Introduction & ice breaker
Check in with everyone in your group and with yourself. How are you doing this week?
Themes to Consider
God knows us and sees us and doesn’t just love us in a general way but in a detailed nuanced specific tender care kind of love.
“I see you. I know you all the way. I know your potential and your struggles. And I love you more than you can even fathom.”
With the love of God we cannot fail.
We cannot sink.
We can come back from any rejection.
We can rebuild when we are shaken to the ground.
We can cling to that love’s strength in our weakness.
God’s love is our acceptance in the face of rejection.
God’s love is our protection in the midst of immense trials.
God is committing to protect them.
God knew exactly what was happening in this ancient city.
He knows and cares about exactly what is happening in our cities, in our lives.
God sees the ways he have sectioned off into polarized divisions and he says there is a better way.
God sees the exhaustion after a year of pandemic and quarantine. He knows about the uptick in mental health struggles and many fighting to endure.
Holy - there is no one life me - throw out all examples they won’t get you there.
True - you can count on me - No word from God will ever fail.
Waymaker - I will go before you and guide your when you do not know the way. Walk with me.
Practices
Inhale: Reflect on an area where you are struggling to trust God. Spend some time in prayer as you reflect and consider God’s faithfulness and ability to provide.
Exhale: Consider people/areas of need you have distanced yourself from because it feels too hard to engage. Think of one way you can step towards them in love.
Discussion Questions
Where do you need God to open a door?
Can you hear God speak your true name today?
Do you need help standing up?
Can you hear the affirmation and acceptance of Jesus over all other voices?
Do you experience God as Holy? True? A Waymaker?
Guided Prayer
A prayer of lament from the Asian American community written by Winnie Lee on behalf of Pray March Act.
Lord, I can't. I can't hold anymore pain. I can't stand anymore silence. I can't use up another tissue box. Eight lives lost; modern day slavery; anti-Asian hate; silence and shame; would my mom be okay? Does my nation care? Does my church care? Do you care? Does God care? Eloi, Eloi, lama sabactani? Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? I call out to God who knows my pain. We cry and you save. You are not far away. You are not far away (Psalm 22). Hear our stories. See our pain. Weep with us. Pray.
Supplemental Content
There are frenzied efforts in our culture to salvage ruined self-esteem by bolstering people with reassurances and affirmation, by telling them they are terrific, that they are number on, and they had better treat themselves to a good time. The result is not larger persons but smaller ones - pygmy egos. —Eugene Peterson
Revelation [is giving us] a symbolic world which its readers can enter and thereby have their perception of the world in which they lived transformed. Revelation provides a set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its readers a different vision of the world. —Richard Bauckham
There are two interlaced convictions that characterize a prophet. The first conviction is that God is personal and alive and active. The second conviction is that what is going on right now, in this world at this time in history, is critical. A prophet is obsessed with God, and a prophet is immersed in the now. God is as real to a prophet as his next-door neighbor, and his next-door neighbor is a vortex in which God’s purposes are being worked out. —Eugene Peterson
Prophetic Charge
To the church at Brooklyn:
I know your story. I have seen the heartache and hardship you have traveled through. I have counted the tears you have shed for your individual and collective losses over the years. I know you have had to rebuild several times. There is joy and pain in that. There is endurance and exhaustion. I am near you when you are tired. I have heard your cries of how long oh Lord.
Do not forget I hear you. I see you. You have kept the faith, but as you strive to endure, do not forget I am your good Father.
I have seen when you endure from a place of your own effort. You resist what might cause more discomfort, you hide in apathy or distraction, but then you also carry burdens I have not asked you to pick up. Come under my yoke. It is easy and light. Submit to my lead and walk with me.
In your weariness, learn to rest in me. Rest in the certainty of my goodness and righteousness. Rest in my love. And press on — not by your own effort — but with me. Do not be afraid to bear witness to the brokenness around you. Do not be afraid to be a voice for hope. You are not walking through this city alone. I have called you by name and my kingdom is coming.
I have begun a good work in you and I will complete it. I have begun a good work in your city. I will complete it.
(Authored by deacons and leaders of Trinity Grace Church)
