1^st Sunday in April

John 19, 20 and Luke 22:7-23

In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks only three times from the cross. Each time his words carry special significance. One has the feeling that while Jesus may be suffering, he has transcended his physical pain and feels only total compassion and love for the world. He says: 

“Woman, behold your son!” With these words, Jesus cements a new relationship between his Mother Mary and his beloved disciple John. He severs his earthly familial relationship, in order to embrace his new familial relationship with all humanity as his spiritual brothers and sisters.

“I thirst!” With these words, Jesus reveals his own yearning for the salvation of God. It is his urgent desire that the whole world will know justice and peace. He thirsts for righteousness, and draws all people who likewise thirst to the living waters of his grace.

“It is finished!” With these words, Jesus marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new age. Everything previous is “BC” (“Before Christ”), and everything after is “AD” (“Anno Domine” or after Christ). This sense of “before and after” symbolically marks the sense of new life that every person will feel when the come into relationship with Christ.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation

Luke 22:7-23

Extreme Communion

In today’s culture, it appears that stress is one of the most prevalent “emotions” experienced on a day-to-day basis. Leaders are especially susceptible to the rigors of stress and it may cost us our vitality, well-being, health, faith, family, marriage, employment, and/or our life. Stress has been linked to ulcers, heart disease, cancer, and a wide range of mental illnesses. Stress kills.

Jesus was no stranger to stress. Throughout the scriptures he shows frustration at those who should have “got it” but didn’t. He expressed sadness at the state of the world and the people around him. And he experienced resignation to his ultimate demise. And yet...on the evening of his arrest he takes a break from it all to share a meal, and not just any meal, the Passover supper, with his twelve closest friends. And there, for just a little while, he was able to be at peace with what was to come. “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (22). Jesus wanted to spend time with his disciples in preparation of the events to come.

As leaders, when stressful events loom large on the morrow, what is your response? Our nature is to revert to “fight or flight,” but we have other options. What would the face of tomorrow look like if instead of fretting, you called your team together for dinner, let your hair down a bit, and simply looked to the future dispassionately. “I have eagerly desired to eat this meal with you before...” might lower the stress levels just a bit. And it might help frame your mind, and the minds of your team, to facing the future with honesty, trust, and integrity.

Bill T-B

Worship Theme

John 19, 20

Significance of the Story

As Tom points out, John records Jesus speaking three times from the cross. These sayings are unique to this gospel, and since John wrote from a more theologically focused place we can assume the words mean more than naturally meets the eyes and ears. Jesus’ words to the beloved disciple and his mother was more than just a binding transaction between son, friend, and family. As Tom rightly deduces, Jesus has transcended from son of Mary to brother of all. Jesus’ words that he thirsts calls for more than just a cup of cold water. It’s a deep desire for the world to know the height, breadth, and depth of God’s love and compassion for the strangers to grace. And Jesus’ pronouncement that it is finished is more than the full stop or the period to his life. It is the end of an era. It is the end of blood atonement. It is the end of rules. And, ultimately, it is the end of death on both sides of the grave.

You’d think that by now, two thousand years later, we’d “get it.” After thousands of theologians have reflected on these events, on these words, and on the spiritual meanings you’d think we’d be close to understanding what really went on there at the cross. But we haven’t. We’re like the disciples who were surprised at Jesus’ resurrection but who hid it deep within—both Peter and John went away from the empty tomb without understanding Jesus had risen from the dead. There are a few brave enough to be transparent like Thomas who put words to his doubts, but mostly we keep silent and remain unconvinced. It makes a good story, but so what?

John gave us the “so what” in the three things he recorded Jesus saying on that cross. Jesus is our brother, our friend, and the hero who leapt onto the grenade on our behalf. Jesus wants nothing more than for us to experience the living water that flows from the Kingdom of God and refreshes us with God’s love and compassion. And finally, when we are baptized into Jesus’ death, we are resurrected a new creation. The tentacles of the past are severed, our addictions are removed, and we step into a new world called the Kingdom of God where the Passover has been fulfilled, death has been defeated, and life begins anew.

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Life before Jesus can be pretty pointless and meaningless. People are going through the motions, but to what end? Money doesn’t satisfy. You can’t depend on relationships. And happiness is a bluebird sitting on your shoulder singing “Zippity do dah.” Jesus’ death is more than just a reality. It’s a metaphorical hinge-point in history, the ultimate before-and-after picture. It’s when we focus on the “reality” and the historicity of the event that we get lost in the details and forgo the so-what. The metaphor is what is real—which takes nothing away from history. Jesus is offering each of us a new start, a new beginning, and a meaningful life, but we have to get beyond the “Here’s your mom,” “Gimme a drink,” and “I quit.”

