This discussion will be in large part the group functioning as the church. Many people only ever hear their pastors talk about important things, but they never have someone they trust speak these things into them, remind them of who they are and really do the "life with" part.
This may be a turn of the page where your group's growth and maturation is concerned. Not because the questions and insights are that good, but because you can decide that you are going to really figure out what it means to walk together and remind each other who you are in light of the resurrected Christ.
Thaw
*We did a stress rest last week. As we think about how insane things can get this time of year, let's spend just a moment and do it again. How is our stress level and what are we doing that is healthy?
Leader note: If every member of the group is sharing a busy schedule, a lack of rhythm and a sense of bad living, it would be a great use of your time (and a great way to really shepherd) to spend five minutes in quiet. Depending on your environment, you can close your eyes and do nothing, you could quietly read something like psalm 40 to yourselves, you could write out a prayer. Don't forget to lead your group through what it actually is, rather than going through the motions and missing it!
*What most stuck with you from Sunday?
*Why?
*Who is it that reminds you of who you are and helps you feel connected to the greater story?
Leader note: if they say nobody, or just their spouse, you may want to consider that an invitation in the next few months to create more of an environment of mutual support, challenge and relating outside the group time.
Read
*Luke 24:13-35
*Thoughts?
Read
*2 Cor 5:17-19
*1 Peter 1:3
*Thoughts?
*There is a theme that Jesus wants to give us a living hope that death, disappointment, pain and setbacks aren't final? What would this concept have to do with continuing to "move"?
*Why is walking a metaphor for our faith?
*Why is the cessation of movement a metaphor for hopelessness?
Discuss
*What are specific ways and for what reasons do we stop walking?
*From the answers to the previous question, is there a common theme regarding that which seems to suck the hope out of us and render us motionless?
*What gets us going again?
*How do we make sure the answer to the previous question is in place?
Leader note: time might have been an answers. And so is people. But few of us have any intentional time or trusted others in or life to make that happen. You might use this moment, gently, to see how your group can be more of this for your members.
*Respond as a group to this quote:
"Hope, for the Christians, is not wishful thinking or blind optimism. It is a mode of knowing, a mode within which new things are possible, options are not shut down, new creation can happen." -NT Wright, Surprised by Hope.
Apply
*True hope comes down to trusting that Jesus, starting with death and working backward into even our smallest woes, has something life-giving to say to us. How does hope in resurrection and redemption of all things speak to you?
*As you heard the previous question, what did your cynicism and despair whisper to you?
*What would your life look like if you fully acknowledged what your cynicism was trying to drag you into, and yet you lived by hope anyway?. Be as specific to your real and particular circumstances as you can.
Closing meditation
*Spend a few moments celebrating the birth of Christ by acknowledging that God continues to tell us he's not finished in his giving of himself to sinners. Then commit John 11:25 to memory, noting that it doesn't promise the avoidance of pain, but routes us through it to ultimate redemption.
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