1^st Sunday in June (1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 and Luke 21:1-4)

June is traditionally a month for weddings, and many people are shopping for wedding gifts. What will we give the newlyweds? Silver? Jewelry? Furniture? Appliances? If we really, really love the sons and daughters, friends and relatives who are getting married, we probably wish we could give them guarantees of happiness and harmony. Yet we all know that is impossible.

What we can give them is the pearl of greatest worth: Jesus Christ. We can give them faith. Or at least we can point the way to faith. Sorrows will be inevitable, but faith gives strength to endure trouble and overcome despair. Faith opens a channel to give and receive blessings that are beyond human control.

Faith is the result of another, different, more profound wedding. It is the union of the risen Christ with a faithful companionship. Because Christ is really present in our lives, and revealed through many brothers and sisters of faith, we can give a gift to the newlyweds of tomorrow that will help their marriage thrive. Now there is a gift that keeps on giving.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation: What You Really Give

Luke 21:1-4

We can get pretty proud of our tithes and offerings when we have a notion. Giving to the work of God isn’t just faithful, it can give us a sense of satisfaction, self-worth, accomplishment, and on the darker side, power and control.

There’s clearly more to giving than meets the eye. God doesn’t need your money (or for that matter, anything that you might have to offer). God is pretty self-reliant and already “owns” everything the eye can and cannot see. If Jesus can break a couple loaves of bread and fish to feed 5,000; and if Jesus meant what he said that his followers can do whatever he did and more; then it follows, the church doesn’t even need your money.

So, why do we give? What’s the point? We give because it’s who we are. We give because it’s what we are. We give because the one who gave did so without measure and expects us to do the same. It’s not about giving from our abundance, it’s about giving everything we have. Period. “My command is this: love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12)...everything we have.

Bill T-B

Worship Theme: Who You Really Are

1 Corinthians 12-14

It’s appropriate that Tom spoke of weddings. Not only will there be many weddings in June, but 1 Corinthians 13 will be read at many, if not most, of them. Ahhh, love. Isn’t it great?

In this extended passage, however, Paul is less interested in weddings and a lot more interested in a different kind of love. He’s interested in a love that isn’t about that warm, mushy feeling in the pit of your stomach when your sweetheart’s image floats romantically through your thoughts. The love Paul is talking about is the sacrificial, give your life up for someone else kind of love. The kind of love that takes a cold, hard look at who you really are, how God has really gifted you, and what God has really called you to do (as opposed to the occupation that you settled for) and then does something about it...like being obedient.

This isn’t the time to pull out the spiritual gift inventories. Instead, lead the congregation to an understanding that ultimately everyone wants to be an agent of transformation: that is, they want to make a difference in other’s lives. However, to make a difference in someone’s life means knowing who they are and what they stand for and then putting that into practice (and it takes practice...they won’t get it right at first). All those gifts and graces that the Spirit delivers are there to be used as gifts and graces that we pass on to others. As Tom said earlier, we’ve a gift to pass on, a gift that can change a life forever.

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Introduce this week’s lesson by reading Tom’s introduction to the theme. Next, speak about the ultimate gift that Tom is suggesting and how Christians are generally viewed by our culture when it comes to “sharing” that gift. Then screen a clip from the movie Saved! (2004). Use the scene when Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) confronts Mary (Jena Malone) about her condition (she’s pregnant). The key dialog is:

Hilary Faye: Mary, turn away from Satan. Jesus, he loves you.

Mary: You don't know the first thing about love.

Hilary Faye: [throws a Bible at Mary] I am FILLED with Christ's love! You are just jealous of my success in the Lord.

Mary: [Mary holds up the Bible] This is not a weapon! You idiot.

From here, open a dialog about Paul’s understanding of the gifted Christian and our commission to share those gifts with love and wisdom.

