Randy Spleth

Randy Reflects - June 2009

On Being One Church

    On May 13, 1807, a Presbyterian minister by the name of Thomas Campbell arrived in the Philadelphia after a 31 day voyage from Ireland. Upon his arrival, he discovered that the Associate Synod of the North America of the Anti-Burger Seceder Presbyterians, the leadership body of his church in America, was in session. He presented his credentials and letters of introduction and they immediately appointed him to serve the presbytery of southwestern Pennsylvania.

    Campbell was given the village of Cannamaugh north of Pittsburgh as his parish on the third and fourth Sunday of the month. It is there where Campbell got in trouble. Believing deeply in the fellowship of all Christians, Campbell welcomed all believers to the table of the Lord, regardless of whether or not they had a connection with the Anti-Burger Seceder Presbyterian Church. This resulted in an immediate suspension of his standing, followed by a two year period of censure, rebuke and admonition.

    On September 7, 1809, Campbell and a number of like-minded Christians in western Pennsylvania, signed a document written by Campbell titled, "The Declaration and Address." Together they affirmed that the church of Jesus Christ is "essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one." It is the moment of conception of the restoration movement of the Christian Church.

    Each time we gather in worship, we give testimony to this moment. We offer an invitation to the Lord's Supper, an open call to all who believe.

    The 200^th anniversary of this moment of conception in communion is this year. Two celebrations of note will take place. One will be at the close of our General Assembly which meets this year in Indianapolis. Many have registered to participate. If you haven't, you can still attend the communion service, a special worship service on August 2, 2009, at 2:00 pm. It will held at the Indianapolis Convention Center. More information can be found at the Disciples web site.

    The second opportunity is October 4, 2009. Members of the restoration movement around the world will remember the essential, intentional and constitutional nature of the church in a Great Communion service. You can read about it at the Great Communion web site. Our worship services on the weekend of October 4^th also will focus on this day of celebration.

    On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, he not only took bread and wine. He offered a prayer that we might all be one. Each time we gather around the Table, we live out this prayer. I hope you will join me and your brothers and sisters in the restoration movement in these special bicentennial celebrations.

Bible Study for May 30 & 31, 2009

Title: Don't Just Sit There

Scripture: Romans 8:22-27

Text: Acts 2: 1-21

After the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the followers of Jesus regroup in Jerusalem. They cast lots for a replacement for Judas Iscariot. Then, they sit a wait for the promised Holy Spirit. It comes at the feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost was an agricultural festival marking the first harvest of the growing season. It was seven weeks after Passover.

The first description of the Holy Spirit is auditory. It sounds "like rush of a violent wind." Then it comes as a visual appearance like "tongues, as of fire." The resistance to describing the image of the Holy Spirit is consistent in scripture.

Whatever the image of the Holy Spirit, the result is clear. It motivates the followers to become witnesses. Peter proclaims, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." (Acts 2: 38.)

The Holy Spirit empowers the followers to become witnesses, to build the church, to minister to one another. As soon as they begin to do this, they see clear results. Three thousand join the movement. The Lord added to their number, "day by day." Even their miracle stories become active. Peter heals a man lame from birth who then stands, walks, jumps and leaps. The Holy Spirit calls them into action.

1. Can you describe the Holy Spirit?
2. Do you perceive yourself to be a follower of Jesus or a witness for Christ?

Bible study for May 24 & 25, 2009

Title: In the Shack with God: The Healing Circle

Scripture: Revelation 21: 1-7

Text: Isaiah 65: 16b-25

In 586 BC, the Babylonian Empire under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the Temple and leaving the Holy City in ruins. Understanding that any occupying force faces rebellion and insurrection, he took most of the Jewish population captive, sending them to various construction sites all over the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar II is the architect and king who presided over the famous Hanging Garden of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Forty years later, Cyrus and the Persian Empire conquered Babylon. He immediately released as many captives as would go home. Approximately 40,000 returned to Jerusalem. The apocalyptic vision offered in Isaiah 65 is of this moment of restoration. God is going to build a "new heaven and new earth" on the ruins of Jerusalem. The second Temple will be built.

Jerusalem functions both as the Holy City, as a place in time. But it also serves as a metaphorical location of the "new heaven and new earth," as the apocalyptic center when eternity begins. Whenever the phrase a "new heaven and new earth" is used, biblically minded readers recall the Creation narrative in Genesis 1, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Isaiah 65 is both temporal and eternal.

When the "new heaven and new earth" is created, God promises that "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4). It is a description of paradise, a place of the final healing.

In the novel The Shack, the main character Mackenzie glimpses this healing. It gives him earthy healing allowing him to return to his family even while he anticipates the heavenly healing his daughter received.

1. Do you experience healing when you imagine the final restoration when God creates a "new heaven and earth?"
2. Is complete earthly healing possible?

Bible study for May 9 & 10

Title: In the Shack with God: A Messy Garden

Scripture: Genesis 1: 1-5, 26-31

Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

One of the most powerful stories in the Bible is the Garden of Eden. It is used by theologians and school teachers, feminists and ecologists. The Garden is about more than a place and time.

