Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. Tim taught about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, explaining how radical his intentional choices to both be in Samaria, and to ask for water from the Samaritan woman were in his time. Tim said, “If Jesus is going to travel through Samaria, it’s for theological and relational reason - not logistical ones.” What social divides and imaginary partitions exist in your social circles or environments that might serve as modern parallels to the taboos that divided the 1st century Judean & Samaritan children of Judaism? Spend some time thoughtfully considering and discussing the nuances of possible parallels. What’s aligns? What’s different? How do those things impact your experience of the divides you identified? Having identified & explored possible modern analogs to the enmity and division between the Jews & Samaritans of Jesus’ time, consider now what possible analogs exist to the idea of Jesus’ journey into Samaria, his exchange with the woman, and the days he ended up staying there with the Samaritan people. What might possible equivalents be in your own social spheres and world? What might it be like to cross into one of those areas or take some of those taboo steps? How do you feel about the idea? Where and why do you feel resistance? Where are there places of openness to the idea? 2. Tim talked about some possible symbolic interpretations of the fact that the woman leaves her water jar at the well while she goes to tell the townspeople about Jesus and her encounter with him. One interpretation centered on the idea of the woman leaving behind the social structures and strictures that had abandoned her to a life that required her to make off-hour, solo trips to the well. Another interpretation centered around water and her thirst for love, community, belonging, safety, and so much more. “Her inner thirst for the good life,” Tim said. When you think of this scene as the woman, who has been outcast, leaving any number of symbolic things behind, what resonates most? Are there ways in which you feel or have felt at times that connecting with and receiving from Jesus enable you to leave behind some of your own burden? In those moments are you ever, like the woman, then impelled to share about the living water and how it’s changing you? 3. Tim’s also spent some time addressing an inevitable question: why isn’t God doing something about all the mess and chaos and injustice of the world? The answer John presents in this story, Tim said, is that he has done something. And that something was, in short, Jesus. How do you respond to the idea that when we might sometimes her the sentiment that, “God has a plan,” the truth as presented in this story, might be “we are the plan,” or even, “you are the plan?” What feelings and thoughts surface for you? Explore the idea, and spend a little time discussing its practical application and the reality of it in our world today. Tim said early in his sermon that this answer might be both comforting and unsettling. How is it for you?

1. The story of Nicodemus and his nighttime approach to Jesus is fairly well known among Christians. How did Tim’s teaching this week impact your understanding of Nicodemus, the story itself, its historical context, and/or the very famous John 3:16? What kinds of thoughts or questions arose for you after learning more about the origins of the Pharisees and their historical context? Does seeing them through a different frame provoke any new ideas when it comes to the way you may have understood them throughout the gospels? What might the takeaways be for that as a modern day Christian reading about an ancient civilization? 2. Tim also talked about the limitations of the law. The slide he presented contrasting things the law could and could not provide for people is shown below. He also said something like, “if you’re building your life on rules, there will come a point in time when the rules hamper your development.” How does this orientation toward the law and rules feel for you? Are you someone who’s more or less inclined to embrace the rules when it comes to figuring out how to navigate life? How has that aspect of your personality impacted your journey as a Christian? What do you think about the idea that rules can become a hindrance as you mature as a person and a person of faith? Have you seen evidence supporting that idea in your own life? If so, share about it. If you feel skeptical about the idea, share about that too. 3. Tim also talked about being “born again” as something more like a repeated process of letting go or giving up. He said it’s a fall or a surrender, rather than a one-moment crossing from A to B. It’s giving up the need to be in charge of our material lives. What surfaces for you when you think about being born again in this way? Is this a familiar idea? or one that challenges you and things you’ve been taught in the past? What surfaces for you as you sit with this idea? How does a clear understanding of the Greek behind John 3:16 impact or shift your understanding of both that verse and what it’s telling us about being born again? Especially within its context as part of the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus?

