August Series - What kind of church are we called to be?
This Sunday, I am planning on taking us on a broad sweep overview of "the people of God" through the Bible. Sometimes we look so carefully at the trees that we don’t see the forest. This will be a "big picture" overview of the Bible to help us see the different faces of how God’s people live and act as God’s people throughout Biblical history thus calling us to discover how God has called us to be God’s people in this time and this place.
Because of that, I am simply encouraging you to practice "lectio divina" (outline below) using the text: Luke 12:13-21
Lectio Divina (Holy Listening)
Note: While it is helpful to "go around the circle," so everyone can be heard, anyone may “pass” at any time.
Begin with 60 seconds of silence for people to clear their hearts and minds for God to speak.
Listening for the Voice of Christ the Word
1) Read the passage aloud twice (once at normal speed; a 2nd time by someone else more slowly), as others listen attentivelyfor some segment that is especially meaningful to them.
2) Silence for 1-2 minutes. Each hears and silently repeats a word or phrase that speaks to them.
3) Sharing aloud: Speak out loud the word or phrase that has spoken to you. A simple statement of one or a few words straight from the text. No elaboration.
How Christ the Word Speaks to Me
4) A different person reads the text aloud again.
5) Silence for 2-3 minutes. “Where does the content of this reading touch my life today?”
6) Sharing aloud: “I hear…” or “I see…”
What Christ the Word invites me to be or to do
7) A different person reads the text aloud again.
Silence for 2-3 minutes “I believe that God wants me to … (what and when).”
9) Sharing aloud: At somewhat greater length share the results of your reflection. (Pay special attention to the person on your right as you will be praying for them.)
10)After everyone has had a chance to share, go around the circle and pray for the person on your right. If instead of praying out loud you prefer to pray silently, simply say "I’m praying silently" and conclude your silent prayer with “Amen.”
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Lessons on prayer from the Master
- DON’T begin with prayer - I know - I usually say just the opposite. But today I want you to brainstorm what you know about prayer - get a piece of paper and pen or pencil and spend 5 minutes writing down everything you have learned about prayer to date.
- NOW spend some time in prayer - asking God to “teach us to pray” like the disciples did. Open your hearts to learn from the Spirit, Scripture and each other.
- DISCUSS some of the things that you have learned with your group - what similar learnings do you share? What are some of the differences?
- ATTEMPT a working definition of prayer for the group to use.
- READ Luke 11:1-13
- This teaching on prayer can be divided into 3 main sections which we’ll do in order to better study it:
- SECTION 1 The Lord’s Prayer (vv1-4)
- If you had one question to ask Jesus, what would it be?
- What do you think prompted the disciples to ask Jesus this one? (v1)
- This is Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer - what do you notice is different than the one we pray in church? Any thooughts about why the differences might be there?
- What do you think Jesus may have been trying to teach by this prayer?
- Was it to be a memorized prayer? a model to build on? a sample prayer?
- Notice the different topics of the prayer. Compare and contrast them to the topics that many of us pray about today. What can we learn from the differences?
Read More…
Holy No’s: Knowing Whose Business we are About
· Start by opening in prayer and asking God for the wisdom and strength to make Him the priority of our lives.
· Read Luke 2:41-52
· What do you picture in your head when you see the word ‘caravan’?
· It took a while for Jesus’ parents to realize he was missing. Why do you think took so long?
· The story says it took 3 days for them to find Jesus. What do you think was going through the mind of his parents during these 3 days?
· Where all do you think they looked?
· When they finally find Jesus he is in the temple ‘sitting in the midst of the teachers’. When his mother questions him he simply says, “Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” At least one version reads, “Did you not know whose business I must be about.”
· What does Jesus mean by this?
· With so many distractions around us, it is easy to forget whose business we are meant to be about. What are some of those distractions?
· In those times where you take your focus off of God, whose business do you normally focus on instead?
· What are some things we can be doing to help prevent us from taking our sights off God?
· The million dollar question… if we are meant to be about God’s business, what is God’s business?
· Often the answers to the above question focus on the afterlife (Saving souls etc..). Without taking anything away from the importance of that mission, WHAT ELSE does God care about?
· How is St. Marks UMC currently doing at caring about the things that God cares about? (it’s ok to think there’s room for improvement…there always is)
· Where do you fit into that picture? If you’re not sure, what is an area of ‘God’s business’ that you’d like to get more involved with?
