virus isolation March 29

Here is the discussion for Sunday, March 29. We'll watch the video together at 6:30 pm and talk about it when we meet with Zoom. You can respond on this blog if you have further thoughts.

   The prophets saw Israel’s story as a central part of what God was doing for all humanity.

• Sometimes it is difficult for us in the 21st century to see how the history of ancient Israel gives some sort of shape to who we are now--how we should be thinking of ourselves, our objectives in life, and what we do each day. We might form a general idea that God was working through the Israelites then but how do we get to the point that the idea of how God was working then thoroughly shapes who we are now? We might even ask, "what does what God is doing for all humanity have to do with my life (what I do, my goals, what I value, who I speak to, what I say, my identity)?" Well, give it a try. What does "what God is doing for all humanity" have to do with my life?

• As we look at these videos, we get the idea that the story of Ancient Israel and of Jesus and his followers can shape our lives because it is a story and because it is a story that relates to what the actual Creator God of the universe is doing and to my life. The Bible tells a story that I really can relate to. What characters do you relate to in other stories? What Bible character do you relate to? What is it about his or her story that is familiar?

   The Jewish scriptures were being formed into the shape that we have them today when the people were returning from exile and reforming their identity.

• Going back to identity, why might it be significant that the people were figuring out who they were (reforming their identity) at the time when the Jewish scriptures were being put together in the way that we have them now? Isn't it just a history of what happened? Did certain themes or assumptions shape what was being included?

• If you were to write a story of your life, how would it be different if you focused on the same themes and assumptions that the Jewish people were?

   Together these texts tell an epic story about how God is working though these people to bring order and beauty out of the chaos of our world. Jesus claimed he was carrying this story forward and his followers wrote about Jesus as the fulfillment of that epic story.

• If we are followers of Jesus, what difference does it make to us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of what God planned to do through this story from the beginning? (This might be review of what we have already discussed. If it isn't, in what ways was our first answer different? If it is, how does Jesus make our first answer more or less real in my life today?

   Right now we are down to what we can call household relationships. Let’s focus on them.

In the last three or four days how did you partner with God in making things new?