1. In his sermon, analyzing and reflecting on the beginning of Joseph’s life, Tim pointed out that - in Joseph’s life, as in our own, “there are no blameless parties.” He shared a slide that read, “We are all part of the brokenness…We blame each each other to avoid facing reality that we’re all responsible for the mess. Because it’s hard to trust that God we can’t see is with us, keeping our world. Sometimes we’re totally blind to it.”

Take a moment to absorb these words. Consider re-reading them several times.

What does “We are all part of the brokenness” mean to you? Where do you most see this reflected in your life and in the world?

In which contexts are you most tempted to blame others rather than avoid facing responsibility for your part in a mess?

How often do you consider your own responsibility in brokenness you encounter? What is it like for you to explore the question of your part in different types of situations? Where does it feel easier or more natural? Where does it feel most difficult or unhelpful?

What connections do your see to the patterns you’ve just described and the ideas Tim shared about blame? How difficult is it for you to face the idea you have some responsibility in much of the messiness of your life? How do you respond to that? What do you think is meant by that idea? Where is most applicable? Least?

How trust in God factor in? Tim said that we blame each other because it’s hard to trust that God is with us, keeping our world. To what extent does that feel true to you? How aware are you of difficulty you may have trusting in God’s presence during your messy experiences of life’s brokenness?

2. Tim talked about the ways in which we will all spend big chunks of our lives perpetuating darkness w/o even knowing it. He tied this reality to the Christian tradition of nonviolence. Of this he said, “…because what if we kill the wrong people?” He then on to say, “Besides, it might be us next time.”

Can you identify times in your life when you have perpetuated darkness without even knowing it? What has that looked like in the past? How do you feel about those times now? What has been significant for you in moving through and processing those parts of your story?

What’s it like to consider possible situations in the present or the future in which you might again play a similar role in perpetuating darkness?

Reflect on these ideas related to violence. What do you think about the idea that we sometimes blame and kill the wrong person? Is it possible to get your head around the idea, next time, it could be you that’s unfairly blamed? And acted against violently?

If you noticed particular similarities or differences in the way different people in your group responded to this question, what do you think there is to learn from what you observed? What could it teach you?

3. As he wrapped his sermon, Tim said that the story of Joseph dares us to believe that God will weave even the most broken parts of our lives - even the biggest messes and the deepest pain- into a story of redemption.

What’s your initial reaction to this suggestion? Does it feel difficult or easy to believe? Is it easier to believe in some circumstances than it is in others? Is it easier to believe for other people or for yourself?

Have there been times in the past when you’ve seen this to be true? Have you been looking? How has it impacted you to see stories of redemption woven into your life and/or the lives of people around you? What has it taught you about places in your life today where you might have a harder time believing in a coming story of redemption?

1. Early in his sermon, Tim pointed out an idea that many see in the stories we’ve covered in Genesis: “each generation just repeats and magnifies the mistakes of the generation before.”

What do you think of this idea - relative to Genesis, and relative to your experience of life in general?

Where do you see evidence of the truthfulness of this statement? Where do you see evidence contradicting it?

Martin Luther King, Jr famously said, “The arc is the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Is there room for both of these ideas to be true? How so? If not, why not?

2. As Tim spoke about Jacob’s encounter wrestling “the man” in Gen 32, he said that - if it is in face God with whom he wrestles, “Jacob is wrestling with a God who self limits, becoming weak at the point of contact.” He also spoke about “a God whose strength ends up being constituted in weakness” and “a God strong enough to lose - on purpose.”

How does this idea of an intentionally self-limiting God sit for you? How familiar is this conception of God for you?

What does it mean to love and be loved by a God is who is strong and, when needed, weak? What does it look like?

Why do you think Christian culture has often been very attached to the idea of a “fixer” God, despite abundant evidence to the contrary?

What do you think it brings to our understanding of God and of the gospel to know God as a “God whose strength ends up being constituted in weakness?” Without incorporating this truth into our conception of God, what might we miss?

3. One of Tim’s slides read, “when you wrestle with God the object is not to win, but to be defeated…” He spoke of Beuchner’s characterization of “the Magnificent Defeat,“ and also quoted Rilke saying, “the purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.”

What do you think about these ideas? What surfaces for you as you ponder a life in which defeat is so crucial? How much does this align or clash with the ways in which you show up to your everyday life?

Why might being defeated by God be so important? What does it bring into the world/our worlds? What does it shape in us?

To what extent does wrestling with and being defeated by God feel familiar to you? Have you had experiences you might characterize that way? What has it looked like? Or, what do you think it might look like?

