Brave Table (part 4): What It Takes (And Gives)
TO START
Imagine yourself in your favorite room--any room in any house, hotel, restaurant, etc. Describe what it’s like. What do you love about being in that room? What’s one thing you could learn about making other people feel comfortable from that space?
TO DISCUSS
In Mark 10:28-30 we see Jesus telling his apostles that even though they’ve left their families to follow him, they won’t be alone. He instead promises brothers and sisters a hundred fold what they’ve given up. Justin helped us realize Sunday--those hundred fold brothers and sisters, that’s us. He said, “It’s us that [Jesus] intends to use as the brothers and sisters he’s promised to those who’ve left their family for Him. You are the promise of God to me. I am the promise of God to you.”
How does that make you feel?
How does that “brother and sister” language make you feel?
Do you feel as close to your church family as you do to your physical family? Why do you think that is?
What do we expect from our physical families that, as Christians, we should expect from our spiritual families? What do we share with our physical families that we should share with our spiritual families as well?
This week we’re getting practical about having people over, especially strangers and enemies. Before we go there... you can’t invite people who’re different from you over to dinner if you don’t know where to find them. What could you do this week to begin getting to know more people who don’t think like you think? Make a list of ten ways to meet new people who’re different from you.
Sunday Justin walked us through five important practices for men and women attempting hospitality:
Respect the reality of your neighbors’ lives and households.
Pray that you will be a safe person to hear the burdens of your neighbors’ hearts.
Remember that their story is bigger than you and this moment.
Understand the Biblical difference between holiness and goodness and don’t be afraid to celebrate the goodness of your unbelieving neighbors.
Start somewhere. Start today.
Which one did you find most challenging, interesting, helpful, or confusing? Talk through them with your group to make sure you understand each one.
Do you have any personal experience with any of the five? Share with the group.
To end group discussion you might check in with everybody and see how they’re doing with this series. Be encouraging and remind everyone this is definitely something they can do.
TO READ
As we’ve said, we’re spending the length of this sermon series reading positive and negative examples of hospitality. This week, Genesis 19:1-13. This one’s complicated.
What do we learn about the importance of hospitality from this example?
What did Lot do right? (Feel free to also comment on what you think he did wrong.)
What does this story tell us about what the world’s like? Why is it so important to make safe spaces in a world like this?
TO PRAY
Here’s that prayer we’ve been praying throughout the series:
Shape us in such a way that we let you use our home, apartment, dorm room, front yard, or garden for the purpose of making strangers into neighbors and neighbors into family. Help us stop being afraid of strangers, even when some strangers are dangerous. Grow us to be more like Christ in practicing daily, ordinary, radical hospitality, and then bless us richly for it, adding to your kingdom, creating a new culture and a new reputation for what it means to be a Christian in a watching world. Help us to see that there’s more to the Christian life than we may have realized--more to enjoy, more to experience, more to celebrate--and that practicing daily, ordinary, radical hospitality is the key to discovering those hidden treasures. Resurrect this practice in the American church, and begin with us.