Scripture: John 4:4-26 (you might want to watch THIS Spoken Word interpretive film of this passage)

1. Take a minute if you want to watch the video above...what are your reactions to it? What are your initial reactions or thoughts on this passage?
2. One of the most searched questions on Google this year was, "how do I heal?" Have you ever found yourself asking that question? What is there inside of you, around you, that is parched and cracked, thirsty for healing and restoration? Has that been your question for God: Will you give me a drink?
3. Every year our church asks the question of what we are/want to be about. This year we are discussing how our church is a well…where people from all different backgrounds and identities, people who are weary from life’s journey, can gather and freely receive the living water of Jesus Christ! We’re a community where we offer to one another, share with one another, this thirst-quenching, soul-healing, life-refreshing, living water of Jesus. A place where that water is to overflow to the people and community around us. What do you think of this depiction of the church? What are some things you think it asks of us as a church to be a well?
4. As Will breaks down about the context of this passage, "Jesus has just stepped into a place where he would be considered an outsider, and he encounters this woman who is on the outside of “in” for a whole host of reasons...She is outside pretty much all of the religious, social, cultural, “morally normative” fences that have been built in her day. And let’s not forget that many of those fences were built on interpretations of texts and customs found right here in the Bible. Have you ever been on the outside of in?
5. "This woman is on the outside of all those fences. Bearing the hurt and alienation of that identity. YET Jesus, God made flesh, who knew about those fences, and very easily could’ve respected those fences and honored those fences, he just “had to go through” them and come to this well. And when this woman showed up at the well, he could’ve walked away. Could’ve let the invisible social-religious fences determine his behavior. But instead he asks her a question - “Will you give me a drink?” - and with that simple question, he violates, transgresses, tears down about every fence you could imagine. He breaks those boundaries." What do you think of this? Has this ever been your experience of God or others...if so in what situations? What does it invite you to? 
6. Will spoke of an experience in which he was the "outside of in." When he started challenging and deconstructing a lot of what he'd been taught faith was, he felt like there was no place for him in the church. Have you ever been in this place? Or had the worry that because you disagreed with something from those around you in the church, you might not have a place in it? 
7. There are two ways of approaching forming community-- the bounded set (which is like the fences), or the centered-set (which is like the well). Most of our religious experience, we’ve predominantly been exposed to bounded thinking. There’s an explicit set of particular doctrines, beliefs about the story of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ and poured into hearts by the Spirit, and a set of particular expectations about how to behave in accord with that story. And these lists or sets of particular doctrines and behaviors function as a fence to mark who is inside and outside, who gets it, who is accepted by God, who is a member of God’s kingdom. There is a lot of comfort and genuine benefits that can come from having a bounded-set mode...but what are some of the limitations of it? Who does it end up leaving out or hurting? What have been your experiences with bounded-set communities in churches?
8. "Centered set folks, meanwhile, ask a different question - “What is at the center and what direction are you headed?” Our church has no interest in building fences. Because our conviction is that when there is living water at the center - when the unmeasurable love of God revealed in Jesus is poured out into our lives through the Spirit - there us freedom. Freedom to love, to discern, to interpret, to think, to grow, to change...Another way to say this is that what connects and unites a church gathered around a well is not strict uniformity of belief and behavior, but rather our common thirst for and dependence on Christ’s living water." What do you think of this model? How does it challenge you/what does it call us to as a church?
9. This new year as a church, what might it mean to remove some of the social, cultural, intellectual, invisible fences that keep us from one another and keep others from drinking at the well and living in the Truth that God loves us all?

