1. Tim defined ideology & described both the way it functions in our lives and the ways in which Jesus worked to break down its hold over people. He taught that the purpose of ideology is to mask the alienation we feel from God, self, others, and creation.  

He then began the following sentence, which was ended by the slide below. He said, “The Jesus way to be emancipated from full ideological capture is to…” (see slide).

To what extent do you see yourself as someone who has been or is captured by ideologies? How do you feel about the idea of your own alienation from God, yourself, others, and creation? In what ways can you see interplay between your experiences of ideologies and how you relate (or have related) to your own feelings of alienation?

2. Tim taught that, through Jesus, God was establishing a new way of being human. He’s promising that love, as a way of life, will connect us to God. 

What does it look like to live in the way of love? Where does that approach to life show up most conspicuously? Where does it have the biggest impact? And on whom?

Does living in the way of love (as you’ve just described and defined it) feel like whatever you expect connecting to God to feel like? If so, how so? If not, why not?

3. As he closed his sermon, Tim said, “My whole hope is in this. I want this for me; I want this for you.” 

What do you think the idea of someone’s “whole hope [being] in this” conveys? To what extent is that statement true for you personally? How does that show up in your life? When you feel more divided, what things tend to crowd into that list of things in which you place your hope?