SOTAOL Above All, the Heart

By Sarah Bristol

What if we deemphasized being good and holy Christians, and emphasized what we were told to emphasize- watching over the very seat of our being? After all, from it flows our very life.

Take time as a group to explore how this idea might lead to more compassion, more reasonableness, lower expectations and peace for us all.

Thaw

• Who in your life is the most compassionate and understanding?
• Who in your life is the most put together and "holy?"
• Discuss whether those were the same person or not, and why that might be.

Read

• Psalm 139
• Thoughts?

Read

• Proverbs 4:23
• Thoughts?

Leader note: There are several translations of this text which can imply different levels of value Solomon was placing on the idea of watching/guarding our heart. Some in the group might have questions about that if they are reading it in their own Bible. Here is the Darby's Literal translation of the Hebrew into English: 

              "Above every charge keep thy heart, For out of it- the outgoings of life."

• What significance does this proverb hold when you consider it was written by the son of the man who wrote Psalm 139?

Read

• John 2:23-John 3:21
• Thoughts?

Leader note: You may want to remind the group that originally, there were no chapter breaks or verses. The end of what we call chapter two naturally flows into one, where a man who came secretly in night found himself engaged in a heavy conversation about what God really wants. Additionally, there are many facets to this passage that are hard to understand; going up to heaven, lifting up serpents, flesh and spirit and mother's wombs...Keep in mind we are eavesdropping some on a devoutly Jewish conversation between Rabbi Jesus and a Head Master, Nicodemus. They are discussing weighty ideas about Messiahship and esoteric symbolism. Try not to get hung up on this. The bottom line is that Nicodemus, in all his teaching and understanding, didn't get that God was interested in his heart and the transformation of it by way of the Spirit, not academic achievement or sin management. The man was there in secret, at night, and Jesus talks about deeds done in the darkness out of fear. Jesus speaks of people judging themselves by their commitment to not bringing their lives fully into the light. It was a sobering discussing to say the least. This may be why Nicodemus pops up twice more in John, finally becoming a follower.

Discuss

• What might we learn and gain from observing our heart, versus merely filtering it to ensure our inclusion and to assuage God's wrath?
• Why would God want us more aware of our hearts than focused on our behavior?
• Do you know anyone who seems to have a gap between who they want to be and what's within their unattended heart? How would you describe their lives, overall?
• How can this group be a place that makes heart-knowing, self-seeing, a priority over simplistic notions of being good, right and holy?

Prayer

• Spend a few moments praying the last two verses of David's song in Psalm 139.

SOTAOL Jesus Counts

Students of the Art of Living

by Sophia Elkin, age 16

Remind the members of your group that we are still, and will continue to be, taking art submissions for this series. Have them submit their drawings, paintings, photography, etc to create@crosspointe.org.

Thaw

• Name five movies that use revenge as the theme.
• Name five movies that use forgiveness as the theme.
• What most stayed with you from Sunday?

Read

• Leviticus 19:17-18
• Thoughts?
• What do you make of this commandment, the latter part of which Jesus later put on top of all other commands, being first about grudges and vengeance?
• Compare tis to John 13:34-35. Why is it so important that we are told to love one another more and more at the interiors of our "camps"?

Leader note: Beware answers here that suggest our love of one another is a good witness to the world. Though there is truth in this, it can't be the primary motivation, or our love becomes staged. Our love for one another is so that we have love for one another, which is reason enough. Then the love we tell others about isn't conceptual but flows instead from the actual experience of it. The last thing any of us would want to find out is that the love we received from friends or family was rooted chiefly in good advertising to strangers!

Read

• John 21:15-19
• Thoughts?
• What do you think was going through the mind of Peter?
• What do you think was going through the very human mind of Jesus?
• What does asking Peter the same question three times accomplish between them?
• There are some theatrics in asking if Peter love Jesus one time for every denial, but what can we learn in our own lives about the sense of proportion?

Discuss

• Why do we so often not just want evenness with those who hurt or disappoint us, but to punish?

Leader note: Don't feel the responsibility to solve an age-old discussion about crime and punishment and what is fair and what proportions are right or excessive or enabling. You'll just give yourself a headache. Instead, try and guide thoughts here that lead to awareness of the heart, especially in that pain and anger work against this awareness. Additionally, keep in mind the punishments we dole out toward those who have hurt us in some way are rarely about simple justice ("getting back to our former state prior to the harm inflicted upon us") but revenge. "Punishment" comes from the term meaning "inflicting damage". This is very rarely an act of reconciliation, but blatant retaliation.

• Respond as a group to this quote:

"The reason I can' t follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. Somebody must have sense and somebody must have religion. I remember some years ago, my brother and I were driving from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. And for some reason the drivers that night were very discourteous or they were forgetting to dim their lights...And finally A.D. looked over at me and he said, 'I'm tired of this now, and the next car that comes by here and refuses to dim the lights, I'm going to refuse to dim mine.' I said, 'Wait a minute, don't do that . Somebody has to have some sense on this highway.' "--Martin Luther King, Jr., 3 May 1963

• Respond as a group to this, the 11th commandment of the Satanic Church

"When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him." -Anton LaVey, 1967

• What do the following values mean?

DON’T STACK YOUR DISAPPOINTMENTS

STAY CLEAR ABOUT THE SINS DONE TO YOU

ASK YOURSELF IF YOUR MATH IS MATURE

Apply

• Do you currently have people toward whom your heart is oriented in the way of harm, retaliation, punishment, vengeance, etc? Why?
• How do the values listed above apply?
• What might have made the person sin against you the way they did?
• This act of asking why the person to who hurt you may have done so is how we humanize those who have hurt us- something we hate to do. Did you notice that humanizing him or her made things better or worse?
• Doing work this way orients the heart toward the ways of forgiveness and reconciliation and freedom, away from harm and hate. How can this group help you specifically with this?
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