1. Tim referenced David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” speech, in which Wallace describes two fish swimming along when an older fish passes by and says, “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The two young fish swim on, and eventually one turns to the other and says, “What is water?” Wallace’s point — and Tim’s — is that the most important realities are often the ones we’re least aware of, because we’re so completely inside them. Tim also cited Wallace’s line: “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it,” and suggested that the discomfort of fasting during Lent is meant to do exactly that — disrupt us enough to make the water visible. What water do you swim in that you often — or always — forget is even there? Have you had the experience of suddenly becoming aware of a reality you’d been living inside for years without ever seeing it as a reality at all? What was that like? Have you experienced any disruption in these early days of Lent? Or do you have past Lent experiences that managed to break through? How do you feel about disruption as a spiritual practice — is it something you’re more likely to welcome or resist? Why? 2. Tim drew on the first temptation of Christ and the Deuteronomy text Jesus quotes to make this point: the Israelites needed to remember that they were more than just mouths to be fed. They weren’t simply a hungry people looking for provision — they were a priestly people. There was far more to freedom than leaving Egypt behind. What basic, ordinary needs tend to cloud your sense of who you really are? Do you find yourself thinking of yourself — even without meaning to — primarily as a mouth to be fed, a home to be maintained, a bank account to be replenished? What in your day-to-day life has the most power to quietly take over your deeper sense of identity? How do you push back against that — or do you? What do you think the long-term cost might be of never questioning it or letting it be challenged within you? 3. Tim also taught that empires built through coercion or violence have to be maintained through coercion or violence. He said, “How you build a kingdom is how you have to sustain it.” What personal empires have you inadvertently built — or found yourself inside — that you’ve realized require something of you for their upkeep that you don’t actually want to keep giving? How did you get there? What would (or did) it look like to stop maintaining it? Tim’s closing reminder was that promise of the Lenten process is that we are not trapped. What comes up for you when you think about that idea? What do you most need to hear today that you are not trapped by?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ How do you respond to the idea of Lent as a possible step in the journey of freedom from that space? What do you think that means? What does it require of you?

1. Tim listed four things that often stand between people and belief in God: Lack of hard evidence No personal encounter Lost capacity for mystery & Human suffering How do each of these things impact your faith? Are some of them more impactful than others when it comes to your ability to believe? How do you see them functioning in your day-to-day life? For you, do the impacts feel more slow and building, or more sudden and harsh when something big happens? Or both? 2. During the transfiguration, Peter’s instinct is to build tabernacle spaces for all who are present, to rest on the mountain top, and stay tucked away in the holy moment. Tim pointed out that this urge should be one that catches us all in its net. How much do you relate to Peter in this moment? When you find yourself in more of a “mountain top” type of place with God, how much do you resist leaving the mountain? How do you feel about the necessity of returning back to the everyday world you live in? Do the rises and falls feel like something you experience routinely? What’s the impact of whatever that pattern might look like on your day-to-day living of your faith? 3. Tim taught that cruciform love is the only power stronger than the Empires of the world, and that if we follow Christ’s example of cruciform life, our love will be revelatory; it will reveal the true nature of the powers of Empire. How do you feel about these statements and promises? Do they give you hope? Do they feel inspiring? Or did they feel empty? Too abstract to be meaningful? Tim’s closing slide said “God is made most alive and visible in the wilderness of suffering and out the other side… And this is a very narrow road.” Reflect on that idea, and what it might mean for you in your faith today and in the world as we know it. What surfaces? What thoughts or feelings come to you as you sit in the space?

