Wonderland (Part 1): No Wonder

TO START

This week, we are beginning a 5-part series called Wonderland, a series that invites us to explore and receive the good news that God has made a home with humanity in a way that is unfamiliar and unexpected. Our hope is that as this God comes to us in a wonder-filled way, we might just be filled with wonder as we prepare for and anticipate God's arrival. 

  • What do you tend to look forward to the most in your life OR what things do you get most excited about arriving? (Movie Premiers, Family Coming To Town, Sporting Events, Christmas/Holidays, Traveling/Trips, New Years Eve, Getting Into Bed After Long Day, First Snowfall, Starbucks PSL, First Day of School, etc.)  

TO DISCUSS

We find ourselves in the midst of a story that is tough to make sense of and it might just be disturbing or guilt-inducing, yet with all of these stories, Zane points us to remember that as we make sense of God, there is complexity. The God who is often made sense of and described in various times as a fire is a God that can warm and blister. A fire that demands for us to be aware and to know its place and our place. 

Read 2 Samuel 6:1-9

  • What’s something about God that you’ve always wondered about? 

Like the story from this Sunday, we can find ourselves lulled into being wonderless around and oftentimes this is a product of not having personal and communal interactions with God. We become so familiar with the things of God that we lose familiarity with the wonder that is ignited & fundamental in following God. 

  • Where do you find yourself checking out when it comes to faith/going deeper with God?

In the Sermon, Zane points us to the part of the christian year we find ourselves in. It is known by many Christians as Advent, the four-week period of preparation for Christmas and marks the start of the Christian liturgical year with a season of anticipation and readiness. The word Advent in Latin means “coming”. A season of learning to actively wait for the three-fold coming of Jesus. The first being the remembrance of Jesus’s birth in the flesh, the second being the presence of God among us now in Scripture, community, etc. & lastly, the second coming when the reign of God returns in all fullness.  

  • What has your experience been with Advent? Do you find yourself thinking more intentionally about one of these comings versus the others in this season?

Read 2 Samuel 6:10-19

At the end of Zane’s message, he invited us to consider how we might let the story of God refresh the wonder in our lives by immersing ourselves in this story in various ways and with various ryhthms. 

  • In this season of Christmas, do you or your family do anything to mark the arrival of Jesus? If so, how? If not, what do you find getting in the way of celebrating/marking Christ’s arrival? 

TO CLOSE

Ask God to show possible markers/rhythms that people could embark on to mark the arrival of Christ as the defining occasion of the season. To close the group, we invite you to pray this adapted prayer for Week 1 of Advent from Living The Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. 

You, O Lord, have promised to come and to make all things new, 

To dwell among us as our God and to embrace us as your people, 

To wipe every tear from our eyes, 

To wipe every tear from our eyes, 

And remove from us all pain, 

So that we may live forever in peace and security,

O Lord Jesus, come. 

Matt DeLano