Oops.

After this Sunday, you might have come to the realization that we did beatitude three out of order. I'd love to say that it was completely intentional, but it wasn't. When I started working on this series, I just started plugging the different beatitudes into the different weeks of the series, and I accidentally got two and three turned around. My bad.

However, it ended up working out. Now, Brian, who is sitting in for me this Sunday at both Quest and The Anchor, will be sharing "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth," and next week, I'll be sharing "Blessed are the mourners, for they will be comforted." Which means that "Blessed are the mourners" ends up falling on Memorial Day weekend. So, not intentional, but super appropriate.

By the way, don't worry; I'm not going anywhere. I'm just preaching this Sunday at Iowa City Church of Christ, the church where Kim and I got baptized, that we helped to build, and that supports us financially every month. I'm going to preach on dying to self (which you guys have already heard), and I'm planning to give them an update on both Quest and The Anchor, so they know exactly what they are supporting.

So pray for me as I'm away, but also pray for Brian, and for a great turn out at both locations. You will be blessed. I promise. 

See you next week!

Pastor Ed

The Walking Dead

The AMC program The Walking Dead (TWD) is a pop-culture phenomenon. It’s one of the highest rated programs in television history, loved by viewers and critics alike. It’s gritty and sexy and realistic and fantastical and deep and action-packed and dramatic and violent. But, at first glance, it seems like a pretty shallow premise.

It’s basically a zombie apocalypse story, drawn out for years. For those of you who aren’t fans of the zombie genre (yes, that’s a thing), zombies are the walking dead. They were once human, but they’ve died and been reanimated as soul-less shells, feeling no pain, and hungry for human flesh. Because they feel no pain and are obviously powered by something other than normal body function, they’re hard to stop. Terminating zombies usually involves stopping their brain function somehow, normally through decapitation or severe head trauma.

So, in some ways, TWD is a typical zombie story. But, there’s a twist. A big one.

In most zombie stories, zombie-ism is passed on from a bite, like rabies. But in TWD, (BIG spoiler alert) at the end of season one, we learn that zombie-ism isn’t caught; we ALL have it. Everyone who dies with brain function in the TWD universe, turns. Everyone becomes a “walker.” Everyone’s a ticking time bomb.

This changes everything.

Consequently, in the TWD universe, we’re all the walking dead. The show’s title doesn’t refer to the zombies, it refers to the survivors - the people looking for safety and hope and a life without fear. Which is interesting, because this is exactly how Paul describes people who have not discovered God’s love.

"You were dead in your transgressions and sins...gratifying the cravings of (your) flesh and following its desires and thoughts." *

We’re like the survivors on TWD, ticking timebombs walking around, dead in our sin. But once we figure that out, there’s hope. 

"Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions." *

We have the answer. We have the cure. Amen?

There’s hope!

Pastor Ed

* (Ephesians 2)

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SERIES TITLE: DYING2LIVE

MESSAGE TITLE: LIVE4HOPE | DIE2APATHY

MAIN PASSAGES: 1 John 4:7-8, 11-12, Matthew 25:31-40

Some questions for use in group or personal study.

• Share a time you thought you had it all figured out, but you found out you were wrong. 
• What’s the difference between being “dead in transgressions” and “alive in Christ?” 
• What are the similarities between being a “walker” and hell?
• What would be heaven to the survivors?

Back In the Day

I used to be able to work on my car.

When I was in high school, I drove a 1976 Ford Pinto Runabout. And when you opened up the hood, there were about five things under there. You could see exactly what everything was connected to, it was easy to understand what everything did, and you could pretty much reach everything with a socket wrench. One time, I actually replaced the points, plugs, and distributer on that bad boy. Quit laughing. I really did.

Those days are gone. These days, every cubic centimeter is packed with something. I can’t tell anything apart. And in order to work on anything, you have to remove two or three things, just to get at it.

