Sermon 6 Jesus on Location Union: Abide in Me. Jesus offers you a picture and an invitation: I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me.

Transcription

1 General Outline for Small Group Study Guide Sermon 6 Jesus on Location Union: Abide in Me Welcome Welcome to Session 6 of Jesus on Location. Each of the six sessions in this study is designed to be completed in 90 minutes. If you have just one hour for your meeting, you will need to choose fewer questions for your discussion, or make some other modification. Notes: Union Jesus offers you a picture and an invitation: I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me. Living in connection with Jesus is not about where; it s about how. If you understand the picture, if you accept the invitation, Jesus says you can have an intimate relationship of love with God. Let s start with the picture: What does it mean for a living thing like a branch to have its life through its connection with the vine? Life is the ability to contact and selectively take in from the surroundings whatever supports its own survival, extension and enhancement. Dallas Willard What is abiding? When you abide, you make a home in a place, you linger there, and your inner person gets shaped by your abode. You can abide in fear. You can abide in ambition. You can abide in anger. You can abide in lust. Or you can abide in God. God wants to make your heart his home. God wants to make his heart your home. Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23

2 But there is an obstacle to this practice of abiding. Living in union means I m going to have to die to my will a little. I ll have to die to whatever would keep me from loving and obeying God. Jesus invitation is to be so rooted into the Father that I actually begin to experience a union, a kind of oneness, with God. God the vine: If a person remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 The branch s job is not to produce fruit. The branch s job is to learn to continually receive life from the vine. The fruit is a by-product of abiding. What s the fruit? It s the external manifestation of what is going on inside the branch. It s our behavior. It s the things we do and say all day long. But we cannot make or force ourselves to grow it. The fruit is the external manifestation words and actions and habits that REVEAL what s going on inside the branch. We will never produce the right fruit by trying to produce the right fruit. We can never force ourselves to continually say or do all the right things until the inside of our branch changes. It is the inside of the branch that must change. The automatic flow of thoughts and desires and intentions must change from being ego-centered and conflicted and greedy and fearful, to confident and grateful and humble and joyful and ready-tolove. Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 Your thoughts the words that abide in you, are the roots of your spirit. We are formed by the words that abide in us.

3 But your job is not to try to generate more God-pleasing actions by greater willpower. Your job is to abide. Spiritual disciplines or practices are a means they always involve our bodies to make space for Jesus words to abide in my mind. What do you do when you get it wrong? You get back on the vine. You go home. You can come home! There is only one who can take our aloneness away. We can make our home in Jesus. I am the vine. You are the branches. Group Discussion: Questions 1. What does it mean to say that living in connection with Jesus is not about where but how? 2. How can a person be more intentional about making their heart God s home? 3. If the branch s job is not to produce fruit, what is the job description for a branch? 4. What are your primary obstacles to abiding in God through the day as a branch is connected to a vine? 5. How does John describe the fruit that branches are to produce? 6. What must change for the fruit of the Spirit, the very character of Christ, to be produced in your life? 7. If your thoughts are the roots of your spirit, how so? 8. What would it be like to live as a friend of Jesus? How might you pursue this tomorrow? 9. How do spiritual disciplines help with living in friendship with Jesus? 10. What do you do when you get it wrong?

4 Key Assessment: Are you plugged in? The following two self-assessments give you a chance (in private) to take a look at your life to see if your computer is plugged in. Assessment 1: Fruit Inspection In Galatians 5:19-23 Paul contrasts the sinful nature (traits of character of a person unplugged from the Tree of Life) and the fruit of the Spirit. Another, and very helpful, name for the fruit of the spirit is the character traits of Christ. The only way to grow a certain type of fruit is to be that type of tree. Another way to say this is that we are living our lives in the precise manner to be getting the present results. Take a moment and do a ruthless self-inventory. Using the categories and scales listed below rate yourself on the present quality of the fruit growing from your life. Then indicate how one significant other would rate you if asked to be totally candid and how you believe God would rate you. For example: SAMPLE TRAIT (O) 5.. (S) 6.. (G) (Very Little) (Rich Abundance) S = Self-Rating O = Other-Rating (How you think a spouse, child, or best friend would rate you) G = God-Rating (How God would rate you. Hint: not how he sees you through the eyes of grace, but the divinely-objective rating.) When the group has completed the ratings each member should feel free to keep his or her ratings private, or to share with the group what was learned from the exercise, if desired. LOVE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: CHARACTER OF CHRIST JOY

5 PEACE PATIENCE KINDNESS GOODNESS FAITHFULNESS GENTLENESS SELF-CONTROL ROTTEN FRUIT: FEAR GREED SELFISH AMBITION

6 ENVY Assessment 2: ABC s of thought Take a look at the following illustration. On the table is a pool cue that is labeled A. The pool cue is about to strike a ball (labeled B ) that will in turn strike a second ball ( C ), and if the rules of physics are properly applied, C will drop into the pocket of the table. A successful shot. This pool diagram represents the role your thoughts play in other aspects of your life particularly your emotions. The pool cue represents an event from your day any event. Let s say you are at work and your boss says, I would like to see you later today. This brief contact with your boss is an A, which stands for Activating event. B in this scenario represents your immediate Belief that is, the first thought or thoughts that pass through your mind. If your thought is, Oh, no! I m going to be fired, you will probably have a pretty bad day, with emotions (that s the C, emotional Consequence ) of anxiety and dread. But on the other hand, if your first thoughts are, This is wonderful; I m finally going to get that promotion! then your emotions will be drastically different. Excited anticipation. It is important to note that the pool cue (Activating event) did not change. In both cases it was an ambiguous encounter with your boss, who said, I want to see

