Week Three Questions

FIRST READING

• The Ten Commandments, also referred to as the Decalogue, enumerate God’s covenantal expectations for the people of Israel — they teach the Israelites how to live in right relationship with God. Are rules or boundaries important when forming relationships? Why or why not?
• While God warns of “inflicting punishment . . . down to the third or fourth generation,” God also promises to bestow “mercy . . . down to the thousandth generation.” What do you think about the radical imbalance of these two numbers? Does this help to heal any imagery you might have of a wrathful, vengeful God?
• At the heart of the Ten Commandments is the command to rest, which is connected to the story of creation, in which God rested on the seventh day. Why was it so important for God to teach the newly freed slaves to rest? Do you feel that you experience enough rest in your own life today?

• Paul writes of the “foolishness” of the message of Jesus, even calling it a “stumbling block” for some. How is your own practice of following Christ “foolish” in the eyes of the world?
• Paul continues, writing that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.” Consider any stumbling blocks you have encountered in your own faith. Have you also encountered the wisdom of God through them?
• In his Second Letter of the Corinthians, Paul describes weakness as the point where God’s power is made “perfect.” How does the idea of God’s power manifesting itself in our own weakness connect to your practice of fasting?

• The story of the cleansing of the Temple is an example of Jesus’ humanity, when he showed his passion and emotion in his fiery act of righteous anger. How do you feel about the idea that Jesus experienced the same emotions you experience?
• Jesus drives out the merchants and money changers because they were corrupting the Temple, distorting it from its purpose as a restful house of prayer. What areas in your own life might need to be restored to their own restful purpose?
• What other connections do you see between all the readings for this week?
• How do they connect to the idea of fasting in any way?

• Henri Nouwen writes of solitude in this excerpt, but his insights can be expanded to include any sort of ascetical or sacrificial discipline in which we come face to face with our own weakness and offer it to God. In that sense, then, how is fasting similar to solitude?
• Nouwen tells the story of the old man whose demons fled him as soon as he turned to Jesus, writing that the encounter with Jesus occurs “precisely in the midst” of our struggle — not before, after, or beyond it. Have you ever had an experience of realizing Jesus’ presence in the midst of your struggle? What would you say to someone who is currently struggling with something?
• Nouwen concludes that it is in solitude — in intentionally shedding ourselves of that which binds us — that we become free. What would this total freedom look like in your life? What are your next steps toward it?