Questions based on the Sermon for Sunday, January 31, 2020
In Search of the Kingdom of God – “Being Healed”
Matthew 8:5-10
- What matters and says a lot about us in our faith?
- Examples: Posture, like language, like attitude
- What is the image related to being blessed?
- Example: A person kneeling: honoring, being humble, contrite, humbly seeking
- Example: God coming and kneeling before us with a desire to love us, help us, hold us, connect with us, offer us grace
- What is the overall purpose of the combination of the Beatitudes?
- Example: Bringing of a new reality to this place; our lives, our relationships, the world that surrounds us
- What is the goal of the Beatitudes building on each other?
- Example: Bring God’s order to earth; an order that brings order; a sequence that offers a roadmap to what God expects of us, hopes for us, and hopes for the world
- What is the significance of the placement of the Beatitudes at the beginning of Matthew chapter 5?
- Example: The Beatitudes are the first overview of the teachings of Jesus; the foundation for everything that follows in the Gospel of Matthew
- What is mourning?
- Example: Sadness, loss of a significant relationship shared between two or more people; creates a physical response: weeping, longing, missing a loved one
- What separates us from God?
- Example: Actions that miss the mark; actions that cause the separation
- How do we re-establish a broken relationship with God?
- Example: we mourn that loss, we seek to regain the relationship, we confess our role in the separation, we turn in a new direction
- What does God do in response to our efforts to regain our relationship with God?
- Example: God kneels before us, listens intently, and offers us reconciliation, love, and grace, we are comforted and become whole in our relationship with our Creator