7 you later today. What changed? The thoughts that played in your head like CDs in a juke box (or a random itunes shuffle of your Top 25 Playlist). The radically different thoughts produced radically different emotions. Let s look at one more A-B-C example. Imagine you are driving in your car. A light you were hoping to catch while still green turns red. That s A, the Activating event. The emotional Consequence ( C ) of the red light will not be caused by the light, but by the thoughts ( B ) that flash before your mind. If you think, Oh great! I bet I catch every one now. I ll be late for my hair appointment and will probably miss it, that type of B will cause some pretty unpleasant C. But if the light changes ( A ) and you think ( B ), This is great! I needed a sixtysecond vacation. I ll take three or four deep slow breaths and relax, well, your C will be very different: gratitude for the mini-vacation. By changing our thoughts (and it is quite possible to do so), we can change more than our emotions; we participate in the process of authentic spiritual transformation. To a large extent our thoughts are under our control. We can set out to change them, and the results can be not only different emotional consequences, but also changes in our will, behavior, and social interactions. Exercise: Take a few minutes to unplug and take a few deep and slow breaths. Then ask yourself the question, What is the most common thought I have about myself? Whether that thought is good, bad or neutral, breathe it in and out for a while. Then note how you are feeling. Now, breathe this thought for awhile, I am an eternal spiritual being in whom God dwells and delights. Breathe that thought for awhile as you allow yourself to sink into the truth that your very existence is in an ocean of Divine love. Then note again, how you are feeling. What changed? Only the primary thought in your mind.

8 Key Activity: Group Activity Abiding in a Familiar Passage of Scripture Lectio Divina is a slow, contemplative way of praying the Scriptures that enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. It is one classic way of allowing the Word and presence of Christ to penetrate to the center of our being and begin a process of transforming us, from the inside out. There are four movements contained within this method of praying Scripture. The first movement is called reading or listening. The practice of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear with the ear of our hearts as St. Benedict describes in the Prologue of his Rule. It is a way of being more sensitive to the still, small voice of God (1 Kings 19:12), the faint murmuring sound which is God s word for us, his voice touching our hearts. The reading or listening which is the first step in Lectio Divina is very different from the speed reading you may be used to applying to magazines or novels. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God s communication for us this day. The second phase of lectio is meditation. Once through listening, if we have found a word, passage, or image in the Scripture which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and ruminate on it. We ponder it in our hearts. We do this by gently repeating a key word or phrase (or gazing on an image in the passage), allowing it to interact with our thoughts, hopes, memories and desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio, meditation. Through this phase we allow the word from God to become His word for us, a word that touches us at our deepest levels. The third step in lectio divina is prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. Here we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. The final step is to rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. It is the phase, called contemplation where there are moments when words are unnecessary. Contemplation is wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the one who loves us. Meditation In the practice of Lectio Divina you will choose a text of Scripture that you wish to pray. For this exercise you are asked to use the text found in the Bible Study. Here is what you do next: a. Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent.

9 b. Read/Listen: Turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the still small voice of a word or phrase that somehow says I am for you today. c. Meditate: Next take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Do not be afraid of distractions. Memories or thoughts are simply parts of you. Don t try to chase them away, just return to the word you are pondering. d. Converse: Then speak to God. Whether you use words, ideas, images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one whom you know loves and accepts you. Give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience. e. Rest: Finally, you simply rest in God s embrace. Enjoy his presence. And when he invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with him, do so. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence. Now, Step into the first few verses of Psalm 1 as an experience of Lectio Divina. Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.

