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WORSHIP

We Are Not Fine | A 4-Part Warm-Up Exercise (<10 MINUTES)

This is the kind of prompt where, even if you’re doing the spotlight with a group, you can basically read to yourself and then do the things that it asks. Work together and leave nobody behind, but think of it more as a personal exercise than a group activity.

STEP ONE

To start, you need a way to write - a piece of paper or a computer with a blank document open or the notes app on your phone. The video of the song “I’m Not Fine” by The Welcome Wagon is below. You’ll have the duration of that song (2 minutes and 29 seconds) to write as many things as you can that frustrated or annoyed you over the course of the past week. They can be about the news or other people or your family or whatever, but don’t stop writing. (In case you’re the kind of person who gets distracted by the words of the song, don’t worry. This song repeats lines “I’m not fine and you’re not fine and we’re not fine together here.” and “I told you I was sorry, doesn’t feel like it’s enough.” basically the whole time.)

STEP TWO

After the song is done, you need to separately write down 5 specific things about yourself that you were frustrated or annoyed by this week. Take the time you need - write good ones. Click here to see my piece of paper at this point if you need some inspiration.

STEP THREE

OK. I misled you a little bit in step 1. I said that the song repeats just two lines the whole time. It mostly does, up until 1:22. At that point, it changes. For this step, you’ll start the video to 1:22 (pre-loaded for you below) and (in large-ish letters) write down the 8 words the female voice repeats starting at that point. Do it now…………………

Did you get them? If for some reason you didn’t, they are “Lamb of God, you take away the sin.”

STEP FOUR

After the song repeated “Lamb of God, you take away the sin” eight times, there were four variations of the “I told you I was sorry…” line. If you don’t mind, please write them as your confession to God at the bottom of the page (or on the back if you’ve run out of room.) The four lines are these:

I told you I was sorry. Are you sure that it’s enough?
I told you I was sorry. Doesn’t feel like it’s enough.
I told you I was sorry. Is it ever enough?
I told you I was sorry.

I TOLD YOU I WAS SORRY | An EXPLORATION | <6 MINUTES

Here’s a true thing: I have no idea if you’ll find the Facebook post below offensive, hilarious, way-off-base, or absolutely spot-on.

Here’s another true thing: You have an opinion

• about this post,

• about the novel Coronavirus,

• and about the reactions to it.

(It’s OK. Everybody does.)

This Coronavirus/COVID-19 moment has come upon us in a time where accessing true or false information and saying whatever-you-want-however-you-want have never been easier. It’s why the World Health Organization isn’t just concerned about a pandemic - they’re also concerned about an INFOdemic. (Here’s another story that talks about the infodemic issue if you’re not a fan of the potential political bias of the first one. See? Opinions!)

All this has led to hearing and reading statements from your friends and loved ones like:

“I made the mistake of watching the news…”

“I wasn’t thinking and started scrolling through Facebook…”

along with innumerable instances of reactions that start with four short words that have never, ever led to a peaceful solution:

“Look, I’m sorry, but…”

And while saying you’re sorry is very often a good and godly thing, in these cases it always seems to mean something like this:

Let’s talk about this word, Sorry. It’s different from the word apology. Apology means to give a defense, or to explain. Sorry isn’t about a reasonable explanation for what you’ve done (or what you’re about to say.) Sorry is about feeling. It comes from the word sore. To be sorry is to be hurting - not with a pain that is your own but with a pain that you’ve caused someone else. It has some similarities in meaning to the words “sympathy” and “compassion,” which mean to “suffer with” someone else - but being sorry usually implies that you’re the cause of the suffering in the first place.

Jesus had a good understanding of this feeling, this palpable pain, and the book of Hebrews in the Bible explains it really powerfully, starting with Hebrews chapter 5 vss 7-9. Before we read these, remember two things: Jesus was perfect (so he had nothing to be sorry for) and Jesus was God (so nothing should have been out of his reach.)

Hebrews 5:7-9 | During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Now, Melchizedek is a pretty obscure character from the Old Testament - he doesn’t have fun songs about animals and arky-arky’s or letting my people go. He does, however, have a sort of theological significance because he was a priest, but he wasn’t a Jewish priest. He wasn’t a ceremonial priest. He was a priest way back when Abraham was alive, before his descendants were slaves in Egypt and then the Israelite nation was formed and the commandments and the priesthood was established and all of that. Mechizedek was more of a naturally occurring, organic priest of the true God who had a very special role outside of the Law and as it happens Jesus has a similar role as priest in many ways and the book of Hebrews spends a lot of chapters 5-10 explaining that. (Well worth a read this week if you’re looking for something to study.)

Here’s another example of how Hebrew’s talks about this:

Hebrews 7:24-28 | because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. 

So, Jesus compassionately intercedes for us, suffering with us, and he also suffers for us as he himself is sacrificed.