1. In his sermon, Tim talked about the difficulty Americans can have understanding the metaphors about salt and light. Because of the individualism of our culture and the way we’ve been taught to think of religion as something separate from politics, we often struggle to really grasp what Jesus is communicating. He pointed out that the lines in the Lord’s prayer, which talk about God’s kingdom coming and his will being done on earth as is it as it is in heaven are not lines about personal piety. Rather, Jesus instructions his listeners to pray a prayer that is really about regime change. Tim said, “Christ’s mission is always both: social and personal.” To what extent do you think of religion as something that is inherently apolitical? Do politics and religion feel like separate spheres? Are they separate spheres in your own life? In what ways do they intersect and interact? What influences have shaped your sense of the relationship between religion and politics? Is that dynamic one that has changed over time? Share about the influences that you think helped seed your sense of the nature of politics and religion in relationship to one another. Are they influences in which you still desire to put your trust? 2. Salt, Tim said, works in service to something else. Similarly, in the ancient world, light was simply fire in small contained amounts. Neither overtakes the thing of which they are a part; they simply transform by virtue of being added to whatever existed without them. People who are salt and light, Tim said, are subversive agents of transformation. They don’t conquer or overtake. They come alongside - from within, and make a lot of things better. They represent the way in which the community following Jesus, as they discover a new way to be human, will organize common life around wisdom, grace, inclusion, & justice. And that, by doing so, they are the way that the Kingdom of God comes to fruition amidst kingdoms of earth. Are there places within you that resist the idea of a grace filled, quieter revolution? How often do you wish you could discard the gentle path of salt and light to instead overtake with raging fire and consuming conquest? How do you respond to those places within? When do they seem loudest? When does it seem easier to believe in a subversive transformation of our reality by virtue of lamps & seasoning? What part of yourself has to be surrendered in order to fully embrace Jesus’s vision for the community of Christ? 3. Tim reminded us that one of the core claims of empire is that it can eliminate lack, contradiction, and alienation from within us. This is usually done by way of blame and exclusion, or simply promising to fulfill our every need. Jesus, on the other hand, doesn’t promise the eradication of these inevitable human realities. Instead in Jesus‘s paradigm, all we can do is confess them, and then watch God drawn near and transform our aching places into places where we make contact with the divine. Empires, Tim said, run on a fantasy that they can fix the human condition. The kingdom of God runs on a people who’ve learned to live honestly and truthfully, embracing radical hospitality and inclusion. What does it look like to name the place inside you that longs to believe that the world can just be “solved?” How do you engage with that place? How do you feel in doing so? What resistance do you encounter? If the contrast to the way of empire is built on radical hospitality, self honesty, inclusion, and community, what does it look like - in your everyday life - to embrace, embody, and enact these things of the Kingdom? What comes to mind when you think of doing so even just a little more intentionally than you do today? What emotions do you feel in your body as you contemplate the possibility of taking that action?

1. How did this week’s sermon make you feel? What did it provoke in you? What did it make you think about? To what extent do you feel like you are good or bad at “being spiritual?” Why? Do you ever think about other people in the same way? Considering their supposed “spiritual achievements?” What do you notice about the way you may evaluate yourself in this area and the way you evaluate others? 2. How often do you find yourself feeling like you should try harder at being spiritual? To what extent is your headspace occupied with trying to accomplish things we might consider “spiritual achievements?” How do you feel when you accomplish them? How do you feel when you don’t? How has your experience with striving (or not striving) to check religious boxes affected your sense of your own spiritual worth, your connection to God, or your faith in general? 3. What does it mean to build your love in Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, including the beatitudes? What does it mean to build your life on the words of the first beatitude that Tim focused on today? Tim used Brian Zahnd’s translation of the first beatitude: “ blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual; for the kingdom of heaven is well suited for ordinary people.” He also said that, “perfection, in God’s eyes, is not the elimination of the negative, but the inclusion of the negative… All of life belongs in God’s kingdom, even the worst of it.” What is your initial response to these two ideas held together side-by-side? With a moment to reflect, do you think about them differently? Tim also said, “it’s not that God is with you in spite of your struggle… Is that the struggle itself is the form God’s presence is taking… At this point in your life.” What do you make of this statement? What does it surface for you? What does it prompt you to think or feel or ask?

1. What are the things that you long for most? What are the things that cause you to make plans, in order to help ensure that they happen? What do you strategize for? What do you keep your sights on? When difficult decisions have to be made, which things stay at the top of your priority list? Consider your list and the answers that surface for you to these questions. What did they tell you about yourself? How did you come by these priorities? Do they tell their own stories about your life and journey? Consider your answers, and ask yourself what in your world and experience have cultivated those things as your priorities? 2. Have you ever been asked to do something, maybe something difficult, and responded with an instant, “absolutely yes!”? If not, can you imagine something that might be asked of you to which you would respond that way? What do you think those asks were (or would be) resonating with inside yourself? What deep longings did/do they align with and speak to? 3. Tim said that this week’s story from Matthew 4 prompts us to consider our deepest longings, and to think about and reflect honestly on our own hearts and desires. Which of your desires inspire you to respond with an instant “yes” to the call of Christ? Which might be the source of resistance to Christ’s call in God’s kingdom? Spend some time considering the longings you have identified through the course of your reflection. Whether they are more likely to lead you toward an instant acceptance of the principles of Christ or generate resistance, give yourself the gift of reflecting honestly on whatever patterns or trends you see. As you consider, do you see things you might like to shift? If so, how might you go about cultivating or strengthening any desired shifts in your deepest longings?

