1. How did this week’s sermon make you feel? What did it provoke in you? What did it make you think about?

To what extent do you feel like you are good or bad at “being spiritual?” Why?

Do you ever think about other people in the same way? Considering their supposed “spiritual achievements?”

What do you notice about the way you may evaluate yourself in this area and the way you evaluate others?

2. How often do you find yourself feeling like you should try harder at being spiritual? To what extent is your headspace occupied with trying to accomplish things we might consider “spiritual achievements?” How do you feel when you accomplish them? How do you feel when you don’t?

How has your experience with striving (or not striving) to check religious boxes affected your sense of your own spiritual worth, your connection to God, or your faith in general?

3. What does it mean to build your love in Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, including the beatitudes? What does it mean to build your life on the words of the first beatitude that Tim focused on today?

Tim used Brian Zahnd’s translation of the first beatitude: “ blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual; for the kingdom of heaven is well suited for ordinary people.”

He also said that, “perfection, in God’s eyes, is not the elimination of the negative, but the inclusion of the negative… All of life belongs in God’s kingdom, even the worst of it.”

What is your initial response to these two ideas held together side-by-side? With a moment to reflect, do you think about them differently?

Tim also said, “it’s not that God is with you in spite of your struggle… Is that the struggle itself is the form God’s presence is taking… At this point in your life.”

What do you make of this statement? What does it surface for you? What does it prompt you to think or feel or ask?