1st Sunday in May (Mark 10:1-31 and John 8:1-11; and Luke 8:19-21) 

One of the trendy words today is “inclusive”. Every organization wants to be “inclusive” … especially churches. Organizations of all kinds claim to welcome anybody, love everybody, and accept everyone. It isn’t true, of course, especially if they want to have integrity. If a church or any organization is really serious about particular core values and bedrock beliefs, then inevitably they cannot accept everybody. They may welcome everybody … but they cannot accept everybody. Some people will have to change to be included. Even Jesus spoke of a judgment at the end of time when the obedient will be separated from the disobedient. The big difference between the church and other organizations is the surprise about who is included, and how people become included. Even the most wayward are included … and it is God who will change them. 

Team Meditation: (Luke 8:19-21) 

Jesus clarifies an ambiguity about belonging that has burdened Israel for a long time … and burdens the church today. Does unity depend on kinship, and the bonds of family and genetics and residential longevity; or does it depend on obedience, and the bonds of shared conviction and alignment with God’s purpose? You see how this issue has been clouded in the local church, just as in ancient Israel. In many established churches, the median age of membership is 55, and the average person must have been a member between 7-14 years before they find themselves serving on the board. Sure, there are “youth representatives” and “recent converts” and “new residents” … but they are few and preferably timid. Jesus makes it clear that the unity of the church depends solely on obedience to his will. Ask yourselves … if that were the sole criteria for membership and leadership … who would be in and who would be out? Basil the Great said: “Intimacy with the Lord is not explained in terms of kinship according to the flesh, but it is achieved by cheerful willingness in doing the will of God” (The Morals 22). 

Worship Theme: ((Mark 10:1-31 and John 8:1-11) 

The story of the adulteress and her forgiveness is only found in the Gospel of John. Normally, this gospel only tells stories of profound spiritual symbolism. These are not just historical anecdotes about Jesus, but pivotal stories that reveal some profound truth about God purpose. John included this story to make a point. The point is that membership in the family of God hinges upon forgiveness, not upon achievement. All have fallen short of God’s standards of purity, and only be grace will we ever get into the family of God. Yet once we are forgiven, both the sin and the inevitability of sin are removed. Now we truly become responsible for our actions, because grace has removed our bad habit of sinfulness. Now we must exercise our will to remain faithful. Thus, Jesus forgives the adulteress, but then commands “go and sin no more.” 

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2^nd Sunday in May (Proverbs 3 and Luke 17: 11-19) 

Let me see … last Sunday we were positively sentimental about motherhood, and by now we have taken our mothers for granted again. Spring has given Northern Hemisphere people new hope, but by now they are enjoying sports with nary a second thought for the environment. Meanwhile, Southern Hemisphere folks are cursing the rainy season and planning vacations to Queensland. Bottom line? Thankfulness … real gratitude … lasts as long as our attention span, which is about 20 minutes. 

Team Meditation (Luke 17: 11-19) 

The ancient mentor Cyril of Alexandria uses a wonderful phrase to describe the 9 lepers. He said that they had fallen into “thankless forgetfulness”. They were symbolic, not only of the Jews that Cyril understood to have under-appreciated God’s grace by the time of Christ. They were symbolic of Christians who seem to strategically forget how much God has done … is doing … and continues to do for their lives. “Thankless forgetfulness” is not intentional … it is usually unconscious … and it is a particular vice of church leaders. Oddly enough, church leaders tend to convince themselves that they have gotten to their positions of spiritual authority through their own achievements … as if they had healed themselves of sin. What is the most important attitude to convey to seekers in every worship service? Your most profound thankfulness for God’s saving grace. 

Worship Theme (Proverbs 3) 

Proverbs 3:5-6  ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.  ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 

What will happen tomorrow? What are your plans for this week? What strategic decisions are you about to make for your career, your family, or your personal well being? God does not tell us to stop planning, nor does he tell us that we should not give our best reasoning to anticipate and address future opportunities and challenges. What God tells us is that no matter how wise we think we are, we are not wise enough. No matter how powerful we think we are, we are not powerful enough to perfectly control the future. Indeed, the more we pride ourselves for our control of life, the more we tragically fail to live life.  