· Close with a prayer asking for the wisdom to discern what is God’s business and what is not, and for clarity, that we might know the ways in which God intends to use us.
Holy No’s: Rightly Focused Protest Requires Humility
Start with a word of prayer asking God to open minds and hearts to the idea of humility in our faith journeys.
What does the word humility mean to you?
What are some of the positive and negative connotations that come with the word humility?
What are some examples of humility in Jesus’ life?
Discuss what you know of the following Biblical characters and how humility (or perhaps their lack of it) played out in their lives.
Moses
David
Solomon
Paul
Peter
Who are some modern day examples of people who live(d) with great humility (expect that your list may well be short).
What can we learn from the successes and failures of these stories (both Biblical and modern day)?
The Greek word that gets translated as ‘humble’ simply means to lower. Why is it essential in our faith to keep ourselves low?
In what ways is being humble contrary to what we’re taught in American society?
How do we get in God’s way when we forget to be humble?
What are some of the reasons that humility can be so difficult for us?
The topic for the series is rightly focused protest. Humility is clearly something God calls us too, but why is it an important part of protest? Or in other words…why is humility essential to our ability to stand up for and love others?
What are some of the walls and barriers that prevent us from standing up for others?
What are some areas of your own life that you need to let go of to allow God to be in charge?
Close in prayer asking God for the strength to keep yourself low, for the wisdom to know when pride is getting in the way, and for the kind of love that will allow you to love others in the same way that God has chosen to love you.
Holy No’s: Rightly Focused Protest…Invites
- Begin with a word of prayer asking God to show you how your life needs to be more inviting - even to those you disagree with.
- What are some things that we get invitations to?
- What is the unique nature of an invitation? (That is - what makes it an "invitation" rather than something different -eg a memo?)
- How is hospitality related to invitation?
- How does an "invitation" make you feel? How about the lack of an "invitation?"
- What are some signs that you are clearly NOT invited somewhere or to something? How might the church send those signals to others?
- Rightly focussed protest invites others to join us in standing up for a common good - for the love of humanity - for justice for all.
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READ Luke 9:57-62
- Would you say that Jesus’ words, "Follow me" were invitation or command? Give reasons for your answer
- Re-read vv57-58 When someone responded to Jesus’ invitation, what was Jesus’ concern? Why?
- Re-read vv59-60 What do you think Jesus is doing here?
- Re-read vv 61-62 What message is Jesus sending?
- Discuss why Jesus may have invited followers at all. Why didn’t Jesus just save the world by himself? Why do you think he invited others with him?
- What are the reasons that prevent us from inviting others to join us in our purposes to help make the world a better place to live?
- How have politics silenced our invitations? Should they? If not, how can we prevent that?
- What cause are you involved in that you would be helped in by inviting others? Why not do so? (discuss why and look for ways around your reasons so that God’s purposes can be accomplished through you.)
- Luke Eckert reminded us in worship that even contentious issues like "abortion" can be better addressed through hospitality and invitation rather than through conflict and attack. What are some areas in your life where you might better use invitation and hospitality?
- How can the church better invite people together to "live out God’s revolutionary love?"
- Close with an invitation to the Spirit to make more of you than you can be by yourself. Then seek God’s wisdom for ways to let God and others join you in bringing about transformation to the world!
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Holy No’s: Rightly Focused Protest…deepens our understanding of process
- Open with a time of prayer asking God to show you the areas of your life and our lives together that need the correction of God’s Word.
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Before we begin to discuss any more about social justice, let’s understand and agree that ultimately God is the only one who can fully define what is socially just and what is unjust. However, Scripture gives good indication about some practices that are unjust and also gives good indication of what is the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness and self-control. So these practices and fruit can be good measuring sticks for us to hold up to our social practices to determine if, in fact they are just.
- If they are NOT ‘just’ by these standards, then we are likely failing to live up to the love that God calls us to which is ‘just.’ If our lives ARE marked by just actions then we can say that the actions at least are loving (only God can judge the heart).
- Some have argued that this series does not focus on the key aspects of the gospel - the heart of Christianity. Yet Jesus insists that we are to love God and love others if we are to get to the heart of his Way. So as far as social justice issues are "loving people Jesus’ way" this is, in fact the heart of the gospel. And where we are focusing on our pet social projects that do NOT show love to others, we are missing the point.
- DISCUSS the above - allow room for people to be honest.