Do you have ways in which you recognize your own resulting metaphorical limps? If so, are you more inclined to think of your limp as a punishment or a signifier? How so? Why?

1. Tim pointed out that after God promises to be with Jacob and keep him, Jacob almost immediate responds with his own caveat-filled transactional vow. Of this, Tim said that bargaining with God is part of living in a world we can’t control.

Think back to some of the times and so situations in which you have bargained with God, added caveats to God’s presence, or tried to negotiate that be God on your own terms. Do you see those times differently now than you did then? How so?

Share about some of the circumstances and experiences in which bargaining, adding caveats, and etc has felt most prevalent. Do you see any similarities or themes that are consistent from one instance or context to another?

Are there commonalities between your experiences and those of others? Common threads?

2. In considering the staircase in Jacob’s dream and the moment in his life at which Jacob has this dream, Tim said, “this dream is daring us to believe that there are no forsaken places.”

Does that seem difficult to believe? What types of places or circumstances might make it hardest for you to really believe this idea of no forsaken places?

Are there areas in your life or in yourself that you once feared might be forsaken, but now you see differently? How do you explain your shifted perception? What happened?

Are there areas within your self or your life that you fear are forsaken? What would it look like to believe - in light of those places - that there truly are no forsaken places? What would believing that change?

3. As Tim neared the closing of his sermon, he said, “if you want to make a vow, let it be this: no more transactions.”

What do you think this means? What would it mean for you?

Why do you think humans seem to naturally fall into this transactional mindset with God? How do you understand the role of control in that dynamic?

What would this look like in the rhythms of daily life? Would it change the practices and dynamics of your relationship with God? If so, how so?

Why do you think it is important to shift away from a transactional view of the relationship between ourselves and God? (If you don’t think it is, share about why.)

What could be impacted if we fully were able to step out of that transactional mindset in our faith? What might happen as a result?

1. One of Tim’s slides read: “the Israelites decided their God must be in conflict with the way the world is typically organized.  [& that] God‘s blessing is not distributed according to birth order strength, or fertility, but is for all people who are willing to be vulnerable and to love…”

What does this revelation mean for us today as Christians? Where do you see overlap or a through-line between this understanding of the  ancient Jews, & our understanding of God today (as Christians)?

Re-read the entirely of the slide again as a group. What’s the significance of vulnerability in this paradigm? Do you think of vulnerability as a component of your faith? How might you explain its relevance (or irrelevance) according to how you see it?

To what degree do you see this revelation or idea as important or meaningful in our modern day engagement in our faith? Share about why. 

2. Tim also talked about the ways in which the Israelites understood God as being‘ meaningfully connected to or aligned with those who are marginalized and disempowered (e.g. the many barren women, & second-sons whose stories are told in the Hebrew Bible). He shared that the Israelites believed that God wasn’t using them in spite of their flaws, but because of them.

If we hope to embody the same relationship to God and be useful to him in ways that mirror our ancient faith-ancestors, how do you conceive of doing so as people of great privilege living in Johnson County Kansas in 2025?

What makes that difficult for us? In what areas might we have blinders? 

Are there areas in which we might have unique clarity?

In what ways do you think you might be especially useful to God because of your flaws rather than in spite of them? 

Are there ways that you think the Christian Church as a whole can be especially useful because of its flaws rather than in spite of them?

3. Tim asked, “who do you identify with most in this story?” Take a moment to reflect on each of the 4 main characters: Jacob, Esau Isaac, and Rebecca. Then answer his question:  Who do you identify with most? why?

Is there anyone that you feel like you can’t identify with at all? Share about why. 

1. In framing the story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, Tim positioned God & Abraham as the parent & child to consider. 

As he did so, Tim said, “every good thing we want for our kids will come through struggle.” 

Think about this idea relative to yourself as the “kid” in question. What good things have come to you through struggle? What wisdom has been grown in you as a result of struggle? Do you think you could have received those same things in another way that didn’t involve struggle? 

Are there things you want or have wanted for yourself that you’ve gotten, but have NOT required struggle? if so, what kind of things were they?

What has come your way as the result of struggle that is different than what you’d expected or wanted? Has any of it been something you were glad for in the end? 

2. Tim said that this story invites us to consider where we are being tested…or even tempted, as well as how we think about struggle and pain. Below are some questions he asked in his sermon. It’s a heavy duty list. Consider them for yourself personally, and discuss with the group what you are comfortable sharing. 

Where are you being tested or maybe even tempted?

Does God play any significant role in how you go about living your life? 

How much are you collaborating with God? Partnering? 