Scripture: John 4:4-26

1. Read the scripture again...is there anything different that stands out to you this week than last week? What ways is the text speaking to you this reading?
2. Phyllis talks about how, oddly enough, the transfer station in her town is the center of her community, like the well. What can you identify as the center(s) of your community?
3. It is likely because the well was a place of social gathering that the Samaritan woman went at a time when nobody was around, as someone who didn't fit in. Phyllis says, "You see, both Jesus and the woman knew that this vulnerable question of “Will you give me a drink?” was, well, vulnerable, and topsy turvy. When Jesus asks his question, he is putting the power into the hands of the Samaritan woman - something that would have been unheard of - one, because she was a woman, and second, because she was a Samaritan! Jesus was breaking and flipping the script on gender discrimination, racism, ritual purity laws, religious hostility, socio-economic poverty, and exclusion. In this communal place, that had its own unspoken rules of the time, Jesus went and broke all of them. If our church is a well, then, the communal space we create has to break all the rules." What do you think this means for our society? For our communities? For our church?
4. What kind of communal space are we making in our church? In our communities? Is it one that is inclusive and makes space for everyone to feel that they belong? Is it a place where anyone and everyone can access the quenching, life-giving water of Jesus? Is it a place where we get to cross paths with those we normally don’t cross paths with? Does it expand our circles? If not...what might we need to do to make it this way?
5. Communities are essential for our well-being in a great many ways! When Jesus says he will satisfy the woman's thirst he also means here thirst for community. Our there times in your life where you have felt like an outsider in your community? 
6. According to a recent research report on religion and young people, 54% of young people ages 13 to 25 reported that “Religious communities try to fix my problem, instead of just being there for me.” When we only see our children and students as problems to be fixed or as “youngsters who don’t have traditional values,” we miss that they are human beings, developing, growing, figuring out who they are, what community is, where they belong, and people - just as we once were and still are - who are looking for others to walk through life together with. Does this sound familiar to you? Why do you think this experience is so common in the church? 
7. "Much like our young people today, the Samaritan woman was looking for support, to be in community, and to be with God. And right there - during the hottest part of the day, Jesus comes to ask her for a drink and initiates a conversation to not solve her problems, but to invite her into community with him, without judgment, but with grace, love, and tenderness." Will we do the same - for our young people? For those who are different from us? For those who may disagree with us? For those who have grown up in different traditions than us? For those who we have nothing in common with except for the well we meet at? What practical invitation for engaging with community differently is there for you in these questions?

Scripture: Genesis 16:1-2, 4-11, 13

1. What is a time or what are situations in which you have felt like nobody sees you, or appreciates you? What about unseen by God?
2. Advent has just begun! Becky says Advent is, "the season in the Christian calendar when we remember this darkness, when we sit in it, remembering not only our own darkness, but also the darkness the Israelites felt all those long years as they waited for the promised Messiah, the one who would finally rescue them from the darkness of exile and oppression. Advent is the season when we remember that darkness, AND when we wait and watch for the promised one, Jesus who would pierce that darkness with his light, God-in-flesh appearing to humankind." What have been some of your past experiences with Advent? Do you have ways you're planning to observe it this year?
3. In this new series, we're looking not just at Christ’s coming at Christmas, but at other ways and places in the Scriptures that God appeared. Noticing how God has already come to us helps us know what we are looking for, and where to look. It’s a way of attuning our eyes, ears, and hearts so that when Christ appears, we can recognize him in our world and in our lives. With that in mind, read the scripture for today. What do you notice? Discuss things you find interesting or relavant about this passage.
4. Hagar is an outsider and outcast who has suffered mistreatment and abuse, yet is the only one in all of the Hebrew scripture to name God, inherently knowing God's name based on her own real, living, life-changing experience of God’s own presence. What do you think of this? 
5. "Hagar was mistreated, used, and abused for the sake of providing someone else’s progeny. What God gives her, in the end, is her own progeny. Her own hope. Her own future. This isn’t the same Covenant that God makes with Abram and Sarai, but out of the wreckage of the injustice done to her, God sees Hagar, and God something new and beautiful in and through her life." What's a time where you've been alone or down-low, and God has shown up for you and provided hope and/or a new narrative?
6.  Is there something in your life right now that feels like a dead-end? A place where you feel stuck, alone, or unseen?
7. Becky says, "What Hagar’s story teaches us, what the story of Jesus means for us, is that, in truth, we are never alone, rather we have a God who appeared to us and who never left. A God who looks on you now with tenderness and love. It’s only that unlike Hagar, sometimes we lack the eyes to see the God who already sees us! So our invitation today is two-fold: One, it’s to learn to recognize God’s presence. And two, it’s to respond, to listen, to trust, to follow that presence, as Hagar did." Take a minute to think, what are ways you can live out these two invitations?
8. Hagar gave God a name when God appeared to her. What name might you give God from that moment or season in your life?

