Behold (Part 1): A Season Of Beholding
TO START
This week, we began a series called “Behold” as we move through this Christmas season. In particular, this series is calling us to consider what it means to behold the news of Immanuel, God with us. So, the aim of each week is to allow God to redirect our attention to where we look and how we look at the good news of Jesus. But to start each week, we have to come to terms with what’s trying to capture our attention
What’s consumed a lot of your attention this week?
TO DISCUSS
To start the sermon, Zane mentioned that so often we have two posture or approaches as the Christmas season approaches. There are those of us who find this season exciting from Hallmark Christmas movie marathons to decorating for Christmas before Halloween AND there are others of us that dread this time of year due to trauma, what or who we are missing or so much more.
So, where do you find yourself this season? Are you dreading the season of Christmas? Are you out of your mind excited for this season? OR are you a little of both?
This morning, Zane began our 3-week journey of redirecting our attention to Emmanuel through the story of Joseph. Read Matthew 1:18-24 in two versions. Start with KJV and then have someone read the NRSV
What does Joseph’s response/his actions in light of his situation teach us about turning our attention to the good news of Jesus in the midst of a life changing situation that seems so imperfect (the opposite of what he could’ve ever expected?
Zane argues that “from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed, you have everyone and everything now competing and pining for your attention. Our attention is at risk of extinction. We are losing the art of being able to behold God!”...
What tends to draw your attention away from God in your daily life?
How attentive are you to what God is up to compared to the distractions of the world competing for your attention? What helps you to be attentive to what God might be doing?
In the sermon, Zane points us to the example of Joseph who clings to the beautiful good news of his son, Jesus coming into the world over and against the earth-shattering, abnormal conception that in many ways could bring pain and a bad reputation to their family. And in many ways, all of us might find ourselves as the folks who are judging the unorthodox experience of Jesus’s conception, distracted as we judge Joseph’ imperfect situation rather than looking to the hope of Immanuel. It shows how often in trying to come to grips with our own imperfections (the aches and pains we carry) we tend to focus our attention on others around us and their imperfections.
Do you find yourself focusing your attention on the imperfections of others around you? The train wrecks and bad situations that you can judge without thinking about your own junk?
How can you choose to behold God instead of being distracted by your own imperfections or the imperfections of others? How can you choose to behold God rather than letting the distraction of creating the “perfect” Christmas rule the day?
The beautiful news is that Jesus is coming and He wants our attention. He wants us to behold Him, the one who has come to be with us so that we would be saved from all the things that weigh us down.
How can you consider turning your attention to God in a new way this season? Is there something or someone outside of yourself that you can intentionally focus your attention on?
TO CLOSE
Ask group members to share one thing that might top the list of distracting them from beholding the good news of God this season. Pray over these things and then close with this prayer from the Attention Calendar:
God with us, may we behold you in all things, in all moments, in all people and in all places.