What does God have access to in your life? What does God NOT have access to? 

Where are you grasping for your own solutions/your own choices? 

What are you pursuing? How are you pursuing it? 

What kind of damage are you causing trying to win and get what you want? 

3. Toward the end of his sermon, Tim said, “at some point, we gotta choose to live in partnership & collaboration with God, & there’s a lot riding on that decision.” 

It might be easy to hear this as “just do what God says,” or “everything will be fine. Just trust God,” but do you think there’s more to what is being communicated here? What are the nuances that bring more meaning to this story than a simple “just trust God?” Are there any? Is partnership & collaboration with God different? If so, how so? If not, why don’t you think so?

What does it look like - maybe particularly in reference to some of what arose for you in response to the last question - to live in active partnership & collaboration with God? Are there concrete actions or intentions that might be a part of that? what would it look like for you? What does it look like in other areas of your life?

1. In his sermon today, Tim described 3 melodies that show up and repeat throughout the book of Genesis:

creation & blessing

testing & failure 

de-creation & re-creation 

What is your response to these melodies? What thoughts, feelings, or questions are provoked in you as you consider them throughout the Genesis stories, either as Tim outlined them, or as you see them in other places? 

Where else do you see these melodies? In media? Books? Stories from your family? Etc?

Can you mark the presence of these melodies in your own life? Which feels most present right now? 

2. One of Tim’s slides posed a question that, alongside all of us, the Genesis characters are asking: "what can make us safe & happy; help us flourish and find wholeness?” 

The answer he gave was: “each other…community, friendship, & neighboring.” 

What’s your response to the identification of this question? Is it one you can identify in your own self & life? Do you see it in the lives of others? Do you see it in these stories?

To what extent do you feel a part of authentic community, friendship, and neighboring? Where and how have those things been built? 

Do you see ways in which community, friendship, and neighboring have helped you to feel safe and happy? To flourish & find wholeness?

If so, how so? If not, what do you make of that?

If you would answer this question (“What can make us safe & happy; help us flourish and find wholeness?”) differently than Tim did, what would you say?

3. Toward the close of his sermon, Tim said, “In a world built on Babel’s tower…, the Church is meant to be a garden…this, I think, is why the Church still matters.” 

Presumably, you think the Church matters too, since you’re a part of this group, Redemption Church, and the global Church. Why do you think it is that the [global] Church matters? 

In what ways does the Church matter for you personally? Does the global Church matter in ways that are different from the ways in which Redemption Church matters for you? 

In what ways does the global Church matter beyond your own personal experience of it? What about Redemption Church? 

As is true of all of us individually, the church sometimes builds up, cooperates with, and defers to Babel. What emotions surface for you as you think about that fact? Do you tend to think of the global Church more as allied with empire or a hopeful contrast? Why do you think that is? 

1. In his introduction to our study of Abram/Abraham and the importance of his story in the Jewish faith, Tim drew our attention to the Hebrew phrase “lech lecha,” which God said to Abram. The phrase essentially means “get going.” 

Tim taught that the teaching all of  the great rabbis, regarding this passage, is summed up in words from Avivah Zornberg: “to leave one’s place…is to seek to become another.” 

Abram was to leave behind all that he may have thought signified who he was in the world, the identity he’s created for himself. Tim suggested that this is the core of what it means to “get going,” and that the subsequent journey helps a person to find the self that they didn’t know they were missing. 

What signifiers do you lean on to define what you think is your self? What things seem important to you when it comes to who you are? Status? Credentials? Wealth? Political or religious ideology? Roles? Accolades? Sacrifices? Accomplishments?

What signifiers, accolades, and etc do you think you might need to be willing to release in order to undertake a similar journey with God? 

What resistance do you encounter as you consider these questions? What might draw you forward in pursuing the same type of “getting going” into which Abram was directed? What might hold you back? 

2. Tim taught that such a journey can result in the being of oneself, and that living in that way results in the truest blessing: being a blessing to others. 

Do you feel like you’ve taken or begun this type of transformative journey in your life? 

If not, take a moment to consider (without judgment) why not. How do you feel about the prospect of beginning such a journey someday? What do you think stands between you and the moment in which you would “get going?”

If so, to what extent? Did you know you were starting such a journey at its outset? Was it undertaken on purpose? What has it been like? How do you feel about it? What have you learned or are you learning? In what ways do you see change in your self and your life? Share about how your journey has led to blessings for others if you believe it has. 

3. Tim’s final slide said, “on the far side of the journey: laying down one’s life becomes identical with simply living one’s life…they’re one and the same.”

Given the context of the sermon, what do you think this means? How would you explain it to someone else?

