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?

You never know

You can never know. Be immediately suspicious of anyone who tells you otherwise. You can be pretty sure. You can be confident. You can be sure enough to move. But, you can never be absolutely certain. About anything. Ever. You can never know.

So when you need to make a decision, you need something besides certainty. You need something that will make up the difference between what is and what might be. You need to have something that you can trust.

Merriam-Webster defines "trust" as - belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.

So you're always putting faith in someone or something else, feeling assured that one or more of these qualities - reliability, goodness, honesty, effectiveness, etc. - are present.

Placing trust in a thing requires physical evidence - I've sat in that particular chair or one just like it; so I can trust that chair, and I will put all my weight on it, being confident that it will hold me and not break and not cause me injury.

However, I'm sure we've all sat in a chair that broke, or know someone else who has.

Placing trust in a person requires relational evidence - I have taken that person's advice or followed that person into a difficult situation, and they stood behind their words, they did what they said they'd do, and the results were, more or less, what they insisted they'd be; so I will follow them again, trusting that the same will be true this time, as well.

However, I'm sure we have all placed our trust in people who've been trustworthy, and they've let us down.

Trust is hard and risky and dangerous. It just is. But, without trust, we can't do anything; we'd never get out of bed. Without trust, we can't interact with anyone; we'd never say anything. To anyone.

Trust is the engine for everything that's worth doing, and it's the bedrock of faith. When Jesus says, "I will never leave you or forsake you," or, "I will give you rest," or, "I'm preparing a place for you," or, "I will be with you," you can never know for sure that it's true; but you can be confident, you can be sure enough to move, you can trust.

Certainty is a vapor, blown away by a gentle breeze, but hope, trust, love - these are eternal.

Join us Sunday as we wrap up our series on trust with the story of Jesus calling the apostles to follow him. We meet every Sunday afternoon, 3:30 p.m., at the St. Peter Life Center, 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights. Come early for coffee, snacks and conversation. Follow the sign.

See you soon!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “What’s Next?” (disciples)
Main Scripture passages: Luke 5:1-11, Matthew 4:21-22

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you trusted and been betrayed?
• When have you trusted and been blessed?
• How does trust differ from something like Pascal’s Wager (google it)?
• What are some of the downsides of trusting? Not trusting?

What's the hold up?

Have you ever had one of those nightmares where you were being chased by a monster or a murderer or something, and you couldn’t run? As hard as you tried, you could only move really, really slow - like your feet were stuck in molasses, and your joints were too tight to move quickly. 

Or how about that dream where you were trying to defend yourself in a fistfight, but your punches were all completely powerless, doing no damage whatsoever when they connected?

Or how about the one where you have to get to the door and get out, but the door is at the end of the hallway, and the faster you run, the further the door gets, as it seems to stretch ahead infinitely?

In all those cases, there is this obvious goal that might even be life-or-death, but it was foiled by this inexplicable, debilitating resistance that prevented your action and drained you of momentum.

I think these nightmares spring from a real fear of powerlessness. In our day-to-day lives, we feel powerless to affect our environment, and in our dream life, this fear manifests as real, inexplicable, physical resistance. But while running in molasses or not being able to connect a punch or not being able to reach the end of a hallway are not real problems, sometimes our feelings of powerlessness are.

But, sometimes they are not. Sometimes we only feel powerless, and all we need is for someone we trust to tell us that we can do it. Sometimes, all we need is a word of encouragement and a little push. And sometimes we need to just hunker down and do what we know is right, regardless of the naysayers. 

Join us this week as we talk about young David and how he responded to people who said, “It can’t be done.” Meet us at 3:30 p.m., 111 W. Olive St., Arlington Heights.

See you then!

Pastor Ed

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Message title: “Why Not Me?” (David)

Main Scripture passages: 1 Samuel 17:1-51, 1 John 4:4

Questions/thoughts for group discussion or personal reflection:

• When have you stood against something you knew was wrong?
• What’s your worst recurring nightmare?
• When does something go from being courageous to crazy?