CITY FOLK:

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Unless of course there are no lights.

You have heard it said do not murder. But a low bodycount isn't a great metric for your spiritual maturity.

Let's go deeper.


Discuss as a group the emotion that causes us to act contemptuously, dismissively and all around venomously, even as we pride ourselves for at least never giving in to homicide. 

God never commands emotions, so what was God getting at here?

Thaw

• What's something you feel God has been teaching you in recent weeks?

Leader note: this isn't specifically tied to the message on Sunday, but is a great question to ask often in general because it a) leads to good discussion about what God is doing and b) builds a value in the groups mind that they should be looking for what God is doing in their life, since the question comes up so often. Remember, questions reinforce values!

• What's something from Sunday's message that really stuck with you?
• What's the last thing that made you angry?

Read

• Matthew 5:17-26
• Thoughts?

Leader note: Some key parts of Jesus' teaching need some background. First, the phrase "angry with his brother without cause" didn't originally have the "without cause" part. This was later added as a way of trying to make sense of a seemingly unbearably strict teaching by Jesus. But that creates confusion about when it's okay to hold someone in contempt. It creates an argument about "just cause". Jesus is speaking to something deeper than a justified or unjustified anger.  Second, "Raca" is an Aramaic term that Matthew doesn't translate. He must assume his readers know the term. It seems to best translate to "empty head", but is also thought to be the guttural sound of clearing the throat before you spit, as in spit in the face of whom you are holding in contempt. Third, note that it's "brothers" in the first two cases, while it suddenly broadens to "you fool" being spoken to anyone. Jesus isn't just trying to mend family issues. He's lighting the shadows in this attitude as it is aimed at anyone. How often do we tear down people from afar, as they play a televised sport, speak politically in a press conference, or cut us off in traffic? We don't know them, yet we murder them with our angry hearts.

• What key words and thoughts stand out to you?
• Why would Jesus start with such an intense topic as anger, seeing how He'd just been clear that He was inviting people from different places in their faith and maturity to follow Him?

Read

• Mark 3:1-6
• Thoughts
• How would you describe what Jesus does with His anger?
• What can we learn from Him about the role anger can play?

Respond as a group to this quote:

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle

Discuss

• What stops us from trying to understand where others are coming from, so that we don't simply dismiss them?
• How are anger and humility, anger and understanding, anger and wisdom often mutually exclusive?

Apply

"God, I am seeing and hearing this person as an obstacle, help me see and hear them as the object of your love" 

• How can this group help you with pausing, praying, forgiving and asking for forgiveness, so as to do the difficult work of destroying all the barriers that exist between you and others?
• What are we up against in this culture that operates contrary to Jesus' teaching on anger?
• What changes of thought and behavior need to happen immediately if we're to have a chance of growing into the kind of love and peace that Jesus is leading us into?

Meditation

• Spend 5-10 minutes reflecting on the following proverbs, thinking about how they will present to you specific opportunities to apply them in the next week. You may want to write your thoughts during this time.

“Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.” (Proverbs 14:29)

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.” (Proverbs 16:32)

“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” (Proverbs 29:11)

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 29:15)

“A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.” (Proverbs 29:18)

CITY FOLK: To Everyone on the Hill.

Thaw

• Have you ever made a team or been part of an organization and had no idea how you did it?, or had a person show interest in you and it didn't make sense; you couldn't understand what they saw. Maybe you even thought you were being tricked? You know, like Carrie. Share the experience.

• What stuck with you most from Sunday?
• What has shifted in your faith or outlook as you have considered the message?

Read

• Matthew 4:23-5:16
• Thoughts?
• As you put yourself on that hillside, what do you imagine people were feeling?

Leader note: You may want to note that salt has many uses: it's added to food to give it a lot more flavor, obviously. It's also added to meat in a pre-Frigidaire society to stave off rot and decomposition...catch that? Salt drives out decay! It also was added to manure for the purposes of creating hotter, brighter fire light. Yes, people used to burn poop for light and heat. Now we burn former dinosaurs!

Read

• 1 Corinthians 1:26-30
• Thoughts?
• Why would God recruit the seemingly unrecruitable to do what would be considered the most important work God would have people do?

Leader note: Acts 4:13 is a great example of God using comparatively lowly people to do His work. The words "unschooled, ordinary men" in Greek are agrammatos kai idiotes...."unlettered idiots."

Read

• Isaiah 53:2-3
• Hebrews 4:15
• Thoughts? 