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We are blessed in our 21st century world to have things happen fast. I can get an item I purchase online shipped to me so that I have it the next day. I can download a book over the internet so I have it on my computer 2 minutes after I buy it. I can fly from here to Europe and back in the same day.
- NAME some of the other ways that our lives move fast.
- TALK about some of the humorous aspects of our speed - let’s laugh at ourselves for a moment.
- What dangers does the speed of modern day life pose to the life of the community of faith - the church?
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Marilyn Chandler McEntyre writes: "Good community organizers understand the slow movement of community life and the gradualness of most real growth."(Weavings, Vol. XXV; No.2)
- (In the following discussion when I refer to Community LIFE!, I am referring to the Church seeking to LIVE! out together that abundant LIFE! that Jesus came to bring us - John 10:10)
- If community LIFE! and growth take place over a long period of time, how can we be faithful to ‘real growth?’
- What character traits will we need to hold onto in order to allow community LIFE! to develop and mature?
- Let’s face it - sometimes change to individuals and to society do not happen at the speed we would like it to. Let’s look at a story of social change that God brought about - and notice the need to be patient to allow the process to take it’s course.
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The Exodus: God saves the Israelites out of slavery to the Egyptians
- READ 3:7-10 Moses is far from Egypt when God calls him to go and help save his people. Apparently the Israelites had been crying out to God - for how long we don’t know. But even after Moses’ vision from the burning bush, there would have been the preparations and the journey to Egypt which would have taken at least a couple weeks probably.
- Then the series of plagues - each announced and then endured. Read the following, noting the passage of time and discuss how it may have felt to be an Israelite that believed God was at work, but perhaps not as quickly as you would have wished for God to be. Read each short passage from Exodus and talk about how long each process may have taken.
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The 10 plagues
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1. Water to Blood
7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
2. Frogs
8:2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
8:3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs:
8:4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
3. Gnats or Lice
8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
4. Flies
8:21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.
5. Livestock Diseased
9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.
6. Boils
9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
9:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
7. Thunder and Hail
9:18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
8. Locusts
10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field.
9. Darkness
10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days
10. Death of the Firstborn
11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
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Now, I don’t know about you, but I think I would be asking why God didn’t use the 3 strike rule rather than the 10 strike rule? Or why didn’t God just skip ahead to the big one at the end if that is what made Pharoah let the people go?
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DISCUSS what might or might not have happened if this "process" did not run it’s course. How might it have affected the process to speed it up or skip a few steps?
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Ultimately we can’t know the answer to this question, which may frustrate us. Yet the mystery of trust is that we do our best to allow God the time to do God’s work in God’s timing!
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DISCUSS how we might live that out in practical ways.
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Name a time in your life when God did not work as fast as you wished God would have. Were you able to see why God worked at God’s speed when it was all done? Even if not, can we entrust ourselves to God’s love and care in such a way that we don’t have to know why God’s timing is different than ours?
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Close with a time of "entrusting prayer" giving control back to God rather than holding it ourselves. Ask God to give you the patience and trust to "Let go and let God" do what God wants when God wants. Feel yourself relax as you give up that control that is really not ours to begin with.
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Now, walk with God, and let God’s timing unfold - one step and one day at a time as God works the miracle process of transformation in our lives and in our Community LIFE!
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Holy No’s: Rightly Focused Protest…Reminds
- Open your time together in prayer asking God to speak to your hearts about what it means to say a holy "No" - and a holy "Yes" in PROtest.
- Let’s face it - we need reminding. And the more time passes, the more reminding we need. Anniversaries (men!!) Father’s Day (this Sunday ladies!!) People’s faces. Important events. Appointments. We forget because we are human.
- Talk about some ways that we help remind ourselves or others of things OR tell a story about a time you didn’t remember and should have.
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Before reading Scripture, here’s the setting: Israel has been freed from slavery in Egypt. They had the Red Sea parted for them as they left so they could escape Egypt’s army. They have spent 40 years in the wilderness. Now there is a river (the Jordan) between them and the land of milk and honey. But God comes through again by parting the water - seems that’s one of God’s specialties. Israel passes through to the other side. This is where the reading begins…
- Read Joshua 4:1-7
- What did God tell Joshua to do in order to remind future generations of what happened there?
- Why do we need to remember or be reminded of things like this?
