Breaking Ground
What is your biggest pet peeve? Why?
The Dig
This Sunday, we continued our series 12 Words, in which we’re using the 12 Step Program as a tool for experiencing Christlike transformation. In particular, we dove into Step 8: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed & became willing to make amends to them all” & the spiritual principle of forgiveness.
What stands out to you about this Step? Why do you think it starts with making a list of those we’d harmed & then focuses on simply becoming willing to make amends to them?
Next, read Matthew 5:21-26. Here, Jesus reinterprets the Old Testament’s prohibition against murder to include & seek to transform the deeper, internal postures that lie its roots. In particular, he draws a progression of anger leading to hate before becoming contempt. Finally, to conclude the teaching, Jesus provides a hyperbolic parable to capture the importance of extending forgiveness in His Kingdom.
Specifically, he tells his Jewish audience that making amends should take precedence even over offering a sacrifice at the Temple (which was the pinnacle of their religion in the 1st century). To further make this point, he describes someone walking multiple days to the Temple to make a sacrifice before going back home without doing so in order to first make amends to who they’ve wronged.
What does this teaching & story reveal about Jesus’ understanding of making amends? What does he place so much importance on forgiveness?
How does unaddressed resentment & contempt do to the human heart? How does forgiveness offer an antidote?
Consider where you need to sit with this teaching, word, & step in your own life.
Where do you currently harbor resentment? Consider people, institutions, beliefs, ideas, & experiences (past, present, & future) that make you feel anger, hate, or contempt.
What is that resentment costing you? How is it shaping your life internally & externally in the present?
How could this teaching, word, & step help you start to simply become willing to let that resentment go? How can you begin practicing it this week?
Getting Out of the Hole
In this series, take time each week to reflect upon the Step & Word that we covered in the Sunday sermon.
- Make a list of people that you resent & have harmed this week. Write down their names & how you’ve harmed them.
- Go through your list & mark down who you’d be willing to make amends with today. Then go through & mark down those who you’d be ready to make amends with over the next few months given some personal work. Finally, mark down those that you need a lot of time to forgive.
- Reach out to those in the first group this week & schedule a time to meet face-to-face in order to extend your amends. Reach out to a spiritual guide to talk through the 2nd & 3rd groups. Begin praying for the willingness to forgive the people in both.
Additional Resources*
TheBibleProject.com
Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill W
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Coming Up This Week:*
Sunday, July 6th: Join us next Sunday as we continue our series 12 Words!* Please see mye3.org for details.