Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 21, 2021
Primary Text: John 12:20-33; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Big Idea of the Message: Again & Again, We are Reformed
 
We desire for God to write on our hearts so that God’s law can re-shape and re-form us from the inside out. Reformation is a journey of letting the old fall away for something new to emerge, of returning to God’s words over and over, of being drawn into the heart of God. This is the process of justification and sanctification; transformation must be internal and communal.

Discussion Questions:

• What are healthy ways to navigate change? 
• On a sheet of paper, quickly make a list of everything that creates or maintains the status quo. This can be the status quo of your church, your local community, our society, etc. Name anything that comes to mind. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, make a list of things that disrupt or dismantle the status quo. Similarly, name anything that comes to mind. Lastly, take inventory of your two sheets. Where is the Spirit at work? Where do you see reformation in action?
• In her book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why,8 author and religion professor Phyllis Tickle asserts that about every 500 years, the Church goes through a “giant rummage sale”—a time of rapid reformation in which many cultural and religious practices get reconsidered and tossed out. That places us in the midst of a contemporary reformation. Imagine it is 500 years from now. What will historians say about this time? What do you imagine religious practice will look like in 50, 100, or 500 years?