Mar 08 2024
1. Tim used Hans-Georg Gadamer‘s concept of horizons throughout this week’s sermon, articulating the idea that we can sometimes have two clashing horizons (or orientations toward the world) challenging our working models of reality.
Gadamer believed that the clash of horizons is the pathway to wisdom…if we’re willing to interrogate both horizons with curiosity and make adjustments.
Share a bit with the group about times in your life when you’ve seen this concept at work in yourself. What have some of the new “alternate horizons” been that have entered your world and instigated a “clash of horizons?” What comes to mind first for you? Clashes that have been more momentous or examples that are more subtle? What have those experiences and times been like for you? How do you feel as you reflect back on them?
2. In today’s scripture reading from John 2, Tim said that “Jesus really instigates a clash of horizons.” His actions shift the footing for those who witness the events and actions in the temple.
As we journey through the season of Lent, are there places or ways in which you sense Christ instigating or intensifying a clash or horizons for you right now? Whether on a large or a small scale, how might that be occurring?
If you chose to give up something or take on a new activity for Lent, is that practice factoring in to whatever possible horizon shifts you may be sensing as either imminent or ongoing? Share with the group about your experiences.
3. Using today’s scene in the temple as an example, Tim talked about the idea that the love of God and the wrath of God are essentially the same thing.
He taught that the Kingdom of God is like a river that flows with its own momentum, trajectory, and force.
Whether we are going with or against that flow will make the difference in whether we experience certain things as God’s love or God’s wrath.
How do these ideas strike you? How do you feel about the idea that God’s love & God’s wrath can actually be the same thing and that it’s *us* and our orientation toward the movement of the Kingdom’s horizons that can be the differentiator?
Do you have places in your own experience in which you’ve seen these ideas in action? Have you had times in which you were unwittingly being drained and bedraggled by moving against the flow of the Kingdom, experiencing forms of God’s wrath?
Have you had times in which you’ve had the opposite experience: moving in concert and cooperation with the flow of the kingdom, providing an experience of God’s love?
Have you ever had a situation in which you feel like you’ve moved from one to the other? Share about any stories or situations that arise for you when you consider these ideas and principles.