03 | Hope

Isaiah 9:1-7

The Christian Story - the good news about Jesus - uniquely involves thinking, doing, and feeling. Faith involves our whole person, and is never just mental assent to doctrinal truths or just a set of practices or morals for life. Real Faith moves the soul and requires emotional engagement - we feel its truth, often before we even fully understand it. This is particularly true when we focus on Advent, the arrival of Jesus into our busted up world as a baby some 2000 years ago. Why would God come into the world? What is he doing by writing himself into the story, putting on the weaknesses of human flesh, and dwelling among us? Nothing less than a total remaking of the world, putting all things to right, and ruling and reigning in justice and peace forevermore! This week we explore the emotion of Hope, and how the story of Jesus give the kind of hope we really need.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

1. When you think of hope, what images come to mind? What does hope look like?

2. What hope does Isaiah offer us in Isaiah 9:1-7? What makes this hope uniquely powerful?

3. Where do you most need the hope of Jesus right now? How does Advent stir us to feeling hopeful?

December 20, 2020 - Steve Hart

02 | Heartbreak

Matthew 1:18-25

Full-bodied faith is both intellectual and emotional, enlightening the mind and stirring the affections of the heart. This Advent we’re exploring the emotions of faith, looking at how the movements of God’s Story - Creation, Fall, Redemption - stir our hearts to feel deeply wonder, heartbreak, and hope. This week we look at the emotion of heartbreak, considering how the pain and strain of our lives, our relationships, and our world brings about a deep and abiding sorrow. What do you do with your own heartbreak? Do you minimize it? Look for someone or something to blame? Or do you just check out of reality, finding ways to numb and avoid really feeling anything? Advent invites us to feel deeply the sorrow of the world, and to own our responsibility in it, while also looking for rescue beyond us. Jesus came to save us from our sins and to be God with us, the perfect solution to the heartbreak we all deeply feel.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

1. Where are you most feeling heartbreak? In yourself? In your relationships? In our world?

2. Where do you tend to go with that emotion? How do you navigate the sorrow you feel?

3. How does Advent invite us to really feel the sorrow, but not to get overwhelmed or lost in it?

December 13, 2020 - Scott Cooley

01 | Wonder

Luke 1:46-55

We’ve covered a lot of Biblical ground over the fall, tracing the Story of Redemption from Creation to New Creation every single week, and considering how we tell that Story in word and deed in everyday ways. For Advent, we’re going to slow way down, cover less content, and instead engage the emotional landscape of faith. What does faith in God’s Story feel like? What emotions does the Biblical storyline - Creation, Fall, and Redemption - invite us to discover? The Gospel Story is both intellectually credible and emotionally satisfying, making sense of our lived experience as humans. Over the month of December, I want to invite you to feel deeply the wonder of Creation, the heartbreak of the Fall, and the hope of Redemption. In a season when we’re all more prone to numbing and checking out, Advent 2020 invites us to press in, to fight the malaise, and to connect with God and one another in meaningful ways. This week, we’ll explore Mary’s Song in Luke 1.46-55 as we talk about the power of Wonder.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

1. When do you feel wonder? What leads you to awe?

2. Rewrite Mary’s hymn of Wonder in your own words: “My soul magnifies the Lord because…”

3. How can you engage delight and awe this season, as a way to push back on evil?

December 6, 2020 - Steve Hart