Week 4
The Christian Season of Lent provides the opportunity not usually highly valued in our fast passed and ever changing world. In our Christian year it calls us to a period of reflection. It begs us to Stop, Listen, Reflect, Learn and Transform. Our faith again and again recognises that humans need a pattern of rest, reflection and recreation (re-Creation). The weekly Sabbath is an example of a pattern is intended to help as restore our Shalom (Peace). Lent can be a time in the pattern of our year that offers space so that things might be different. If you yearn for change in your life, our church and in the world changing direction requires us first to stop.
You may like to prepare for this week’s study by engaging with the following resources:
Listen: to Brian McLaren’s Podcast “Learning How to See”, Season 2, Episode 1, The Big Ditch
On this introductory episode for Season 2 of Learning How to See, Brian, Gigi, Mike and Paul review the biases and talk about two biases that set the stage for all the others:
Confirmation Bias: the human brain welcomes information that confirms what it already thinks and resist information that disturbs or contradicts what it already thinks.
Complexity Bias: the human brain prefers a simple lie to a complex truth.
Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
John 9.1-41
Read the passage in what ever way suits the gathered group. If it is a long passage you may wish to use different voices. Give space after the reading for people to read quietly on there own to reflect on passage.
Listen again to the message from Sunday’s service.
These questions can be a guide to encourage the group to engage with the Bible Passage and/or the Sermon from the previous Sunday.
Reflecting inwards: Transforming You
How have you experienced this passage in your life?
Did you discover something new in reading it again?
Did it raise any questions you would like an answer for?
Reflecting outwards: Transforming Relationships
Name the people or groups that are mentioned or referred to in the text?
Describe the the various relationships that are present?
Try and keep to what you observe in this passage only and avoid straying into what you know in other parts of scripture
Can you name any of these types of relationships present in this passage?
Transactional
Mutually Reinforcing
Mutually Excluding
Mutually Transforming
Do these relationships change as a result of encountering each other?
Do these relationships change as a result of these encounters?
Are the individuals or groups changed during these encounters?
Are these changes positive or negative if compared to the character of the Kingdom of God?
Who or what was necessary to make these changes possible?
Reflecting on the Now
In what ways do we see Bias preventing people engaging in conversation that lead to transforming relationships?
In what ways do we see challenging Bias in his words and actions?
What can we do to avoid Bias being a barrier to developing relationships with others?
Gathering the wisdom
What new thing have you learnt through participating in this Study?
How might you use this learning in your life?
This prayer has been sourced from the Learning How to See Podcast and invites us into a Mindful moment that can open us up to be changed. It is best prayed slowly and with space before and after for individual reflection. If you are part of a group you may wish to use a varyiety of voices.
Source of all truth,
help me to hunger for truth,
even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true.
Guide me into all the truth I can bear,
and stretch me to bear more,
so that I may always choose the whole truth — even with disruption —
over half-truths with self-deception.
Grant me passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Amen