Begin with a clip from the classic Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Use the scene when Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) enters the caverns of the dead to recruit the King of the Dead (Paul Norell) and his minions to enter the battle against Sauron (Sala Baker) and the forces of darkness. Run the video through Aragorn’s conversation with the King of the Dead and their assent to follow him. Use the scene as a metaphor for our purposeless existence and our fate once we enter a relationship with Jesus, a fate that may bring hardship, persecution, suffering, and even death, but brings with it purpose and meaning.

If you’re of a mind, you can also use a clip from 50 First Dates (2004). Use any of the many scenes that show Lucy Whitmore’s (Drew Barrymore) total loss of her past with each new morning. Use the scene to indicate the freedom Jesus offers from our past when we surrender ourselves to him.

Bill T-B

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2^nd Sunday in April

Luke 24:1-35 and Acts 13-14

There is a fascination about the idea of the divine hidden in our midst. Could it be that the ordinary looking person next to you in line is really an angel? Or a god? Or the real God in the flesh? Do you think he might speak to you? Or that she might whisper some unexpected insight into your ear? Or give you the winning lottery ticket? Or heal your disease?

Imagine if God stopped for cocoa at the same diner on the expressway where you stopped for coffee. Assuming that God was not just traveling for his health, or to simply touring creation as a divinely satisfied artist, and assuming that God actually intended to say something to people, what would he say? Would he reveal himself in flashes of glory and heavenly trumpets, or in the breaking of bread and pouring of coffee? What is it about him that would suddenly cause you to exclaim, “My God! It’s God!” What would he say? Would he talk about the weather? Would he open your mind to understand prophecies, scriptures, and God’s promises to the world?

Perhaps the most important question is not what he would say ... but what you would ask. What would you say to God in those first opening seconds?

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation

Acts 13-14

Spiritually Yearning Public

“The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God” (Acts 13:7 NIV).

One of the most extraordinary facts in our culture—a culture that’s been losing over one million people from the church every year for quite some time—is that people today want to hear the word of God. Unfortunately, there’s a huge population “out there” who are formerly churched and discovered that trying to find the word of God in church isn’t a guarantee. In fact, many have concluded that the church is the one place they know they can’t find God, word or not.

Where are the unchurched going to find the word of God today? Do you know where they go in your community, or do you only have guesses and speculations? Why not go find out this week? Head down to your local coffee shop, bookstore, library, pub, mall, or wherever it is that the less-than-churched are hanging out and ask them? Don’t go as a church leader looking for a mark; go as someone who wants to learn. And when they start speaking, listen. It’s less important that you have answers than it is that you understand what they’re looking for, where they’re looking, and what they’re finding.

Bill T-B

Worship Theme

Luke 24:1-35

Where Jesus Went

The resurrection has happened, but precious few really believe it yet. Certainly not the two pilgrims who were returning home to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon. Oh sure, they’d heard the stories, but they were, after all, just stories told by a hysterical woman who’d found an empty tomb. The tomb was empty, that much they knew, but what had happened to the body was anyone’s guess.

The story of the Emmaus Road journey is more than just a metaphor for our faith journey today. It’s a picture of most people’s reality. We travel life fully unaware that the risen messiah is walking with us side-by-side. We look to the heavens and wonder if there really is a God out there and yet are oblivious to the Divine presence there with us. We are no more cognizant of the presence of Jesus than Cleopas and his traveling companion were on that Sunday afternoon.

Tom wonders what you might say if you suddenly realized you were right there in the presence of God. He further wonders what God might say to you. The fact is, however, God’s trying to talk to us all the time—we just have to stop, look, and listen.

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Luke 24:1-35

Where Jesus Went

This week you have an opportunity to really tug at some base issues that those on the spiritual quest are desperately dealing with. To get at that desperateness, begin with Tait’s I Need You Tonight. Then show the near-final scene from Oh, God! (1977) when Jerry Landers (John Denver) and God (George Burns) have their final chat and God says, “You talk, I’ll listen.” The key here is not to suggest God is always listening, which of course is the case, but that there’s so much more than that. God isn’t just listening, but trying to talk to us. Another potential clip is from Bruce Almighty (2003) when Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) first meets God (Morgan Freeman), but refuses to believe it’s him (hmm, a bit Thomas-like). In any event, this clip more closely mirrors the scripture passage.

