11.1.20 Huddle

Zach Below   -   November 2, 2020

INTRO QUESTIONS

  1. What is your favorite Halloween candy?

 

  1. What is the worst Halloween candy of all time?

 

 

LESSON INTRO

Welcome to week 3 of Talking Points: Relating Like Jesus in Culture, Politics, and Relationships. We have been looking at Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6 and asking the question, “How can this passage inform our specific time and culture today?” November 3 is election day, so we want to examine Jesus’s words in light of politics.

 

  1. Why can it be so difficult to keep political discussions gracious?

 

  1. Thinking back on your childhood, do you ever remember hearing heated political discussions in your family?

 

  1. In April of 2016 edition of the New York Times, writer and actor David Brooks wrote, “Watch and listen to the politically polarized commentary today, and you will see that it is more contemptuous than angry, overflowing with sneering, mockery and disgust. Studies on the subject have shown that, whereas simple anger is characterized by short term attack responses but long term reconciliation—contempt is characterized by rejection and social exclusion in both the short and the long term. Polarization, and thus, contempt, leads to permanent enmity.”

 

Do you agree with Brooks assessment of shift in attitude with regards to political discussion? Why or why not?

 

This quote was from 4 years ago. Do you think this quote is less true or more true today?

 

 

BIBLE ENGAGEMENT—LUKE 6:17-49

Read Luke 6:17-49

 

  1. Does anything in this text seem counter to the way Brooks described the general attitude in American when it comes to politics?

 

  1. As you think about your own attitude toward those on the “other side,” what from this passage hits you hard? Where are Jesus’s words attempting to correct you?

 

 

FOUR WORDS TO REMEMBER

On Sunday, Pastor Bret gave us 4 words that can help us lower the temperature in culture when it comes to contemptuous conversations.

 

They are . . .

  • Identity
  • Humility
  • Loyalty
  • Charity

 

 

IDENTITY

  1. What does it mean that your first identity is to be a disciple/follower of Jesus?

 

  1. How is that identity lived out when it comes to one’s attitude toward politics?

 

 

HUMILITY

Read Luke 6:20 and then read Psalm 40:17 (remembering that King David wrote it).

 

Luke 6:20

“Then looking up at his disciples, he said:

Blessed are you who are poor,

Because the Kingdom of God is yours.”

 

 

Psalm 40:17

“But as for me, I am poor and needy;

May the Lord think of me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

You are my God, do not delay.”

 

  1. What do you think David means in Psalm 40:17, when obviously as a king, he was not poor or needy?

 

  1. How does that speak to humility?

 

Leader Note: While Luke 6 says “Blessed are the poor,” it could also mean “poor before God.” The idea is that I have nothing of my own righteousness to bring before God. This realization is the starting point of humility.

 

 

LOYALTY

Being loyal to the Kingdom of God means not raising anything to the point that it challenges that loyalty. Yet, if we are not careful, we can raise our political party to the level of an idol.

The following activity we help us process this more.

 

  1. Do you find it difficult to critique your own party or commend the other party? Why do you think that is?

 

Group Activity

Leader Note: KNOW YOUR GROUP. If this exercise will get hostile, skip it. Hopefully, in light of the past few weeks, this can be an healthy discussion. If you sense that it won’t, feel free to move past it.

 

As a group, work together to commend and critique both the republican and democratic party. This is a great exercise in humility and helps us practice loving others and putting the kingdom first. We will allow 3 answers for each party that way it doesn’t turn into bashing or glorifying.

 

REPUBLICAN

COMMEND:

 

 

 

CRITIQUE:

 

 

 

DEMOCRAT

COMMEND:

 

 

 

CRITIQUE:

 

 

 

CHARITY

Jesus died around 33 AD. For 202 years, Christian’s had absolutely no representation in the Roman government. However, that did not stop them from leading the way when it came to charity.

 

  1. What in the Sermon on the Plain speaks to charity, and how do you think that understanding it helps us lower the temperature on contemptuous conversations?

 

  1. Do you think that people allow their vote/party to be a “proxy” for personal action? What makes you say that?

 

  1. What from the Sermon on the Plain speaks the loudest to the political climate of this time?

 

 

 

CLOSE IN PRAYER FOR NATION’S LEADERS.