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There’s a brilliant conspiracy theory about The Beatles, that Paul McCartney was killed in an accident. Rather than announcing that a beloved songwriter had tragically died, they decided to cover it up. They found someone who looked identical to McCartney and kept the band going, never telling a soul. Despite the amount of work that went into this illusion, the band decided to drop subtle hints through their music. For example, if you play ‘Revolution 9’ from The White Album backwards, you can hear someone say, ‘turn me on, dead man’. Another key ‘clue’ is that Paul is barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road. As you can tell, the evidence is overwhelming Obviously, this is nonsense. (If you were going to so much trouble to cover up someone’s death, why drop hints about it throughout your music?) But for the people who believe it, the biggest mystery is what happened to the McCartney ‘lookalike.’ Why did William Campbell (the man who ‘replaced’ Paul) give up his life, family and identity? What happened to him? Did his family know? Did he just mysteriously disappear? Was his identity so meaningless that his final purpose was to become somebody else?
• What do you think about conspiracy theories? Do you believe any? Which are your favourites?
• Do you believe that Paul McCartney died?
• If you were given the chance to become a famous person but had to give up your entire identity, what would you do?
Becoming a new or different person doesn’t have to be so radical. We might change our hair colour, find new friends, update our Facebook avatar or move away to start a new life. When life doesn’t go the way we want, isn’t that the easiest answer?
• What’s the biggest change you’ve ever made? Why?
• Have you ever seen someone else make a big change? How did it make you feel?
• Would you like to become someone else?
The Bible talks a lot about fresh starts. It’s not talking about surface level things, but the biggest heart changes you can imagine. The story of Paul is an incredible one. He went from killing Christians to leading and planting churches. The fresh start God offers us is bigger than becoming a member of The Beatles. In this passage, Jesus tries to explain this to a smart religious leader, but he can’t get his head around it. Read John 3:1-21.
• Part of this passage may be familiar, but what surprised you in it?
• What do you think it means to be born again?
• How can you be ‘born again’ in 2015?
