Week 5

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 Hugh McKay’s Reimaging Australia or this talk “The State of Your Nation Begins in Your Street”

If you want a bigger challeng you might like to read Australia Reimagined by Hugh McKay

Listen: Season 5 of the Podcast the Pinapple Project hosted by Jan Fran is very helpful. For todays topic Episode Two and Episode Five are most pertinent.

We thank you, heavenly Father,
that you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
we pray that
as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his presence abiding in us he may raise us
to joys eternal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

John 11:1-45

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?

Gathering the wisdom

It is important to take time to consider the implications of “Being With” that we have been exploring during this study.

Spend some time discussing what the implications are for living out our desire to be with God, Eachother and the community around us.
What new thing have you learnt through participating in this Study?
How might you use this learning in your life?
Create a list of those ideas that may have been generated through participation over the five weeks of this study. Make sure that you feed back this list to us (email Michael Stalley) so we can learn how God may have been working through this time together.

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