Week 3 - Assignment and Study Questions

 

Lenten Study Week 3: March 25

Continuing with Part 2: The Emotional Battlefield

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Continuing to Walk “The Emotional Battlefield” together: It doesn’t feel to me that we are done with “the emotional battlefield” and it seems right to spend another week with Part 2.  So the reading assignments and questions for this week will focus on the Chapters 6, 7 and 8. We will not have an explicit discussion of Chapter 5: Our Dirty Little Secret, in which we reflect upon the “culture of honor – and how we identify individuals to be applauded and praised” but do please read it to set the context for the next chapters. 

STUDY QUESTIONS FROM RB: STRANGER GOD: MEETING JESUS IN DISGUISE

   

Chapter 6: The Murderer in Our Heart

1. Where in your life do you struggle the most with feelings of superiority and smugness (pp. 95–98)? If you were going to make an “idiot list,” who would be on your list?

2. Jesus taught that contempt is “affectional murder,” killing people in our hearts (p. 96–98). If that’s true, share how many people you’ve “killed” this week.

3. A “wall of hostility” separated the people Paul lists in Galatians 3:28—male/female, Jew/Greek, and slave/free (pp. 98–102). Expand this list, sharing other pairs where you see a “wall of hostility” at work.

4. Discuss how grace as a “social revolution” (pp. 98–102)—breaking down walls of hostility—changes how we might speak about, witness to, and proclaim the “good news” of the gospel. 

Chapter 7: Build That Wall!

1. Putting partisan politics aside, discuss how fear affects the hospitality of a nation. Share historical and recent examples (pp. 103–8).

2. Hebrews 2:14–15 describes fear as “the power of the devil” (pp. 106–8). How have you seen fear undermine love, compassion, and hospitality in your own life, in the church, in your neighborhood, in our nation, and in the world?

3. Discuss how our fear causes us to scapegoat strangers, blaming them for what’s going wrong (p. 108). Share examples of this.

4. Discuss the relationship between love and risk (pp. 108–11).

• Does love always involve some degree of risk? Can love ever be 100 percent safe? Why or why not?

• Revisiting chapter 3, how can we balance the risk of love with our concerns over safety?

• At what point does our concern over safety begin to undermine our ability to love? How can you tell when that’s starting to happen?

Chapter 8: Heart Triggers

1. This chapter walks through a list of “heart triggers,” places where we struggle to extend hospitality (pp. 115–26):

• Politics

• Habits (e.g., smokers, drinkers)

• Lifestyle choices (e.g., gun owners, vegans)

• Hygiene

• Appearance (e.g., clothing, tattoos, piercings)

• Disabilities

• Demographics (e.g., Muslims, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, immigrants, refugees)

• Poor social skills

• Criminal history

•  Sins and moral failures (i.e., any behavior defined by yourself or community as sinful, unjust, or oppressive)

• Personal history (e.g., grievances, grudges, bad experiences with individuals)

2. Looking at the list, what are your biggest “heart triggers,” places where you struggle to extend hospitality? Is there any one area where you are particularly struggling at this time in your life?

3. What would you add to the list of “heart triggers,” and what additional examples can you give that aren’t mentioned in the chapter?