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?

1. What are the things that you long for most? What are the things that cause you to make plans, in order to help ensure that they happen? What do you strategize for? What do you keep your sights on? When difficult decisions have to be made, which things stay at the top of your priority list?

Consider your list and the answers that surface for you to these questions. What did they tell you about yourself? How did you come by these priorities? Do they tell their own stories about your life and journey? Consider your answers,  and ask yourself what in your world and experience have cultivated those things as your priorities?

2. Have you ever been asked to do something, maybe something difficult, and responded with an instant, “absolutely yes!”? If not, can you imagine something that might be asked of you to which you would respond that way?

What do you think those asks were (or would be) resonating with inside yourself? What deep longings did/do they align with and speak to?

3. Tim said that this week’s story from Matthew 4 prompts us to consider our deepest longings, and to think about and reflect honestly on our own hearts and desires. Which of your desires inspire you to respond with an instant “yes” to the call of Christ? Which might be the source of resistance to Christ’s call in God’s kingdom?

Spend some time considering the longings you have identified through the course of your reflection. Whether they are more likely to lead you toward an instant acceptance of the principles of Christ or generate resistance, give yourself the gift of reflecting honestly on whatever patterns or trends you see.

As you consider, do you see things you might like to shift? If so, how might you go about cultivating or strengthening any desired shifts in your deepest longings?

1. Throughout his sermon, Cole framed his teaching around the idea of Jesus’ first words in the book of John, and James K.A. Smith’s assertion that we might not want what we think we want. 

In the course of his teaching, he asked those of us engaged in resistance to empire to reflect on ourselves and reflect on who we are. Then, he said, ask yourself: what am I up to? Is it possible that I might not love what I think I love?  

Consider these questions, and answer them one at a time. 

Then, discuss where you have questions, hesitations, or confusion about how to answer these two questions. Curiously consider what’s surfacing for you as you ask yourself these challenging questions. What do you make of what you are finding?

2. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wrote about the questions he & his fellows asked themselves in order to discover & examine their motives as they prepared to take direct action. They asked themselves and each other: 

Are you able to accept the blows without retaliating? 

Are you able to endure the trial of jail? 

In whatever ways you find yourself working to resist the tide of empire’s power, ask yourself these two questions (or versions of them that make sense in your context). How do you answer them? How do you feel about answers?

3. Cole started his sermon asking a couple questions he wanted us to reflect on as he spoke. Take a few moments to consider & reconsider what you’ve learned, and answer them - either individually, or as a group, through discussion:

What is being revealed?

How might we respond? 

1. In his message, Tim said, “in the kingdom, the means are the end.” 

Reflect on this idea for a moment. How do your emotions, and body, and mind respond? Does it resonate? Does it challenge? Hope so?

Where are you tempted to let the ends justify the means when it comes to your own private life? What’s likely to be really motivating you when you are feeling that temptation?

How is this idea different when it comes to the public world around you in which we? Do you respond differently to the idea of “the ends justifying the means” when it comes to community, national, or worldwide events? Why or why not? 

When it comes to your take on, or engagement with, world events these days, how do you respond to the idea that the means are the end? Do you feel strongly inclined to embrace or reject that idea? Why do you think that is?

2. Tim also said that “the kingdom of God doesn’t advance through violence, so violence can never topple it.” if the kingdom of God doesn’t advance through violence, how does it advance? What has your own life experience taught you about this principle? In your personal relationships, in your job, and your friend groups… Do you see this principal at work? How so?

How do you feel about the second half of this statement? Does it feel reassuring? Trite? Overly optimistic? Solid? What experiences have you had in life that shape your response to this idea?

3. Tim closed his sermon asking us all a question: “have we joined the resistance? Have you joined the resistance?” 

What’s your answer? 

If you have answered, yes, share about what that looks like. If you have hesitation about answering “yes,” or simply want to answer “no,” share about why.  

Why does joining the resistance matter? What does it mean? How does it look for you? How could it look?

How are you understanding the idea as joining the resistance being way of following Jesus‘s example? How intuitive does that link seem to you? What questions does it bring to the surface?

1. In his sermon today, Tim pointed out that the writer of John didn’t say that The Word came into the darkness and then eradicated all darkness. Instead, Tim noted that God seems to want us to spend about half our time in the darkness. He theorized that maybe it’s because God understands that darkness is a necessary part of our lives, and that it’s necessary specifically for teaching us certain things we: the kinds of things we can lean and rely on.

How do you respond to these ideas? How comfortable are you with the idea of darkness in our lives as a necessity?

What do you make of the suggestion that we can learn certain things [only in] in the dark, and that those things are the kinds of things we can learn and rely on?

What have you learned in your own periods of darkness? Can you identify some that are now part of how support yourself and keep yourself upright? Do you think you could have learned those same things without the darkness in which you learned them? Why or why not?

