.
Yet a kernel of hope was kindled by faithful servants. Rabbis emerged to give strength and hope to the people. The synagogue began, not as a heritage organization, but as a hope-giving service. There they remembered the love of God, even when it seemed to have disappeared, because their faithfulness went one step deeper. They were faithful “in spite of”, and not “because of”. They began to have faith in what was invisible, rather than visible. What would that faith feel like? How might it change your life and lifestyle? What is the one thing you would hope for beyond anything else?
2nd Sunday in September (Week 37) David’s Legacy (Psalm 91, 139; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18; Psalms 84, 91, 96, 100, 116, 121, 139)
Overview
The final Sunday in this story-line of David’s Legacy focuses (appropriately enough) on his poetry. We remember David most not for his deeds, but for his heart. That is what he passes on to history, and it is his heart that will be inherited by Christ. Poetry and song reveals the heart. David’s passion, courage, obedience, risk-taking, and confident faith is the paradigm against which all other kings (and indeed, all his descendants) are measured. No one can complain that they can’t live up to the expectations of God, because David did it. He is just as fallible and human as all of us, yet he did it. He becomes the standard by which we are judged.
Team Meditation
We do not lose heart. Even though we are just fragile, fallible, earthen vessels, God has filled us with grace. Our purpose is not glory. We worship leaders should feel no arrogance, and take no particular pride, in our leadership. Think about it. Why should our names be printed in the bulletin? Why should our puny talents be recognized in the congregation? Why should we even expect to be thanked publicly for our service? We leaders are nothing. We are just earthen vessels. It is what we contain … and what we can give away … that deserves honor. It is nothing less that the experience of God in Jesus Christ. Our performance is irrelevant. If we do a good job, God’s grace will be revealed. But if we do a bad job, God’s grace will still be revealed. God’s grace will be revealed whether we ourselves prove to be shiny perfectionists or grubby failures. It’s not about us. It’s about God. And God will use us, and God’s grace will be revealed, no matter what we do.
Worship Theme
The essence of David’s faith is his complete surrender, obedience, and confidence in God’s grace. Psalm 91 in particular reveals this essential faith. The reference to “thousands falling” on the left and the right is not an exaggerated metaphor. David experienced exactly this risk … this threat … this potential death. Yet he feared nothing. He knew that God would watch over him. What if David had died? He was still confident that God would watch over him even in death. Death would not be the end. God would eternally care for him, care about him, preserve him, and uphold him. Do you have such faith? Even though a hundred should be laid off on one hand, and a thousand be fired from their jobs on the right hand; even though some will get cancer, and some will get diabetes, and some will suffer heart attacks, and even though you might be one of those people, do you still have absolute confidence that you are safe in the hands of the Lord? That’s David’s faith. Over the years, Israel had plenty of reason to doubt that faith. And then came Jesus to reassure us that this confidence was not misplaced. Jesus is the fulfillment … the confirmation … of David’s faith. We really are secure in God’s hands.
Small Group Discussion
Let the group seriously explore this question. Is it possible to remove oneself from God’s presence? This really is a key existential question for people today. There are those who want to do it; and those who think it can befall them. Most people really do think that they can hide from God, flee from God, and vanish from God’s “radar screen.” They think they can make decisions; invent proofs that discount the existence of God; journey into unknown religions; vanish into obscure cultures; and divorce themselves from God. They think they can deny, ignore, rebel, or contradict God and defeat Him. Or they think that sin, circumstance, error, degradation, and even death can block them from God. So they live large, get drunk, and even commit suicide thinking that they are beyond God’s reach, incapable of experiencing God’s grace, undeserving of God’s mercy. And they are wrong. You cannot escape God’s love. You can’t run fast enough or far enough. You can’t sin enough or be evil enough. God’s love will still reach you. It may sear your lips, dislocate your hip, or change your name. It may be a total surprise or a blessed relief. But God is going to touch you. It’s going to happen. There is nothing you can do about it. God is going to touch you. Get ready.