1. Throughout his sermon, Cole framed his teaching around the idea of Jesus’ first words in the book of John, and James K.A. Smith’s assertion that we might not want what we think we want. In the course of his teaching, he asked those of us engaged in resistance to empire to reflect on ourselves and reflect on who we are. Then, he said, ask yourself: what am I up to? Is it possible that I might not love what I think I love? Consider these questions, and answer them one at a time. Then, discuss where you have questions, hesitations, or confusion about how to answer these two questions. Curiously consider what’s surfacing for you as you ask yourself these challenging questions. What do you make of what you are finding? 2. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wrote about the questions he & his fellows asked themselves in order to discover & examine their motives as they prepared to take direct action. They asked themselves and each other: Are you able to accept the blows without retaliating? Are you able to endure the trial of jail? In whatever ways you find yourself working to resist the tide of empire’s power, ask yourself these two questions (or versions of them that make sense in your context). How do you answer them? How do you feel about answers? 3. Cole started his sermon asking a couple questions he wanted us to reflect on as he spoke. Take a few moments to consider & reconsider what you’ve learned, and answer them - either individually, or as a group, through discussion: What is being revealed? How might we respond?

1. In his message, Tim said, “in the kingdom, the means are the end.” Reflect on this idea for a moment. How do your emotions, and body, and mind respond? Does it resonate? Does it challenge? Hope so? Where are you tempted to let the ends justify the means when it comes to your own private life? What’s likely to be really motivating you when you are feeling that temptation? How is this idea different when it comes to the public world around you in which we? Do you respond differently to the idea of “the ends justifying the means” when it comes to community, national, or worldwide events? Why or why not? When it comes to your take on, or engagement with, world events these days, how do you respond to the idea that the means are the end? Do you feel strongly inclined to embrace or reject that idea? Why do you think that is? 2. Tim also said that “the kingdom of God doesn’t advance through violence, so violence can never topple it.” if the kingdom of God doesn’t advance through violence, how does it advance? What has your own life experience taught you about this principle? In your personal relationships, in your job, and your friend groups… Do you see this principal at work? How so? How do you feel about the second half of this statement? Does it feel reassuring? Trite? Overly optimistic? Solid? What experiences have you had in life that shape your response to this idea? 3. Tim closed his sermon asking us all a question: “have we joined the resistance? Have you joined the resistance?” What’s your answer? If you have answered, yes, share about what that looks like. If you have hesitation about answering “yes,” or simply want to answer “no,” share about why. Why does joining the resistance matter? What does it mean? How does it look for you? How could it look? How are you understanding the idea as joining the resistance being way of following Jesus‘s example? How intuitive does that link seem to you? What questions does it bring to the surface?

