B-sides

Scripture: Amos 5:18-24

18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light,
19 as if someone fled from a lion
and was met by a bear
or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall
and was bitten by a snake.
20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?

21 I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Questions

1. On a scale of 1-10, how was everyone’s week?

2. What is your gut reaction to this verse?

3. How do you feel about “judgment?” Do you think judgment is good or bad?

4. Where in your life have you felt judged unfairly? Where have you needed judgment to help you?

5. Lucas talks about two binary understandings of God that Christians can get trapped in. Do you lean one way or the other?

6. Where in your life have you experienced judgement and grace?

7. How do faith, judgment, and grace intermingle with your understanding of God and our relationship to God? What is our role as followers of Jesus?

B-Sides

Mark 10:45-52

(1) Check in with your group. How are you?
(2) What do you think a day in the life of Bartimaeus was like? What did it smell like? Sound like? Feel like?
(3) Why do you think the people standing around Bartimaeus shushed him?
(4) Dawn offers some thoughts, but why do you think Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants?
(5) What do you want Jesus to do for you?

Questions:

(1) Check in with someone or your group. How are you?

(2) Jonah ends up in the belly of a big fish because he is trying to run away from God’s plan. When have you found yourself running away from God?

(3) Its in the dark tangles of the belly that Jonah received a second chance. When have you been given a second chance?

(4) Dawn talks about sunsetting the ReRun bicycle ministry at Downtown Church. There is grief in letting beautiful ministries go. Why is it important to let things go?

(5) Where might God be asking for you to let things go?

(6) Where might God be transforming you to be ready for something new?

B-sides

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

Questions
(1) Check in with your group. How is everyone doing?

(2) Have you experienced an All Saints Day service at DOWNTOWN CHURCH before? What is it like for you?

(3) Which saint (loved one) do you remember this day?

(4) When did they die?

(5) How is your grief? (6) In this scripture, the hope is that Jesus will reunite us with our loved ones. What do you imagine this reunion being like?

B-Sides

Scripture Psalm 24

(1) Check in with someone. How are you doing?

(2) Psalm 24 is about our entrance (and God's) into the sanctuary. What is it like for you to enter the DTC sanctuary for worship?

If you are a podcast listener, describe your routine to settle in to worship and what it is like to hear the first notes of the podcast.

(3) Dawn talks about the things she doesn't want to belong to God. What are those things for you?

(4) What does it mean to you that God can reach every place and person?

(5) Where have you been surprised by God recently?

B-Sides

(1) Check in, how is everyone doing?

(2) Why do you think God reveals things to infants?

(3) If infants could talk, what would they tell us?

(4) Why do you think Jesus is grateful God doesn’t reveal the will to wise and intelligent humans?

(5) When have you experienced being held in God’s hands?

(6) When have you needed the rest that only comes from God?

(7) Where do you turn for rest? Does it meet the rest your soul needs?

B-Sides

Romans 8:19-23

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, or the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

The word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.

Questions:

(1) Check in with yourself or the group, how was your week?

(2) Where did you see God this week?

(3) We read Paul's letter in context with Genesis 3 (The original sin + consequences). The first humans are kicked out of the Garden of Eden and the whole earth (creation) is cursed. We must all now labor for something new (a baby, a harvest, a new business, etc). Where are you laboring for something new in your life?
(4) When have you looked at the world around you, or what is required of you, and been overwhelmed? When has it been difficult to take the next best step?

(5) Why do you think God is redeeming all of creation and not just humans? (

6) How does this vision of the future redemption differ from other Christian ideas of the end times? (ex: the rapture)

B-sides

Job 14:7-9

For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grows old in the earth and its stump dies in the ground, 9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.

Questions: (1) How was your week?

(2) This book of Job is about a man named Job. He is upright and righteous before God and he loses his wealth, his children and his health. Why do you think his story is included in our scriptures?

(3) When have you lost something important to you?

(4) Who did you talk with to make sense of this loss? (5) Hope is a gift God gives Job in the midst of his suffering. When have you experienced this kind of hope?

(6) Who in your life is suffering right now? Bring their names to mind as you pray this week.
God, we do not understand your wisdom. We do not understand how Job held on to hope in the midst of his great suffering. We pray for your strength and resilience in our suffering. We pray for our friends who are suffering now. Amen.

Sermon Title: BRANCHES

Scripture: John 15: 1-5, 12

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes[a] to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed[b] by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become[c] my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Questions

1. On a scale of 1-10, how was everyone’s week?

2. What’s your reaction to verse 2?

3. Dawn talked about the quiet growth of trees. Where in your life have you witnessed quiet growth and been surprised by the result?

4. Have you ever watched a bird’s nest develop? What was that like?

5. When in your life have you been forced to recognize your role as the branch attached to Jesus, the true vine?

6. What does it mean to “abide?” It’s not a word we use often in modern day terms, but it’s used repeatedly in this verse. How do we “abide in Jesus’ love?”

B-sides

Psalm 1 NRSV

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked
or take the path that sinners tread
or sit in the seat of scoffers,
2 but their delight is in the law/Torah of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,
6 for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Questions

1. What’s your favorite type of tree and why?

2. Are there any parts of the Bible that you don’t feel help root you? Are there parts of the Bible that you wish didn’t exist?

3. What parts do you root yourself to? Are there any particular verses you have leaned on in a time of tumult?

4. What beyond the bible are you rooted in? Your family? Your church? Your community? What else?

5. When in your life have you found yourself held up by the roots of others?

6. Have you ever grown too fast without good roots? What was that like?

Sermon Title: Seeds

Scripture: Matthew 13:31-32

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

Questions

1. Do you have a favorite type of tree or fond memory related to a tree that you can think of

2. Have you ever tried to plant a tree or any type of greenery? What was that experience like?

3. What do you think “the Kingdom of Heaven” means? What does that look like to you? Are there any issues in calling it a kingdom? What metaphor would you rather use?

4. Lucas talks about the metaphorical seeds that have been planted in various stories. Can you think of any seeds you have had experienced, planted, or seen?

5. Why do you think Jesus speaks to his disciples in parables?

6. What opportunities exist for us individually and communally to plant seeds in the hopes of Gods coming kingdom?

Prayer

Read this quote as a closing prayer:

What you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up. You are—strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself—accomplishing something that will become part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness. Every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of creation; every minute spent teaching a child to read or walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather corruption and makes Jesus’ name honored—all of this will find its way into the new creation that God will make.

-N.T. Wright,  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

B-SIDES

Sermon Title: Enrolling in the School of Suffering

Scripture: Romans 5:1-5

5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access[b] to this grace in which we stand, and we[c] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we[d] also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Questions

1. How would you define “suffering?”

2. Tom mentioned in his message that we don’t really “enroll” in the school of suffering. We don’t have a choice. Sometimes, suffering just comes our way and life enrolls us. Think of a time in your life when you were in the school of suffering. What did you learn in that time of suffering that you think could help someone else? ( About God? About Yourself? About your friends? About suffering itself? About something else?)

3. Were you surprised at who reached out to you in that time of suffering and who did not? Without focusing on the names of those who did and who did not reach out, reflect on why you think that some people reached out and others did not?

4. What was most helpful to you in your time of suffering to get through it?

5. Do you reach out to others in the school of suffering or are you reluctant to do it? If so, what stops you from reaching out to someone who is in a time of suffering?

6. Tom told a story of two men (Don and John) who comforted one another in their time of suffering. Do you have a community of “ fellow sufferers” you can count on to help you in your times of need?

7. What role does the church play in our suffering?

Prayer

God, comfort us when we suffer. And spur us from our places of apathy to comfort each other. In your son Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.