Mark 14:27-31,14:66-72

If faith is only defined as the solid, unswerving, unmistaken parts of us, we're in trouble.
We're also without any example to follow. No one has ever pulled off definitions of faith like these...

In your group time, see if you can not only share who you really are, and who you really aren't- but also how the imperfections of our lives also serve as part of what we mean when we talk of our faith. The part we usually hide is typically the part God uses most to shape us into the flawed but loving men and women God intended.


Thaw

• What is something you have learned in the last week?
• What is something you find yourself complaining about the most?
• What is something worth celebrating, on any level?
• What has stuck with you most about Sunday morning?

Read

• Mark 14:27-31,14:66-72
• Thoughts and impressions?
• Why is Peter scared for his life? 

Leader note: Nobody in your group knows Jesus Christ and his teachings about resurrection as well as Peter. And yet, when it was no longer a concept but was a physical thing to embrace or deny, be bailed. Make sure the group understands that Peter had more to hang his faith on and still chose basic self-interest. And for this, Christ never unleashed any wrath or disdain on him.


Read

• Read these stories and see if you can find a modern equivalent for Peter's behavior and seeming thought processes in you town life.
• Luke 5:1-8
• Matthew 14:25-30
• Matthew 16:21-23
• Mark 9:2-7
• John 18:10-11
• In what ways do you see yourself in the kinds of thing Peter got wrong?
• Why would Jesus include someone like this not only in his circle of friends, but as one of his leaders?
• Why do Peter's faith, impulsiveness, love, doubt, agitation, etc. all belong in the telling of the "first Christians"?

Read

• John 21:3-17
• Thoughts and impressions?

Discuss

• How does Christ reconcile with Peter, and for whose sake is the reconciliation offered? Explain your thoughts.

Apply

• In what ways might God be trying to get you to stop perfecting yourself and instead use your "imperfections" as part of the story?
• In what ways might God be trying to get you to stop making other people perfect themselves so they can experience the story God is up to in all of us?
• Are there ways that you indemnify with Peter's story, and yet only present to others the very best? 
• How can this group be a place safe enough to tell people the underside of our stories, such as Mark and the other gospel writers included about Peter?

 

 

Mark 14:-10-25

The Last Supper scene is iconic to say the least. Not in the least because it gives us a recurring reminder of what Christ's heart was like. The giving of himself to friends and enemies, to the righteous and the sinner alike.

Use this group time to discuss not only the passages included, but what we learn and relearn from Christ in the taking communion, together.



Thaw

• What kinds of plans do you or your family have this fall that you're looking forward to?
• How many Autumns have you spent in North Carolina, and how are they different from where you lived before?

• What most resonated with you from Sunday morning?
• What key points or ideas have stayed with you?

Read

• Mark 14:10-25
• Thoughts and impressions?
• Read v18-21, then discuss why there is seemingly no bread or wine withheld from anyone in v22 and v23.
• Contrast v11 and v22-23. What label would you put on the two different men?

Discuss

• Which label hangs over your relationships with others more, the label you gave Judas or Christ? Explain your answer.
• If you feel more like Judas in your dealings with others - one who embraces self-interest more than others-centeredness - how do you react thinking Christ hands the bread and cup to you anyway?
• Thinking creatively, Jesus hands his disciples bread and says this is my body. Paul refers to the community of followers as "body". In effect, Jesus could be heard as saying two things simultaneously. This is my body, and this group receiving it is my body. Broken and broken. How does communion remind us that we all need to receive and give grace, the sacrifice of the broken Body for the broken body?

Read

• 1 Corinthians 11:20-30
• Thoughts and impressions?

Discuss

• Worthiness is a tricky concept. Knowing that love of each other, across the divides and hierarchies instituted by human beings, is in view- how do you understand v27
• Outside of the sacrament of taking communion, in the rest of our week, what does the application of what v27 teaches look like?

Leader note: Discuss ways we handle the presence of Christ in an unworthy manner as we work, play, buy, travel, talk, etc. It means far more than how we conduct ourselves during the literal eating and drinking of the elements, or one might argue it means nothing at all.

Apply

• The taking of bread and the cup not only celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but are checks for us, the body, in our relating to each other no matter what seeks to divide us. How can your group celebrate communion as a way of remembering the Judases and the James and Peters sit at the same table, each invited to become like Christ? Monthly? Weekly? 

Leader note: Taking the bread and the cup together isn't necessarily a solemn moment of silence. Consider having a regular rhythm of communion in your group, a moment dedicated to talking about ways each is learning/discovering forgiveness, grace and oneness while eating the bread and drinking the cup. A COUPLE IMPORTANT NOTES- many in our church come from a background where only certain men may preside over the elements, and only in a consecrated setting. This is to be respected. We don't want to, in the name of unity, dismiss someone's desire to be as honoring as possible. Feel free to contact me in the comments below for ideas on how to handle this tension from a theological/psychological/philosophical standpoint. Additionally, feel free to use grape juice or wine. In the latter case, only if you have put in the work and time to know whether struggles with alcohol exist within your group.

Mark 14:3 What's Loudest Goes Unsaid

Use these unformatted general discussion questions, message points and key texts for your group time.

• Mark 14:3 ESV
• Mark 15:1-2 ESV
• Luke 7:37-39

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, clouds, and stars." ~Martin Luther

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune in." ~George Washington Carver

Questions:

What most stuck out for you about Sunday morning?

What were the key points for you in the message?

Sometimes Don't Listen for God's Voice 

Your Words are the Least of What You Say

Listen to the Whole Person

What was the "one thing" you took away that seems applicable in your own, personal life?

What did you learn:

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes in thought and in style-of-relating might be necessary in light of what you've learned?

What are the hindrances to transformation, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?

"What marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our loving kindness. 'Only look,' they say, 'look how they love one another' " Tertullian, 2nd Century Christian historian.