The other day, my mechanic buddy, Mike, told me that someone brought in their new car with a blown headlight bulb, and he actually had to take off the front bumper to replace the bulb. It was, like, $160 in parts and labor. For a light bulb. Is it just me, or is that madness?

Most of what Mike tells me about working on cars sounds like voodoo magic and guesswork. So, I don’t even mess with it anymore. I can refill the fluids. That’s about it.

But guess what? I can still get in the car, turn it on, and drive to the grocery store, having no idea how to reset the manometer or where the ignition magneto is located. Ninety percent of the time, it still does everything I need it to do, no problem. And the other ten percent? That’s why I have Mike.

So, in a certain sense, driving my car around town is a little bit like walking The Way of Jesus. I don’t have to know every little detail about atonement and heaven and predestination and eschatology in order to get from Point A to Point B.

Ninety percent of the time, all I need to do is turn the key and go - the basics are all that’s necessary. And for the other ten percent, I have the Holy Spirit, the Bible, my pastor, and 6,000 years of biblical scholarship to fall back on.

This week, join us as we discuss who we are and who God wants us to become and how that path doesn’t require us to understand every tiny detail and every single nuance of God’s plan. At some point, we just have to trust that, if we turn the key, this car will get us where we’re going.

Join us this Sunday!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: DYING2LIVE

Message Title: live4growth | die2junk

Main Passages: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 12:1-3

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• In what area of your life has your faith produced the most growth?
• What have been your greatest stumbling blocks to growing in your faith?
• Share something you’re doing to intentionally to grow your faith.
• If someone asked you how to start learning about Jesus, what would you tell them?

The Tyranny of Distraction

How full is your DVR? I’m always fighting with mine. If I ever get below 50%, I get so excited. But, two weeks later, it’s right back to warning me that it might be too full.

“Are you sure you want to record this?” it asks me. “Maybe you should get some shows off of me and come back?” it says, with a wink. I know it’s just a machine, but I can’t help thinking that’s a little condescending.

Who are you to shame me for my addiction, DVR? You, who are my primary enabler? You, who keep enticing me with your easy search functions and your ability to record and store every viewing whim? You, who know full well that I’ve watched eight episodes of “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” in the last two days? Perhaps you should stop being so convenient? You mock me with your warnings.

But who can blame me? I’ve heard people say there’s nothing good on, but those people are crazy. Television used to be the filmmaker’s ghetto, where people went if they couldn’t make it in the cinema. But, today, there’s barely a difference between good TV and good movies.

Sure, there’s so much TV available today that for every good show, there are ten terrible shows. BUT still, if all you ever did was watch the really good stuff, you could still occupy every waking moment. So, quit judging me. My overflowing DVR is completely reasonable. Seriously, quit looking at me like that.

And while everything I just said is absolutely true, I’m really just trying to make excuses for myself. The DVR is just another way for me to stall. And you have them too. Your stall tactics might be different, but you have them. My full DVR is a convenient way for me to avoid connecting. It’s not overt. It’s not intentional. But it IS effective.

When I am catching up on my shows and speeding through the commercials, I am definitely not connecting with my neighbors. Sure, I might be collecting data that I can share around the water cooler. “Did you see last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead?” is a good conversation starter, but what difference does it make if your DVR has drained all of the margin from your schedule? How can I be Jesus to my neighbors if all of my free time is spent binging on TV?

So what do we do about it? As the saying goes, “Awareness is the first step to transformation.” During this Lenten season, you don’t have to give up the DVR (or whatever your distraction - sports - facebook - whatever), but maybe it would be a really excellent time to think about priorities. What is really important? Are your friends and neighbors and church family more important than your entertainment?

At this week’s Quest gathering, we’ll be discussing what it means to die to being busy and what it means to start living for others. And maybe joining us on Sunday would be a great first step.

