Of Forests and Trees. Pharisees.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

-Carl Jung

Our resistance to identifying ourselves in the other is a major hurdle to both out ability to see ourselves, as well as out ability to really love people as they are. 

Use this group time to discover, at least in some small measure, the ways we distance ourselves from others in the name of all sorts of justifications; holiness, morality, right and wrong, truth, purity, etc. While there may be truth in some of it, a lack of thinking about it can have us participating on one side or the other of condemnation. Yet, "In the way of Christ there isn't anymore of that!" (Romans 8:1, Steve Daugherty Translation [SDT] )

Thaw

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• On what basis do children shame, condemn and distance from other children?
• How is this different from how adults do it?

Read

• John 8:1-11
• Thoughts?

Read 

• Matthew 7:1-5
• Thoughts?

Read

• Galatians 6:1-3
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Why is consideration of self, even as the sins of others seem clear, so critically important to the way of Christ?
• Have you ever found yourself doing something you swore you would never do? How do you think you got the place where you behaved in a way that a previous version of yourself would have judged, shunned or condemned? 
• Were you brought up to seriously consider context and background when making a judgment on someone else's life, or were you taught primarily to judge others' behavior?

Read

• John 8:57-59
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• What are the implications to you of God in Christ, the incarnation of the Great I AM, leaving the woman at the beginning of the chapter gently confronted but not condemned. 
• What are the implications to you of Jesus having only harsh words for the religious leaders, but not the sinners?

Leader note: Play with the idea, if you have time, about a possible difference between "righteous sinners" and "unrighteous sinners." The former being those who follow the letter of the law, but don't understand what God really wants. The latter being of the exact same value and merit, who are also sinners, who have failed the letter of the law, but often at least have the humility to admit it.

Apply

• If we won't assess ourselves soberly, or work to see our own lives in light of those we condemn, we cannot have compassion. Much less, can we do the work of Christ in being loving, kind and inclusive to all. How can this group be a way that we become people who do the work of seeing ourselves on the other?
• There's a flip side. We may have the temptation to demand people who are condemning or judging us stop and consider themselves. Even angrily. Especially when their condemnation of us is misguided, or hypocritical. But we can still live the way of Christ when being on the receiving end of condemnation. What are some examples of working to see ourselves in our accusers?
• What stones might we need to drop this week so that we might identify with the other, loving them more, seeing ourself more?