3rd Sunday in September (Week 38) Faithful Servants (Amos 5:18-24 and 7:7-9; Matthew 10:1-42; Amos 1, 5, and 7)
Overview
Team Meditation
Worship Theme
Worship Design
Small Group Discussion
4th Sunday in September (Week 39) Faithful Servants (Hosea 11 and 14; Luke 17:1-6 and 18:9-17; Hosea 1, 4, 6, 8, 14)
Overview
The first step of faith is forgiveness. That is an incredibly important spiritual insight for anyone desiring more faith. We usually think that growth in faith starts with growth in knowledge, or that faith will advance through confident assertions or faith statements. But both the Old and New Testaments tell us that faith advances one forgiveness at a time. It is not our knowledge or assertions that are crucial, but our ability turn the other cheek, walk the second mile, and forgive yet another time.
Team Meditation
Jesus commands his disciples to forgive as many as “seven” times, and we understand that the number itself is a metaphor for “lots and lots of forgiveness”. The instant reaction of the disciples is to ask Jesus to increase their faith! No wonder! Church leaders are not only beaten up, but beaten up repeatedly. You keep forgiving, they keep punching. How many times does a Christian have to turn the other cheek, return good for evil, and forgive their enemies? Surely there is an end! Yet Jesus command to forgive is extreme. In response to extreme victimization, he does not advocate extreme retaliation (as the world does … witness the Middle East conflicts for one example). He advocates extreme forgiveness. And the disciples (and you and me) rightly respond: “Good heavens! Then please God, give me faith!” Give us courage! Give us confidence! Give us some assurance that this constant forgiveness might actually bear fruit some day and evil people will stop beating on us! And the response of Jesus is to compare faith to a mustard seed. It starts small, but grows big. So it is with your faith. So it is with your ability to forgive. You don’t need to forgive forever. You just have to forgive today. Then tomorrow will take care of itself. Forgive one day at a time.
Worship Theme
Even in our pagan world, in which sexual desire is “natural”, and promiscuity is “self-expression”, and extra-marital affairs are a means to “find yourself”, it is profoundly painful to discover your spouse is cheating on your marriage. There are not many betrayals bigger than that. Given the normal proceedings of divorce, there is not much forgiveness in response. This makes Hosea distinctly odd. He is not a wimp. He is not in denial. He is hurt, angry, and occasionally beside himself with grief, but he simply will not seek a divorce. He refuses to end his marriage. He hangs on. He reaches out. He does everything possible to restore the relationship. Even when he sees the destruction of his beloved, he feels not joy. He hopes it will be an instrument of repentance.
This is the nature of God’s love for the world. We are harlots. Yet God will not give up on us. We indulge our desires with other gods, and still God will not give up on us. We suffer the penalties for our actions, but God does not rejoice in our misfortune. God anticipates, yearns, for our repentance. What is even more incredible, is that Hosea is prepared to receive his spouse back again unconditionally … and God is ready to receive us back unconditionally. There is only one difference between Hosea’s behavior and God’s. Hosea believes his wandering wife has the ability to repent; and God has given up the hope that we even have the power to repent. The pimps and idols and gods of this world have enslaved us too profoundly. So God will send his only Son to rescue us. God loves us just that much.
Small Group Discussion
Let’s have a discussion about unforgivable sins. Make a list. Keep adding to it. Go deeper and deeper. Recall evil, betrayal, behavior that is worse and worse. Imagine it from the perspective of a father or mother, husband or wife, church leader or member, employer or employee, commander or soldier. What deed would be unforgivable? Recently a soldier experienced agonies of uncertainty about reporting a murder done by comrades in his own military unit. What possible crime could justify a “brother in arms” turning in his own comrades? Once the list is completed, now talk about God’s forgiveness. Just what is God really going to forgive? How far will he go? How long will he wait? When patience has run out, what will God do?