Newsletters and Calendar April 2010

Stay informed of events and opportunities within the NBRC community.

• The Messenger Newsletter (PDF)
• The Shepherd’s Kids and Young Adult News (PDF)
• Please refer to our Online Event Calendar for the latest dates and times.

Note: You need an Adobe PDF reader installed to read a PDF document. If you don’t have one installed, you can download a free PDF reader at www.adobe.com.

Upcoming April Workshops

The Center for Life Transitions is offering a variety of exciting workshops through June. These workshops span a broad range of topics and are lead by local experts.

April workshops in New Jersey include:

• Practical Steps for Clutter-Free Living: Empowering Methods for an Organized Life
• Create Balance, Relieve Anxiety & Find Happiness
• It’s All About Communication
• Understanding Yourself and Others Thru Myers Briggs
• Health Literacy for a Conscious Lifestyle
• Job Search Courage – Looking Inside and Out for Hope and Help
• Discovering the Great Unknown – Redefining Your Dreams in the Prime of Your Life

Visit the website for more information and registration details. Please share with a friend.
Thank you!

Palm Sunday Service 03-28-2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF JESUS
Selected gospel verses

You pay attention to a loved one’s last words. Words like, I love you, or, Take care of your sister, or, Peter Marshall, Chaplain of US Senate’s, famous last words to his wife, as they carried him out in the stretcher after his second heart attack, See you in the morning! And, indeed, she did–on the first heavenly morning they spent together.

As I’ve told you before, I have always been inspired by my preacher grand-father’s last words. As Gramma and my mom were rushed into his bedroom for their final good-bye, he pointed up. Mom said, Dad, soon you’ll hear the angels sing. And my Gramma chimed in, And Jesus will say, Well done! He replied with a last word that has inspired me about that last step between this world and the next. Simply, Applaud.

And so it is that on this Palm/Passion Sunday, I want us to pay attention to Jesus’ seven last words. They transform us as they tell us who he is for us and for others.

The first 3 of his last 7 words tell us how much he loves us. Beginning with Father forgive them for they know not what they do. What a loving thing to do, to forgive with one’s last breath. But who is he forgiving? The soldiers, who are part of the execution detail that are just doing their job? They’re calloused to Jesus’ screams, and just pound the nails and hoist the cross up, dropping it with a thud in the hole. The religious leaders who manipulated Pilate and the Romans? The Romans who did it? Or you and I? I believe it is all of us. Especially us. So we can stand amazed by such grace.

The second word is Today you will be with me in Paradise. This was spoken to one of the two thieves between which Jesus was crucified. One was a thug who mocked Jesus, If you’re the Messiah save yourself and us. But the other thief rebuked him, Hey we’re here for a crime, but Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong. Then he asked Jesus to remember him. Isn’t it loving that Jesus did evangelism till his last breath? I’ve been praying to share my faith more often. To a Jew who was losing faith after a death, I said, When I lost a child I had to yell at God for a while. Jesus did the same on the cross. Try it. Since then I am praying that the Holy Spirit will help and bring him to the cross.

To a woman turned off years ago when her church choir scolded her for working on Sundays, I said, I understand that the church can seem judgmental, almost like God’s enemies. I love you and your family. I hope you’ll consider NBRC your church family.

The third word displays family love. Among the few friends that stayed to witness Jesus’ death were his widowed mother and probably single disciple, John. And so with his last breath Jesus instructed them to care for each other. And so Jesus’ infinite love strengthens us to care for, and be taken care of by our family, and church family.

Words 4 and 5 speak of how much Jesus suffered for us. As the physical agony of pushing down on nails to lift up one’s chest to breathe increased, and the spiritual agony of bearing the weight of the world’s sins increased, Jesus let out this excruciating cry. Why would God forsake a son? Because God is so holy that God cannot even look upon sin. To redeem creation, Jesus had to suffer alone—in solitary confinement.

The fifth word highlights Jesus’ physical distress. As you may have swabbed a loved one’s mouth with that toothbrush sized sponge dipped in water, Jesus needed relief. So the Roman soldiers dipped a sponge in their version of a bucket of gatorade to quench his thirst. If you ever thought with the Gnostics that Jesus was just some New Age spirit with a fake body, here is proof of his humanity. In agony he endured that thirst so that he might quench our spiritual thirst and we might quench another’s.