1. In his sermon today, Tim pointed out that the writer of John didn’t say that The Word came into the darkness and then eradicated all darkness. Instead, Tim noted that God seems to want us to spend about half our time in the darkness. He theorized that maybe it’s because God understands that darkness is a necessary part of our lives, and that it’s necessary specifically for teaching us certain things we: the kinds of things we can lean and rely on. How do you respond to these ideas? How comfortable are you with the idea of darkness in our lives as a necessity? What do you make of the suggestion that we can learn certain things [only in] in the dark, and that those things are the kinds of things we can learn and rely on? What have you learned in your own periods of darkness? Can you identify some that are now part of how support yourself and keep yourself upright? Do you think you could have learned those same things without the darkness in which you learned them? Why or why not? 2. Tim later talked about the idea of “enemy-making-spaces.” He talked about them as spaces where people are convinced that their side is full of goodness and light, and that others are full of darkness. These are often religious types, full of certitudes, unable to see their own darkness and/or acknowledge the lessons to be learned in it. What is your experience with spaces like this? How easily can you identify them in your past, or in your present sphere of exposure? What kinds of emotions surface as you reflect on these spaces? What shifts do you feel and sense in your body? Of these spaces, Tim said, “these spaces are efficient… they give clarity and something to do with our anger. Enemy-making-spaces let us discharge our pain without having to examine it.” How do you respond to this characterization? What resonates for you? What feels true? What feels confusing? Where do you feel resistance? 3. Throughout his sermon, Tim highlighted John’s presentation of Jesus as tabernacle, and tabernacle as essentially the opposite of enemy-making-space. Tim said that tabernacle is a space… Where God’s presence can be noticed and practiced…and felt. Where a relationship with God can be re-learned. Of vulnerability & friendship. Where humans can slowly get used to being truly seen and known as we are - without needing to reach for fig-leaves or weapons. Where God can be with us, instead of over us. Jesus’ presence, by John’s telling, is the reality of God tabernacling again. And with God meeting us again, in human flesh, here on earth, God’s response to our brokenness was forgiveness. Tim pointed out that, even before the death & resurrection, Jesus just kept telling people that their sins were forgiven in acts of unending grace. How do you respond to this picture of Jesus as a tabernacle-space brought to life among us? How does that affect your understanding of Jesus? Of his presence here on earth? Of the gospel story? What does it make you feel or think about how God sees and responds to you - in your darkness and in your light? What does it look like for us, as the church, to continue to act as a tabernacle space for the world and darkness around us? How can we show up as re-presenters of that same forgiveness and love? Practically speaking, how do we create that tabernacle space while also acknowledging the darkness, and maybe even its necessity? while also being a space for the brightness of God’s light to be seen in the midst of the darkest nights? What does that vision ask of us? What does that vision ask of you?

1. What is your own experience of journeys? Share about some that come to mind, and how they’ve shaped you. How did you know there was a journey ahead? Or did you? Have you ever felt like you weren’t “not made for perilous quests?” When things seem perilous (physically or emotionally or both), do you tend more toward avoidance or diving right in? How has that worked for you in the past? 2. Marina taught today about the Coptic tradition surrounding the holy family’s flight to Egypt. One key feature is that, for Copts, the holy family’s flight is richly under twined with an understanding of journey as a path to consecration. How does this strike you? Do you have journeys that you think have consecrated you? Or someplace you know? What have they been like? How have they been different from other journeys? How have they been the same? 3. Marina listed a handful of the sites that are visited and revered for their part in the story of the holy family’s flight through Egypt. And the ways in which the faithful “yes” of Joseph, and of Mary, enabled lasting and powerful change for the world. How possible does it feel that a treacherous journey on which you may be asked to go could result in positive powerful change for others? What about that idea makes you skeptical? What makes you hopeful? When it comes to journey, Marina identified two key actions: saying yes, and taking that crucial first step. Do you have journeys into which you are being beckoned? What would it be like to take those two key actions? To simply say yes? To take that crucial first step? How do you feel about that possibility?