10 Group Activity Brainstorming how to live a day plugged in to God as a Game with Minutes On March 23, 1930 Frank Laubach wrote in his diary, Can we have contact with God all the time? All the time awake, fall asleep in his arms, and awaken in His presence, can we attain that? Can we do His will all the time? Can we think His thoughts all the time? i When he posed these questions, forty-five year old Laubach was laboring under a cloud of profound dissatisfaction, despite his academic achievements a BA from Princeton, a graduate degree from Union Theological Seminary and an MA and PhD in sociology from Columbia University and his success as a missionary to the Philippines. For fifteen years he had won praise as a teacher, writer, and administrator. Laubach s sterling achievements make it doubly puzzling when we read the self-assessment he made at the halftime of his life: As for me, I never lived, I was half dead; I was a rotting tree ii Even as his churches filled with converts, his heart was becoming crowded with loneliness, discouragement, and mild depression. Even after planting a seminary in the Philippines to train missionaries, he confessed that he had learned nothing of surrender and joy in Christ. How can that be? Frank Laubach spoke of God daily. He had a devoted wife and family and all the trappings of success. Why was he so weighed down with doubt and despair? Like Augustine, Laubach s soul would forever feel restless and alone until nestled into the arms of God; it would forever feel lonely until awake to constant companionship with God. Laubach determined to do something about his miserable condition, and decided to make the rest of his life a continuous inner conversation with God, in perfect responsiveness to God s will so that his own life could become rich with God s presence. All he could do was throw himself open to God. All he could do was raise the windows and unlock the doors of his soul. But he also knew that these simple acts of the will were very important and so he resolved to spend as many moments as possible in listening and determined sensitivity to God s presence. In working his experiment he invented something he called a game with minutes. Laubach s game is a method of calling God to mind at least one second of each minute for the purpose of awareness and conversation. As he began to live moment by moment in attentiveness to God s presence, Laubach experienced a remarkable change. By the end of the first month of the experiment, he had gained a sense of being carried along by God through the hours of cooperation with him in little things. January 26 th I am feeling God in each moment, by an act of will willing that He shall direct these fingers that now strike this typewriter willing that He

11 shall pour through my steps as I walk, willing that He shall direct my words as I speak, and my very jaws as I eat! March 1 The sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily. I do not have to strain at all to find opportunity.... Perhaps a man who has been an ordained minister since 1914 ought to be ashamed to confess that he never before felt the joy of complete, hourly, minute by minute now what shall I call it? more than surrender. April 18 God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I never had known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange and blissful contentment.... after an hour of close friendship with God my soul feels as clean as new-fallen snow. May 14 Now I like God s presence so much that when for a half hour or so He slips out of mind as He does many times a day I feel as though I had deserted Him, and as though I had lost something very precious in my life. June 3 The moment I turn to Him is like turning on an electric current which I feel through my whole being. September 21 For a lonesome man there is something infinitely homey and comforting in feeling God so close, so everywhere! Nowhere one turns is away from friendship, for God is smiling there.... it is difficult to convey to another the joy of having broken into the new sea of realizing God s hereness. When Laubach began his experiment he was living among fierce Moros, an anti-christian, Islamic tribe on Mindanao. Not long after he began to keep constant company with God, the Moros began to notice the difference. Two of the leading Muslim priests began telling people that Laubach could help them know God. And even though he never pretended to be anything other than a follower of Jesus, the Moros began to take Laubach into their hearts and lives, loving, trusting, and helping him without regard to their cultural and religious differences. iii Laubach s life began to flourish with the joy of God and even more amazing productivity. He birthed the each one teach one reading program that not only

12 brought literacy to tens of thousands of the Moros tribe, but eventually to over 60,000,000 people around the world. Laubach lived the second half of his life as God s constant companion. His life is a picture of the path of real change. He took the time to be with God, was honest about the condition of his heart, and trusted that God desired the same intimate relationship that he craved. Group Activity Take some time as a group to brainstorm a list of things you can do each day to make yourself more aware of God presence in the world and in your life. Don t stop until you come up with at least 20. We ll give you a few to get you started. Before Getting Out of Bed 1. Breathe the 23 rd Psalm 2. Before 9:00 AM Noon Before 5 PM 1. Say to the person in the mirror, You are an unceasing spiritual being with whom God likes to hang out Leave an empty chair at lunch and imagine that Jesus is sitting there Give thanks for another day of work and the hope for a red light on the way home to give you a chance for a 60-second conversation with God 2. Before Going to Sleep 1. Pray the pray of Examen you learned in Session One 2. Closing Prayer

13 Homework: Recognize and Respond 1. Daily Scripture Study on Union for experience as a Lectio Divina prayer. a. Psalm 1 b. John 15:4-15 c. Philippians 4: Living Plugged in? Make a game out of keeping your computer plugged into God this week. Perhaps you will want to use the list you created as a group (see above), perhaps you ll like to expand that list. But see how many times you are able to recall God s presence. We ll provide a few more ideas and hope that you ll add to the list. a. Memorize either the 23 rd Psalm or the Lord s Prayer. Before getting out of bed each morning, breathe the verses as a prayer. b. Set a clock or timer (such as your smart phone or fitbit) to remind you morning, noon, and evening to stop and pray. a. During one of those pauses, breathe the Nicene Creed b. During another pause, allow love for others flow out into intercession. c. Or, take time to step into a passage of Scripture using Lectio Divina c. When you are in conversation and see the eyes of the person you are with, be reminded that Christ lives inside of that person. d. Every time you glance at a watch, clock or phone to check the time, be prompted to pray internally, Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. e. Take the time to admire the beauty of a plant, tree or flower, and then admire the designer f. Leave an empty chair at each meal as a reminder that you are not alone. g. Leave an empty chair by your computer as both a reminder and accountability check that you are not alone. h. Perform an act of service for another person (in secret if possible) as an act of love for God. i. End the day with an Examination of Consciousness. Reflect on the times when you felt most close and most distant from God. i Frank C. Laubach, Letters By A Modern Mystic, (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1937), P. 19 ii ibid, P. 17 iii Frank Magill and Ian McGreal, Christian Spirituality, (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1988)