Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

Ordinary Time 06: Finding God in the Ruins Tim Suttle

1. Early in today’s sermon, Tim said, “God prefers vulnerability to credentials and strength.”  Reflect on this idea. In what ways do you see this reflected in the world today? Do you see it at all? In what ways is it contrary to many of our world’s prevailing values?  Where do you see the outcomes of the ways in which we’ve valued strength &/or credentials? What do you think would s...

1. Tim talked about Abraham’s story as the first draft of the Bible’s favorite story: the story of “a God who longs to lift up the brokenhearted.” What surfaces as you think of this as God‘s favorite story? Where else do you see this story in the Bible? Where do you see this story beyond the confines of the scriptural canon? In history? In your family stories? In your own life? 2. Tim talked about...

1. Early in his sermon, Tim said “American Christianity has largely sentimentalized the New Testament; but you can’t do that with the Old Testament.” What do you think it means to “sentimentalize the NT?” How prominent is that in your experience of Christianity? How aware of it have you been or are you now? What things can you recognize and identify as impacts or outcomes of that sentimentalizing?...

Tim Suttle

1. In his sermon, Tim expressed that, in Jesus’ time, Jewish religion had become what all religions — all moral systems & political movements — tend to become over time: more an ideology than a sacred religion.  What’s it  like for you to think about YOUR religion like this? How much do you think your experience of your faith is ideological? or influenced by ideology? How has that as...

1. How have you thought about the ascension up to this point in your life of faith?  Have  you thought much about it? Where does (or has) it fit in to your overall sense of the gospels’ story? What kinds of question and curiosity does it bring up for you?  2. In her sermon, Mandy said, “we live, like the disciples, in the space between blessing & fulfillment.” How does this stat...

Redemption Church

1. Tim defined ideology & described both the way it functions in our lives and the ways in which Jesus worked to break down its hold over people. He taught that the purpose of ideology is to mask the alienation we feel from God, self, others, and creation.   He then began the following sentence, which was ended by the slide below. He said, “The Jesus way to be emancipated from full i...

1. In his sermon, Tim talked about the radical nature of Jesus’ statement that he has other sheep who do not belong to [ancient Israel’s] fold. He went on to discuss the congruence between this statement and the countless examples in Jesus’ life that worked against the paradigm of an in-crowd and an out-crowd (regardless of how you define the boundaries).  Tim then said that, “Jesus had...

1. One idea that Cole worked with during his sermon today was the way in which the travelers on the road to Emmaus were kept from recognizing Jesus. Framed within the larger message and emphases of the book of Luke, Cole asserted that it was not, as many think, God who kept the men from recognizing Jesus.  How have you previously understood that part of this story? If it had been God blocking...

1. What was the baseline or core of the story you were told about Easter as you were growing up, or growing up in your faith spend some time exploring in discussion the ways your understanding of the story shape your view of the Christian short story, of God, of yourself, of the church, and of the world. 2. Tim shared the quote, if you don’t doubt the claims of Easter on at least some level, then...

Community Group Questions 1. Tim used Muzafer Sherif’s 1950s social psychology experiments at Robbers Cave and Middle Grove as a framework for discussing what he called The Big Lie & The Big Truth. He defined these two ideas like this: The Big Lie: the good life comes through winning, controlling, dominating, defeating through power, and violence. The Big Truth: the good life comes through coo...

1. The story of Lazarus is very well known, especially in Christian circles. Hearing it framed today in the larger context of John’s narrative and the timeline of Jesus’s approach to Jerusalem, were there new things that struck you in the way that you understood it or how it resonated? Tim preached and discussed the nature of Jesus‘s tears in the John 11 narrative. He talked about common interpret...

1. Early in her sermon, Mandy talked about a natural phenomena in which ants can get stuck following one another’s trails and end up walking unceasingly in continuous loops; they get stalled out as the blind following the blind and the death spiral ends only with their deaths. What examples exist in your own life in which you have followed someone that you believed to be leading you down a clear p...

1. Tim taught about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, explaining how radical his intentional choices to both be in Samaria, and to ask for water from the Samaritan woman were in his time. Tim said, “If Jesus is going to travel through Samaria, it’s for theological and relational reason - not logistical ones.” What social divides and imaginary partitions exist in your social ci...

1. The story of Nicodemus and his nighttime approach to Jesus is fairly well known among Christians. How did Tim’s teaching this week impact your understanding of Nicodemus, the story itself, its historical context, and/or the very famous John 3:16? What kinds of thoughts or questions arose for you after learning more about the origins of the Pharisees and their historical context? Does seeing the...

1. Tim referenced David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” speech, in which Wallace describes two fish swimming along when an older fish passes by and says, “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The two young fish swim on, and eventually one turns to the other and says, “What is water?” Wallace’s point — and Tim’s — is that the most important realities are often the ones we’re least aware of, because we’...

1. Tim listed four things that often stand between people and belief in God:  Lack of hard evidence No personal encounter Lost capacity for mystery & Human suffering How do each of these things impact your faith? Are some of them more impactful than others when it comes to your ability to believe? How do you see them functioning in your day-to-day life? For you, do the impacts feel more s...

1. In his sermon, Tim talked about the difficulty Americans can have understanding the metaphors about salt and light. Because of the individualism of our culture and the way we’ve been taught to think of religion as something separate from politics, we often struggle to really grasp what Jesus is communicating.  He pointed out that the lines in the Lord’s prayer, which talk about God’s kingd...

1. How did this week’s sermon make you feel? What did it provoke in you? What did it make you think about? To what extent do you feel like you are good or bad at “being spiritual?” Why? Do you ever think about other people in the same way? Considering their supposed “spiritual achievements?” What do you notice about the way you may evaluate yourself in this area and the way you evaluate others? 2....

1. What are the things that you long for most? What are the things that cause you to make plans, in order to help ensure that they happen? What do you strategize for? What do you keep your sights on? When difficult decisions have to be made, which things stay at the top of your priority list? Consider your list and the answers that surface for you to these questions. What did they tell you about y...

1. Throughout his sermon, Cole framed his teaching around the idea of Jesus’ first words in the book of John, and James K.A. Smith’s assertion that we might not want what we think we want.  In the course of his teaching, he asked those of us engaged in resistance to empire to reflect on ourselves and reflect on who we are. Then, he said, ask yourself: what am I up to? Is it possible that I mi...

1. In his message, Tim said, “in the kingdom, the means are the end.”  Reflect on this idea for a moment. How do your emotions, and body, and mind respond? Does it resonate? Does it challenge? Hope so? Where are you tempted to let the ends justify the means when it comes to your own private life? What’s likely to be really motivating you when you are feeling that temptation? How is this idea...

1. In his sermon today, Tim pointed out that the writer of John didn’t say that The Word came into the darkness and then eradicated all darkness. Instead, Tim noted that God seems to want us to spend about half our time in the darkness. He theorized that maybe it’s because God understands that darkness is a necessary part of our lives, and that it’s necessary specifically for teaching us certain t...