What do you think it looks like?  

Does this feel true to you? How does it tally with your own experiences in life?

What questions does it prompt in you? 

1. Using the TV show MASH as an example, Dr. Christina Bohn helped us start to think of the Tower of Babel story through a lens that considers the time of the story’s editing, synthesis, and recording. She explained that though scholars believe it likely that the story had long been a part of Israel’s oral tradition, it was written down and recorded in (roughly) the version we have today after the destruction of the first Jerusalem temple, during Israel’s exile into Babylon. 

Take a few moments to think of a story that you’ve told (or heard told) many, many times. It might be a family story that helps to capture and convey something specific about a family member or event. It might be the story of the founding of your town, or the formation of the company you work for, or a story you find yourself telling to describe something in your own personal experience. It could be a story that helps communicate something formative and important about another community of which you’re a part. If possible, wait until everyone has come up with a story before moving forward (and don’t worry; you won’t be asked to share the story! Just choose one in your mind; there are no right or wrong answers.)

Once you’ve thought of a story, think about a big idea that you take away from that story. It might be something like, “It highlights how silly my uncle could be” or “It demonstrates this community’s commitment to high quality science.” or “This story captures a sense of just how lost and confused I felt at that time in my life.” 

Now imagine that you’ve been given the task of writing this story down so that it can be shared with future members of your community/family/company/group for generations to come. Knowing that your version will become the “official” version for the group, what do you think might come up for you as you try to write it down? Do you think you might feel a different sense of what is important to capture in the story? Might you feel tempted to alter it in certain ways? Why or why not?

How easy do you think it might be for someone else to hear the story and take away a completely different meaning to the one you noticed or intended? How do you feel about that potential? 

Imagining this scenario, how do you think you’d feel if you were, in fact, asked to take on this task? What might make you hesitant to take it on? What might make you eager?

Consider this dynamic, and your response to this prospective task, in light of the stories we have captured in Genesis and other parts of the Old Testament. What questions or curiosities arise for you as you think these often very familiar stories? What feelings surface? 

2. Christina also taught that Ziggurats were structures built to attract deities to the city and people who built them, and to then provide a home-base for that deity. Part of the appeal was using the ziggurat to help the people to co-opt that deity's presence as an endorsement of that group’s superiority and strength. That goal was about controlling, manipulating, and placing limits on the deity. This story, then, is warning the people of Israel against pursuing this practice/approach to God, though it would have been all around them while in exile. 

What examples have you seen of organizations or individuals co-opting God to endorse and build up their own plans and practices? What short and long-term outcomes have you seen come from this practice? 

Are there groups/settings in which you’ve been a participant in this process (even if you didn’t realize it at the time)? What have you learned (or are you learning) from that experience and its outcomes for yourself and/or others?

Christina went on to say that when we try to co-opt and control God, we move outside of our boundaries as humans and, as a result, lose an anchor to our reality, and that this distortion of our role as image bearers leads to nothing but difficulty and pain. How does this statement resonate for you? Does it ring true? What resistance might you feel to it, if any? 

Why do you think we, as humans, seem to continually try to push past the limits of our humanity in order to control God, even though we may have seen the harmful outcomes this has? 

3.  Christina also shared a personal example of a moment in which she found herself trying to manipulate, control, and co-opt God for her own purposes. She talked about how, even though she hoped to be a conduit of God’s love, she found herself instead bringing confusion and disarray to the conversation. In what ways can you relate? How aware are you of this potential within yourself?

In what types of conversations or situations do you find yourself most likely to start using God for your own ends and endorsement? When does this feel easiest to avoid? When does it feel most difficult to avoid? Do you feel any ambivalence about the advisability of this practice? Are there times when it can feel justified? Why or why not? 

Christina asked, “What kind of name do you think we, as God’s people, are making for ourselves now? Would God call us babel, ‘confounding,’ or would he declare us to be a “gateway to God’s presence?” 

What’s your response to these questions? How do you think you, personally, contribute to what you see happening in your communities? What’s your contribution to the name God’s people are making for themselves right now in the larger aspects of the church and our world? How do you feel about that dynamic and your part in it? 

1. From the start of his reflection on the story of Noah and the flood, Tim introduced this idea: “In the Bible, God lets the kids tell the story.” 

He taught that the people of Israel had an understanding of God that evolved over time, and that the evolution of their understanding is evident as we follow the evolution of the ways in which God is presented in the text. Their view of God, Tim said, grows up alongside the people themselves. Tim likened this to the way a child first sees their parents as all-powerful, unlimited and orchestrating every minute detail of life and then later sees them differently and in different stages.

