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Week of 7-5-26

Introduction

The mystery of God's ways is sometimes hidden. Like Paul, we struggle with our own selfish desires and seek God's mercy. In the Gospel Jesus offers the invitation to find rest in him. Gathered around word, water, and the meal, we find rest for our souls. 

Romans 7:15-25a

15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

[Jesus spoke to the crowd saying:] 16“To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

 17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

 25At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

 28“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Discovery Questions:

1. What is a favorite July 4th memory for you? 

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2. Paul uses “law” in a variety of ways in vs 21f

Law as a general rule of experience

Law as God’s law

Law as compulsion for sin

Based on this, why do you think God’s law was given? A) a way to be saved. B) Guide to follow once we are saved. C) Stumbling block, impossible to fulfill without inner contradiction, which only points to the sinner to God’s grace? 

3. In vs 24-25, what can you give thanks to God despite struggles you have? 

4. Though Paul does not use the word “Freedom,” yet the passage is about the movement from bondage of sin to freedom in Christ. What does it mean to be free in Christ? 

5. How are these verses in Romans a model for a healthy, realistic self-image? 

6. Moving on to the Gospel, how do Jesus and John not meet the expectations of people (see vs 16-19)? It’s as if the times and the people are not able or free see or receive Jesus for who he is. 

7. What does it mean for you to “take up Jesus’ yoke? Note: Oxen were yoked in pairs, with a lead ox. What then does it mean to be paired or yoked with Jesus? 

8. How is being yoked with Jesus something that leads to rest, we might say even freedom? Rest in what way? 

9. What do we learn from Jesus. What good do we gain from Jesus?

10. Is Jesus yoke resting lightly on you or are you struggling to get out from under it? How do these verses of Jesus pair with Paul’s struggle in Romans? What would the Yoke of Jesus have to say to Paul? 

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11. Luther wrote a treatise on Christian Liberty. God grace sets me free. The question is what will I do with that freedom? How would you answer the question? 

12. If Jesus means freedom, then free for what? 

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Week of 6/28/26

Introduction

Jesus closes everything — the call of Matthew, the commissioning of the Twelve, the cost of discipleship, the sparrows and the hairs on our heads — with a cup of cold water given to a little one. This is where the kingdom lands. The neighbor who needs something small and immediate is the one Jesus is talking about. To serve them is to serve him. You are not anonymous to God. Your life is not a footnote.

Romans 6:12-23

12Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 10:40-42

[Jesus said to the twelve:] 40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Questions

Discover Questions

1. How did your parents or grandparents show hospitality when guests showed up? What did they do?

2. When have you been the recipient of extravagant hospitality? When someone or someplace went out of their way for you? 

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3. What do you think Jesus means when we says “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who sent me”? How is Jesus with or present?

4. Matthew 25 offers a parable where “when you gave a cup of water to the least, you did it also to me.” How does that add to the significance of offering water or welcome to a stranger, or someone? 

5. Does a cup seem enough? Why did Jesus use that example? 

6. If you were to expand on this image of a cup of water, what other small acts of hospitality could you name? 

7. This passage is not simply how the disciples will be received, but also an invitation for the disciples to be welcoming of others, that welcome, hospitality, offering “a cup of water” is core to the church. How do you see that? 

8. What do you think of the idea that when you welcome a stranger that you are welcoming God? That it matters what you do? 

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9. When is a time that you expected or looked forward to a welcome and you did not receive it? When you were ignored or snubbed for worse? Was it intentional or just an oversight? 

10. How can a church or any organization be selective in its welcome? Warm to some, indifferent to others? How can a church overcome that selectivity? 

11. How could FLC welcome? What do you see are the challenges or opportunities?