- How can we spark the curiosity of our children to ask questions about things that will give us an opportunity to tell them about what God has done?
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Israel had many ways of reminding and remembering - feasts/festivals, practices, rituals, memorials. What are some of the ways that the Christian church remembers - is reminded - of God’s work? (I’ll get you started: Communion is one…)
- How have we failed to remember and what does that cost us?
- What are some creative ideas to keep us from forgetting what God has done?
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As we consider issues of social justice, how does our "collective memory" cause us to sin by forgetting?
- Nationally and internationally: Talk a little about 9/11 or Vietnam or WWII or the holocast - How should our memories of those events shape our character to become more Christ-like?
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What about some memories of church history: The crucifixion, Pentecost, the reformation, the crusades or the inquisition (if you don’t know what these events are, take a moment to google one or two OR make a commitment to research an issue and report on it next time you meet).
- Someone once said that those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. How can we remember past mistakes in a way that prevents us from repeating them?
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The law of Sabbath is mentioned often in Scripture. Read Deuteronomy 5:12-15 and see the rationale for sabbath.
- How does remembering our own suffering give us compassion for others’?
- What are some ways we can keep from forgetting our own hard times and the ways that God has been there for us? (e.g. Journaling…)
- Discuss how a holy NO reminds people and how that reminder can change our heart.
- Close with a time of extended silence - jogging your memory by remembering ways that God has been faithful to you today, this week, this month, this year, this decade, this lifetime. Pay attention to how remembering this can bring change to your soul.
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Social Justice: Get Involved, Find out More…
Last week we shed some light on "Human Trafficking." If you want to get involved or learn more. Please check out these websites or resources:
Good Read: "Disposable People" by Kevin Bales
Worthwhile Websites: www.humantrafficking.org
www.notforsalecampaign.org
Agency With a Worthy Cause: ECPAT International at http://www.ecpat.net/EI/index.asp
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Holy No’s: Rightly Focussed Protest…Reframes
- Open with a time of prayer and a willingness to be humble and open to how God wants to reshape us and "re-frame" our lives.
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Read the following and discuss:
- "Language is a tool, just like any of the tools human beings have invented. Like any tool–a knife, a screwdriver, a computer, a space satellite — language is used to do something, to achieve a goal. A knife can be used to carve a roast or carve a relative; a computer can be used to keep lists of people who donate money to charity or to keep lists of people marked for summary execution by the government; a satellite can provide information on the weather or navigational directions for nuclear missiles to hit their targets. Language can be used to write the Constitution of the United States or to write the laws of apartheid; to write King Lear or pornography; to write the lyrics of John Keats or plans for a winnable nuclear war. The fault lies not in the language but in us, the creators and users of language." p.xii DoubleSpeak by William Lutz
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Reframing truth "requires a close look at how we use language to mask hard truths." Marilyn Chandler McEntyre (Weavings p.21 Vol. 25, No.2) William Lutz has written a book called "Doublespeak" which addresses some of the ways we do this.
- Definition: "Doublespeak is language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. It is language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable. Doublespeak is language that avoids or shifts responsibility, language that is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language that conceals or prevents thought; rather than extending thought, doublespeak limits it." p.1
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Now read some of the examples given in Lutz’ book (p.1):
- In Tucson, AZ there are no "potholes" - just "pavement deficiencies."
- There are no more poor people - just "fiscal underachievers."
- There was no robbery of the ATM - just an "unauthorized withdrawal."
- Now that you get the idea, can you give some examples of doublespeak?
- What are the advantages and the dangers of doublespeak?
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Often "doublespeak" is used to "reframe" hard truths into more palatable and digestible truth. We have all told "little white lies." Who determines if they are little? Why do we call them white? Do the two adjectives "little white" change the reality of the noun - "lies?" Below are some other examples from Lutz’ book (try to be open-minded rather than defensive as we ask the question - "Are we really telling the truth?" Remember that the fruit of the light - last week’s Scripture - includes what is "true."):
- Business world: the stock market did not fall - just "retreated" or "had a technical adjustment"
- Military world: not war - just "defense"; not an invasion but a "pre-emptive strike" (remember what I said about trying not to get defensive!! :) )
- Advertising world: not a check out clerk - but a "part-time career associate scanning professional"
- What are some ways we use doublespeak in the religious world?
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Jesus had a problem with doublespeak and doubleliving.
- Read Matthew 23:13-31
- Take your time and look at each different scenario and discuss what Jesus is trying to correct.