So the Bible urges us to “trust in the Lord”. So often we are convinced we are right, and find ourselves wrong. Or we are totally uncertain, and make our choices by a horoscope, a hunch, or blind luck. The Bible says there is another way to confront the future. It is neither over confidence in our own abilities, nor is it misplaced confidence in blind fortune. It is trust in the Lord. God can guide you. Even when you think things are going wrong, if you trust in God, things are really going right. Hang in there! Keep trusting God! No matter how grim the future seems, God will see you through. 

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3rd Sunday in May (Genesis 17:1 – 18:15 and Luke 13:22-30) 

God loves you whether you like it or not. God is always loving undeserving people … and thereby making them better. God’s people are always saying “I don’t deserve this” in both meanings of the phrase. In one sense, they exclaim with gratitude at the wonderful surprise of his grace. “I don’t deserve this!” But also, in another sense, they exclaim with resentment the imposition or intrusion of God that changes their lives. “I don’t deserve this!”  Encouraging or uncomfortable as it may be, God really does know what is best for you. 

Team Meditation (Luke 13:22-30) 

One of themes Luke, and other ancient missionaries stressed, is that “the last shall be first”. They turn upside down the expectation of membership privilege. Mission is more important than privilege; strangers are greeted more warmly than members. Membership in the church is not about privileges but callings. Our choice of music, worship style, refreshments, and everything else at the Sunday morning “heavenly banquet” is not shaped by the members tastes and preferences. It is shaped by the needs and expectations of the stranger, and the desire to introduce the stranger to Jesus the heavenly host. 

Worship Theme (Genesis 17:1 – 18:15) 

Genesis 17:17   ¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 

God chooses unlikely leaders. Who would ever have imagined that Abraham and Sara would birth a nation … much less just one son! It’s not just that they were old. They were not in the right income bracket, did not have the right connections, were not particularly learned, and were probably perceived as nice but very ordinary people. Why should they stand out from the crown of migrant nomads and other people riding on the bus to work? Today we probably assume that God was able to discern some hidden potential in their lives that we could not see. Yet the truth is there was no “hidden potential”. They were not “diamonds in the rough”. They were rough. Plain and simple they did not have whatever it would take to birth a nation. God simply chose them. God made them what they are, and God would reshape them to become what God wanted. It is God’s doing. And he is doing today as well. 

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4^th Sunday in May (Acts 2,3 and 4:32-37; and Acts 10, 11, 15) 

The world is emerging from the narrow box of rationalism. Partly this is because our strict reliance on reason and human decision-making has created a huge mess, and partly because we realize that much of what we count happiness didn’t come through our reason and strategizing anyway. So people today are fighting with their own heritage of skepticism and looking for “miracles”. They are looking for breakthrough moments when divine light shines through the fog of being human, or blows down the barriers that constrain or undermine our best intentions.  

Team Meditation 

Acts 10:44-47  ⁴⁴ While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.  ⁴⁵ And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.  ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared,  ⁴⁷ "Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 

The ongoing scandal of the Gospel is that God’s Spirit is poured out on strangers. Cornelius and his soldiers had not even the benefit of a membership assimilation class, but the Spirit is poured out on them. Whether we interpret speaking in tongues literally or symbolically, we cannot doubt that their hearts were overflowing with miraculous love and praise. This is the joy of worship, and it should be the essential joy of every worship service. Is that joy in your hearts? 

Worship Theme 

The ancient church was particularly impressed by the symbolism of numbers. For example they saw a parallel between the 40 days when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness; the forty days of Jesus’ temptation; and the 40 days of that marked the last journey to the cross. There is another symbolic time. According to tradition, it was fifty days between the Passover to the announcement of the Law of Moses on Mt. Sinai. And it was fifty days between the resurrection of Christ and the revelation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. To Christians, this revelation of the Holy Spirit was as significant as the giving of the Law. It marked a new covenant … a fresh start … and a miraculous intervention that promised God’s Grace that would free us from our habits of disobedience. In the old days, we thought we could do righteousness on our own. Now we rejoice that what we could not achieve by ourselves, God has done in Jesus Christ. Fresh air!