The last two words speak of how well Jesus finished his mission. After Jesus received the liquid swab, he mustered his last amount of strength to whisper, It is finished. These words speak of a life well lived. A mission accomplished. And they teach us that if we’re going to receive the forgiveness of the first word and follow Jesus then we, too, must live lives of purpose and focus. And, even more than that, be willing to suffer to achieve God’s purpose! You see, sometimes I just want to receive the goodies— forgiveness, love—and bail when following gets hard. Hard like risking folks thinking I’m impolite by talking about my faith, or standing up for the unpopular when that’s unpopular. Or evaluating my politics on the basis of whether they help the weak…

But Jesus wasn’t completely finished until he commended his spirit to God. These words were part of every devout Jews’ evening prayer. And of the two signs that accompanied these last of the 7 last words, this one made it seem like evening. An eclipse of the noonday sun enveloped the cross in darkness. The God who wouldn’t look upon the sin for which his son suffered made sure that humans couldn’t look upon that suffering either. And then the second sign appeared. The 60 foot by 30 foot curtain woven in 72 separate squares that separated the Holy of Holies, God’s earthly throne room in the temple, from the Holy Place, was torn in two. Was it invisible hands that tore it? Or did the earthquake that happened just then cause a beam to fall down ripping the curtain at that moment? Regardless, now with the completed work of salvation we can go directly to God through Jesus, not through any priest, and live in God’s nearer presence everyday!

If you pay attention to Jesus’ last words you hear love, suffering and completion. Those are the words we need to speak about him to a world as spiritually thirsty as we.

---

Audio Recordings:
Learn how you can listen to the audio files streamed over the Internet, download files to your computer or download files to your portable media player. Visit our Podcast page for complete details.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Service 03-21-2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This week’s service included a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Enjoy!

---

Audio Recordings:
Learn how you can listen to the audio files streamed over the Internet, download files to your computer or download files to your portable media player. Visit our Podcast page for complete details.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Service 03-14-2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Scripture: John 6:25-35
Sermon: SPIRITUALITY ALL THE TIME
with little time: Family Devotions
by Pastor Todd Buurstra

In the years just after A.D. 60 the luxury of Roman society was unparalleled. It was at this time that they served feasts of peacock’s brains and nightingales’ tongues; that they cultivated the odd habit of taking emetics [to induce vomiting] between courses so that the next might taste better; that meals costing thousands of [dollars] were commonplace.… They would try anything for a new thrill, because they were both appallingly rich and appallingly hungry.

So writes William Barclay about Rome. Are we like the Romans? Look at what happened to Michelangelo’s David after just two years in the US! My cholesterol is a tad high, like Obama’s, because I’m a meat and potatoes guy. Then there’s our obesity epidemic. As the prophet cried out, Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?! Jesus felt this way about the Jews (and probably about us). [Y]ou are looking for me…because you ate your fill of the loaves. Jesus had just fed the 5000 with a few loaves and fishes. Wow, Jesus, can you turn this rock into filet mignon?!

ecortasqhte means to fill one’s belly like a grazing cow. Sounds like us, doesn’t it?

So, we are physically fat and spiritually famished. To quote God through another prophet, Amos, I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Physically fat, faith-famished. 90% of American households own a Bible, but 12% of adults believe Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc, only 42% can name 5 of the 10 commandments, and only 50% of American adults can name any of the four gospels. Think that’s bad? Test the next generation–it’s even worse because we don’t teach them! Most churchgoing families don’t feed their kids at home, i.e., spiritually, they rely on the Church School to do it. This is what kids look like if they eat only one spiritual meal a week!

Instead of another, amazing food miracle, Jesus offers them bread from heaven. Now they thought, Maybe Jesus means manna from heaven—like when our ancestors were 40 years in the wilderness? Didn’t that fall from heaven? [Actually there's a scientific explanation.] And weren’t we taught that the Messiah will be able to repeat that miracle? So their minds are still in their bellies. Sounds like a group of men, doesn’t it? Fastest way to a guy’s heart is through his belly? I guess turning 5 loaves and 2 fishes into enough to feed 5000 wasn’t enough?

So Jesus surprises them even further to say, I am the bread of life. What?! How can that be?? And even moreso, Whoever comes to me will never hunger or thirst! This is the turning point in the gospel of John. From now on folks leave him because he’s nuts. You can almost hear them mutter as they walk away, What rabbi teaches to eat his flesh?! If I take a bite of his arm, I’ll never be hungry again?! He’s crazy! Jesus, of course, is referring to the spiritual nourishment he gives. But they take him literally and walk away. So Jesus asks his disciples,

Do you also wish to go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom can we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Our culture, too, has turned away from Jesus to pursue physical food. Do you also wish to go away? By staying our family can feed on Jesus spiritually, so that we are spiritually fit.

How do we feed on Jesus? As you know, I come from a long line of Dutch pietists. My ancestors on my mother’s side, where all the ministers are, in a sense, fled religious persecution in the Netherlands 150 years ago. And they brought with them a meal time piety that taught that every family meal nourishes physically and spiritually. Obviously the physical nourishment is the meat and potatoes. The spiritual is the prayer before the meal, and the Bible reading after. In my house you couldn’t eat a meal without a prayer and a Bible verse—every meal! Many a summer night I squirmed in my seat, longing to join the baseball game outside, as Dad droned on about Hezekiah begetting Manasseh, who begat Amos, who begat, not Andy, but Zerubbabel… I much preferred Gramma’s house because she did creative things like write out a verse on a theme, and hide it under each plate, or she’d ask us for a Psalm and we’d try to remember, Which Psalm is 176 verses and which is 3: Psalm 117 or 119?! Though I didn’t experience many life-transforming insights from the practice, I did learn the importance of a spiritual meal.

