We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
What’s the best way to deal with a shame based identity?
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 10 - The Death and Resurrection of Christ
* Having identified some of the problems of having ME at the center of our spirituality, what are some ways in which we can go about re-centering our faith?
* How do you perceive the movement of a Christian from the reign of sin to the reign of grace? How does this work to transform identity?
* Read Ephesians 1:15-23. Does this statement about the power at work within/for us change your vision of the Christian life? If so, how? If not, why not?
* We have seen that within the tension of Christian spirituality, we are reckoned dead to sin on the one hand, and yet sin in our lives is still a present reality. What does this mean to you? How does one go about continually reckoning oneself dead to sin? What are ways in which this truth draws us into “dynamic community with the living God and his people?”
* It is suggested here that discipline alone cannot realign us out of an orientation to sin and into grace. How does this gel with the contemporary worldview that tells us that we can have/accomplish anything if only we work hard enough? How would you critique this worldview?
* It is not always easy (and sometimes impossible!) to know our own motives. Given this reality, how do we determine when we are obeying from the heart and when we are performing? What are the roles of feelings here?
* What are some ways in which the biblical notion of freedom is related to/distinct from our cultural ideas regarding freedom?
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Hebrews 13:20-21
Suggested Map Reading:
For Further Study:
Risen Indeed: Making Sense of the Resurrection, S. Davis
Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in an Everyday Life, E. Peterson
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Will a focus on creation give us a better understanding of God?
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 9 – Living Spirituality in the Already and Not Yet
* Have you experienced either of the extremes of the already/not yet thinking in your church context? In what ways did it manifest itself?
* We’ve used the example of the body from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians as an example of a narrow focus on the ‘already’. Can you think of some other false dichotomies that this focus could cause?
* Does Cindy’s story resonate with you? What are some appropriate expectations for the Christian life in the already?
* Can you think of some practical ways in which the truth of the kingdom of God being a present reality in our lives can impact the way we worship God, look at the world, view ourselves, etc? (See p. 77)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
--Romans 15:13
Suggested Map Reading:
For Further Study:
The Presence of the Future, G. E. Ladd
Theology of Hope, J. Moltmann
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Is it appropriate for a Christian to drink alcohol?
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 8 – The Messiah and the Kingdom of God: Redemption Arrives
* We see in scripture that there were many misconceptions about who Messiah was and what he would do. Can you think any misconceptions that the church or culture currently has about Christ? Are they corrected to some degree, as John was, by Jesus’ response in Matthew 11?
* We see in Jesus’ life a “reversing [of] the trajectory of the disfiguring of creation.” (p. 66) As we follow him, what are some ways that our lives can mirror this reversal?
* In looking at the Kingdom of God, we have stated two things it is not: it is not the church and it is not narrow. In keeping with our theological perspective of relation and distinction, what are some ways to evaluate these statements?
* We see that the Kingdom of God is God’s rule that has both already arrived and is not yet complete. How does this understanding impact your notion of Christian mission in the world?
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
--The Book of Common Prayer
Suggested Map Reading:
For Further Study:
The Challenge of Jesus, N.T. Wright
The Jesus I Never Knew, P. Yancey
Christian spirituality is both overwhelmingly communal and intensely personal. As you read slowly and carefully through this book, we encourage you to think deeply about the questions and ideas presented. Following are some questions for discussion in a group, personal reflection, or both.
Chapter 7 – Living Spirituality in Brokenness
* When Adam and Eve ‘eat the forbidden fruit’, so to speak, it instigates “death with God.” How does this notion of sin and its consequences gel with the cultural narrative? How can we deal with true evil in a relativistic culture?
* As we discuss some of the patterns of covenant making (and breaking) in the Old Testament, we discover that God is a promise-making God. What are some other attributes that can be seen in these narratives?
* The shockingly realistic portrayal of life in the Psalms encompasses the whole range of human emotion and experience, even the negative ones. Is this kind of a messy, difficult spirituality the one that is commonly ‘advertised’ by the church? Do you think that the reality of living Christian spirituality as portrayed in the Psalms would be more or less appealing to the culture both within and outside of the church? Why?
* It is observed on page 60 that the prophets “intensely mourn the loss of community with God and offer a severe critique of the life of God’s people. They attempt to shake these people from their complacency and radical sinfulness in order to make them aware of their covenant responsibilities so that they might return to God and live.” Why is mourning part of this? What can the prophets teach us about some of our functions within the church? About the purpose of critique and the manner in which we make it?
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
--Psalm 139:23-24
Suggested Map Reading:
Genesis 12; 15; 17
For Further Study:
Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, C. Plantinga
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue.
I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
What’s your view of Halloween? Positive? Negative?
