Use this group time to discuss the idea that all the concrete, fixed ideas we have about others, God and ourselves might need readdressed. As Christ insists, we must re-see and re-see and re-see, or we will be fooled by mere appearances.
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Thaw
- What is something on the calendar for October that you are looking forward to and something that you are not looking forward to?
- What most stuck with you from Sunday?
Read
- Mark 12:25-44, 13:1-4
- Thoughts and impressions?
Leader note: Help the group see the pattern (which appears in other places in the New Testament as well) of Jesus alternately saying "don't dismiss, don't be too easily impressed, don't dismiss, don't be too easily impressed."
Discuss
- In what ways do we assume things about others superiority?
- In what ways to do we assume others' inferiority?
- Even though we don't consciously believe in these judgments, in what ways do our lives and habits reinforce that they are in fact true?
Leader note: Take for instance our physical appearance. It's certainly no sin to look nice. But how many of us say beauty is skin deep and yet spend most of our thought and resource on our external? We can therefore consciously affirm that what matters is the unseen, yet behaviorally we contradict our affirmation. We do this with money and possessions. We do it with the shape and color of others. We do it with stereotypes. We do it by having the same view of people for decades, leaving them no room to change as we have. In this, we actually dismiss each other and get easily impressed by each other and miss out on the True story underneath.
Read
- Acts 1:24
- Acts 15:8
Discuss
- The word being used here is Kardiognostes or Heartknower. What peace or anxiety arrises when you consider God is not one to see us as we see ourselves, but instead sees our whole story, our intent, context and the whole scope of reality left unrevealed to other people?
- What does God's true seeing into the hearts of men and women tell you about the Love of God for all people?
Apply
- Understanding Christ's words about neither being dismissive or too easily impressed leaves us with little to say. What changes in relating to others do your foresee as you begin to see past appearances and really know people?
- How do you imagine it would affect your job or your style of relating to people if you began refusing to "make up your mind" about others?
Leader note: Interestingly, there are times where making your mind up quickly about someone serves as a survival instinct. If someone is a threat to you and you take to long to decide this, it could cost you big. But 99.99% of our existence is not under real threat. Even when it feels so, emotionally speaking, our survival is almost never on the line. So "making up our mind" about someone may not be a sign of our psychological strength, but rather a sign of our fearful insecurity about others and what they might do to us if we don't hurry up and get them categorized.
- How would it change your faith if you began to pry yourself back open and allow God to teach you new things about what you thought was not open for discussion?
- How can this group help itself collectively to slow down judgment, to be quietly humble, and to really be able to see in the way the Heartknower sees?
Leader note: this affects how we speak (or don't) of politicians. How we think of those against whom we hold protracted grudged and bitterness, how we size up whoever "them" and "they" are, how we think of our faith against varying expressions of it, etc. This will be extremely unpleasant for some in the group, as living in abstractions takes far more mental work than the easy (laziness?) of just having your mind made up.
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