2. Tim later talked about the idea of “enemy-making-spaces.” He talked about them as spaces where people are convinced that their side is full of goodness and light, and that others are full of darkness. These are often religious types, full of certitudes, unable to see their own darkness and/or acknowledge the lessons to be learned in it.

What is your experience with spaces like this? How easily can you identify them in your past, or in your present sphere of exposure? What kinds of emotions surface as you reflect on these spaces? What shifts do you feel and sense in your body?

Of these spaces, Tim said, “these spaces are efficient… they give clarity and something to do with our anger. Enemy-making-spaces let us discharge our pain without having to examine it.”

How do you respond to this characterization? What resonates for you? What feels true? What feels confusing? Where do you feel resistance?

3. Throughout his sermon, Tim highlighted John’s presentation of Jesus as tabernacle, and tabernacle as essentially the opposite of enemy-making-space.

Tim said that tabernacle is a space…

Where God’s presence can be noticed and practiced…and felt. 

Where a relationship with God can be re-learned. 

Of vulnerability & friendship.

Where humans can slowly get used to being truly seen and known as we are - without needing to reach for fig-leaves or weapons.

Where God can be with us, instead of over us. 

Jesus’ presence, by John’s telling, is the reality of God tabernacling again. And with God meeting us again, in human flesh, here on earth, God’s response to our brokenness was forgiveness. 

Tim pointed out that, even before the death & resurrection, Jesus just kept telling people that their sins were forgiven in acts of unending grace. 

How do you respond to this picture of Jesus as a tabernacle-space brought to life among us? How does that affect your understanding of Jesus? Of his presence here on earth? Of the gospel story? What does it make you feel or think about how God sees and responds to you - in your darkness and in your light?

What does it look like for us, as the church, to continue to act as a tabernacle space for the world and darkness around us? How can we show up as re-presenters of that same forgiveness and love? 

Practically speaking, how do we create that tabernacle space while also acknowledging the darkness, and maybe even its necessity? while also being a space for the brightness of God’s light to be seen in the midst of the darkest nights? What does that vision ask of us? What does that vision ask of you? 

1. What is your own experience of journeys? Share about some that come to mind, and how they’ve shaped you.

How did you know there was a journey ahead? Or did you?  

Have you ever felt like you weren’t “not made for perilous quests?” When things seem perilous (physically or emotionally or both), do you tend more toward avoidance or diving right in? How has that worked for you in the past?

2. Marina taught today about the Coptic tradition surrounding the holy family’s flight to Egypt. One key feature is that, for Copts, the holy family’s flight is richly under twined with an understanding of journey as a path to consecration.

How does this strike you? Do you have journeys that you think have consecrated you? Or someplace you know? What have they been like? How have they been  different from other journeys? How have they been the same?

3. Marina listed a handful of the sites that are visited and revered for their part in the story of the holy family’s flight through Egypt. And the ways in which the faithful “yes” of Joseph, and of Mary, enabled lasting and powerful change for the world.

How possible does it feel that a treacherous journey on which you may be asked to go could result in positive powerful change for others? What about that idea makes you skeptical? What makes you hopeful?

When it comes to journey, Marina identified two key actions: saying yes, and taking that crucial first step. Do you have journeys into which you are being beckoned? What would it be like to take those two key actions? To simply say yes? To take that crucial first step? How do you feel about that possibility?

1. In his sermon today, Tim repeatedly returned to the phrase “calamity has two faces.” He went on to describe one face that’s characterized by neighboring, open hearts, bravery in saving others, and a deep sense of belonging to one another. The other face is characterized by closed hearts, fear rising, darkness, and cruelty.

Have you been in calamitous situations in which others have taken on faces of either open heartedness or close hearted fear? How did those “faces” show up? How did they impact others in the situation and/or the situation itself?

Which face comes more naturally to you in the face of adversity, calamity, or distress? Are there factors in the circumstances that change what your answer might be? What kind of situations have shown you your own tendencies in this type of context?

2. Discussing Isaiah 34 and 35, Tim talked about the prophetic voice when it comes to scary and uncertain times. He talked about the first move for the prophetic voice being the act of truth telling, but also talked about a second move. He said “sometimes going against the grain means speaking a word of hope in the midst of calamity.”

Which prophetic move, if either, feels more natural to you? Do you see yourself as a prophetic voice or do you see yourself as having the ability to become one?

How comfortable are you speaking truth in moments on which it may be unpalatable or unwelcome? How comfortable are you speaking words of hope when hope may be unfashionable or difficult to embrace?

If you can think of an experience during which someone else’s prophetic word of hope impacted you, share about it with the group.

3. Tim put up a slide that said “our task in this last phase of Advent is to reach out to God, each other, to reach deep inside ourselves and find a place of hope.”

What does that look like? How do we do it? How could we cultivate that with and for each other?

How much resistance do you feel to that idea or that intention? Why?

Underneath that intention lies the statement Tim returned to again and again: “Calamity has two faces…and we do have a choice.” Do you really believe that statement? Both parts of it? Share about why you feel the way you do about this statement and what it means for you.