Bill T-B

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3^rd Sunday in April (Ezekiel 34 and Luke 15:1-7)

Our contemporary world is a culture of choices. The most deeply engrained assumption of the modern mind is that we have choices, should have choices, and deserve to have choices. Religion, like everything else in modern perception, is a matter of choice. We “choose” to be a Christian, Jew, Muslim ... and choose to belong to whatever subset of faith most appeals to our common sense, personal preference, or spiritual taste.

Yet all these great religions contradict this modern assumption. In fact we do not have the choices we think we have. God chooses us. God seeks us. God compels us. Our willingness, readiness, or personal timing is secondary at best ... and often irrelevant. God chooses us. We do not choose God.

This is particularly true in Christian faith, and the special nuance of Christ is that God’s pursuit of us is essentially and ultimately benevolent and loving. There is great comfort and reassurance in this, because, if we would but admit it, we do not feel much “in control” of lives anyway. We are constantly swept away by fate and circumstance, surrounded by death and inevitable corruption, victimized by power beyond our influence, and addicted to habits we refuse to even admit. Thank God ... there is someone to rescue us from our essential helplessness!

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation (Luke 15:1-7)

Where do you spend your ministry time? For many in the ministry, there are Sirens singing love songs luring leaders to the treacherous rocks that will sink a ministry both quickly and surely. The biggest and most foreboding rock is called “office” and is only equaled by the rocks church building and church members. Spend the majority of your time heeding these Sirens and in due time you’ll find your ministry in the same shape as the Greek mariners who sailed their ships into the rocks of Serenum scopoli.

This isn’t anything new. The parable of the one lost sheep is a reminder of whom Jesus came for—and continues to come for. It’s not the ninety-nine safe and enfolded church members, but the Wanderers who are chasing after blowing dandelion fluff in the name of spirituality. But most ministry leaders seem to feel an “obligation” to work for the congregation, meaning that they become the object and benefactor of many leader’s ministry. And so the office, the church building, and the church members seem to have a higher claim on our time...and besides, they “sing” the loudest and call us to dock our ministry ship in their harbor. But be warned, the moment you do is the moment you’ve surrendered your soul to the rocks that will sink your ministry. So, just where do you spend your ministry time 

Bill T-B

Worship Theme (Ezekiel 34)

The religious leaders of Israel had, shall we say, blown it. They’d exchanged their calling for career advancements that included cushy job security, pension packages, honor and respect by the well-to-do. Of course, to do that they’d had to turn a blind eye to some political shenanigans that favored the wealthy and left the less-than-wealthy out of the judicial and righteous loop. The rule of the day was justice and righteousness for everyone who could afford it. The rich got richer, the poor got squat, and the religious leaders got First Church on the county square, a place at the table (so long as they didn’t actually say anything that would upset the status quo), and invited to all the right social events.

Selling out our callings isn’t just a clergy issue in today’s world. Jesus reminds us that many are called, but the reality is that there are few who embrace their calling to be fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ who don’t sell out for their own creature-comforts. And so the scattered sheep, the Wanderers (aka lost) and the Nomads (aka backslidden) continually fall prey to the temporal and temporary comforts of the here and now.

The sad fact is, most folks don’t know how, when, where, or why they sold out their calling in favor of a career, and it’s an insidious process to be sure. It begins when we’re very young and still full of hopes, dreams, and possibilities. But then something happens to get in the way of those hopes, dreams, and possibilities and instead of going around the obstacle, whatever it may be, and continuing our course—which would be work—we veer ever so slightly by making an “easier” choice. We choose a relationship over continuing our education. A job offer crops up that is just too good to be true. Or someone says “No” and we decide “No” means never instead of “No” meaning not this door, try another. One decision tips the first domino and suddenly our life is living us rather than us living life. A year passes, then another, and another when one morning we wake up and realize we’re not where we thought we’d be, let alone where we’d hoped we’d be. We’re not making the difference we had counted on making. We’re not being the committed follower of Jesus we were created to be. And it all started by making a decision that veered us just a little bit.

The good news is Jesus didn’t stop searching for the Wanderers, the Nomads, and he hasn’t stopped calling out to you either. Choices made today change everything, including your tomorrow.

