Feb 21 2024
1. When talking about ancient practices around the Holy of Holies, and the fear God’s people felt about approaching God, Tim said, “When the children of God isolated God inside the temple, they cut themselves off from the source of life.” He juxtaposed that by noting that, in the Biblical stories, when someone had an experience of God while out in the wilderness, it was definitely one that didn’t have any of those isolating & estanging layers.
Consider some of the stories from the Bible that stick with you most, some of your favorites. Are there Biblical stories of people encountering God that particularly speak to you or feel most important or special when called to mind? Are they stories in which God is more secreted away, inside the holiest of holy boxes? Or are they stories in which, out in the wild, people encounter God without any buffers. As you consider this question, what thoughts and feelings surface for you about your own expecations for encountering and seeking with God?
2. Still considering these contrasting places for and ways of encountering God, but reflecting on your own life experiences, how “true" do these ideas seem to you? In what ways have you experienced a shut-away God, carefully enshrined in reverent, yet remote boxes? Has that orientation toward God left you feeling cut off from your life source? How so?
What about your experiences of encountering God while in the wilderness… How do your wilderness encounters with God differ from experienes of God in those more sanitized and secured settings? How have those types of experiences been for you? What types of feelings come up when you think back to them?
How do you feel about the idea of these types of encounters in the future? Are there ways or contexts in which you might prefer to encounter God in a more removed way? If so, why might that be?
3. Tim shared a slide that read, “God’s rightful place [is] down in the fray with God’s people, immersed & imminent in [our] everyday lives…like water.”
Is this how you think of God’s “rightful place?” in the fray? Do you feel aware of an instinct to keep God separate from the fray of your life? Or to keep the most “frayed” parts of yourself separate from the parts of yourself that engage and connect with God? What comes up for you as you consider these questions?
Let’s consider the metaphor comparing water to God’s presence… considering water’s ubiquitous presence in our lives, and its essentiality to our very existence. How does that feel different from the ways you conceive of God’s presence in your life? How does it feel similar? If you’ve got thoughts, ideas, or places of curiosity that surface as you consider this, share with the group.
4. Toward the end of his sermon, Tim talked about Lent as a season in which we choose to enter the wilderness for 40 days, letting go of some of our “little crutches” and letting go of things that we let stand as layers between us and God, helping to prop us up apart from God. Later, Tim remarked that Lent isn’t meant to be oppresive, but rather it can be a sort of personal adventure.
Have you given up something for lent (this year or in the past)? If so, how have you gone about deciding what to give up? For you, how resonant to this idea about giving up your crutches? If you haven’t given up somethihng for Lent, have you ever considered doing so? What’s gone into your decision making process?
For anyone who’s either given something up or undertaken other Lenten practices, what impacts you felt, if any? What expectations & hopes do you have for this year’s Lenten season? Does Lent feel more like a seasons of oppression or a season of adventure for you? Why do you think that is?