Scripture: Job 38:1-11; 42:1-6

1. Job was caught in an absolute whirlwind of pain and devastation, where things just kept getting worse. What are times where you have felt "caught in a whirlwind"?
2. Take a minute to read the scripture for today. What stands out to you? What do you learn about God through these passages?
3. Pastor Sanetta says, "When God shows up in the whirlwind to speak to Job it is God showing up out of His covenant love and commitment to Job.  God has covenanted to be with Job and even in the midst of Job’s suffering and Job’s questioning, God remains faithful to His covenant promise. The Lord shows up to and for Job.  And, through Jesus Christ, God has bound Himself in covenant loyalty to us. God can handle the darkest of our suffering days and our frustrations and barrage of questions." What are times you have seen God honor God's promise and show up for you or others even amidst suffering?
4. Senetta asks, "Has God ever spoken to you? It could be in a way that was audible for you or it could have been a word to your heart. Have you ever considered the grace and love bound up in a word from God specifically to you?  Or when you hear a sermon preached to hundreds of people but the word of God speaks to your heart and your situation, that’s God speaking to you. When you’re reading the Bible and the words come alive in your spirit, perhaps tears roll down your cheeks, that’s God speaking to you. In the dreams. In the images.  The Holy Spirit impressing upon your spirit.  That’s God speaking to you." So thinking of these many types of examples, answer for yourself...has God ever spoken to you?
5. God establishes sovereignty in part in the mystery of all that God is. We do not stand in awe of things we completely know and understand. What are ways in which God is mysterious and great to you? How can you respond to this God?
6. This Advent season how can you still serve and trust God even amidst pain and questions?

Scripture: Genesis 18:1-2, 9-15

1. Take a minute to read the scripture for today. What stands out to you?
2. Travis says, "the life story of Abraham and Sarah is not one of pure bliss as they skip through the fields happily and easily following God; no, it’s full of personal weakness and marital conflict and family dysfunction; it overflows with frustration and disappointment and cynicism and sadness. It paints a real picture of what it means to be human while also living in faith. In so many ways their life mirrors our own; in their story of life and faith we see our lives and our faith reflected - our own weaknesses and failings; our own doubts and cynicism and bitterness; our own frustration with God." In what ways do you see yourself in their story? 
3. Travis poses a number of questions based off of Abraham and Sarah's story. Pick one or two of the following questions posed in the sermon that you relate to and answer it: Have you ever wanted something so badly you would do anything to achieve it? Have you ever tried to protect your own interests - even if it came at the expense of others? Have you ever misused your influence or power or position to benefit or promote yourself? Have you ever taken out your frustration on a loved one? Have you ever ignored injustice because it’s “not your problem”? What about experiencing the hurt and pain of a promise that’s unfulfilled? Have you ever had a dream shatter? Have you been desperately waiting for change for a situation in your life but the timer’s still running?
4. It is in the tension of physical and spiritual discomfort that God appears in this story. God shows up though not thundering or dramatically, but instead talks with Abraham and Sarah over a meal, bringing good news. What do you think of this? What would your reaction be if God showed up like this after years of  you  desperately waiting for something?
5. Many judge or condemn Sarah for laughing and not believing God's promise right away, but we shouldn't,just as we shouldn't judge ourselves when we've been there too. Your brokenness is not a threat to your relationship with God. Even when we laugh at God's promise, God will still keep surprising us with mercy and grace. What do you think of this good news? How does it change the way you think about your faith? What does it mean to know God is still faithful to you even when you turn your back on God?
6. What does it mean for Abraham and Sarah to receive the gift of a child despite their situation and their prior actions? It wasn’t just the impossible gift of a child, but an impossible gift of God’s grace to them. Where in your life today do you need to remind yourself of God's unfailing faithfulness to you?

