This Week’s Reading: Mark 1:14–18
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Introduction and Ice Breaker
Juneteenth was Friday - a day to mark, remember and honor the beginning of freedom from slavery finally reaching all of the states. Did you have any way that you marked, spent, or celebrated the day?
How do you feel about the further opening of NYC starting this week?
Themes to Consider
The biblical motif of God inviting his people into redemptive formation
Recovering the image of God
Formation from a place of proximity to Jesus
Formation FOR the world to experience his loving invitation
Embracing the discomfort of lasting change
Formation as:
Joining God in the renewal of the person
Joining God in the renewal of the church
Joining God in the renewal of the world
Discussion Questions
What are your motivators for God to form and shape your life?
What are the greatest obstacles to embracing God's formative work in your life?
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued as an executive order on September 22nd 1862, but it was still over two years before the beginning of freedom finally reached all the states. Discuss this delay as a part of the formation of our nation and how it may relate to our personal formation as well.
Which practices/habits have formed you most? Do they change over time?
What role has people/community played in your formation process?
“Where injustice is prevalent, Jesus is not King” - if the kingdom of God / authority of God being actively present means righteousness and justice are present(psalm 89) - what progress should we seeking as part of the renewal of: the person, the church and the world?
What areas of your life does the authority of Jesus need to come, his kingdom?
death to life
shame to acceptance
self to others
consumerism to mission
performance to abiding
Can you identify how you have experienced these shifts in your walk with God? Which ones do you need God to work on right now?
Guided Prayer
Silence:
Remove distractions as much as you can and spend two minutes (time it if helpful) in silence, noticing your body, your emotions and thoughts. Perhaps use a simple phrase to pray silently so that you stay focused.
“All I am is yours”
“Help Lord I need you”
“Come in grace and truth”
Read these excerpts from Psalm 51. Notice his asks for forgiveness and cleansing as well as his desire to change and grow in wisdom as well as teach others the ways of God. After reading it, meditate on it and pray it for yourself or the parts of it that stand out to you.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
—Psalm 51
Supplemental Content and Quotes
“The implementation of desegregation lacked empathy, structure, and planning. Enforcing a law didn’t dismantle racism. Diversity doesn’t disrupt systemic racism, nor did it kill racist views.” —Latasha Morrison
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” —Romans 8
“The world groans under the burden of their illegitimate authority.”
“Hope—
we must bestow it
like a wick in the poet
so it can grow, lit,
bringing with it
stories to rewrite—
the story of a Texas city depleted but not defeated
a history written that need not be repeated
a nation composed but not yet completed.
There’s a poem in this place—
a poem in America
a poet in every American
who rewrites this nation, who tells
a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth
to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time—
a poet in every American
who sees that our poem penned
doesn’t mean our poem’s end.
There’s a place where this poem dwells—
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell
where we write an American lyric
we are just beginning to tell.”
—Amanda Gorman, In This Place (An American Lyric)
“It simply brings them to the condition in which they ought always to have been.” —C.H. Spurgeon, On True Revival
Sin management view of formation:
quick
policed
need someone else to do the policing for you(external)
result is temporary
Jesus invitation into formation:
slow
relational invitation
result is not temporary but transformative
enduring
