Notes by Kristy Brown
Lesson: A disciple of Jesus is one who experiences the manifold life of God through one-anothering relationships
Text: Colossians 3:1-17; John 13:35
Ice-Breaker Questions:
1. Who are you? (Please allow those who missed Sunday’s sermon to answer first.)
2. Are you independent or co-dependent? Which is more harmful?
3. Translate the following (answer at the end): * Cogito, ergo sweet potato.
Background:
Our study of the book of Colossians is the working out of the question, “What is a disciple of Jesus?”
We could just as well ask, What does it mean to be truly alive? What does it mean to be alive for real? What is real is that you are unequivocally loved. What is real is that your fullest, truest, best life will happen only in a one-anothering context. Every one of us was created to experience deeply satisfying one-anothering relationships and it is through such relationships that we taste and are transformed by the life of God in Christ.
Digging Deeper:
1. What is the basis of one-anothering relationship?
How did you answer the ‘Who are you?’ question? Do you identify yourself by
- what you do
- what others say of you
- what you have?
Who does the Spirit of God, speaking through the writing of Paul, say we are?
Col. 3:12 (When Geno calls us, ‘dearly beloved,’ he is reminding us that we are the beloved of whom? of Geno?)
Col 3:1-3 God is so for us!
2. What is the context of one-anothering relationship?
The opposite to “one-another” is:
- only ONE: where “Everybody does the same thing” (independent)
- only ANOTHER: where “Everybody does their own thing” (co-dependent)
What we want is One-Anothering, where we are interdependent.
Which is more accurate in your life:
Rene Descartes: “I think therefore I am.”
St. Paul (paraphrase): “I relate therefore I am.”
Read Colossians 3: 1-17, replacing every ‘you’ with the more accurately translated, ‘y’all.’ (Ok, ‘ye’ is more accurate, but y’all know what I mean - it’s plural, not singular. Surely I’m not the only one whose Spanish teacher translated ‘Ustedes’ as ‘y’all.’)
Now hear how 3:5-17 sounds if you append the suffix “one another” to every statement. Do this exercise in your group out loud with all participating.
3. What is the key of one-anothering relationship?
See if someone in the group can demonstrate David’s visual portrayal of the importance of one-anothering in our lives:
here’s ME -- here’s my One-Anothering Relationship -- here’s Abundant life
The way to abundant life is through, not around “one-another”
Do you tend to use others for your own emotional/spiritual gain, while holding them loosely and keeping them at a distance? Or do you acknowledge your need of others, as iron sharpens iron? Do you have the humility and hope such relationships require?
Which question is foremost in your heart and mind:
What is my calling, what am I called to?
Who am I called to walk with?
You’ll figure out what your life is supposed to be on about—what it means—as you walk out your life with your traveling companions, as you say in a healthy way, “I need you, I can’t figure out what my life is supposed to be on my own, I want to commit myself to you, I want to open myself up to you in a way I’ve never done before, in a way that, honestly, makes me afraid but that I know is the only way to be alive: by being in the light, by putting to death my sin which I know I commit against ‘one another’ and by clothing my self with new life through my relationship with ‘one another’: with you!”
Wrap-Up:
Whom is God calling you to walk with—in this season of your life? Who will be your one-anothers to whom you commit, really commit, to whom you will say yes and therefore no to others, and to whom you will say: “I really want you to know me”? Your “friends”? Your small group? Your family?
It would be really great if you were to make a list of five people you thought you might be walking with in this way 10 years from now. Is this a group of people you would want to invest your life in?
Outreach:
The success of this universe is predicated on people living as beloveds of God and of one another. Let us pray into this reality.
Where else is community pursued in our culture? Spend some time asking people satisfied with their community what brings about their satisfication.
* Ice-Breaker Answer: I think, therefore I yam. (With apologies to Rene Descartes.) |