Scripture: Genesis 32:22-32

1. How has God appeared to you during this Advent season?
2. Have you ever found yourself working hard to fix a situation on your own? Relying on yourself and your own resources? How did you feel? How did it turn out? Did it feel impossible at times? Was it tiring?
3. Take a minute to dead the scripture for tday. What do you notice? What questions do you have?
4. As we trace through Jacob’s life, we see how he has been living by his own code, despite the promises of God. Even before Jacob was born, God had made a promise to him - the very thing that Jacob had been chasing the moment he was out of Rebekah’s womb was a promise that had already been given to him. But Jacob lives his life in a way where in order to receive God’s blessing, he believes he has to rely on himself, his plans, his strategies, his resources - and he will stop at nothing to ensure his security and that blessing from God. In what ways have you lived your life similarly? Why do you think we carry this mentality in a lot of what we do? 
5. Phyllis says, "What is it that we are chasing after with all of our might, resources, and plans? Maybe for some of us it’s love, or approval. For some others of us, it might be success, or financial security. For me, it’s been approval and acceptance. I’ve been chasing it my whole life - I never felt like I fit in or was accepted." What kind of struggling and wrestling is at the core of your life?
6. "God didn’t stop chasing after Jacob - God chased and chased Jacob until he was ready to receive God’s blessing. And this is the good news for you and me - from the beginning of time, God was chasing us - and continues to do so...God is waiting for you and me to stop chasing after the very thing that God has already given to us - the gift of Emmanuel." What ways has God shown up for you even when you weren't ready to accept it? 
7. What does it look like for us to face situations with trust rather than self-reliance? 

Scripture: Luke 24:26-43

1. What is a good or cool thing that your body can do?
2. Most people statistically are dissatisfied with their bodies...why do you think that is? In what ways do people end up dissatisfied with their own bodies?
3. There are many messages we get from media and those around us that we should be dissatisfied from our body, but we also sometimes get this idea from within Christianity-- that are bodies and the physical are unworthy and something to rebel against rather than good. Have you ever heard this message? What do you think of it?
4. Take a few minutes to read the scripture for today, What stands out to you? What do you notice about how Jesus appears?
5. All of this series, we’ve looked at times throughout the Old Testament when God appeared to God’s people, and oftentimes, to those outside of who would be considered God’s people, This sermon focuses on how God appeared to us in the person of Jesus, in a very human body! What do you think of this? What are some reasons Jesus might have come to us in a physical body?
6. Becky says, in the scripture for today, "the disciples are afraid, uncertain, and Jesus meets their fear with the very physical assurance of his presence and love!" What are some times you have received physical reassurance or needed it? Whether it was a parent rubbing your back or a hug or something else? How is it different than other types of reassurance? Why is it important?
7. "Some early Christians, the docetists, argued that Jesus couldn’t have been fully human because that would be a logical inconsistency - by definition, God can’t take on the substance of that which is bad! And yet, alongside his divinity, the fact that he was fully God, scripture goes to great lengths, insisting on Jesus’ full humanity, which means that in the person of Jesus, God affirms our physicality too...Our bodies are good and they have something to teach us." What might this message be for you? In what ways might you need to listen to your body more? Or change your relationship with it/how you view it?
8. WHat ways could you take better care of your body> What can you learn about God or how can you experience God through your body?