Bible scholars call Genesis 2 and 3 the second creation story because it offers a different account than that which is found in Genesis 1. Not only is the content different on how humanity came to be, the writing style is different. A different author, the "J" writer or "Jahwist", penned the second creation story. The first creation narrative is attributed to the "priestly" writers.

Genesis 3 begins with the first question of the Bible. The serpent's question isn't about trees. It is about authority and obedience. The ability to consider the question separates Adam and Eve from all of the other creatures in the Garden; it also reveals our disobedient nature.

After eating the fruit, the first thing Adam and Eve discover is not the knowledge of good and evil, but the knowledge that they are naked. The author is using this revelation as shorthand to describe the human realization that we are not divine, but we are different from other animals. It is the birth of personal self-consciousness that both tantalizes the human spirit with visions of what we might be, while tormenting it with evil and brokenness.

1. Do you think God planned for Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit?
2. Do you think Adam and Eve had the power to resist the Temptation?

Randy Reflects - May 2009

What do They Mean?

What do those initials mean? I hear this occasionally when we abbreviate the church’s name to GCC or shorten the high school youth group to CYF.  Churches are bad about using initials. Initials are shorthand for something we think everyone knows.  In reality, it’s insider language.

I grew up in a home where shorthand was used. My mother was an executive secretary, beginning her career when Gregg’s shorthand was at the peak of its popularity.  Along with typing, she took two years of shorthand in high school, graduating with immediate marketable skills. For the first twenty years of her career, it served her well; then, dictation was relegated to tape recorders. Shorthand disappeared; but she used it all of her life. She took notes of phone calls and made grocery lists. She used her own insider language.

Instant messaging is a new shorthand, a quickly evolving language with over a million cryptic abbreviations. Online chat and text messaging allows for quick communication.  Active IMers (instant message users) assume that everyone knows these initials. In reality, it’s an insider language.

Just before worship began on Easter, I received a text message, “CIA!” The only CIA I know is the Central Intelligence Agency. My hurried reply was a question mark (?). The reply came back, “thnk ser.” It took a moment; then I got it.  “Christ is Alive!”  Cool. Christian IM.

I got to thinking. What if we stayed in touch with God the way we text friends and family. Just think how much closer we’d feel to God.  Instant messaging could be a way of living out Paul’s challenge to “pray without ceasing ( 1 Thessalonians 5: 17).” It could become your insider language.  If instant communication is important to stay in touch with those around us, it should be important to be in touch as often with God.

Accepting my own challenge, I created this Easter prayer as a text message to God.

OMG, CIA! LOL <g> u r BFF Thx TTYL.

Next time you text, take a moment to consider one for God.

Blessings,

Randy

P.S. My prayer for non-texters: ”Oh my God, Christ is Alive! Laugh out Loud. Grin. You are best friend forever. Thank you. Talk to you later.”

An Easter Invitation

 Go here for a video version of my Easter Invitation to you

This past weekend in our worship services, we joined Christians around the world to remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Children paraded Palms and shouted “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  For centuries, this ancient cry has signaled the beginning of Holy Week. The drama of the last week of Jesus’ life is remembered again.

Jesus will drive out the money changers from the Temple and be anointed in Bethany. He’ll share the Passover meal with his disciples. Then, he’ll take bread and wine, present them as his body and blood and challenge them and us to “Remember.”

On that night, he’ll be betrayed, arrested, flogged, tried and convicted. Good Friday comes and we remember God’s Son rejected and nailed to a cross.

It is a week of remembering and I invite you to remember in worship. Holy Week services prepare us to shout on Easter of the resurrection, to embrace God’s loving triumphant over sin and death.

Our Holy Week services will be held at our south campus. On Maundy Thursday, we will gather at 7:30 pm to share communion and remember.

A three hour vigil will take place from noon until 3:00 pm on Good Friday, six thirty minute services remembering the last words of Jesus on the cross. A full length service of remembering will take place at 6:00 pm that evening.

These services will prepare you for Easter.  I hope you can attend. If your schedule doesn’t allow you to be present, I encourage you to read the biblical account of Holy Week (Luke 19-23). Then you will be spiritually prepared to remember the resurrection on Easter.

We will offer six Easter worship services, three at each campus.  At the north campus on Promise Road, services will be on Saturday at 5:30 pm and Sunday at 9:30 and 11:00 am. At our south campus on Mud Creek, service times on Easter are at 9:00, 10:00 and 11:15 am. Visit our web site for directions.

I pray that this week is indeed a holy week for you and that God refreshes your faith in the hope of the resurrection.  May God bless you and all who shout, Christ has Risen, Risen indeed.

Bible Study for April 4 & 5, 2009

Title: [Re]Vision

Scripture: Zechariah 9:9-10
Text:  Luke 19:28-40

The arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem doesn’t just happen. Like a carefully planned spring break trip, everything is thought through carefully. Luke tells us that Jesus is in Jericho prior to his day of entry, a distance of about 17 miles. Likely the trip was a six hour journey by foot due to the rugged terrain of the Judean hills. 

