These questions are connected to the message, Direction, Not Perfection from Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022. You can watch it here.
- What challenged you or encouraged you from this message?
- Inclusion at the table is inclusion into the community. Get gut-level honest – who would you not have at your table? What table have you been excluded from?
- Some theologians suggest it was reckless for the shepherd to leave 99 of the sheep (99% of his wealth) to go look for just one. What would you give up almost everything to find? Who would you give up almost everything for so that they would know Jesus?
- How would these parables have challenged the views of the time?
- What do these parables mean for you personally? What do you take away from this story?
- Marc said that as Christians, we are called to welcome and love everyone, but sometimes the most loving thing you can do is walk away from an abusive, dysfunctional, or toxic relationship. What does this statement stir up inside you?
- These first two parables are solely God’s initiative; the sheep and the coin do nothing. They don’t come back, they don’t repent. God goes to find them. As you sit with these two stories, notice and discuss the implications of God being the one to seek out the lost, not the other way around.
BONUS: The shepherd carried the lost sheep back on his shoulders, but research shows that sheep do not like that position. It would have been a struggle for the shepherd to get the sheep around his neck. Think about this in terms of God dragging us back into relationship with him, even when we don’t want to go.