Scripture: 1 Kings 3:1-3 & 11:1-4

1. Have you ever had a person you look up to, a Christian leader or model, a father figure or mother figure in your life, fall from grace? How did that affect you?
2. In the book of first and second Kings, the people of Israel grapple with going from a situation of glory to exile. As Will says they were asking questions like, "the real disorienting question, the faith crisis, is how did we get from up there to down here? How exactly did we go from flourishing to ruin? From blessed by God to what feels like cut off from God? Did God fail? Did God stop showing up? Did God pull out of this covenant agreement with us? And if that’s true, what hope can we possibly have here in exile? Have you ever asked any questions like these? 
3. King Solomon went from being a very wise king who followed God to taking many extra wives and going against God's wishes. It is clear what he did wrong but the real question is how did he get there? How do our leaders today or people we look up to get to those places? It is easy to identify that what they are doing is wrong but sometimes harder to see what changed. What kind of things do you think causes these things to happen?
4. How about you - is your life, or is this season of life, headed toward faithfulness, fruitfulness, and flourishing or are you on an unsustainable pace? Is it hard to see how you continue on in this pace, or this way of living? Do you anticipate a crisis, a crash coming? If not now have you been in a place before where that was the case? Take a minute to reflect on your own over these questions, then share if you feel comfortable. 
5. Read the scripture for today. If you aren't as familiar with the history of Kings or what is happening, take a minute to look into the background behind it or listen to a member of your group who can summarize it. What do you note in the scripture and Kings? How could scripture like this be relevant to our lives today?
6. "The story of kings is more than a genealogy of kings -- it’s a genealogy of the heart. It’s giving us a story of how hearts that at one time are fully devoted, wholly devoted to God, to justice, to mercy, to loving their neighbors are slowly compromised, weakened, and ultimately falter. Heart failure isn’t caused overnight. A leader’s fall from grace is not a random whoopsie." What do you think of this? How have you seen this play out in the lives of those you thought of earlier who fell from grace in your eyes? What about in your own life? What small things can lead to major "heart failure" in terms of devotion to God?
7. "The message of Kings is that the fall from grace is NOT God’s fault. It’s not that the mantle of leadership was too heavy for God’s grace and strength. It’s not that God stopped showing up. It was habitual inattention to the health of the heart that led to undoing." What things in our lives do we sometimes attribute to God failing when the reality is the source of those thing may lie in other places?
8. Matthew 6:21 says, "“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”" Where do you think your heart is now, and how are you tending to it? What behaviors might you need to stop or how might you be dividing your attention in a way that is causing you not to leave space for God? 

Scripture: 1 Kings 17

1. Do you feel like you're in a place where things are bad and just keep getting worse? Or have you ever been in that place?
2. Have you ever dug yourself so deep into a situation that you felt like you were on your own to fix it? How have you felt in those situations? What did you do next? In those moments it can feel like God isn't even there, have you ever felt that?
3. Our scripture today starts after things have only gotten worse for the Israelites, but deals with the question of what to do with that place and where God is at such times. Take a few minutes to read it. Highlight what stands out/you notice as well as any questions you have. Take some time to discuss them. 
4. While in the wilderness Elijah receives tender care from some ravens sent by God. Becky points out, "It’s important to note how important remembering this tender provision would be to God’s people reading about it in exile. It’s like when you go through a horrific time and God felt so absent, but then looking back, you see all the small graces, how you never would have made it through if that friend hadn’t shown up that day, or that check hadn’t arrived in the mail." Have you ever had an experience like that? Where in retrospect you noticed small graces you hadn't before during a hard time. If so share about it!
5. "What does all this tell us? That even in the middle of this hard, harsh, violent, lonely, seemingly godless world of 1st & 2nd Kings, there is this God who shows up. Not where anyone expects. Not in the power center, not under the flashing lights, not with brute force or a loud, domineering voice, but with tender compassion, with gentle nurture, with the intimate presence and care of a God continuing to make a way where there seemed to be no way." What are your expectations for God in difficult situations vs. how have you really seen God show up? What do you think of the idea of intimate presence being one of the primary ways God cares for us? And that as happens in 1 Kings 19, God speaks not in a powerful wind, earthquake or fire, but a "gentle whisper?"
6. God is always right where God promised to be, here, with us. God is always working in us and in our lives, just like God promised to do. The question is: do we have eyes to see it? Are we paying attention? Do you think you pay attention to such things? How can you be more attentive to God's presence?

Scripture: 2 Kings 4:1-10

1. Why do you think many churches have closed/ the church has lost a lot of popularity lately?
2. Kings is a confusing narrative in certain ways, starting and ending in destruction and the failures of ruelrs and the temple. 2 Kings 24:2 says, "The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against (the king) to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets.” This adds to the confusion because God sent and allowed, others to come in and destroy Judah. Why do you think God would allow that? Does this line up with your picture of God or seem at odds with it? 
3. 2 Kings 24:3-4 says “Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.” Will says, "Why did Jerusalem fall and Solomon’s legacy end? It’s not because God didn’t show up, not because God failed. God actually says, ‘I allowed it to happen! I let your riches be taken away, I let your national and religious institutions crumble... as a consequence for your failure to do justice." What do you think of this? What failures of ours to we attribute to God when perhaps we didn't care for what was given us in the first place? 
4. In a way God said, "‘I didn’t leave. My presence is right here among you! But having a building dedicated to my name doesn’t mean a thing if you don't honor my image in the people around you. If you don’t protect the innocent and care for the weak." We just had the grand opening for our building. How can we work to make it a place where we do as God wants? 
5. Read the scripture for today. What do you notice? It is one of multiple examples in Kings of miracles that are ultimately about protecting or providing for those who need it. "In other words, it’s godly power used to create a more just and flourishing community - where neighbors, even outsiders, are loved, protected, cared for, and valued for being the image-bearers of God that they are." What are ways you personally or we as a church fail to do the same? How can we work to change that? How can we make our church one in whcih God's presence is found in large part through the promotion of justice inside our walls?

