Week 1 - STUDY QUESTIONS

Part 1: Entertaining Angels

Chapter 1: Jesus in Disguise

1.     The chapter shares many stories from the Bible where God or Jesus come as a stranger, in disguise, unrecognized, or seeking welcome (pp. 20–26). Did anyone of these stories strike you more than another?  Why do you think?  Can you think of any other stories like these in the Bible? Share these.

2.     From page 27: “We don’t show hospitality to be like Jesus. We show hospitality to welcome Jesus.”

• Discuss what goes wrong with hospitality when we see ourselves as saving, rescuing, or fixing other people. Share examples of when you’ve seen this happen, either from having been the rescuer or the rescued.

• Discuss how our views and practices of hospitality would change if we were the ones who were being saved by strangers. Share stories when you’ve experienced this. 

3.     A series of questions are asked on page 26: “Our response to the call of hospitality is to answer some simple questions: Who are people on the periphery of my life? Who is that person at the far boundaries of my care and attention? Who is being ignored in my workplace and church? Who is marginalized in my neighborhood and nation? Who would Jesus grab to place at the center of my attention?”

• Take some time to prayerfully ponder these questions, letting faces and names of specific people (or groups of people) come into your heart and mind. As you pray and ponder, write down this list of names as they come to you. Share some of your list with the group.

Chapter 2: The Circle of Our Affections

1.     “Our social world is an emotional ecosystem” (pp. 36–38). Make a list of all the feelings that create obstacles for hospitality. Share which two to three feelings you most struggle with.

2.     Make a list of some people you encounter in a typical day who are not in your moral circle, people with whom kindness is hard (pp. 40–43). Share why you struggle with these particular people.

3.     The chapter describes a scene where a stressed-out server in a restaurant is treated unkindly because she’s a stranger (pp. 41–43).

• Make a list of three other situations where we encounter people as “strangers.”

• Describe how your interactions would change in these situations if you welcomed these people into your moral circle (i.e., treated them as a family member or dear friend).

    

4. Reflect on the story in Acts 6 where the early church “expanded the moral circle” by caring for the widows of the Hellenistic believers (p. 44). Share other examples from the Bible where the moral circle was expanded to include those who were excluded or marginalized.