Podium guide — May 3, 2026

Length target: ~6–7 min · Format: stand → speak → pray over bread and cup → sit → trays pass → receive with everyone

On your iPad as you stand. Verbatim Bible texts in shaded blocks. Your own sentences in [brackets]. Stage directions in ALL CAPS.

Before you stand

• One breath.
• Lord, do whatever you want with me.
• What you carry up:
  • You are forgiven much.
  • You reached out this week — small text, simple intention.
  • You are in the middle, not past.
  • Christ is the subject of every load-bearing verb.

Beat 1 — Opening confession (60–90 sec)

[YOUR SENTENCE — the honest middle. No name. No story. Where you are with reconciliation.]

[YOUR SENTENCE — the inversion: usually you're the one being forgiven, this side is unfamiliar. Let the room laugh recognition.]

OPTIONAL — Carlisle's "Tantrum" reading

If you go this direction, this becomes the load-bearing piece for Beat 1. Cuts your other Beat 1 sentences in half.

Decide before service: in or out.

If IN:

• INTRO (your voice, one sentence — example shape): "There's a poem by Thomas Carlisle from a little book called You! Jonah! It's about how Jonah finds God's mercy evil. It's called 'Tantrum.'"
• READ SLOWLY —

  The generosity of God displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he lashed with angry prayer at the graciousness of the Almighty.<br> "I told you so," he screamed. "I knew what you would do. You dirty forgiver. You bless your enemies. You show kindness to those who despitefully use you. I would rather die than live in a world with a God like you. And don't try to forgive me either."

• PAUSE (3–4 seconds)
• [YOUR ONE SENTENCE bringing the room back — e.g., something like "that's the man none of us wants to admit we are"]

Beat 2 — The cross (90–120 sec)

READ SLOWLY:

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." — Romans 5:10

[YOUR SENTENCE — what "while we were enemies" means. Plain. No softening.]

[YOUR SENTENCE — the second-half hinge. "Reconciled by his death. Saved by his LIFE." LAND HARD on LIFE.]

Underground (don't say, just carry)

• "Jesus dies because we are dying." (Mackie)
• Broken body pours out healing on every square inch of his cursed creation. (Bridgetown)
• The cross is both the payment AND the reclaiming. Death PAYS. Life RECLAIMS.

Beat 3 — Kernel of wheat (60–90 sec)

READ SLOWLY:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." — John 12:24

[YOUR SENTENCE — bridging the seed to the bread. The bread you're about to receive was a buried seed before it was bread.]

[YOUR SENTENCE — the harvest. He fell into the ground alone, so we could rise together.]

Underground (don't say, just carry)

• Jesus says this immediately after Greeks come asking to see him. The dying seed = the gospel breaking out beyond the original tribe. You — once a man without a tribe — eat tomorrow because of that.

Beat 4 — Reconciliation at the table (60–75 sec)

READ SLOWLY:

"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." — 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

[YOUR SENTENCE — receive what we cannot manufacture / extend what we have first received.]

[YOUR LAST SENTENCE — what's still in the air when the trays start moving. Praise belongs here if it belongs anywhere.]

Prayer over the bread and cup

[YOUR PRAYER — short, in your voice, picks up the meditation's last word]

OPTIONAL FINAL LINE (your call: include / rewrite / cut):

"Lord, you gave a tribe to a man who had none. Don't let me take back what you have asked me to release while I wait."

"In Jesus' name, amen."

SIT. Receive with everyone.

That's part of the meditation. Don't stand while the room is receiving.

Quick reference — what NOT to do

• "I did my part, ball's in his court" — performs completion
• Naming Evan, Joseph, jail, UCCS, your testimony arc
• Citing Strahan, Tyler, Roger, McKnight, Mackie by name (unless your voice naturally wants to)
• Greek prepositions (huper, peri, aphesis, aphiemi)
• Roger's images from last week (leg-breaking, claw marks, wound-becoming-weapon)
• A list of atonement theories
• Three-part rhetorical lists (sermon shape, not table shape)
• Holding bread aloft (your church doesn't stage that)
• Standing while the room is receiving
• Saying the same thing a third time. The bread is the third saying.

Quick reference — what DOES the work

• Christ as the subject of every load-bearing verb
• Honest middle, not performed completion
• The verses do most of the work
• One concrete image at a time
• The bread you're about to give them is the harvest of the seed that died

Total estimated runtime

• Beat 1: ~60s (or ~120s with Carlisle)
• Beat 2: ~100s
• Beat 3: ~75s
• Beat 4: ~70s
• Prayer: ~30s
• Total: ~5:30 (without Carlisle) or ~7:00 (with Carlisle)

Both fit. Pick which you want before service.