Bill T-B

Worship Design (Ezekiel 34)

Begin this week’s service with the Flash trailer from The Family Man (2000 –http://www.bktb.com/eba/FamilyManFlash.htm). This nicely introduces the issue of how choices we make affect our lives. To get the point home, set up a table up front to represent life and then place dominos on the table to represent events and choices we make that take us farther afield from our calling. In the end, set the chain off to represent how it all may come to naught when we veer. As an invitation and a remembrance of the message, invite everyone forward to receive one of the dominos to take home (to really keep the message before them, drill a small hole through each domino and give each person both the domino and a length of ribbon to loop through it as a necklace, bracelet, or to hang on their rear-view mirror, etc.).

Bill T-B

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4^th Sunday in April

Eternal Life

1 Corinthians 15 and Luke 20:27-40

If the old adage is true, and the only really inescapable facts of life are death and taxes, then it is incredibly appropriate that Easter and Income Tax deadlines in North America usually coincide in the same month. A good many people regard tax time as a microcosm of death, because of the hardships and suffering it can bring. Other people regard death as a kind of “tax time,” when they expect to pay severe penalties for years of backsliding.

The significance of Christ’s resurrection has always been cast in the dual purpose of victory over both death and sin. It is a profound forgiveness that erases both current and eternal “debt.” The vast amount of what we “owe God” is canceled through unlimited grace. We have a fresh start to try again in life and this time get it right. If there was any time in the year to make serious “New Year resolutions” it is now. Christ is raised ... the sign and promise of what is and is to come. Beyond the despair of insurmountable obligation is the hope of incomparable freedom.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation (Luke 20:27-40)

North America and the West has the most well-trained Christian theologians, pastors, and even laity in the world. We have more degrees, diplomas, and certificates per capita than anywhere else in the world, and yet the North American church is shrinking while the poorly educated, sometimes barely literate church is growing to the tune of about 90,000 new Christians per day. I’m convinced one of the primary reasons for our decline and their explosive growth is education. Consider, the question the Sadducees asked was the kind of question only a well-trained religious practitioner would ask. It may be an interesting theological point, but ultimately it makes not one wit difference in your or my life. North American church leaders hear these kind of questions all the time—and spend an inordinate amount of time answering, justifying, and teaching on these topics. In the explosive growth nations, however, the questions being asked are of eternal significance. What’s the Christian way to treat your Islamic neighbor? How do you promulgate your faith when it’s illegal to be a Christian? Who should I be praying for? And so on. These aren’t educational issues, they’re training issues that go to the heart of what it means to be on the mission road with Jesus. This week, take an honest look at what you’re teaching. Are you training disciples to do, or feeding their heads with what?

Bill T-B

Worship Theme (1 Corinthians 15)

Most of our preaching and teaching with seekers is really Christian Life Coaching, the How to Live Life in Christ sermon series that started nearly a year ago. This week, however, we take the congregation to another level as we talk about eternal life. Life-after-death used to be a hot topic that was broached more often than not, but in our culture today few people are worrying about whether they’ve booked a seat in the eternal smoking or non-smoking section, so to speak. However, as Tom mentioned, with Easter and Tax Day in close proximity, it’s an excellent time to broach the subject.

For Paul, life-after-death wasn’t a sub-topic, it was the topic. Jesus beat death. There was no spiritualization of the issue; there was no mythology. Jesus was crucified. Jesus died. Jesus was resurrected. That fact motivated Paul to endure hardship after hardship in order to share the Gospel with the world.

Paul’s audience had the same questions we might have about life-after-death. What’s it like? How’s it work? How can we be sure? Using metaphor, story, and history Paul explained the best he could, but ultimately faith is hope and hope is faith—and living by either, or both, is the ultimate rush.

Bill T-B

Worship Design (1 Corinthians 15)

How do we deal with resurrection in our culture? It’s one of those things we don’t much talk about because we don’t much understand it. Even during the Easter season and in the midst of spring, there are few conversations in the workplace that broach the subject. It’s not that it’s taboo, it’s just...well...complicated.

Begin this week’s service with two film clips. Use the “resurrection” scenes from The Passion of the Christ (2004) and from Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).  These two movies were the most (financially) successful big screen releases of Jesus’ life, but you’ll note that neither handles the resurrection...at all. It’s just too much of a mystery to deal with. The Passion plays a musical piece and Superstar has the actors packing up their bus. Use these clips to launch into a discussion of how much we don’t talk about the resurrection and even life-after-death.

Just as Paul used the metaphor of seeds and seedlings to explain death and resurrection, use the same metaphor for this service. Use a time-lapse video of a seed to a seedling, sprout your own seedlings, or bring a series of from “seed to sprouts” examples. To send the message home, send everyone home with a sprouted seedling (such as a tomato, cucumber, or a veggy that works for your geographic region).

