Weighing God p1

Glory to God in the Highest = Peace on earth.

Glory to other gods = No peace on earth.

As "bumper-sticker" as it seems, this is the premise of true spirituality. When God is seen for God's true significance, our inner wrinkles iron out. Other wise, we become subject to our circumstances, our state of being dictated by all the outer wrinkles of life.

Use this group time to explore alternative ways of thinking about all that we want in our lives. Some of us are bent on improving our looks, numbing pain, giving others a piece of our mind, making more money, finding someone to marry, getting the editorial section into conformity with our views, etc, etc. Other of us have simply said that our peace and contentment will be predicated on a loved one's health, or their living, or on getting out of unemployment. The ancient wisdom says theirs a way to take responsibility in all those columns without becoming subject to them.

At the end, or maybe in the middle of your time, consider 4 or 5 minutes of silence (even if their are kids gathered in another room, banging off walls...), to learn how to stabilize and embrace the full, peaceful awareness at the feet of Christ that we're offered in any moment, any time, no matter what.

Thaw

• How has December stress affect you and your relationships?
• If it hasn't, has it in the past?
• What do you feel like goes wrong if it does? If this doesn't seem to apply to you, what is your secret?
• What most resonated with you from Sunday morning?

Read

• Mark 4:35-40 
• Thoughts?
• How do you imagine Jesus' demeanor as he woke up?

Discuss

• Jesus may seem insensitive to their fears. How does this apply to us now if he was not apathetic to their dangers but was displaying an alternative state to their terror and stress?

Leader note: the Greek word translated "drown" is the same word translated "perish" or "dying" in other places. It's not specific to their watery situation, and their state can be found in us in all kinds of scenarios.

• Do you know anyone one who seems to never be unsettled by "the waves"?
• Would you say this person was "successful" or "unsuccessful"?

Leader note: this last question is intended to get the group thinking about whether someone has to trade real abiding peace for getting things done. Most of us in the west, especially in our neck of it, believe our display of agitation, emotional outbursts, wrinkled brows, etc- all communicate "hard at work".

If anyone has seen the movie Lincoln, it may be good to reference his being portrayed as nearly unflappable- even in the face of criticism, disagreement, shallowness, set backs, injustice and limited time to accomplish important goals.

•  Do you find you're attracted to others' peace, or threatened by it? (Or another reaction?) Why do you think that is?

Read

• Luke 10:38-42 
• Thoughts?
• Which are you most often; Mary or Martha? Why do you answer that way?

Discuss

• Without feeling a need to hyper-spiritualize Christ's words, what is he saying by telling Martha that, though she's anxious and upset about tons of stuff, there's really only one thing she needs to have in her mind?
• What does this say about all the real responsibilities of life?
• Both Martha and Mary's names mean "Rebellion". But that rebellion seems to be playing out in contrary ways. Explore this idea.

Apply

• We live in what many refer to as a Christianized society. But our rates of stress (seen in our health and relational dynamics) seems like anything but "peace on earth". What are a few ways this group can embody peace?
• How much of this effort to live at peace in all matters feels a bit like a lost cause? 
• How can the people in this group, and the discipline of coming together and being real with one another, help each of you to stabilize and find peace, no matter what life throws at you?

Quiet meditation

• Spend just a few moments unclenching your jaw, relaxing your face and shoulders, breathing evenly and thinking about Christ asleep in the stern of the boat. See how calm he is while water splashes and lighting burns the sky. Be mindful of the tension in your body, releasing it, and trading it for the peace that comes with recognizing that their is a master higher than that which keeps us on edge.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace....

Bobby McFerrin was right

Spend some time in your group discussing that which has us worrying and upset. None of it needs worried about, regardless of the varying levels of required concern. Worry is always a frantic lie about what's effective in solving our problems.

As well as discussing what most stuck with the members of the group from Sunday morning, Here are some texts for discussion and reflection.

Matthew 6:22-34
1 Peter 5:7

Make sure and allow people with the least amount of worry in their life to share how they see life and where they learned it. Also allow people who seem to worry the most to share, and see if the group can find patterns. Be gentle, as worriers may worry all the more for being singled out as somehow defective in relation to the rest of the "more spiritual" members of the group. We all worry about something, so it's finding out who is most incapacitated by it generally.

Deja Vu Resurrection

This conversation is sure to challenge paradigms and the best kind of cause head-scratching (this is not to say the conversation can actually cause dandruff. That issue cannot be blamed on the topic...). Many of us are so used to phrases like "died and gone to heaven" that we've stopped asking what the real trajectory of our life is, from a Biblical perspective. Both now and forever.

Use this time not necessarily to correct doctrine, but to catalyze a desire for involvement in life NOW. Not just after we die; eternal life is available to us immediately.


Read & Discuss 1 Corinthians 15.
Note that Paul calls "fools" those who ask what the resurrection will be like, going on to say that the thing sewed (a seed) is nothing like what will grow. Paul seems to be saying that there's no way on THIS side of resurrection what we will be like. It's all speculation for seeds to try and comprehend the plant they will be. It's a foolish focus on the issue of resurrection, being that it's yet a mystery. Yet, Paul continues to talk about resurrection hope, and does so through the analogy of sewing seed. Sewing a seed, you may agree, is an act of will- while literal dying (someone sewing you for you) is often involuntary. Paul is speaking of literal death and resurrection, but also intimating that a figurative death and resurrection is our duty now. To sew ourselves (unless he's advocating suicide) is a death and resurrection we take part in today. Thus Paul could say "I die daily!" So, both kinds of dying and living are present in this chapter. A fixation on the unknowable mystery of literal resurrection is in some sense the fruit of hope, but in another, cause for Paul to call you a fool. Read and apply accordingly.

Other Key Texts
John 19:38-20:18
Galatians 2:17-21
John 5:24 (Notice it's already true!)
Rev 21:1-3 (Notice ultimately it's a story of God coming down to humanity, not humanity floating up.)

Discussion and Application
Ask what it is that has the individuals, the families or the whole group stuck and afraid "in the upper room" (John 20). What might the Spirit be inviting them to do, even in the face of danger and difficulty and at great risk to comfort and the status quo, in order that they may be a part of resurrecting their own minds, hearts and their part of the world? How can the group help with whatever is discovered and shared?

Deja Vu: The One Thing More Scandalous Than Sin

After discussing the highlights from the week (discuss politics at your peril!) and from Sunday morning, read Matthew 20:1:16 and Luke 23:39-43. Guide your group to really discuss grace- not the doctrine, but the reality of it available in our lives. 
Try and be honest, if even imaginative, about how you would actually feel in these scenes from Matthew and Luke; not as mere readers of text in a living room, but as participants in what's being described. 
Then, decide what must be adjusted in our faith/life if this is truly what God (and God-loving) is like.