Bill T-B

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2^nd Sunday in June

Micah 6 and Luke 10:25-37

Simplify! One of the hallmarks of our society is that we accumulate a great deal of clutter. Today we require television shows and professional consultants to help us tidy the garage, clean our homes, and build storage in our closets. The same is true for our relationships ... our minds ... our lives. Instant messaging has cluttered our email with relationships we don’t really value; media bombardment has cluttered our thinking with ideas we don’t really understand; pressures and temptations have cluttered our lives with business we don’t really want. It makes you ask the questions: What is really important? What should be the priorities? What does God really expect?

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation: Your fundamental obligation

Luke 10:25-37

The story of the Good Samaritan is a staple of the Christian faith. Being and doing for our down-and-out brothers and sisters is, of course, a part of the Great Commandment. But before we go and further, let’s get one thing straight. There’s a biblical difference between loving your neighbor and loving one-another.

“Who is my neighbor?” was the lawyer’s question. Jesus’ answer let him know in no uncertain terms that neighbor equals everyone on the planet that we brush up against who has a need we can meet. It’s the person moving into the apartment next door. It’s the blue-hair with her Persian in the Buick that overheated and is blocking traffic. It’s the lone, lost Crypt who wandered into the Blood’s territory in your mall and is being confronted by a group of teenage gang-bangers.

The sad thing is, in our world the more germane question would be, “Who is my one-another?” In Jesus’ parable, we’d just replace the Jewish victim with a “fringe” Christian, you know, one of the “outsiders” in our congregation, whether that be our newest member who’s trying to “break into” the club, or one of our disgruntled seniors who’s been displaced by the Worship Band. Then we’d replace the Levite and the priest with almost any one of the 82 percent of the North Americans who “claim” to be Christian—including, or especially, the insiders in our congregation.

The old Hair tune “Easy to be Hard” is an age-old indictment that we need to own...

How can people be so heartless

How can people be so cruel

Easy to be hard

Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings

How can they ignore their friends

Easy to be proud

Easy to say no

And especially people

Who care about strangers

Who care about evil

And social injustice

Do you only

Care about the bleeding crowd?

How about a needing friend?

I need a friend

Bill T-B

Worship Theme: Where duty really lies

Micah 6

Christians in the West are the best educated in the world when it comes to all things theological. We have the most Bibles. We have the most and best trained clergy. There are more doctors of ministry, more masters of divinity, and more bachelors of theology. We hold more seminars. Attend more workshops. Read more books. Our minds are stuffed full of church growth, evangelism, Christian social justice, best spiritual practices, and historical theology.

And what is the results of all this very excellent knowledge? Stagnating churches. Shrinking membership. Enron. Health South. War. Increasing wealth outstripped by increasing poverty.

So, here’s the great Western cosmic joke: Knowledge doesn’t change you.

Need an example? We all know what it takes to live a healthy life: eat right, get sufficient exercise, ample sleep, lessen stress.

How’s that workin’ for you?

Here’s another. We know how to love one another. We know how to share our faith. We know what the Lord requires.

Again, how’s that workin’ for you?

It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you are. What you do flows out from who you are. Saying you’re something doesn’t make it so unless you’re moved to action. There were thousands of Israelites who “embraced” the Torah when Micah confronted them. There were also thousand of Israelites who were functional criminals (I had written that they were functional  “atheists,” but I’ve known a plethora of moral and ethical atheists and didn’t want to dishonor them).

So, the question is, Who are you? Really. And how’s that workin’ for you?

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Use the animated feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) to introduce this week’s topic. In the movie, Bugs Bunny and friends are caught up in a “suspenseful” spy tale and have to find the “Blue Monkey” diamond to save the father of DJ Drake (Brendon Fraser). Use the clip when Bugs Bunny and crew discover the mysterious monkey temple that contains the Blue Monkey. In the scene, Granny, Sylvester, and Tweety unzip “body suits” to reveal their true identity (the villains, who else?!). Use the clip to launch into a discussion of being and doing rather than knowing. You may also want to reference Luke 6:43–49.

