Shema.
Hear, O Israel.
For centuries, the Word of the God was spoken and heard.
The people of God would listen as their parents and grandparents and leaders and shepherds would recount their creation stories, their deliverance stories, their war stories, their resistance stories. They sat under the stories of God together.
Poems. Songs. History. Everything Israel knew of Scripture was experienced within the context of community. After hearing the Scriptures, they would bring their questions, ideas, confusion and clarity into that same community and wrestle with God and one another for a revelation of truth that would shape them.
The early Jesus followers were no different. With the Holy Spirit as their guide, they were faced with the task of wrestling with the Jewish Scriptures anew in light of the reality that the Messiah had come.
Every year, we explore what it means to be a Spirit-empowered community in our own context and approach to scripture. Week by week, we will engage and respond to a different text (this year from a variety of Paul’s letters to different churches) through the ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina (learn more here.).
Please read through this week's passage of Scripture three times using the following questions and practices to guide you.
Lectio (Read)
Read the passage slowly and carefully.
1) What images or words stand out as you hear/read the text?
Meditatio (Reflect)
Read the passage a second time. Take time to sit in the passage and engage it with your imagination. Pay attention to the details. Repeat the main words or phrases that are sticking out to you.
2) What might the Spirit be inviting you to receive from this text?
Oratio (Respond)
Read the passage a third time. Ask the Holy Spirit for understanding of what he is saying.
3) What might the Spirit be inviting us to do or put into practice as individuals and/or as a community through this text?
After prayerfully engaging with the text, either as a group or individual, please share your insights, questions, visions, or convictions with us! We want to know what you are hearing so that we can get a fuller picture of what Jesus is saying to our community.
Galatians 2:11-21 NLT
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Share with us what Jesus is revealing to you in this passage!
Written Reflection - Reflect on and answer one or all of the three questions above.
Questions - What questions arise for you about the text or what it means?
Creative Expression - Respond to what the text is revealing to you through song, poetry, sculpture, painting, photography or any other creative expression.
You can fill out the fields directly in the form or upload a file.
Or email info@spaconline.com or text us at 587-205-5852.
Comments