This is why Jesus is called the lamb of God, because he’s the one who not only feels the same pain as you do but literally suffers it in your place. Every pain, from sin or weakness or life on a broken planet, Jesus suffers for you to the fullest extent. COVID-19 and everything that comes along with it? Jesus suffers those for us. Sickness is a little version of death - a reminder that life won’t keep on forever - and a virus like this that particularly puts the oldest of us at risk is all the more a reminder of the death that is coming.

It’s a frightening thing, and sadly I saw people on the internet and in conversation saying things with a lot of vim and vigor that weren’t fact-based truths but suspicions and opinions and frenzied exaggerations and we need, today, to be clear about what those are.

You see, you can’t handle it, whatever it is. It can be the Coronavirus or betrayal or loneliness or regret or foolishness or whatever. You and I, simply by being human beings, are not up to the task. We need a lamb - someone who will handle it for us. And if you’re hiding behind your opinions because you’re afraid of death and having an opinion and voicing that opinion makes you feel in control and that control makes you feel self-reliant than be aware that self-reliance tiptoes right up close to thinking you don’t need God and that, I’m afraid, is blasphemy.

Saying sorry without feeling the pain of the person to whom you say it is a form of blasphemy.

Rolling your eyes at other people’s fear is blasphemy.

Getting up in arms because someone isn’t as serious as you are about things is blasphemy.

You’re making yourself into a little God, elevating yourself above your place - and your condescending statements are proof of the fact that you’ve elevated yourself. Let’s be clear: that is not the way Jesus lived. He made himself less, so he could experience the pain of what we truly are.

So look, I get it. People who believe in God are asking a question that goes something like “What is God going to do about this pandemic?” and they’re afraid because there’s no clear answer to that. The good news is this: you’re asking the wrong question. The real question is “What has God already done about the pandemic?” And the answer? He has suffered it. He has endured it. He has overcome it. Even though you are weak, though you aren’t seeing positive change or a flattening curve, though you don’t know what’s next, and though you think the world is crazy, he is with you, loving you, and loving everyone else no matter how they feel.

So, be sorry - compassionately, sympathetically, and honestly sorry - to Christ for the suffering you caused him, and to others for the pain you cause them.

Exercise this sorry-ness by reading the verses below, taking special note of the flow of the lines in bold.

PSALM 32:1-5

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, 
whose sins are covered. 
Blessed is the one whose sin
the Lord does not count against them 
and in whose spirit is no deceit. 
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away 
through my groaning all day long. 
For day and night your hand was heavy on me; 
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. 
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” 
And you forgave the guilt of my sin. 

FINISH THE WORSHIP PORTION BY MEDITATING ON THE HYMN “A LAMB GOES UNCOMPLAINING FORTH”

LEARN

Near the end of the book of Hebrews, Jesus the Priest is brought up again in a complicated set of verses. Read them now, then watch the video, and we’ll revisit them.

Hebrews 13:11-16The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. 

If you’re doing the Spotlight with others today, share your biggest take away from the discussion in the video.

Hebrews 13:11-16 & a Pandemic Action Plan

Use the slideshow below to guide a discussion of these verses. Note that the slides come in pairs, first a question, then an answer. Consider and (if you’re in a group) discuss the question before looking at the answer!

11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. 

SERVE

Responding well to the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 response requires rethinking some things. Here’s a great example of rethinking well.

You’re not done with this spotlight until…

You get ahold of an actual staff member or volunteer at your church or a local school and find out from them one specific way you can EITHER

• serve someone

• help at the church/school

• cheer someone up

• relieve someone of social-distanced children (babysit)

• grocery shop for someone

• print a copy of the Quarantine Activity Book and deliver it to someone

• share your stash of toilet paper with someone

or something else that’s particularly kind and can be shared with the hashtags #feelingfine and #seelifebetter.

FAREWELL

To close today, choose one of the ways to pray from our “Praying through a Pandemic” prayer guide.

Consider donating to the COVID-19 Response Fund or to our church plant here in Seattle, Illumine Greenwood.

Finally, close with this song that praises God for all that he has already done.

DESERT SONG by HILLSONG

This is my prayer in the desert when all that’s within me feels dry.
This is my prayer in my hunger and need: my God is the God who provides.
This is my prayer in the fire, in weakness, or trial, or pain.
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold, so refine me, Lord, through the flame.

I will bring praise. I will bring praise.
No weapon formed against me shall remain.
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and he is here.

This is my prayer in the battle, when triumph is still on its way:
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ, so firm on his promise I’ll stay!

I will bring praise. I will bring praise.
No weapon formed against me shall remain.
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and he is here.

All of my life, in ev’ry season, you are still God. I have reason to sing. I have reason to worship. (4x)

I will bring praise. I will bring praise.
No weapon formed against me shall remain.
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and he is here.

This is my prayer in the harvest, when favor and providence flow.
I know I’m filled to be emptied again. The seed I’ve received I will sow.