Tim talked about finding that place of hope, and then sharing it with someone else. Do you feel capable of doing that? If it feels difficult, do you feel willing to try?

Who in your orbit and life could you share hope with this season? Who needs it? What might that look like in a practical or concrete way? What could you make a plan to actually do to carry the prophetic hope of Advent into the world around you?

1. Tim started his sermon talking about Edwin Friedman & family systems theory, and the ways in which the systems and environments in which we are steeped seem “normal” to us, because we’re deep inside of them. Outsiders, on the other hand, can come in and easily see things that we have never noticed. 

In some instances, these outsiders can act as what Friedeman referred to as a “non-anxious presence.“ That is someone who is relationally connected to the system or environment, but is not emotionally entangled with it.

Whether the system in question is your family, a workplace, a church, a neighborhood, or any other environment, what experiences do you have being someone who is a part of a system that seems “normal” to you until an outside voice starts pointing out its idiosyncrasies? Share about the context, the nature of the outside voice, and how that voice was responded to both by you and by others in the system. Was there a long-term impact on the system that resulted from the introduction of those outside perspectives? 

Do you have any experiences being one of those outside voices? Share about the context of any of those experiences you may have. How did it feel to be the person raising your voice? How were you responded to? What did you make of that situation? What happened long-term?

2. Tim went on to draw a parallel between the Old Testament prophets and Friedeman’s concept of a non-anxious presence.

Take a moment to Think about the emotional and relational experiences of both the people in the system and the outside voice in some of the situations described in the first question. Whether you’ve had that experience or not, take a moment to imagine what it would be like to act as that non-anxious presence as a prophet in Ancient Israel. Take a moment to imagine what it might have been like to be a part of the ancient Israelite communities on which the prophets commented. 

How does considering the prophets through this lens impact your understanding of who the prophets were, how they affected the systems they were connected to, and how their words were received by Israel & the subsequent generations of readers who’ve revered their words? How does it impact their words as you know or understand them today? 

What do you make of the fact that so many important writings in the Christian tradition come from these Old Testament prophets , especially during Advent? What connections do you see  between the role of the prophets as “non anxious presences” and the role Jesus played in his own time and place on earth? What about the role of Jesus today in modern Christianity and in the world at large? 

3. In what ways do you see yourself, as a part of the church, and/or the church as a whole acting as that non-anxious presence, reflecting the realities of systems back to themselves?

Where do you see parallels in which you feel like this is happening? Where do you see parallels in which you feel like it could be happening or should be happening more?

How do you feel when you consider the possibilities of stepping more into that space personally? What comes to mind?  

What surfaces for you when you consider the moment in which today’s church finds itself and the possibility of stepping more into the role of a non-anxious presence, reflecting the systems back to themselves - and living with the reactions and resistance? What would it look like for you to step more into that space?

1. The scripture passage today, the first of the church calendar’s year, was Isaiah 2:1-5. Here’s the version Cole read from the NLT: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%202%3A1-5&version=NLT 

Re-read or review this passage as a group. What does it tend to evoke in you? Prior to Cole’s teaching today, what has this passage generally communicated to you (if it’s one with which you’re familiar)?

Cole talked about two common interpretations: one centered on the idea that a baby can save us all. The other generally conveys the idea that someday humans will step aside and God will fix everything. How close are these interpretations to what you have tended to think this passage is communicating? How did they differ? 

How do these interpretations strike you? In what ways do either or both of these interpretations appeal to you? In what ways might you feel resistance to them?

2. In his message, Cole said “God is not interested in preserving hope like an artifact in a museum.” He went on to say that Christianity is not that interested in preserving things in the way that they used to be. And that, instead, Christianity‘s radical message is that hope can die - and that a new hope can be resurrected again… And again… And again. 

Spend a few moments, considering these ideas about the nature of God and Christianity. What are your initial responses? What thoughts and feelings are surfacing for you as you consider? Are there things that feel reassuring about these ideas? Are there things that feel frightening?

Consider your responses, and reflect on the origins of your own sense of Christianity’s relationship to hope and/or how it functions. Does considering the places and ways in which you learned to understand these ideas shift anything for you? If so, how so?

3. Ultimately, the message Cole identified in both the passage from Isaiah and the movie, The Children of Men, that he used to explicate these ideas is that, “Like Christ, hope sometimes dies… but it comes back.”

He went on to say that if our [Christian/Biblical] stories are anything, they are a public record for the world that “hope does not stay dead. It doesn’t.”

How do you respond to these statements about the inevitability of resurrected hope? How congruent are they with your sense of what hope is and how it functions? 

Do you have stories in your own past that make it harder or easier to believe in these statements about the inevitability of hope’s resurrection?

Where in your life today is hope dead, dying, or threatening to flicker out? How do you feel about the idea of hope’s resurrection in  the context of those circumstances? How difficult does it seem to believe? Whether you feel doubtful or encouraged or something else entirely, why do you think you might be feeling that way?