Great Expectations

Have your preconceived expectations ever been met with disappointment?

One of my favorite holiday classics is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Okay…I’m not upholding this movie as a family “must-see.” Even so, I get a kick out of it every time I watch it! In many ways, it is the story of every family who tries to put on a “big, old-fashioned, fun, family Christmas.” If you haven’t seen the movie, it is basically one man’s struggle to have his entire family (in-laws included) under his roof for the Christmas holidays. From the 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights to the 20ft Christmas tree, I guffaw as I see the ridiculous measures the father takes to make Christmas grand.

Meanwhile, another plotline has to do with the father, Clark Grizwald (played by Chevy Chase) and his employment. By trade, he is a nutritional food additives designer (too funny), and his division has created a new “semi-permeable, non-nutritious crunch enhancer” that, when applied to a cereal flake, will keep it from getting soggy in milk (don’t we wish that was real!). Anyway, because of this big breakthrough, Clark is expecting a handsome Christmas bonus. In advance of his award, he decides to go ahead and put a hefty down payment on a backyard swimming pool. Anticipating a large five-figure check to come in any day, Clark sets his sights on making the house just perfect for the holidays.
Well, as you can imagine (and probably have experienced), the entire event spirals into disaster as the extended family begins to show up one by one, including the crazy brother-in-law (played by Randy Quaid) and his misfit family. To top it all off, the promised bonus check fails to arrive until Christmas Eve, and, upon opening it, Clark discovers in horror that the expected windfall has been substituted by a menial Jelly of the Month Club membership! With this final blow, Clark has a mental breakdown and proceeds to destroy what’s left of any holiday spirit!

Have you ever had a holiday like that?

Moreover, have you ever built up and expectation in your mind of something that didn’t come to be just like you thought it should?

Followers of Jesus had, in many ways, experienced this let down as well. For so long, they had been groaning for a messiah – a national messiah – to come and reek punishment on those who opposed God’s Israel. In the end (so they thought), Jesus had turned out to be little more than a flash in the pan…a failure like so many before him. And as we see two disciples walking on the Emmaus road, we are confronted with both failed expectations and hope of the resurrection.

As you worship this week:

Meditate – on how Christ is the “expectation-meeter” for the world
Contemplate – the contrasts between what the world wants and what Christ offers.
Seek – a deep sense of joy in knowing that Christ has overcome death and the world.
Find – the joy of hospitality as we are all invited into the banqueting table of God’s grace.

Resounding Themes:

God’s Lavish Hospitality
From the Old Life to the New
Resurrection Hope
Joyful Knowledge of the Christ

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

Luke 24:13-35

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

- What has just happened before the men take their journey to Emmaus? Why is it ironic that they are leaving Jerusalem? What are the men doing as they journey? Who joins them? Why don’t they react immediately?

- What story do the men tell the stranger that has joined them? Clearly, what were there expectations of Jesus? Why have they given up hope?

- How does the stranger respond to their story? At what point do they recognize the man as Jesus? How do they respond and where do they go? What do they tell the Eleven?

- Have you ever had a failed expectation of God? Who failed – God or your preconception of what He should be? How does Jesus overcome failed expectations through the resurrection? How, specifically, have you experienced the hope of seeing Christ revealed in your own life?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Holy God, You have revealed Your nature to us in so many ways – each and every day. The earth proclaims Your glory. All the heavens shout Your praise. The universe declares Your majesty. And the complexity of humankind testifies to Your infinite wisdom and power. And even if all our senses were robbed from our bodies – that we couldn’t see nor hear nor touch Your beauty – Your presence would be felt deep within us, as the Spirit translates glory to glory.

And yet, we have also seen Your glory in more radiantly in the flesh-man of Jesus Whom You sent full of grace and truth. Though His life, sacrifice, and victorious resurrection from the dead, our eyes have been opened to Your eternal purpose and mission for the world. All of our hope and joy – both present and future – rests on our ability to recognize the risen Christ!

Lord, continue to open the eyes of our heart – we want so desperately to see You!

And through our Savior we pray. AMEN.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!

From Sidelines to Stardom

Have you ever had to sit on the sidelines of life?

One of the more storied accounts of a person going from the sidelines to stardom comes to us from the movie Rudy, released in 1993.

