Unfortunately, far too often, deep is thought to have a strictly academic connotation. People want to know more about the stuff of words and history and theology.
For your group time, entertain the very real likelihood that deep, to the one who hung it all on love, has to do with how much we pour ourselves into another, with or without full explained theology.
There is nothing deeper than the unity Christ wants to foster between any and every two human beings.
"Imagine discovering in your church bulletin an announcement of a six-week seminar on how to genuinely bless someone who is spitting on you." (November 3rd Tweet by Dallas Willard)
Thaw
- What Thanksgiving plans do you have, and how does that affect our LifeGroup schedule?
- What most impacted you from Sunday?
- Do you plan to, or have you already, participated in the Election Day Communion event? Thoughts?
Read
- Ephesians Chapter 2
Leader note: This is easy to undervalue if you don't consider that gentiles (the nations, the "others" for thousands of years for Jewish people) were to be completely avoided. Even to touch them was forbidden for those who wanted to stay ritually pure. This is NOT to say that there was an ongoing campaign to get rid of them or to do them harm. It is to say that there was a definite boundary between the two because their view of reality, and specifically God(s), were totally incompatible. Paul had upheld this boundary by profession as a Pharisee. Now, he seems to celebrate how reversed everything is in Christ.
- In what ways do we undermine Christ's unifying work by making "Christianity" the point?
- In what ways do we work against unity, intentionally or not, in the way we stand for ideas or defend beloved traditions?
- In what ways do we pretend unity in things like spiritual matters, such as articulated in Ephesians 2 or in any church sermon, but in daily life undermine it with divisiveness?
Read
- John 17:20-23
- Galatians 5:13-15
- Ephesians 4:6
- Colossians 1:19-20
- 2 Timothy 2:22-25
- Thoughts?
- Does our unity and love for each other and all, seem like a new idea or an old idea?
- What is the value in the difference between trying to forge a connection with others, and coming to see a connection that is already there.
Leader note: reconciliation, among other words, assumes by definition that there was an original connection that is being "re" made. Help the group understand that Christ isn't asking us to make as much as identify unity!
Apply
- How can you dial back competition and dominance in your life, replacing it with the often thankless, seemingly impossible task of being at one with others?
- What in your life will oppose any efforts to be more at one with others?
Leader note: Be as specific as possible here. There are specific ways our thinking works against oneness and peace between us. Church creeds and doctrinal stances and entire denominations, prejudice, unexplored sexism, longstanding grudges, pride in ability to make snap judgments, devaluing people with less education, viewing different political views as bad or idiotic, habitual non-listening to certain perspectives, etc. All of these (and countless others) must be brought to the front of thought so that we can become aware of all the ways we fight unity in trade for something hierarchal.
Idea
- Consider, as a group, emailing (or creating a list serve or a blog, etc.) each other daily ways that you have found some success in showing oneness with others, where you got hung up in the moment, and where it seemed impossible to be united with someone even in hindsight. If they will truly "know we are Christians by our love", then that love- that creative fight for unity with all people as much as is possible- is something worth working on throughout the week. If your group does this, please share the results.
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