Ahem.
For the next several Sundays at Crosspointe, we will be studying the words of Christ in the Gospel of Mark. The red letters, with of course the black letters for their context. We're going to give it a try, and if for whatever reason we feel like a change in direction is necessary after a while, then we'll simply change directions.
We'll likely find for our groups that this is a great opportunity to read the entirety of Mark together. There will be no official reading plan, nor is every sermon mapped out. Where there is a loose outline at this point, we don't want to dictate to our future selves the limits of where we could take ideas. So we left room to double or even triple up on particular passages depending on where things are at that point. With this in mind, you can read at whatever pace makes sense, going backward or forward to align with a sermon. At this point, we're planning on being in the first part of Mark 4 in about 8 or 9 weeks.
We begin! (I was going to say "On your Mark...." but I thought better of it.)
___________________________ _ _ _ _
Thaw
- What are some things you are hoping to transform about yourself in 2013?
- Why do you want to change these things, and how would you know that you were really successful?
Leader note: If people have given up on making resolutions, that's also a topic for discussion. Make sure, with gentleness and tact, to ask when and why the person(s) stopped making resolutions (not that this is bad or good or even expected) and what that might reveal to him or her about his or herself.
- What has most stayed with you from this Sunday?
Read
- Mark 1:1-15
- Thoughts?
- Jesus' cousin John, 6 months his elder, has been thrown in prison. We learn in the other accounts that he will die there. What is significant to your own story about Christ's Good News being announced on the heels of such bad news?
- How do you describe the Kingdom of God?
Leader note: No need to be a theology professor here. But do try and help the group understand that the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven (same thing) is not a place, but a state of things aligned with the will of God. That is how Jesus can announce it's arrival while Rome is still "in power". It isn't a location (far less a literal one in the clouds), but as Dallas Willard puts it, "The range of God's effective will." (Reference the Lord's prayer for further reflection.)
- How does this Kingdom inform our thoughts about ourselves and others?
- How do you imagine Christ's demeanor when he announces repentance and the good news and why does that matter to how we understand it? Smiling? Scowling? Aloof? Describe it as honestly as you can.
- Does it feel better or safer to imagine it one way or another? Explain?
Read
- John 10:10
- Thoughts?
- To whom does he make this offer of full life?
Leader note: Don't leave this in the abstract. Try and tease out not only to who the promise is made, but also what it means outside of a Sunday school mentality. Abundant, or full life affects our mind, our energy, our generosity, our peace interpersonally. You name it. Don't let a discussion on being invited into life fall into the ether of Bible Q&A! See if the group can see how this affects cubicles, laundry, neighborhood picnics, their checkbook. . . .
Discuss
- When we carry regret and shame, we feel limited about life. Parts of ourselves need quarantined, hidden and never acknowledged. Clearly, God- whom Peter refers to as "The Heart Knower"- can't be duped even by the most effect shame sham. God knows what you're hoping God doesn't know. In what areas do you need to allow yourself to accept Christ's invitation into a fuller human life despite your own evaluation and judgment about your not yet being worthy?
- How can your group be a support for this endeavor?
- What does success look like?
- How will you know you are not succeeding?
Leader note: This is key. Continued patterns of trying to control others' perceptions, shameful, condemned thoughts about the self, being easy to insult, etc. These and others are signs that there is a fundamental belief that Christ only invites those that appear invite-worthy. That a person is failing to turn off the inner judge and bathe his or herself in grace and peace. They continue to believe the universe demands we be perfect before life becomes available. This is the continued quest for invulnerable, endless self-saving. It's hell, and your group may be the best chance someone has to accept an invitation out of it!
- Once this starts to settle in our minds, how does it affect how we see and treat others that currently, we withhold ourselves from?
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