Scripture: 1 Kings 21:17-21, 27-29

1. 1 Kings largely establishes that God doesn't forget about injustice but rather acts on it and makes things right. The thing is, sometimes this takes a long time. Have you ever had that question/issue with God? Not necessarily a distrust that God will right a wrong but a problem with how long it seems like it will take? Over what issues have you had this question?
2. Sometimes in our society when we think justice is needed we deliver it very harsh;y and swiftly, ridiculing or cancelling/writing off people. This isn't to say consequences aren't needed but sometimes this form of them can be intense in a completely different kind of way--a shaming, ridicule, humiliation of a person in a way that robs them of a future and robs them of a chance for redemption. What are your thoughts on this? Have you seen this kind of "justice" before? Have you received it before? Do you ever feel scared to slip up or say something wrong and face such consequences or such a response?
3. Do you ever have the tendency to respond that way yourself? How do you respond when your partner gets it wrong, when your kids get it wrong, when your co-worker gets it wrong?
4. Take a minute to read the scripture for today. What stands out to you? What do you notice? How does God respond to the great injustice King Ahab has committed?
5. Will says, "God has named the evil, promised consequences, but rather than a good’ol fire-and-brimstone instant cancellation, God says, “Hold on, this person is humbling himself.” Instead of a cancellation, let’s make space for this humbling process to play out. ‘Yes, there will be consequences for actions, but let’s also make space for this person to grow and change.’ For Elijah, for us, what God is doing here should be interpreted as counter-cultural, counter-instinctual. A careful reading of 1-2 Kings reveals a God who is always giving more than people ask, imagine, or deserve, a God of infinite, uncanny, unnerving patience." What do you think of this? Have you seen or expereinced this patience in your life whether from God or others? What was that like? 
6. Do you find it hard yourself to extend grace, patience, and second chances? What are situations where this feels especially complicated or hard? How can you work to practice it more?
7. Take a couple minutes to reflect and pray about these final questions: "What are the injustices, big or small, that I’m facing in my life? We all have them. What it would look like for my responses to the injustices I face to be informed by God’s unnerving patience and surprising kindness? How would that change how I respond to the wrongdoings of my kids, my partner, my coworkers, my neighbors?" Feel free to share what came up for you. 

Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-3 & 9-14

1. Have you ever extended grace and understanding to someone close to you or yourself, while condemning or harshly judging others "outside of your circle" for the same thing?
2. Becky talked about growing up in a Christian group where everyone in it assumed they had all the answers, and were at war with culture and all things secular. Have you ever been in a similar place? What are some of the problems with this? What do you think is at the root of it?
3. Becky says, "the truth is, we humans are much more comfortable understanding God from our own perspective, interpreting God through the lens of our own group, our own experience. But the story of Naaman, the story of Gehazi, they won’t let us do that. At every turn, these stories, Scripture itself says “God can’t be contained by one group! By one perspective! Instead, there is something to learn and experience of God everywhere.” What do you think of this? What ways have you experienced this to be true? What are ways you need to challenge yourself to approach things with more of this posture?
4. Take a minute to read the scripture for today. What stands out to you? What do you have questions about? What if any, invitation do you find in this scripture?
5. In many ways, Naaman's pride initially gets in the way of his healing. The way he was asked to do things was different than he thought it'd be and required humbling himself. Has your pride every gotten the better of you in this way? In what ways have you made your beliefs about pride rather than what is right? 
6. Naaman is an outsider, but if you read on in this passage it actually explores the experience of an insider to the faith, Gehazi. Feel free to read the rest of the passage. In it Gehazi looks out for his own interests rather than truly caring for the outsider and ends up with leprosy as a result. Becky says, "You see, we think that 2 Kings 5 is about Naaman, but the punchline of the whole chapter is that it’s really about Gehazi, about how we on the “inside” of anything - particularly on the inside of any kind of religious institution or faith tradition - how we tend to view others as a threat, as unworthy, as projects to be accomplished or souls to be converted rather than as human beings who, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, social locatedness or beliefs, all reflect something of who God is in this world! Because all people are created in the image of God, all people have the potential to teach us something of who God is, to allow us to experience God in new and surprising ways!" What do you think of this? What challenge in it do you need to grapple with? Can you think of a time where you learned something about God from a person or source which surprised you?
7. God uses unexpected sources to teach us, Becky poses the question, "Maybe Christians in different parts of the church, different parts of the world, dare I say, maybe even people who don't identify as Christian, maybe even folks from different religions - Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims - maybe they reflect something of who Christ is?" Does this make you uncomfortable at all? If so, feel free to honestly name why. What is beautiful or good in it though? What are ways you can think of that this may be true?
8. :The problem is, if we’re so obsessed with me and my group, with seeing it OUR way, with our rules for who is in and who is out, if we’re too busy demanding God’s special and exclusive favor for me and mine, then we won’t be able to hear a thing!" Sometimes we need to be challenged, and sometimes the voices we see as a threat or "rebelling" against us, are exactly the ones we need to open an ear to. Who are people foten written off by the church out of defensiveness? What lessons can we learn from listening to others, or cries from those younger or different than us? 
9. The reality is, often we shut out other voices, not because we are postive we are right, but because we are afraid of a challenge, or what it might jeopardize. Becky says though, "the truth is, it’s not my job, or your job, or anybody’s job to protect Jesus’ uniqueness or purity, to set a fence around who has rights to him. Our job is to trust that God’s a grown up! That God’s big enough to stand up for God’s self! That the story of Jesus, if it’s true, then it’s true enough, it’s powerful enough to speak for itself. So when someone says something that’s outside my box, MY job, my first job, it’s simply to listen, to wonder, “ok, what’s God wanting to teach me here?” I love this, because what that means is I don’t have to be afraid!" What do you think of this? What invitation exists in it for you today?