Bill T-B

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3^rd Sunday in June (1 Peter 2 and 5; Luke 13:31-35 and 18:9-14)

The more complicated life becomes, the more insignificant the individual feels. We are cogs in a great machine; pawns on a larger chessboard; specks of dust in an eternity of time; data on a global spreadsheet. We long to be part of something great. We long to be valued as a significant player in a greater purpose. We long to be “somebody.” We wish that a great and respected leader might address by first name; or that a powerful and beloved organization might pause in its might course to pay attention to our hurts and lift us from the dust.

Some people think that a nation can do this, but it can’t. Others think that a corporation, or a service club, or a village, or membership, or an army can do this, but they can’t. There is only one relationship that will do it, and that is the relationship with Christ. There is only one organization that can do it, and that is the fellowship of the Saints.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation: Real life choices

Luke 13:31-35 and 18:9-14

This morning when you got out of bed, who did you decide you’d be?

That sounds like a silly question, but the fact is you really do decide. You decide whether or not you’re going to still be married. You decide whether or not you’re going to still be a Christian. You decide whether or not you’re going to honor the commitments you made yesterday, and the day before that, and so on. You decide whether or not you’ll have integrity with every word that leaves your lips and in every action you take. You decide.

Jesus had the same opportunities. He got up each morning and decided whether or not he accomplish the ministry he’d set out to do. He was no dummy and he could see the writing on the wall. He knew what was likely to transpire in Jerusalem, but he made a decision. A real-life choice about how he’d live out his day, about where he was setting his face to go, about who he would be that day.

So, who did you decide to be? You don’t get to choose for tomorrow, you only have today. Right now. Who are you...now?

Bill T-B

Worship Theme: Being truly blessed

1 Peter 2 and 5

Paradox is a part of our reality in this day and age. We’re still struggling with Modernity’s death-grip that insists for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction coupled up against Post-Modernity’s embrace that the flapping wings of an Amazon butterfly changes the weather patterns in the Gulf of Mexico. Paradox is simply a part of our culture and it’s not void within the church as Peter reminds us. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Pe 2:9), but we are aliens and strangers in the world (2:11). We have great significance and we are totally insignificant.

From the splitting of the adam in Genesis 2, humans have been incomplete and needing a help-meet. Additionally, as Blaise Pascal is his book Pensees suggested, there’s a God-shaped hole in each of us, an emptiness that cannot be filled with anything except God (VII:425). In other words, as the “crown of God’s creation,” we’re incomplete.

As Tom says above, it is only in the fellowship of saints where we can find our significance, and it is only in our fellowship with Jesus that we can find our completeness.

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Begin this week’s worship with a clip from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983). Use the clip when Eric Idle sings the “theme song” from the movie:

“Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown,

And things seem hard or tough,

And people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft

And you feel that you've had quite enough!

Just remember that your standing on a planet that’s evolving,

Revolving at nine-hundred miles an hour.

It’s orbiting at ninety miles a second,

So its reckoned,

A sun that is the source of all our power

The sun and you and me,

And all the stars that we can see,

Are moving at a million miles a day;

In an outer spiral arm at forty-thousand miles an hour

Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

“Our galaxy itself

Contains a hundred billion stars,

It’s a hundred thousand light-years side to side.

It bulges in the middle

Sixteen-thousand light-years thick,

But out by us its just three-thousand light-years wide

We’re thirty-thousand light-years from galactic central point.

We go round every two-hundred-million years.

And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.

“The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding

In all of the directions it can whiz

As fast as it can go

The speed of light you know

Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is.

So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure

How amazingly unlikely is your birth

And pray that there intelligent life somewhere up in space

‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.”

The point of the exercise is the paradox of life. As Idle suggests, the universe is a pretty amazingly huge phenomenon and when we put ourselves against it we fade into insignificance (and that’s an understatement). On the other hand, as he also points out, our individual birth is also incredibly unlikely—which makes us pretty significant. And though within the scheme of earth we are but aliens and strangers, in the hands of God we are a nation of holy priests, chosen by God.