- Read Matthew 5:37. How do you think this verse relates to the doublespeak we have been looking at?
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Set aside some time - at least 2 full minutes - of silence to give everyone a chance to do some self-searching for ways that we have been "doublespeaking" and/or ways that we need to "reframe" the truth so that it is fully the truth.
- Regather and invite people to share as they are willing (notice I didn’t say as they are comfortable - this is not about our comfort - this is about truth).
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What are some ways that we need to "reframe" some truths in the following areas (this may require some thinking!!):
- Nationally?
- Culturally?
- Economically?
- Be on the lookout this week for "doublespeak" and, if appropriate, point it out and invite people to the truth.
- Close in prayer for God’s guidance and courage to stand for truth.
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We have just concluded "They Like Jesus, But not the Church." So where to from here? The challenge of that series was to look for ways to move outside the "bubble" of the church and befriend some unchurched people. Then let God love them through you in such a way that we as the Church become more like the loving Christ we represent. Stories of how you’re doing that would be welcome - send an e-mail to me at nate@stmarksindialantic.org - thanks!
This week we start a new series that is related to the Social Justice stream of the church. What do we mean when we talk about social justice? "Social justice is the application of the concept of justice on a social scale…Social justice is also a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality…" <Wikipedia>
As we focus on how our faith challenges us to move towards making this world a more just place socially, we will be looking at how that happens over the next few weeks. The series is called "Holy No’s" and we will look at how a "no" to something (as in protest) is also a "yes" to other things. That is, to protest is not only to speak against, but also to speak for. So we will look at how, in our lives, we need to practice "rightly focus protest" or "holy no’s." And we’ll be talking about what that looks like based on an article by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre in Weavings magazine (Vol. 25; No. 2) called "When No is Yes."
"Those who have learned the art of generous, life-giving protest have in common at least three things: 1. a deep sense of the common good - that no one is safe if some live in fear, that justice is everyone’s business, that care for others is a prerequisite to one’s own welfare; 2. a wide and complex understanding of public policy - who benefits and who pays the hidden costs when taxes are lowered or wars waged or jobs outsourced; 3. humility that comes from a lively awareness of whom they serve." (from the article referred to above)
Holy No’s: Rightly focused protest…awakens
- Begin by reading the above introduction.
- Then spend some time in prayer asking God to awaken you in the areas of your life where you have "fallen asleep."
- Discuss some organizations or issues that are going on in our world or society today that are "behind closed doors" or that seem to be big issues that no one is discussing. (e.g. the sex slave trade)
- Talk about what the role of Christians in light of some of these societal issues is (are we just to be people who "help the wounded" or are we to actively seek to change the policies, circumstances that bring these issues about?)
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Read Ephesians 5:8-20
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Re-read vv 8-9 - Paul talks about how we were darkness - what do you think he means?
- What does it mean to be "light?"
- If we are already in light, why would Paul have to say, "Live as children of light?"
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The fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true - Those 3 adjectives cover so much! Good – like God – positive, uplifting, wonderful effect on humanity in general if not always on everyone involved. For the common good. Right – like God – righteous, the proper thing to do, the appropriate way to be. True – without falsehood – without deception or lie. What you see is what you get. These are the fruit of “light-people” – this is what our lives are to look like. Is there anything in your life that is NOT good, or right or true?
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Re-read v 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord - (being careful how we live, making the most of the time) There is a sense here of living on purpose. Rather than drifting through life, letting life happen to us, this is an invitation to live for God – to please God, living with care and attention to our choices and how we spend our time and making the most of it – when you think about it we really don’t have that much. Living as children of light is to live with purpose.
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Re-read vv11-14 Exposing, rather than participating in, works of darkness - This is the hard part of living as children of light – not only living in the light ourselves, but exposing the works of darkness. It reminds us of the baptismal vows to stand against evil and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves. Part of our role as children of light is not just to live in light ourselves – but awaken the world to the deeds of darkness that are destroying life. I think of the sex slave trade that is so powerful and present in today’s world…of Darfur and places where the powerful rule in injustice…of Amnesty International – that seeks to expose the works of the darkness.
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Re-read vv15-20 What sorts of things is Paul calling us to do and how is he calling us to live in this world?
- Close in a time of prayer asking Christ to live as light in you and through you to boldly expose the deeds of darkness.
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