Blessings!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: DYING2LIVE

Message Title: live4others | die2fences

Main Passages: Mark 12:31, Matthew 11:30

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• What’s your biggest distraction from living for others?
• If you’re not getting your emotional, spiritual, and physical support from your church family, where are you getting it? If you are, share some examples.
• Do your upbringing and experience support living for others or for self? Explain.
• What’s the difference between being responsible TO someone and FOR someone?

Why worship?

When you hear the word “worship,” what immediately comes to mind?

There might be a number of things, but if you’re the average, modern Jesus person, the first thing that probably popped into your head was the music part of church. Nowadays, the terms “worship leader” and “song leader” are basically synonymous. Not that that’s terrible or anything, but conflating “worship” and “music” probably does a disservice to both.

When you worship something, you’re ascribing it worth; you’re saying, “This thing is worth something.” Or in a religious context, you’re saying, “This thing is worth more than anything else.”

So, worship is not music. In fact, it’s not necessarily any particular thing we do on Sunday. But rather, worship is any time we put something first in our lives. And, hopefully, when we come together on Sundays, we’re worshiping God, and that’s good. That’s us recognizing who God is and acknowledging his identity through our actions. And one of those actions is singing songs of praise.

But this means that whenever we put something else first, we’re worshiping that thing instead of God. And there’s a word for that. Idolatry. And idolatry is not cool. In fact, it’s such a big deal that TWO of the Ten Commandments address it.

However, worshiping idols - idolatry - doesn’t necessarily mean erecting a stone altar and sacrificing a goat. It’s any time you put something ahead of God. You worship football, or food, or money, or musicians, whenever you elevate them above God. 

It’s even possible to elevate good, religious, Jesus-y things to the level of worship, but that’s still idolatry. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up worshiping music or preachers or doctrine or even the Bible. But none of those things are worthy. Only God deserves our worship.

Join us Sunday as we try to navigate our worship life and learn to live4worship and die2idols.

Blessings!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: DYING2LIVE

Message Title: live4worship | die2idols

Main Passages: John 4, Acts 17:24-25, Amos 5:21-24

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• When do you find it easiest to connect with God? (e.g., church, in nature, first thing in the morning, on long drives, etc.)
• What really moves you to worship - to feel inspired by or connected to God?
• Do you think worship is more about connection or awe? Why?
• With what parts of “worship” do you encounter the most personal struggle? (e.g., singing, giving, serving, prayer, etc.)

A Matter of Life and Death

“What are you giving up for Lent?”

Have you heard that yet this month? I haven’t because I come from a religious tradition that doesn’t really talk much about Lent. So it’s interesting to me that people make such a big deal out of it.

The word "Lent" comes from the Old English, “lencten," which means “spring," so it’s all about the season of new life that follows the dead of winter. But the church co-opted the Lenten celebration of new life in order to build anticipation for Easter - partly because this is actually the time of year when Jesus was living out his last days, but it is conveniently (or intentionally, perhaps?) symbolic of many other things as well. 

So, on one hand, the Lenten part of the church calendar seems like a no-brainer, but on the other hand, maybe not. If the 40 days of Lent are all about growth and new life and abundance, why do we celebrate it by giving things up? Did you ever wonder why that is?

I hope so, because that’s what we’ll be talking about every Sunday for the next five weeks running up to Easter. The ideas behind Lent are at the center of nearly every important concept in the Bible and Jesus spent over three years walking and talking and teaching about those ideas. This was clearly important to Jesus, and, as his followers, it should be equally important to us.

So, join us this Sunday (2/21/16) as we begin digging deeper into the relationship between Lent and Easter, between abundance and sacrifice, between life and death.

See you then!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: LIVE4JESUS

Main Scripture passages: Matthew 10:39, Luke 5:33-39

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• What is your favorite season, and why?
• If you give stuff up for Lent, why? If you don’t, why not?
• This series is called DYING2LIVE. What does that make you think of? Does it seem primarily positive or negative? What do you think the series is going to be about?