What surfaces for you as you consider this way of understanding not only the Hebrew people, but also the contents of the Bible and especially its earliest stories that are so familiar to many of us? How does this potentially impact your understanding of God? How does that feel? 

What questions or curiousities arise for you as you consider the implications of fully integrating this lens into your understanding of the Bible?

2. In his teaching about the flood story today, Tim said, “humanity’s wickedness and God’s grief track together [throughout the scripture].” He added that God isn’t portrayed in the text as an angry father, but is, instead, shown to be a heartbroken and grieving parent. 

How does this perspective and information compare to other ideas you’ve encountered about who God is, what God’s like, and how God acted in the story of the flood? What are the similarities? What are the differences?

How does reflecting on any differences (or similarities) leave you feeling? What questions or thoughts come to mind? What implications seem evident to you as you consider?

How does your conception of God, as God is present in the messes of today’s world, align with the picture of a heartbroken, grieving parent - close at hand to God’s hurting people? 

Where do you see tendencies to lean into the idea of an angry, fed-up God as you observe and engage in the mess of today’s world? What advice might you give someone who desires to respond to the pain of the world with the heart of a grieving parent, but is struggling to access that grace-filled place? 

3. Take a moment to really contemplate the current state of the world, in which broad ranging and rampagious human brokenness is on constant display. Another thing Tim said today is that “God isn’t untouched by human brokenness; God's bearing it with us all along.” In light of the reality of our world in this moment in history, how do you respond to the ideas that God is bearing it with us right now and that God isn’t untouched by the suffering you may be experiencing alongside many others? 

To what extent does this assurance of God’s presence and attention feel meaningful? To what extent does it feel true?  

How easy or difficult is it for you to remain connected to a place in which God’s active presence feels real and important? What helps? What makes it harder?

If/when you’re able to connect to that place inside, how does it affect you? What does it look like to stand the in that fuzzy middle place of tension in which we engage fully in the suffering of the world around us AND open ourselves fully to the reality of God’s presence and engagement in our world? What makes that posture so difficult? What questions, resistences, or feelings surface for you as you consider that space and the work it can take to remain there? 

1. In his sermon, Tim noted humanity’s assigned roles in creation: to till, keep, nurture, and conserve…to be the keepers of everything that is. (Hebrew: abad and shamar). Contrary to the message that sometimes dominates Christian narratives, our job, Tim said, isn’t to be perfect; it’s to be faithful. 

When we’re talking about “everything that is,” that obviously encompasses a lot of areas and things. As a group, brainstorm a quick list of some of the different elements of creation so you can have some specifics as you continue discussing. 

In light of the different items you listed, discuss what it means to till, keep, nurture, and conserve in those areas. What does it look like to be a faithful keeper in some of the different areas and contexts you listed? 

What are some of the barriers and areas of resistance you might encounter trying to do the work of faithful of keeping in some of these areas? What are some of the ways you respond to these barriers and resistances to your faithful intentions? 

2. Tim pointed out that neither Cain nor the reader is given a reason for the rejection of Cain’s offering. God’s response seems arbitrary and unfair - just like so many of life’s experiences and realities. 

When we feel alienated and not enough, and when we have no explanation for our unfair situations, we find ourselves at a crossroads similar to the one Cain encounters. 

One response Tim articulated is to turn to stories we tell ourselves in an effort to make sense of why we feel like we’re missing out, alienated, and not enough. In these stories (or fantasies, in philosophical terms), we blame others for our circumstances in order to make sense of why. 

Who are some of your go-to people to blame when crafting your own fantasy stories? What themes tend to arise in your stories? How does it feel to consider themes and recurring people in your own fantasy stories? 

3. Rather than blaming and stories, Tim taught that the ache we all feel is meant to turn us toward one another. What’s more is that we are, in ironic contrast to Cain’s snide response to God, meant to be each other’s keepers. 

Embracing St. Thomas Aquinas’ language, Tim said that, “humanity is placed in creation, at least in part, to embody grace within nature.” 

Think back to the themes and recurring figures in your own blaming fantasies and stories. What would it look like to embody grace in those relationships and paradigms instead?

What would it mean to fully embrace the idea of being the “keeper” of one or some of the people your stories tend to blame in life’s painful places? How do you feel about this idea?

Consider some of your own specific unfair challenges and circumstances. In what ways do you allow those things to turn you toward others? In which ways might you do so?

What surfaces for you as you contemplate turning toward others and embodying grace, rather than leaning into blaming stories and fantasy? What about this approach feels appealing? What feels unappealing?