Bill T-B

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4^th Sunday in June

Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 18:24 – 19:41

What should a seeker expect from a church? You may as well know now. It may help make up your mind whether to stay with a church, or turn around and seek friendships somewhere else. If you stay with a church, you should expect the following:

a) Once you feel at home, you will eventually be sent into the world. Don’t get too comfortable. You’re not here to stay. You are here to be sent.

b)  Prepare to experience God. Sure, you will meet some great people and build some deep relationships. But the scariest and best relationship is with God, and that is a very unpredictable relationship indeed!

c)  Get ready to learn. Going to worship is only a first step in a longer journey of personal growth. You need to join small group, attend a class, find a mentoring relationship, and shape a daily spiritual discipline. Otherwise. ... what’s the point?

d)  Look for Christ. Wherever you go, whatever you do, Jesus Christ is going to be with you. He may be hard to spot ... but he will be there. Shout for him, and he will respond. Try as you might to avoid him, he will confront you.

Now that you know what to expect ... do you still want to be a part of this church? It may be a lot of work, and occasionally scary, but it will be the time of our life.

Tom Bandy

Team Meditation

Measuring Results

Acts 18:24 – 19:41

The book of Acts is a record book. Oh sure, it contains the history of the church in its infancy, but it does so in a way that many people in the church find offensive, especially when applied to their home church. The history of the early church is recorded using not only stories but numbers. Three thousand (Acts 2:41), five thousand (4:4), many thousands (21:20), people added daily (2:42), more and more believed (5:14), many believed (9:42, 17:12, 19:18), a great number believed (11:21, 14:21), all who were appointed believed (13:48), and so on.

It’s not in vogue to use numbers when it comes to measuring the results of our ministry. Instead, we’d rather talk about spiritual depth, what we’re learning, and so on. Although spiritual growth is a necessary part of the Christian life, the fact is, if we’re not growing our ministries through measurable results, we’ve ceased being a church and become a club. And though there’s nothing wrong with clubs, that’s not why Jesus established the church. The church exists to multiply disciples, leaders, and churches.

Bill T-B

Worship Theme

What God Expects

Matthew 28:16-20

Ever wonder where the term “Great Commission” comes from? It’s not a biblical term. It’s not even a very old term, at least as far as the history of the church is concerned. Paul didn’t use it. The early church fathers and mothers didn’t use the term. The Nicene church doesn’t use it. Just where does it come from? (The answer may well be found by a researcher who’s chosen this as part of his doctoral dissertation project. Stay tuned...) By whatever term it’s called, however, these words are clearly some of the most important ever uttered by our Lord. This commission was recorded as some of the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples before his ascension (cf., Acts 1:8).

What is it God expects of us, the followers of Jesus? Some would argue that we’re expected to live near-perfect lives. Others posit that we’re expected to be holy and set-apart from the world, while others contend just the opposite—that we’re to be in the world with the mission to change it. Still others appeal to social justice. What is it that God expects?

I suspect that you suspect that I’m going to give you the “right” answer, but I’m not. Instead, I’m going to let you wrestle with it. Every argument in the above paragraph has a valid argument to it and you could “prove” each one with a bevy of scriptures. But the reality is that they can’t all be the reason for why the church exists. But here’s a hint of what I see...what exactly does the Great Commission commission us  to do? Make converts or to make disciples...and what’s the difference?

Bill T-B

Worship Design

Nobody likes ambiguity. We prefer to have the facts, just the facts, and nothing but the facts—whatever “facts” are. Christians have been asking from the beginning what it means to be a Christian...what does it take to inherit eternal life? That’s a PC way of asking, “What’s the least I have to do to be a Christian with eternal assurance?”  We want daily minimum requirements, not just in our diet, but in our lives.

Begin this service by using a clip from the movie Saved! (2004). Use the near-to-the-opening clip that shows the “school assembly,” which is for all practical purposes a youth worship service (through the eyes of the producers). The clip is pretty upbeat, but it’s also typical. It’s what the “world” views as a church service in today’s world (or the alternative view from Mr. Bean Goes to Church). The point is, everyone “knows” what church is like, or is supposed to be like.

Use this cultural expectation to discuss what would happen if Christians were to be Christian. When asked what it would take to win India for Christianity, Gandhi replied that it would only take Christians being Christians.

But what does that really mean?

Bill T-B