FOR BIBLICAL PURPOSES, THIS CONVERSATION IS BEING RECORDED Woman freed from infirmity

Part of being a human is a seemingly built-in component for waiting. Even if we can't articulate what we're waiting for, we all somehow know things are going to shift, perhaps get worse, but ultimately get better. 

You and everyone in your group very likely has hurt, disappointment and regret that they somehow, deep down, are waiting to get better.

Use this group time to not only commiserate, but to try and identify how we live with unmet wants and needs in our life, and how we embrace them and live through them. As it is, the Kingdom is both here and not yet here. We must live in the tension.

Thaw

• Garage sales, graduations, end of school year, weddings, plus all the normal family,  serving, work and hobby stuff; how is the pace of life?
• What is different between your pace of life now and how you interpreted your family's pace while you were growing up?
• What changed about human nature, if anything, that it should be so different?
• What keeps it the same for those that think it hasn't changed?

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?

Read

• Luke 13:10-13
• Thoughts?
• This woman may have been visiting because Jesus was in town. But it's more likely this was her town and this was the synagogue she attended. What makes someone keep showing up to synagogue, church or small group after 18 years of waiting on something that doesn't seem to be coming?
• What is it in our minds that makes us stop moving and living when we have pain and disappointment looming over us for so long?
• How would it change our lives if God simply said he cared, even if our circumstances didn't change?

Leader note: It may be worth discussing that it's hard for us to tell if God cares when our circumstances don't change. Many of us measure love by the ease of our existence. Lead the group to consider that what seems to be the most important matter during our suffering (which, of course, is the pain of our suffering) oftentimes seems less significant in hindsight. We know this. Without painting God as an insensitive taunter, wonder aloud with the group about suffering in the context of our long existence and the strength that comes from it, no matter how unendurable it seemed at the time.

Read

• Psalm 13:1-2
• Psalm 13:5-6
• Thoughts?
• Look at verse 2 and verse 5. Sorrow and rejoicing in the same heart. How does this work?
• How can the ideas of God's "unfailing love" and "where are you, God?" go together?
• Why do our sorrows often feel more real, and more a determiner of reality, than when things are going well?
• Why do we forget blessing during sorrow, but anticipate sorrow during blessing?

Discuss

• The Bible speaks of living in rhythm, ceasing from work, sabbath, etc. But it's also built on the idea of walking through the valley of the shadow of death, or perseverance, of hope and of not quitting.  Discuss the paradox of, regardless of how wonderful or dire the circumstances, being called to never stop moving, and to making sure we completely stop some times.
• How does misunderstanding these ideas cost us?
• How does getting them backward happen, and how do we make sure that we're not stopping when we should be going and visa versa?

Apply

• How does this group, our families, our church, play a role in naming and facing our sorrow, but also not letting our story be defined by it?
• What are you waiting for to change/improve, at the expense of perhaps finding life now, in the midst of struggle?
• Respond as a group to this quote:

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."      Annie Dillard

• What would it look like for you to be a joy-filled, life-eminating person from now on? Think about your answer for a moment.............. Now identify all the ways you pointed to issues outside of yourself. As frustrating and invalidating as it may sound, these issues are not actually in your way to becoming a joy-filled, life-giving person. Whether they improve or remain, you may take your pains, disappointments and regrets with you into life anytime! And the world will be that much more inspiring.

FOR BIBLICAL PURPOSES THIS CONVERSATION IS BEING RECORDED Temple Guards

The conversation was over in a minute with the Temple Guards (John 18). Yet the implications will be reverberating for quite a few more millennia. Help your group embrace the practicalities (a potentially, grossly un-mystical word) of the Christ's divinity, and his presence in our lives and thinking. While it may be interesting to continue to dig around only in the concept of the divinity of Christ for a discussion, his promise to be with us in the mysterious, ongoing whisper into our being, has far more daily significance. Dig there.

Thaw

• What do you notice going on inside yourself this Spring?
• What do you wish people knew about you? (yeah, so. we're starting heavy....relax....)

• What has most stuck with you from Sunday?

Read

• John 1:1-5
• John 1:14

Leader note: The phrase rendered "dwell among us" is actually "tabernacled with us", or set up his tent with us. The Greek is σκηνόω ("skēnoō")

• Thoughts?
• What are the implications of this passage on your next 24 hours? Take your time to think this through.

Read

• Zephaniah 3:14-17 ESV

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter of Jerusalem!

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

he has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

"Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.

The LORD your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing.

• Thoughts?

Leader note: Help the group note that the encouragement seems to come from the repeated promise of God being in His people's midst, not just being "for" them. Discuss the difference.

Read

• Matt 28:16-20
• Revelation 21:1-4

Leader note: Revelation 21:3 actually reads this way in the Greek;

"...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the tabernacle (σκηνή skēnē ) of God is with men, and he will tabernacle (σκηνόω skēnoō) with them.'"

• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Do you operate with the understanding that God is present, or that God is watching? Is there a difference, and if so, what is it?
• How might we explain that God is currently present in Christ, while his "pitching a tent" with us in full is still a yet-to-be-fully-realized experience?
• When is a time that you have experienced God's presence?
• When is a time that you felt like God was nowhere to be found?
• How does God's presence motivate us to be at our best?