Bill T-B

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5^th Sunday in April (Isaiah 55 and Acts 8:4-40)

Australians speak about the “tall poppy syndrome” in their cultural life (although the principle is true in many cultures and nations. The phrase describes the habit of so many culture to “cut down to size” any leader who stands taller than the rest of the crowd. They are both visible and vulnerable. Anyone who stands out invites comments like “What gives you the authority ...?” or “Who made you the decision maker ...” or “What makes you better, more correct, or more righteous than anyone else?”

Authority is not really about certification or professionalism, nor even about experience or success. Authority is really about relationship. We have authority to speak truth because we are in relationship with the Source of all truth. We have power to heal because we are in relationship with the Healer. We can share new life because we are in relationship with the Giver of abundant life. We can point out the right path because we are in companionship with the One who blazed the right trail in the first place. When such a person speaks, everybody listens.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation: (Acts 8:4-40)

Philip was a waiter. Oh sure, they laid hands on him and gave him a title, but the fact is, Philip was ordained as a waiter...or perhaps more accurately, the first century’s equivalent of a Meals On Wheels driver. Most likely he’d have been a faithful waiter if the Jerusalem Jews hadn’t launched a devastating persecution of the Christians. But they did, the Greek widows dispersed across the land, and Philip was suddenly unemployed. And so he did what every unemployed, underutilized Christian naturally does...he boldly went where no Christian had gone before. Philip took the gospel to Samaria.

Every congregation is filled with underutilized Christians. Church leaders often complain about the 80–20 rule, but the fact is, the church doesn’t need more than 20 percent of the congregation to do the tasks of the church. The 80 percent need to be exactly where they are—on their home turf, in their office, traveling to the Samarias and the Egypts and the Cypruses, to take the gospel there. The job of the 20 percent is to equip, train, support, and encourage the 80 percent—the Philips and the Bobs and the Carols—to do their ministry whether or not they’re “deacons” or waiters or between jobs.

Bill T-B

Worship Theme: (Isaiah 55)

There’s a serious misunderstanding about church worship services that’s pervasive throughout the church. The misunderstanding stems from a basic question: When someone visits a church, what is the one thing they’re looking for? The answer to that question is the crux of the issue. Let’s see what you think.

When someone visits your church, what is the one thing they’re looking for?

(a) Excellent music, drama, and themes

(b) Excellent teaching

(c) Friends

(d) A welcoming environment

(e) Answers to their questions

(f) Information on how to cope with life

(g) Programs for their children, youth, or aging parents

(h) All of the above

I expect most of us would choose (h), but the fact is, though we’ve been trained that these are the core of what facilitates congregational growth, assimilation, and retention the answer is really none of the above. If you’re interested in growing, assimilating, and retaining visitors, guests, and even the regular members, then we must realize the answer to the question is that people are looking for God in church. Nothing more and nothing less. Tom speaks of a touch from the holy, but whatever you call it, people come to church with one primary hope: that someone will personally introduce them to the God who is both near and far, whose thoughts are above our own limited notions, and who will send us out in joy and be led forth in peace.

Bill T-B

Worship Design: (Isaiah 55)

I attended a multi-day non-religious seminar a couple of weeks ago and saw something I’ve never seen anywhere else. The presenter was center stage, but on floor level on both the left and right sides there were microphones for the seminar participants. During the seminar the leader would ask, “Would someone like to share how _____________ is affecting your life?” The blank was completed whatever lesson (and homework) was from the day before. Homework like making peace with a relative, neighbor, coworker, or friend. Homework like being integrous with ourselves and with others. But not just the success stories, the failures came forth and were coached from the platform. The stories I heard were phenomenal, real, heart-felt, and life changing. I kept thinking to myself, “Why isn’t this happening in church?”

Jesus makes all things new. Our past is gone, as opposed to being the determinate factor in our future. Confession, repentance, and reconciliation cleans up the messes we’ve made and relieves us of guilt and shame. When we seek God and he shows up, the nations will beat a path to our door.

To launch into the worship, begin with a clip from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1999). Use the clip when the crew is on the bridge of the Enterprise that Spock’s hijacked to find God. In the clip they have a conversation on their destination to find God. Use the clip to launch into a discussion about our own search for God and the lengths that we’ll go to find him—but also the disappointment that we regularly don’t find God where we most think we would...in the church.

If you can line up testimonies, or are gutsy enough to emulate the way the seminar I attended did it, this is a great time to show how a relationship with Jesus can make an incredible difference in people’s lives.

Bill T-B