Lenten Small Group Discussion Guide
Trinity Presbyterian Church (2023)
So often Jesus asked questions rather than providing answers. And he wasn’t just using questions as a teaching technique (‘Socratic method’ or something), you get the impression that Jesus is genuinely curious about the person in front of him. Pastor & Author Winn Collier writes this: “Curiosity speaks to our deep human need for connection, for relationship - we humans simply aren’t curious enough of one another’s stories, and Jesus models for us another way.” During the Sundays of Lent at Trinity, we’ll be listening afresh to some of Jesus’ curious questions, and wondering about how those questions hit us in our moment, in our story, in our context - and consider where those questions might lead us.
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Week of February 26th
”Who Condemns You?”
John 8:1-11
Opening Question
Spend some time catching up with each other. What has been good and what has been challenging over the last few days or weeks?
Pray Together
Read John 8:1-11 “Woman caught in adultery”
What stands out to you as you read this passage?
What do you think the Pharisees motivation was in this event?
What do you think of Jesus’s responses to both the Pharisees and the woman?
What causes humans to want to catch someone doing something damaging or blaming someone for something bad that has happened? Why can’t we find grace for people who make mistakes?
What kind of shaming, judging, or condemning voices have you heard in your life? Where did they come from? What did they say?
Have you ever seen the church use shame as a tool to motivate people towards certain behaviors? What does that look like? How does that feel? How does this practice differ from Jesus' way?
When we experience shame, sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Do you heap shame on yourself? How?
Close in prayer together.
Week of March 5th
”Why Are You Afraid?”
Matthew 8:23-27
Opening Question
Has there been a time you remember that you were very afraid for your safety? Like doing something risky- sky diving, ropes course, riding with a “crazy driver.”
Pray Together
Read Matthew 8:23-27 “Jesus calms the storm.”
Why were these fishermen so afraid? They had been in storms before. Why was this different?
Why do you think Jesus was not afraid and sleeping?
What is your deepest fear?
Probe deeper. Is there something deeper behind the fear you named? Where do you think your fear comes from?
How does your ability (or inability) to control your life, your circumstances, your future affect your experience of fear?
Winn Collier writes: “A fear that is ignored and constantly shoved to the edges is not defeated; it is merely given time to sharpen its fangs.” How does this mesh with your experience?
Watch this video if you want | “It is Well With My Soul”
Close in Prayer.
Week of March 12th
”How Much Bread Do You Have?”
Matthew 15:29-39
Opening Question
Have you found yourself in a situation in which you didn’t have enough food for yourself or guests? What happened?
Pray Together
Read Matthew 15:29-39- “Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand.”
What stands out to you in this passage?
In Mark’s account of the story, a small boy provides bread and fish to start with. Here the disciple apparently has the supply of bread and fish. Is this a miracle of sharing or do you think Jesus multiplied what they had?
Winn Collier suggests we are too “quick to make peace with our hunger.” Are there any longings, hungers, or desires that you have shoved to the side or ignored? Why?
What kind of famine do you see in your world? Where do you see it?
Respond to Toni Morrison's observation: “How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it.”
What are some physical, sacramental (the intersection of the divine and the physical) ways that Jesus meets you and fills you?
Pray for each other and for the world’s hunger.
Week of March 19th
”Why Do You Doubt?”
Matthew 14:22-36
Pray Together
Opening question
Have you faced a situation in which you had serious doubts about whether you could accomplish the task? What happened and how was it resolved?
Read Matthew 14:22-36 “Jesus Walks on the Water”
Why do you think the disciples were afraid of seeing Jesus on the water?
What motivated Peter to do what he did? Showing off or something else?
What are some of your doubts about God and faith?
What do you make of this line: “Scripture does not live in the world as it ought to be, but in the world as it actually is.”
How different would our interactions with our doubts be if we engaged them (as Jesus did) with curiosity and exploration rather than with fear and immediate rebuke?
Where does this statement from George MacDonald take you? “Thou doubtest because thou lovest the truth.”
Listen to this Hymn | We Walk by Faith (and not by Sight)
Close in Prayer
Week of March 26th
”Do You Believe This?”
John 11:1-44
Pray Together
Opening question
Have you had the opportunity to be with someone who is dying? What did you think about that experience? Do you remember what you did or said or felt?
Read John 11:1-44- “The Death of Lazarus”
What strikes you about this story? If you were there in the story, would you be a questioning disciple, Mary or Martha or someone observing?
Do you remember the first time you experienced God's silence? How did you respond?
Where are the places in your story that make you want to ask God why something didn’t happen?
Do you believe that asking ‘why’ is a dangerous and risky question? How is it dangerous and risky?
Pray Together
Week of April 2nd
”Why Have You Abandoned Me?”
Matthew 27:45-50
Pray Together
Read Matthew 27:45-50-“The Death of Jesus”
To you, what is the most troubling part of the story of Jesus’s death?
If you were there at the foot of the cross, what would you be thinking? How would it affect you? Do you think that God is in this event in some deep and meaningful way?
Describe your emotive response to the fact that in Jesus' prayer, he spoke of God abandoning him? Have you ever felt this emotion? Have you ever prayed this way?
Are you comfortable with Jesus being sad or angry or fearful or disappointed (particularly if any of these emotions are directed at God the Father)?
Why would we be tempted to gloss over (or even completely ignore) our pain?
Respond to Walter Wink's description of biblical prayer as “impertinent, shameless, indecorous…more like haggling in an oriental bazaar than the polite monologues of the churches.”
Read this Hymn’s lyrics “O Sacred Head” as a prayer.
O sacred Head now wounded,
With grief and shame weighed down
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns
Thine only crown
How pale Thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn
How does that visage languish
Which once was bright as morn.
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners' gain
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain
Lo, here I fall, my Savior,
'Tis I deserve Thy place
Look on me with thy favor,
Vouchsafe me to thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest friend
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord let me never,
Never outlive my love to Thee
Close in Prayer.