• What do you suppose changes for someone when they realize that Jesus entered into solidarity with humanity by way of real suffering, weakness, temptation and struggle?
• What do you think our view of Jesus would have been if He'd come in strength, comfort, respect and position?

Read

• Matthew 22:34-40
• Thoughts?
• If love of others is the main idea, then why do so many of us think the main idea is to become the people God wants us to be, or else?

Discuss

• What about your life communicates solidarity and compassion with the human experience, rather than trying to be more moral, or trying to get others to be?
• What areas are you hoping to "clean up" before you accept Christ's invitation to descend the hillside and dive into real life; yours and other's? Where did you get the idea that this was "dirty" or offended God?
• How can this group help you take steps in being a person who loves and offers compassion now, verses when you think you have it all together?
• In what ways do you doubt that the "love of other as self" is powerful enough to deal with sin and error and foolishness and brokenness, to God's standard?

Prayer

• Spend some time reflecting on the mood on that hillside, and then thinking about our modern context. Pray that God would open our eyes and help us understand that God is not asking us to get fit before we start exercising, not is he asking us to come and fill our heads with a bunch of information and then pretend like that was the whole point. Pray that God would show you that this is about messy people walking behind perfection, and in so doing, being the most sincere, humble, honest and grounded people in the world. pray that we would be, in that, just like Jesus.

"All You Need is Love." -Paul (not McCartney)

It's a worthy banner to wave over 2016.

LOVE.

Paul even said that that in the midst of so many things we could measure ourselves by, without love it's all empty.


Spend some time dreaming together as a group. be realistic. Challenge the impulse to speak in theoreticals. Think and plan how your group might be marked this year, especially with all the division and side-taking and animus we're bound to see in our culture, by love.



Thaw

• What's a highlight from the Christmas season you'd like to share? 
• What's a highlight from Sunday morning that has stuck with you?

Read

• 1 Corinthians 13
• Thoughts?
• As you imagine Paul saying this to you, what most stands out?

Discuss

• Why do you suppose we have to be reminded over and over to love, even as people of faith in the one who commands loving above all else?

Leader note: this question is an attempt to help group members recognize selfishness and the fear that drives it. Try and help the discussion to move in a direction that highlights the subtle ways that our own self-preferencing makes us forget that, as followers of Christ, our charter is the love and elevation of others over ourselves- a difficult task for the egoic survivalist mentality to face!

Apply

• Who do you know that best emulates compassion, kindness, consideration, love of others and how might you learn from them?

Right Between Us: A Second Seeing

Thaw

• What does November represent to you? Why?
• What stuck with you most from Sunday? Why?

Read

• John 9:29
• Mark 8:22-25
• Thoughts?

Leader note: While reading the Mark 8 passage, you or others in the group may note a verse later records Jesus telling this formerly blind man not to go back into the village. Don't get too hung up on it. There are several possible explanations for telling him not to go back into town. One, Jesus often tells people not to tell others about the miracle he's performed. Jesus is often concerned about the clarity of his message (not being confused with his miraculous ability as some sort of show) and the ease with which he moves from town to town to do what he came to do. He had limited time, and didn't want his path jammed up people seeking him only as a wonder worker. The message was about what others were to become because of Him, a revolution of love, not just a single God/man who could do amazing things for crowds. Additionally, the village/town ay have been bad for the blind man. To adjust to being a seeing person now, it may not have been ideal to send him into what would've undoubtedly been an ecstatic inquisition. Other explanations are just as plausible...again, don't get hung up here.

• What significance is there for you in Jesus doing a "two-phase" miracle?
• What might it mean to cause blindness in those who count themselves among the seeing?

Discuss

• Have there been people in your life who caused you difficulty/harm in their stubborn inability to see or hear you? Explain.
• What does it cost people to admit that they were wrong or ignorant about someone, and to go back and "see them again"?
• In what ways do you find yourself seeing/hearing, but not very good at perceiving?

Read

• Matthew 7:1-5
• Thoughts?
• This is different than "don't judge". This is "judge yourself with the same standards you apply to others." How does this self-reflective, blindspot-acknowledging kind of discernment differ than mere judging or labeling?

Apply

• This week, ask God to give you a second seeing. To "touch your eyes" again with regard to friends, family, enemies, those who live, vote, think, act, decide, relate differently. Ask God to show you three things you hadn't seen before. Perhaps you will be ready to share with the group what this second seeing has revealed about those you thought you already had pretty well figured out!