You've heard a ton of sermons in your life. Some great, some more helpful for napping through. But people of faith are encouraged to become those who can see all of life as one big, nuanced, winding sermon. Who, when Sunday is over, go out and hear the truth, see beauty and sense the Spirit moving in all things.
Spend some time as a group talking not just about the sermon from Sunday, but The Sermon that's never really over.
Thaw
- What can the World Cup tell us about international relations?
- What stuck with you most from Sunday?
Read
- James 1:19
- John 5:17
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Translations differ slightly, but the connotation (as reinforced by the NIV translation, among others) in John 5 is that the Father, and the Son, are ever at work, regardless of time or place. The idea with both passages is sensitivity to the ongoing work of the Spirit within not just a Sunday morning homily, but always, everywhere. If you'd like to dive into this idea far deeper, read 1 Corinthians 3 as a group. Paul deals at length here with our ability to find truth and meaning everywhere, not just in one pastor or place.
Respond as a group to these values at play both in sermons, and in daily life.
"Less assertions. More questions"
*Take your time making statements about what you read in the scriptures. Be sure and honor the text by considering the multiple layers of context and nuance built into the text. Intelliegnce asks questions more than makes declarations. Especially about something so differently understood by so many.
"Deconstruction is how the mature learn. Destruction is how the immature get thrills."
*Destruction is the childish desire to knock down things we don't understand or like. Deconstruction is the desire to sift an idea, to pull it apart and understand its constituent pieces to appreciate it for what it is on all levels. Much as science and inductive reasoning does. Much as comedy can.
"No starting arguments. No finishing conversations"
*Jesus rarely gave straight, easy to absorb answers to questions he was asked. Instead, he gave parables and allusions, and even answered questions with questions. All to keep the conversation going, rather than having the final word. This is why we discuss it all these years later in our own contexts. We don't want the last word. Just to hear a few and offer a few.
"We’re unaware, asleep, blind, deaf, deluded and crazy"
*If we're simply evil, then we cannot be expected to do or respond well to anything. But if we are unaware, unseeing or a even little crazy, then we can expect to be treated with respect, patience, love and gentleness. The blind are offered consideration and understanding. The evil are simply done away with.
"Safety in numbers"
*We are less defensive in a large church auditorium. But we'll often put our dukes up when the same words are said to us directly. There's something for us to learn here about our humble ability to hear hard things, given that we know we already can if the situation is right.
"You hear when you’re ready"
People may not get the message the first 99 times. So we find different ways of saying it while we also continue listening over and over to see what we might learn. It takes a lifetime to really get life's best lessons.
