Community Circle Inspiration Resource

You DO NOT need to use all or any of this. You can pick or choose or use it for inspiration for something else or take it in a completely different direction. Your groups are all meeting in different ways. Some via phone calls or texts, some via email, and some through virtual meetings. So, use this as is helpful. The main goal of these groups is connection and sense of community. If these resources help you have a deeper and more fruitful conversation or sharing – then great. New information will be added by Wednesday.  Pastor Tad Monroe

Ordinary Time – Second Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 6

It is that time of year in the liturgical calendar we call “ordinary time”. I think we can all agree this time we are living in is anything but ordinary. And yet, sheltering or sanctuary in place, has slowed us down in some ways and created new rhythms. We have been talking a lot about how the divine is speaking to us in and through this time. There is a kind of “holiness” in the ordinary. I hope that this week as we come to these scriptures, questions, and resources that we will read them through the lens of what is happening in our world – COVID, the work for racial equity and justice, a presidential election, kids finishing school, and whatever else is happening in our life. But also in the simple parts of our day as we work, garden, cook, care for children, and so forth.

Scriptures: Romans 5:1-8 & Matthew 10:7-16

Poems: Finisterre by David Whyte & A Journey by Nikki Giovanni

Questions: 

1. Knowing that none of would choose suffering and certainly we do not celebrate suffering; but what “good” things has suffering produced in your life? And what was that journey like?

2. The Roman’s scripture says that “hope” does not disappoint. Is that true for you? How does it feel to have a hope “deferred”?

3. What does it mean to give your peace to another or to take your peace with you? What does it mean to “shake the dust off your feet”? Can you give an example of this from your own life?

4. What does it mean to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves”?

5. As the last couple of weeks of protest and calls for police reform and racial equity have unfolded; what have been your feelings, thoughts, and actions in response?