Rudy Ruettiger was born in 1948 in Joliet Illinois into a lower class family of steel mill workers. After barely graduating from high school, Rudy took the inevitable path that everyone from his town took of working at a power plant both before and after serving in the Navy. Yet, after losing his best friend in an industrial accident at the plant, Rudy decided to no longer waste time by putting off his dreams. He set out for the University of Notre Dame with hopes of one day playing football for the Fighting Irish. Yet, there were two very large obstacles that lay in his path: 1) he had very poor grades, and 2) he was half the size and weight of the average NCAA football player. Knowing that his future was laid out for him as a steel worker in Joliet, Rudy felt the burn for something more from his life, but seemed unable to achieve it because of his limitations.Yet, with passion on his side and after getting admitted into Holy Cross Junior College in South Bend (with much help by one particularly compassionate priest) Rudy spent his time studying and working as a groundskeeper at Notre Dame's Knute Rockne Stadium. During his time at Holy Cross, Rudy learned that he suffered from dyslexia, which had undoubtedly contributed to his previous academic struggles. However, taking his limitations in stride, he worked around his disorder and received good grades during his two years at Holy Cross.It took Rudy three semesters to be granted acceptance into Notre Dame as a transfer student. He almost didn't make it because Notre Dame does not accept seniors as transfer students. He then won a spot on the scout team, against who the varsity team ran its plays. Through two years of hard work, sleeping the broom closet at the stadium and begging every hour of his day toward his dream, he earned the respect of the Fighting Irish players and coaches, and in the last home game of his senior year, Rudy dressed for the game. During the last moments of the game, Rudy tackled the Georgia Tech quarterback and for the first time in Notre Dame history, a player was carried off the field on the shoulders of the rest of the team.Rudy Ruettiger received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Notre Dame in 1976.

Ahh…what a feel-good story that brings a tear to our eyes and stirs the heart of every underdog that ever lived! Indeed, the entire Bible is filled with stories of the underdog – the person that was made a somebody in the kingdom because of the touch of the Master’s hand. Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, the woman at the well, Peter, Paul…each were spiritual outcasts until the Lord inserted Himself into their lifestory and changed them forever.

This week, we’re going to look at another spiritual “sideliner,” a eunuch from Ethiopia, and how the touch of the Master’s hand made him a household name in the annuals of faith.

As you worship this week:

Meditate – on what makes you frail, inadequate to perform God’s mission to the world.
Contemplate – how your shortcoming is the beginning of God’s glory and his goal for your existence.
Seek – the healing hand of the Master and His ability to make something beautiful out of every life.
Find – the true joy that comes from embracing to Voice of Truth for your life and following wherever it leads.

Resounding Themes:

Made New, Made Free
The Healing Hand of Jesus
Reborn Into New Life

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

Acts 8:4-8, 26-40

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

- Where do we find Philip as this story unfolds? How do the people respond to him? Is there any irony that he now (after seeing Jesus perform so many) is using miraculous signs to affirm the work of God in his life? Where does the Spirit lead him to next?

- Who is this Ethiopian and where is he going? In his native land, who is he? To the Jews, who is he? Would he really ever have any chance at being a part of something big in the kingdom of God? As Philip applies the Scriptures, what truth is revealed?

- When the truth is understood, how does he respond? What happens next? Why is the immediacy of the situation so captivating? What is the true response of a soul set free? Why is the Ethiopian so joyful?

- What sideline of life are you sitting on? What inadequacy do you embody that keeps you from participating fully and freely? How has Jesus overcome your weakness to make you strong for His purposes? How can your shortcomings become a billboard for God’s glory?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Father, I pray to you the words of this song:
Who am I that the Lord of all the earthWould care to know my nameWould care to feel my hurtWho am I that the Bright and Morning StarWould choose to light the wayFor my ever wand'ring heart
Who am I that the eyes that see my sinWould look on me with love and watch me rise againWho am I that the voice that calmed the seaWould call out through the rainAnd calm the storm in me Not because of who I amBut because of what You've doneNot because of what I've doneBut because of who You areI am a flower quickly fadingHere today and gone tomorrowA wave tossed in the oceanA vapor in the windStill You hear me when I'm callingLord You catch me when I'm fallingAnd You've told me who I amI am Yours

Father, we declare that we – in all of our inadequacy – are Yours, to be used for Your purposes. Lord, pull us from the sidelines and give us a roll in Your mission to the world. We declare that we are “somebody” in Christ.

And it’s in His name we pray. Amen.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!

Good At Judging....Bad At Good Judgment

Have you ever been quick to judge and slow to use good judgment?

I have issues with many drivers on the highway. Okay, let’s be honest, I have issues in general! But when it comes to bad drivers, I can get incensed in a heartbeat.

