Emmaus at Pilot Mill

Reflection Questions:
1. How do you think God’s taking on a human body (incarnation) impacts our worship and life in Christ?
2. “If the church does not teach us what our bodies are for, our culture certainly will.” - Tish Warren.
- What does our culture tell us about what our bodies are and what they are for?
3. What does your response to inconveniences or “small” suffering reveal about what you love and fear? About your heart?
4. What is your response to moments of sin or failure in your day? How might you meet God in those moments?
5. What significance do you find in the fact that both Word and sacrament are related to food and eating?
6. Was there ever a time in your when the Scriptures seemed dry or unappealing? How did you handle that?

Suggested Practice:

Choose the practice that you most identify with.
1. Decide on one concrete way to care for your body. Reflect on or journal about the ways caring for your body impacts your life in Christ.
2. When you encounter sin in your day, specifically confess it to God. Remind yourself aloud of God’s mercy and forgiveness or have a time of confession with a friend and ask them to remind you of Christ’s forgiveness and mercy.
3. As you read the scripture this week, notice where you experience nourishment and the places where you struggles and feel like the scriptures are stale or unappetizing.

Reflection Questions:
1. Tish Warren speaks of making the bed as a way to make “The first activity of our day not as a consumer but that of a collaborator with God,” have you ever thought of bed making this way? Other mundane tasks?
2. Looking at your daily habits what is your vision of the good life?
- Are there small, repetitive habits in your day that point you to a particular view of the “good life”? What are they?
3. Can you think of a daily practice or ritual that has formed or shaped you in a big or small way? Is there a practice or liturgy that has malformed you and you may need to change?


Practices:
1. As you make your bed, notice what you feel. What is tangible about the experience? Is there anything beautiful or peaceful about it?
2. Write down a repetitive, daily task in your life. As you perform this task, prayerfully ask God to show you the way it shapes you. Journal about it or discuss with a friend or CG.
3. Try to notice this week how you resist stillness and boredom. Carve out a few minutes of silence each day and invite God into that time.
4. Notice small moments of stillness in a day- waiting at a traffic light or for your coffee to brew. Embrace those moments by letting them remain empty and quiet.
5. If you have a smartphone, put it away for a morning, afternoon or day and reflect on that experience.

Reflective questions:
1. How do you normally wake up? Slowly or quickly? Chipper or groggy?

2. In a typical day, what are your first conscious thoughts as you wake? How do those thoughts shape your day? And those days your life?

3. What practical steps might help you recall in your first waking moments that you are beloved and a part of God’s people?
* If it is hard for you to believe that you are beloved of God, spend some this week asking “what are some of the obstacles to embracing your identity as beloved?”

4. Micah mentioned the quote from record mogul Rick Rubin about “training ourselves to see the awe behind the obvious”. Is this something that comes easily to you or is it something you struggle to do?

Practices:
1. What is one thing you can do do differently this week as you wake? Or something you can replace when you first wake?
Examples:
- Rather than running through the list of to-dos, anxieties, or work items, Say aloud “I am clothed in Christ and beloved by God.”
- Rather than reaching for your phone, read the story of Jesus’ baptism.
- Rather than hitting snooze, praise God for who He is.

2. Notice how these changes impact your day and journal about it or discuss it with a friend.

A teaching on Colossians 3:12-17

A teaching on Luke 24

A teaching on Luke 19:28-48