Even though Jesus has traveled by foot during his three year ministry campaign, once he arrives at the suburbs of Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives. He pulls two of his disciples aside and says, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.” Jesus has clearly spent time preparing for this day. He knows exactly what type of colt he wants, one that had never been ridden. He knows exactly where the colt is. He's even worked out a response to the public relations problem of borrowing  a colt. "If anyone asks you ... just say this, The Lord needs it. "

Jesus is casting a very clear vision. He is stepping into Zechariah's prophecy of the long-awaited Messiah. "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zech. 9:9).

 When Jesus sat upon that young colt and began to ride into Jerusalem, some of the people around him were wise enough to see the moment as the beginning of salvation. They cut branches down and spread them on the ground in front of him. Many spread their cloaks on the ground. They began to shout, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!" 

Others have a different vision of what is going on. The Pharisees see an imposter. The Zealots see a liberator. Even his disciples have a different vision than what is actually going on. It begins a week of revisions and new insights into who Jesus is.

1.  When you remember the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, what first comes to mind?
2.  What vision do you have of the arriving king?

Randy Reflects - April 2009

Being in the Conversation Business

I am in the conversation business. Every day, I talk and listen. I talk and you listen (at least most of you listen) when I preach. I listen and you talk when I offer pastoral counseling. I talk to God and you listen when I pray for you in the hospital. I talk and listen all day long. I am a conversationalist, brokering a dialog about God.

When I listen, I hear questions about life. Last week I heard, “Somehow, I always thought life would be simpler. I need a place to figure it all out.”  She is not alone. Year after year, surveys indicate that American’s are deeply spiritual people.  We want spiritual clarity about our complex lives. We search for meaning and ways to fulfill our calling in life.

If you listen, you will find neighbors and friends saying, “I need a place to figure it out.” If you talk, you can help them find answers. You need to enter the conversation business.

Throughout the ages, the mission of Jesus Christ has grown and thrived by conversations. The gospel is spread by word of mouth, one by one, listening and talking. The truth of God’s love for humanity is offered person to person. I invite you to become a conversationalist about God, to offer a word-of-mouth testimony about your faith and where it is taking you.

Within the next few weeks, new life springs forth, both from the ground and the grave. It is a perfect time to have a conversation about new life. Listen and talk, about our mission and ministry. Extend an invitation to someone who is searching. Extend an invitation for them to join you in our conversation at Geist Christian Church.          

One way to offer that invitation is by picking up several postcards following worship over the next few weeks that have listed our Holy Week and Easter worship services. Easter is one of those moments when your friends, neighbors and colleagues are looking for a place to worship. Be the one to extend that invitation. We’re all in the conversation business when it comes to sharing our faith.

Bible study for March 21 & 22, 2009

 Title: [re]Act: Missional

Text:  Luke 19: 1-10

The story of Jesus’ encounter with a stranger takes place in a strange place. Jesus has just entered Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world. It was the place of power and influence but the point of interest in the story is a powerful man, Zacchaeus and the strange encounter is up a tree. Jesus meet Zacchaeus looking down at him from a sycamore tree.

First century tax collectors regularly exploited others for their own gain. As the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus would benefit from other tax collectors. By definition, he is the chief exploiter. Jesus asked the “chief exploiter” to invite him to his home. Jesus has encountered criticism for his choice of company in the past. Dining with Zacchaeus simply underscores this scandalous behavior and invites immediate grumbling.

There is an immediate transformation. Zacchaeus offers to make restitution, far and above what any law would require. By the simple encounter, Zacchaeus reacts to Jesus and joins the mission.

1.        Why do you think Zacchaeus was so curious as to climb a tree?

2.       What caused Zacchaeus instant transformation?

Bible Study for March 14 & 15, 2009

Title:  [re]Act: grace-filled

Text:  Luke 15:1-32

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is likely the best known and best loved parables of Jesus. The word prodigal isn’t used by Luke. It comes from the Latin word “prodigere” which means to waste. A more contemporary translation might be titled, "The Parable of the Wasteful Son." This puts the emphasis of the story solely on the younger son and offers at the outset, criticism.

The parable actually begins, “There was a man who had two sons.” While we place the emphasis on the younger, wasteful son, Jesus is clearly focusing on the father and his response. According to Jewish custom, a younger son could receive one third of the inheritance usually received at the father’s death. While we are offended at the asking, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to grant such a stake early. It allowed the younger son to start his life. The father lovingly offers his shares of the inheritance.

After squandering his share of the inheritance, the younger boy “comes to himself”, a phrase which has Semitic origins. It means he literally repents of his ways and returns home. His father more than welcomes him; he restores his place of honor in the family and kills a "fatted calf" to symbolize a special and festive occasion.  His return is truly grace-filled.  The father lovingly embraces his lost son.

The second part of the story deals with the elder son who resents the treatment his younger brother receives. The father also goes out to meet the elder son and offers him grace as well. The father lovingly embraces this son too.

1. Which of the three characters in the story do you most relate to?
2. Is it harder for you to offer grace or receive it?