Tim Suttle

1. In his sermon today, Tim repeatedly returned to the phrase “calamity has two faces.” He went on to describe one face that’s characterized by neighboring, open hearts, bravery in saving others, and a deep sense of belonging to one another. The other face is characterized by closed hearts, fear rising, darkness, and cruelty. Have you been in calamitous situations in which others have taken on faces of either open heartedness or close hearted fear? How did those “faces” show up? How did they impact others in the situation and/or the situation itself? Which face comes more naturally to you in the face of adversity, calamity, or distress? Are there factors in the circumstances that change what your answer might be? What kind of situations have shown you your own tendencies in this type of context? 2. Discussing Isaiah 34 and 35, Tim talked about the prophetic voice when it comes to scary and uncertain times. He talked about the first move for the prophetic voice being the act of truth telling, but also talked about a second move. He said “sometimes going against the grain means speaking a word of hope in the midst of calamity.” Which prophetic move, if either, feels more natural to you? Do you see yourself as a prophetic voice or do you see yourself as having the ability to become one? How comfortable are you speaking truth in moments on which it may be unpalatable or unwelcome? How comfortable are you speaking words of hope when hope may be unfashionable or difficult to embrace? If you can think of an experience during which someone else’s prophetic word of hope impacted you, share about it with the group. 3. Tim put up a slide that said “our task in this last phase of Advent is to reach out to God, each other, to reach deep inside ourselves and find a place of hope.” What does that look like? How do we do it? How could we cultivate that with and for each other? How much resistance do you feel to that idea or that intention? Why? Underneath that intention lies the statement Tim returned to again and again: “Calamity has two faces…and we do have a choice.” Do you really believe that statement? Both parts of it? Share about why you feel the way you do about this statement and what it means for you. Tim talked about finding that place of hope, and then sharing it with someone else. Do you feel capable of doing that? If it feels difficult, do you feel willing to try? Who in your orbit and life could you share hope with this season? Who needs it? What might that look like in a practical or concrete way? What could you make a plan to actually do to carry the prophetic hope of Advent into the world around you?

1. Tim started his sermon talking about Edwin Friedman & family systems theory, and the ways in which the systems and environments in which we are steeped seem “normal” to us, because we’re deep inside of them. Outsiders, on the other hand, can come in and easily see things that we have never noticed. In some instances, these outsiders can act as what Friedeman referred to as a “non-anxious presence.“ That is someone who is relationally connected to the system or environment, but is not emotionally entangled with it. Whether the system in question is your family, a workplace, a church, a neighborhood, or any other environment, what experiences do you have being someone who is a part of a system that seems “normal” to you until an outside voice starts pointing out its idiosyncrasies? Share about the context, the nature of the outside voice, and how that voice was responded to both by you and by others in the system. Was there a long-term impact on the system that resulted from the introduction of those outside perspectives? Do you have any experiences being one of those outside voices? Share about the context of any of those experiences you may have. How did it feel to be the person raising your voice? How were you responded to? What did you make of that situation? What happened long-term? 2. Tim went on to draw a parallel between the Old Testament prophets and Friedeman’s concept of a non-anxious presence. Take a moment to Think about the emotional and relational experiences of both the people in the system and the outside voice in some of the situations described in the first question. Whether you’ve had that experience or not, take a moment to imagine what it would be like to act as that non-anxious presence as a prophet in Ancient Israel. Take a moment to imagine what it might have been like to be a part of the ancient Israelite communities on which the prophets commented. How does considering the prophets through this lens impact your understanding of who the prophets were, how they affected the systems they were connected to, and how their words were received by Israel & the subsequent generations of readers who’ve revered their words? How does it impact their words as you know or understand them today? What do you make of the fact that so many important writings in the Christian tradition come from these Old Testament prophets , especially during Advent? What connections do you see between the role of the prophets as “non anxious presences” and the role Jesus played in his own time and place on earth? What about the role of Jesus today in modern Christianity and in the world at large? 3. In what ways do you see yourself, as a part of the church, and/or the church as a whole acting as that non-anxious presence, reflecting the realities of systems back to themselves? Where do you see parallels in which you feel like this is happening? Where do you see parallels in which you feel like it could be happening or should be happening more? How do you feel when you consider the possibilities of stepping more into that space personally? What comes to mind? What surfaces for you when you consider the moment in which today’s church finds itself and the possibility of stepping more into the role of a non-anxious presence, reflecting the systems back to themselves - and living with the reactions and resistance? What would it look like for you to step more into that space?

Tim Suttle

As Redemption Church recently honored the life and ministry of Walter Brueggemann in our Saints series, we are sharing this powerful conversation with the beloved theologian. In this episode, Dr. Brueggemann discusses the profound, practical, and prophetic meaning of the Sabbath. He argues that the Sabbath is not a mere luxury but a radical, disciplined act of resistance against the modern "Pharaoh" of industrial consumerism and its "rat race" demands for more production, consumption, and acquiring. He identifies our constant electronic connections and the "endless sports activity for kids" as key signs of this anxiety-driven system, proposing that Sabbath is the revolutionary practice of creating a "community of unanxious presence" in a world that is anything but.