If you want to feed your kids more than one meal a week at Church School, then let me help you. First, a little advice. And secondly, some resources to chew on. My advice is simply,

Effective family devotions are

Age-appropriate and

To the point.

Up until about 3rd grade we’d get on the floor after the meal and read their children’s Bible, given at baptism. After 3rd grade we picked a devotional written for their age. Now we read a devotional written by teens for teens. So stop by the Fellowship Hall table to peruse options.

After you decide on a resource you, too, can feed your family spiritually!

---

Audio Recordings:
Learn how you can listen to the audio files streamed over the Internet, download files to your computer or download files to your portable media player. Visit our Podcast page for complete details.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.

Service 03-07-2010

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Sermon: SPIRITUALITY ALL THE TIME
with little time
Meditation
by Pastor Todd Buurstra

Problems aren’t your problem. Huh? Our reaction to them is our problem. For example,

Problem: You get a D.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’m stupid. I’ll never get Calculus!
Qualification: Maybe, maybe not.

Problem: Your lover tells you: We’re thru!
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I have so screwed up this relationship! Really?
Qualification: Sure?

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’ll never get my kids through college.
Qualification: True?

Since Eve ate the kumquat, every human has suffered from stinkin’ thinkin’ because sin has affected us body (sickness), soul (selfishness), and mind (stinkin’ thinkin’). Paul’s mind must have been spiraling downhill as he sat there to rot in prison writing this letter to the Colossians. So Paul meditates, and calls us to the same, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, he says. How does Christ-centered meditation help us with stinkin’ thinkin’?

Well first, is what you’re doing Christ-centered meditation? In Paul’s words, is it the word of Christ that’s dwelling in you? I mean there’s a whole smorgasboard of meditation options out there. I remember hearing an otherwise pretty good reformed professor say once, Yoga is not Christian. What? I thought. I think yoga can be Christian, but what I think he was saying is that the act of just emptying your mind (like is popular now in yoga, or Transcendental Meditation, or any Eastern religion) is not Christian, per se. It’s what you fill your mind with.

Paul wants us to fill our mind with the word of Christ to purify stinkin’ thinkin’. So in his culture of many gods, he asserted, Christ is the image of the invisible God…all things have been created through him and for him… Christ is the head of the…church…so that he might come to have first place in everything… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Nothing else, no other god, no empty mind compares to the word of Christ.

And Christ’s word is not just to dwell in us, it is to dwell in us richly. You’ve heard about the little guy who gave me a penny the other Sunday? I stooped down and said Thanks, buddy. What’s this for? He said, It’s for you. My daddy says you’re the poorest preacher in town. How do I become a richer preacher to nourish your spirits more richly? Like communion, we let Christ’s word nourish us–the richest of fare! The Hebrew word for meditate shares the same root as a cow chewing her cud. Guigo said: “Scripture… Reading, as it were, puts the food into the mouth. Meditation chews it and breaks it up. Not the empty calories of an empty mind yoga, it’s the nourishment of Christ-centered meditation, which could be yoga.

Say more about how I let the word of Christ dwell in me richly? You find a verse through which Christ speaks to you, and chew on it. Turn it over in your mind until you think:

Problem: You get a D.
Meditation’ Thinin’: I Cor. 2:16: I have the mind of Christ. Hmmm, God gave me a mechanical mind.

Problem: Your lover says, We’re thru!
Meditation’ Thinin’: Jer. 31:3: I love you with an everlasting love. I am still loved.

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Meditation’ Thinin’: Phil 4:19: God will supply my need. We’ll be ok.

The waitress picked up a quarter and said, this is the best tip I’ll get all day. Why? You see all the napkins on the floor? Just before you there was a group of headstart kids here. They get one meal a day from their headstart class and this was their meal. Then their teacher gives them each a quarter to play one video game over there. You see, these kids don’t have Xboxes at home. This one little boy had been living in a rusted school bus, but now his family has upgraded to a shack. But his mom tries to make her kids rich on the inside. She tells her kids often, I Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all things. So he leaves his quarter to thank me.

That’s the power of letting the word of Christ dwell in your richly.

---

Audio Recordings:
Learn how you can listen to the audio files streamed over the Internet, download files to your computer or download files to your portable media player. Visit our Podcast page for complete details.

DVD recordings of the Sunday services are also available. Please contact Bruce Taggart at (908) 685-3165 with questions.