Scripture: 2 Kings 9:1-2, 6-7, 11-13

1. Many of us carry around injustices, wounds, and hurts and have had to carry that, while the world has gone around like everything is just fine, normal and right. What are some times this has been your experience? How did that feel?
2. So much of the world’s story is about a “peace” achieved at the cost of ignoring past hurts, keeping injustices hidden and buried. In a past week we talked about justice delayed, but what are examples of injustice overlooked? What are some examples throughout history, in society today, or in your own life?
3. We see in the scripture today that even in instances where injustices go unseen by others (in this case the covered-up murder of Naboth by Jezebel and Ahab), God still sees them. As Will says, "God sees the injustices that no one else sees. God sees the hurts and pain that others cover up and ignore. It rises as a cry to God and God hears that cry! If you’ve been holding onto the pain of an injustice, however big or small, and holding it a lonely way, I just want you to know this: God sees it. God hears your cries. God cares about that pain." What does this change? How does it feel or would it feel to believe that?
4. Will offers invitations to tell the truth about unseen injustices before God and gives the following suggestions on what that looks like: "Maybe that means journaling about it, or naming it honestly in prayer, and inviting God to hold you and meet you there. Maybe, telling the truth means sharing your pain, and the way you’ve been wronged, with someone safe. It might just mean going on a healing journey; it might mean taking steps to get you in a safer place; it might mean addressing a wrong, or seeking reconciliation. Different injustices and wounds have different remedies, but it always starts with truth-telling." Do any of these invitations resonate with you? Or can you think of a different one that would? What is one think you would like to try on this list?
5. In the scripture for this sermon, Jehu comes acting on God's orders and everyone on Jezebel and Ahab's side asks him if he "comes in peace" to which he continually replies, "What do you have to do with peace?" Things are finally peaceful for Jezebel and Ahab despite the injustices they committed and God comes and disrupts that peace. We don't often think of God as disrupting peace...but in what situations might God do just that? 
6. Will says of the peace Ahab and Jezebel have, "It’s a “peace” among the people built upon forsaking the love of God in their hearts, and forsaking the image of God in their neighbors. So Kings wants to show us that not only does God see and care about injustices that have been overlooked, but that God is discontent with and wants to disrupt false peace, “peace” achieved through unjust means." Can you think of a situation in your life - or in this world - where the “peace” is really a sham? Where it’s not anything like the harmony of shalom? Where the “unity” of things was achieved through bullying or silencing? Ignoring or hush-hushing the wrongs? Where “everyone getting along” is achieved by avoiding rather than addressing wrongs and seeking reconciliation?
7. This passage is hard to grapple with in many ways because the justice Jehu metes out is incredibly violent and bloody, it is hard to reconcile such depicitions of violence with a loving God. Have you ever had such tensions with scripture? What parts?
8. Will talks about how scripture is meant to be read like a symphony where later parts of the text add on to and complete earlier ones. Jesus reinterprets what happens in Kings and speaks against violent justice and instead offers another way through his sacrifice. "Where the story of Abel declares that God hears injustice, and the story of Naboth declares that God sees injustice, the story of Jesus declares that God actually shares in the experience of injustice. God feels its pain. Jesus is with us when the world is against us." What do you think of this?
9. "The invitation of Kings, as read through the lens of the gospels, is to find God in Jesus, standing with all those who bear the pain of injustice. There Jesus offers his presence, he speaks our names, holds our tears. And we also find Jesus standing with the truth tellers, those who call out false peace, who work to heal and bring true peace and justice. And there Jesus offers the sword of the Spirit to cleanse and convict, empower and embolden us, to join in the fight against evil until God fulfills the promise to put an end to evil forever, wipe away every tear, and make all things new." What does this mean for us in out experiences of injustice? How have you seen this in your own life and the world?

Scripture: 2 Kings 13:14-21

1. Take a minute to read the scripture. What stands out to you? What questions does it leave you with?
2. "Elisha is just frustrated and angry! The king’s hesitancy with the arrows seems to be a parable, a symbol, of Israel’s hesitancy to fully trust God. So now Elisha says, instead of total victory, you’re going to have a partial victory. And that's how the great prophetic ministries of Elijah and Elisha come to an end. Those are Elisha’s very last words: frustration that the kings and people of Israel don’t fully get it; an exasperated statement that, while you might get close to victory, you’re going to end up falling short and failing." What do you think of this? We've done a whole series on these books, exploring the question "did God fail?" and always seeing that people were the ones failing. But what do you do with a partial victory? What do you think about the fact that these books don't ultimately even end with victory at all but more turmoil?
3. Will says, "That’s the hard thing about this book, this story. For all the cool prophetic interventions, all the hopeful ways we see God showing compassion, patience, justice along the way, how does the story end? In failure. It’s not God who failed… but it’s still failure." Have you ever experienced a failure? Not a minor setback; or you were feeling a little nervous about not doing great, but an actual failure? Can you identify one? How exactly did it leave you feeling?
4.  How do you move forward in failure? What’s our spiritual hope?
5. Verse 13:21 can seem like a random insertion after everything has failed, there is likely more to it though. Will says it would have acted like amessage to the people in exile of the following, "That even in total failure, when you seem dead and cut off from hope, just touch whatever remnants of the prophets you have - their words, their witness to the living God, their example - come into contact with that, and if you do that, then it doesn’t matter even if you completely failed and died, you can spring back to life. You can rise again." What do you think of this? What in your life might give you life again even amidst great failure?
6. This story rings similar in many ways to Jesus rising again from the tomb just when everything seemed lost--hope out of dispair. Take a minute to read and reflect on Lamentations 3:19-24. How does it make you feel? What would it mean to heed these words in failure? 
7. The mercies of God are new every morning. Can you remember a time when you hit a roadblock, a stalemate, an ending to something, and then God provided a new mercy you never expected? In what areas of your life have you run short on hope, or felt like a failure? What new mercies might God have in store for you?