Leader note: It's worth noting that some of us, in our immaturity, need to know God is present to keep us from "acting up". Ultimately, like any good father, God does't seek to police us, but to guide and lead us into life. (i.e.John 10:10)

Reflective Reading

• The Book of Hebrews is a complex book. Actually, it's not a book...it was a sermon meant to be read aloud to the early Jewish followers of Jesus gathered in a particular region in the mid-first century. Choose someone from the group to read The Message translation of Hebrews 9 & 10, while the rest of the group listens, takes notes and allows the rich imagery to fill their imaginations. You can find the text here.

Discuss & Apply

• First thoughts?
• Does this passage motivate you, or offend something in you? Why do you think you are responding the way you are?
• How does submission to this affect your life immediately?
• What changes of thought are necessary for this to take hold?

Prayer

• Access is both a blessing and a confrontation. Pray as a group that it comforts and challenges each person and their family as they step into tabernacling with Christ, the Logic of God made flesh.

Additional texts

• Heb 1:1-3
• John 14:1-9
• Exodus 3:1-16

FOR BIBLICAL PURPOSES, THIS CONVERSATION IS BEING RECORDED [Nicodemus]

There are sweeping, monumental sermons and conversations recorded in the Bible. Epic interactions between kings and prophets and characters easily depicted by Charlton Heston.
And then, there are brief interactions that you wonder why anyone would write them down at all. Simple banter, really, where the participants couldn't have known anyone would ever remember. But we did.
For the next several weeks we're going to focus on seemingly insignificant exchanges that people had with Christ which, in some cases, were over in half a minute. And yet, millennia later, they still shape how we think about our lives and God. As LifeGroups, lets learn more to be people who notice significance where others may not, and let's see all the wisdom and insight Jesus packs into every chat.

Thaw

• What's one of the first conversations you can remember?
• Why do you think this conversation stuck with you, and what does it tell you about yourself?
• What stuck with you the most from Sunday?

Read

• John 3:1-9
• Thoughts?
• What are some of the layers of the metaphor "Born From Above"? Describe ways that this imagery carries meaning?
• Why does Jesus use nonliteral, illustrative language with a religious teacher? Why doesn't Jesus just lay out his theology?

Discuss

• If Jesus spelled things out plainly, there'd be little risk of us misinterpreting it. But, as it is, Jesus uses metaphor (as does much of the Bible) to teach deep truths about God and life. What does this tell us about the broadness of reality, versus the limits of doctrinal statements?
• What's at stake for Nicodemus in this conversation with Jesus?

Leader note: Help the group bear in mind that, as a religious leader, Nicodemus's status in his society is rooted in being solid and certain about faith and life. He's a go-to. Jesus inviting him to behave along the unpredictable patterns of "wind" would be like asking a Mayor to begin "winging" a budget or a judge to start flipping a coin. It renders Nicodemus powerless to begin following Jesus and being born of the Spirit. This is applicable to us, who want to be spiritual and strong, not vulnerable or appear wishy washy.

• What is the value of ambiguity?
• What are the difficulties with ambiguity?
• How does living "in the middle", where real people and real life happen, take faith, courage and wisdom?

Read

• Romans 12:1-2
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Why is transformed thinking the ultimate goal? Why not a new list of rules, or even transformed behaviors?
• Transformed thinking means constant work for us. Discuss rule keeping versus mind-work; simply following and upholding precepts, or having to apply God's heart to every situation.
• What are the base values upon which we make decisions if Jesus wants us stepping out of a mere black-and-white to living?

Apply

• How do we live in the middle as a group and a church?
• Are there absolutes to cling to?

Leader note: There are fewer than we think. Respectfully, if it seems to be where the conversation is going, wrestle a bit with what we think are absolutes, and what is at stake with the idea remaining absolute. Keep in mind that there may be disagreement, but disagreement doesn't need to be war, but should look more like a dance. It is also helpful to understand that if sever there were an absolute, it would be the Great I Am, Yahweh. Everything else in is orbit around God.

• How do we help each other as a group navigate the difficulties of living in a non-binary world?
• Would anyone say that they feel like they had little experience with this idea?
• Would anyone say that they had some experience with this idea?
• How can these two help balance each other?

Prayer

• Close with prayer to the Great, Unpredictable Spirit that cannot be contained, explained, predicted or simplified into something we "figure out". Ask God to continue to make us, a people "born of Spirit" "from above", to live in tandem with such a God.

The Land Between, Jeff Manion

Your group lives between. Humanity has been described as existing in the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Israel lived this firsthand. Our sense of meaning and purpose, just where "everything" is headed...it's all in stasis for most of us. Many of us would even say we feel stuck there. While some of us are learning all we can there so we'll be prepared for the day we're no longer between, others of us fail to recognize "between's" value and we live our whole lives unhappily trying to escape.

As a group, go through these generic discussion makers and see what you can learn about where each of you, and we, collectively, are in the story.

What most stuck out for you about Sunday morning?

What were the key points for you in the message?

What was the "one thing" you took away that seems applicable in your own, personal life?

What did you learn:

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes of thought and style of relating are necessary in light of what you learned?

What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?