For example, don’t you just hate it when a lane is about to end – it’s been advertised for at least a mile in bold letters and flashing lights – and inevitably, some poor misguided soul tries to get into that very lane and pass you…only to have the lane end and have to merge back into traffic – most often right in front of you. I despise that.

And don’t get me started on motorcycles. I know that there are thoughtful, responsible riders out there who obey the laws and give the entire genre a good name. Yet, for every one of them, there are three idiots on super-speed racing bikes that have zero regard for anyone or anything! They weave in and out of traffic, between lanes, and (the most supreme annoyance), ride wheelies going 60mph down the interstate. That really gets my indignation dander up!

And just today, I was headed out alone to a lunch appointment across town. At one point in the voyage, I found myself in a construction zone and, as is always my luck when navigating narrowed lanes on an interstate, I got boxed in by semi’s! At any rate, ahead of me, there was a person operating (I use that term loosely) a minivan, driving wildly, and swerving from lane to lane. Immediately, my righteous indignation faculty began to engage, and I commenced verbally (remember, I was in the car by myself!) accusing the driver of everything under the sun from being a chronic alcoholic to acting insensitively for talking on the phone or playing with the radio. “What an idiot!” I thought to myself, as I observed how well I was obeying the rules while this would-be moron carved a swath of vehicular desecration ahead of me!

However, as I approached the van to pass, I looked over into the driver’s window – hoping possibly to pass on a judgmental stare – and noticed that the businessman’s white color was covered with blood! As I did a double-take, it was obvious that the man had been struck with an awful nosebleed (nostrils packed with fast food napkins) and was simply trying to get off the highway but couldn’t because of the semi’s. Feeling sheepishly stupid, I pulled in front of him and blocked out a semi so the man could go around and exit off the freeway.

How quick we are to pass judgment on others...and, too often, slow to use the good judgment that comes from seeing an entire situation clearly. And yet, as tempting as it is to be judgmental in a motor vehicle, how often are we tempted to judge the sins of others – in light of our own apparent “righteousness.”

In the story of the prodigal son, we see three parties (the young son, the old son, and the father) and how each of them reacts to the real-life prospect of forgiveness and restoration. As you prepare for congregational worship this week, find yourself in each individual’s sandals and be ready to ask yourself the question, “which person am I?”

As you worship this week:

Meditate – on what is it to be saved – truly saved – by the reconciling hand of the Master.
Contemplate – how your life is/should be different because of the pardon afforded by Jesus’ blood.
Seek – Christ’s capacity to offer forgiveness and compassion to everyone you encounter, no matter their apparent condition or position.
Find – full knowledge of both the acceptance and restoration that is offered through the benevolent, loving Father.

Resounding Themes:

Acceptance
Forgiveness
Restoration
Lost But Found, Blind But Seeing

Getting READY to Worship

Ready, Set, READ

Luke 15: 11-32

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

· As the scene opens, what transaction has taken place? Does this seem natural or out of the ordinary? How does the younger son act? What is the father’s apparent reaction?
· What does the son do with his newfound wealth and freedom? What are his highs? His lows? Eventually, where does he find himself? What does he find himself in need of?
· Upon his return, what scene unfolds between the father and the youngest son? What could have (maybe even should have) happened? What role does the older son play? How does he react to the news? What does the Father tell him about the reality of their relationship? What is revealed about the nature of the father?
· In this narrative, who are the three main characters? What does each one of them represent individually? Which one do you most relate to? Be honest! Which one do you have a hard time coming to terms with?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Lord God, how many sides of Your transcend character can we count? You are all powerful – that is beyond contestation. Your foolishness – if that were possible – demarcates the penultimate of humankind’s wisdom. Your presence is both everywhere and right beside us; we know that full well. You are loving, patient, faithful, righteous, holy, sovereign, forever…what a mighty God we serve!

Yet, in the perfection of all Your characteristics, we see You most clearly as a Father. Indeed, You are the Father Who allows us the freedom to accept or reject a parent’s love. You are the Father that desires honesty in our response to Your advances more than mere adherence or obedience. And You are the Father Who, from a long way off, sees His child returning home from a long voyage in the distant land of rebellion and runs to meet them with open arms of acceptance and forgiveness. If we comprehended nothing more about You than this…it would be enough to praise You!

And yet, You are so much more – too wonderful to comprehend or too lofty to attain. Lord, in our weakness, would You restore us and set us apart for Your purposes? And would you also grant us the ability to see others with Your eyes - the eyes of the faithful, forgiving Father - that we, too, we be reconcilers in the kingdom.

Majestic Father, we seek both Your glory and this blessing.
In and through the power of Your Son.

AMEN.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!