Me Too One

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Before we were the type of people that you'd expect Pure Perfection himself to want to be around us...before we could point to anything in our selves or our lives and say "we're ready"... and even before we were aware enough of our shortcomings to even know to ask for forgiveness, the incarnation of God came and died at our hands.

Jesus came to once and for all abolish the meritocracy and to make his desire for us known.

It's hard to imagine, but while some just don't know this and therefore it doesn't inform how they love people- some have grown up knowing this and yet still treat people based on merit.

For the next few weeks, we will be simultaneously teaching a social philosophy that runs in the background at Crosspointe, and the way into relating to others that goes beyond a mere transaction with those who can pay.



Thaw

• What do you hope to accomplish in this group with the remaining 10 weeks of 2011?
• How is your time spent outside of group and Sunday mornings set to work along side that goal or against it?

• What has most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• Who is someone that, in your lifetime, has embodied the philosophy of Me Too toward you? Share how.

Read

• Galatians 6:1-4
• Thoughts?

Leader note: it is certainly thought provoking to remember that this selection is at the tail end of Paul describing the tension between the Spirit and the Flesh. In chapter 5 he has just listed off words and phrases that paint selfishness, followed by the fruit (or the evidence) of the Spirit.
During Sundays teaching, this passage was read in the The Message translation.

• How would you describe the attitude Paul is insisting on?
• Who do yo know that is like this?
• What is it that happens and makes us unlike the picture Paul is painting here?

Leader note: help the group determine the pressures that makes us critical, arrogant and deluded into superiority. When it happens, we're often not choosing to be "mean" or "distant". In fact, we feel justified and could likely defend it. Who are the people and what are the circumstances when we tell ourselves Galatians 6:1-4 doesn't apply.

Discuss

• Describe the difference between an attitude of Me Too, and an attitude on Not Me.

Leader note: It may be helpful for your group's discussion to camp out in this idea for a while on two fronts. One, there is the basic sense of being with people in every way possible, regardless of how the behave or misbehave. But, perhaps more significantly, there is the difference between agreeing that the idea "Me Too" is beautiful and sounds good in a sermon and actually employing it with people that you have hated just last week at work or school. Like everything we learn as faithful people, we can't allow ourselves the simplicity of seeing if we agree. We have to go further and find out what it actually means to live it out in our very real lives.

• What kinds of issues and hurdles come to mind when you consider actually living out a Me Too attitude n your specific context?
• Imagine your family gathered, idealistically around the Thanksgiving table in a few weeks. What faces come to the forefront of your mind when you think of someone denying you for a past decision? How about the faces that you have denied for something they have done or are doing?

Read

• Luke 7:33-34
• Thoughts
• It appears Jesus is painting a picture of a certain kind of piety that always finds a way to stand against, rather than with, people.
• What are the issues that thou have trouble walking through with others? Why do you think that is, and why does this issue stand out beyond others for you?
• Why do some people fight so hard to keep laws, ideas and principles (regardless of them being religious, social, biblical, etc) elevated in value about the very humans they pertain to?
• What do we learn from Jesus' lifestyle based on the accusations made against him in texts such as Luke 7:33-34?

Discuss

• In your estimate, which takes more maturity and spiritual balance: walking with people through anything or being able to stand your ground regardless of the pressures to compromise?
• In the message, Jonathan gave some points for really employing Me Too in your relationships. Discuss them and find way they apply to people that take no effort, people who you dread, and what it means for someone to....Me Too you.

1. Listen
2. Make it safe
3. Look for common ground

Leader note: You may find that the group is inspired by this idea and has already found ways to make it part of their overall attitude. You may find though, that many of them...or even just one that's vocally skeptical...have specific categories that they put people in, and some of those categories are not Me Too categories. They distance themselves form certain people, citing hurtfulness or a lost cause scenario. As leaders, we must do the work of shepherds and help people understand that Me Too ISN'T a law. Laws kill the spirit of all of this. Me Too is a gift that is given with no expectation of return, but obviously doesn't allow toxic people to live unconfronted by the toxicity of their decisions. If Me Too becomes a law, then it becomes something to do irrespective of the persons involved. It becomes one more way to divide.

As people share the reasons that Me Too is unrealistic (you'll hear the word "boundaries" at least once during this series!...Mis or over-used, It's our favorite loophole for getting out of the difficulties of loving people who aren't capable or willing to love us back!) be sure and draw them back into the necessity of trusting Christ and his resurrecting power to do what we cannot on our own.