Invitation to Wholeness: The Invitation to Justice
Luke 4:16-21 (NRSV) & Galatians 5:13 (NRSV)
Pastor Nathan Nelson, Pastor of Mission and Outreach
We are invited to follow Jesus through our service but the cultural powers of our day make it difficult to carry out this calling. Looking at the challenge, Kingdom, and witness of service helps us follow Jesus by serving others because he first has served us.
I. The Role of Justice
- Justice is part of God’s ongoing spiritual process of reconciliation
II. The Way of Justice
- Justice requires us to be prophetic
III. The Ends of Justice
- Justice invites restoration of community
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Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
Begin by reading Luke 4:16-21 (NRSV) and Galatians 5:13 (NRSV) aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
1. To yourself: what are some of the issues of injustice that are most on your mind? Ones that affect you? Ones that catch your attention the most? When you have a few ideas, share a few of them with your group- it's likely that there will be a lot of different issues brought up, it's fine if they don't overlap.
2. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil defines reconciliation as: “I see reconciliation as an ongoing spiritual process that involves forgiveness, repentance, and justice, that restores broken relationships and systems to the way God intended them to be.”
What parts of this definition resonate with you? Convict you? Draw you?
3. Pastor Nathan refers to the need to know what we are being reconciled to and what we're being saved for. What do you think the answers to those questions are?
4. What is the image of God that came to mind when you considered the picture of Jesus? As the sermon went on, what was missing in your imagery? What was emphasized?
5. One of the ways Pastor Nathan describes a prophet is as someone who offers words on behalf of God to His creation. He goes on to say that a prophet is needed to close the gap between the way the world is and the way it should be. Where are you being called to be a prophet? At this point, do you have any ideas of what that would look like?
6. Within his last point, "The Ends of Justice", Pastor Nathan focuses on the importance of doing justice within community; what does that look like for you right now? What would you want it to look like? What groups have you thought of being a part of that you haven't yet stepped into?
7. Within the topic of wholeness and justice–what are your lingering questions about justice?
8. Considering the list of injustices that you made at the beginning of the conversation. Where do you see Jesus at work within the injustice? Where do you see yourself? Where would you want to see yourself?