Small Church January 26, 2025

Conversation Guide for January 26, 2025

Becoming Present to God

While lighting a candle to remind you of God’s Presence, have someone read the candle prayer.

Becoming Present to One Another

 

Share a consolation (what you are most grateful for) and a desolation (what you are least grateful for) from the past week.

Scripture

Read aloud:
Luke 5:27-31

Video

Christ of the Abyss image: artist Marianne Elam

Discuss

  • How do you respond to the idea that if sin does separate us from God, it’s because we move away, not because God does?
  • What do you notice about the way that Jesus talks about sin in chapter 5, or in other places in the gospels?
  • Can you draw any conclusions from the fact that Levi “leaves everything” in Luke 5:28, but then is hosting a great banquet in his house for a large crowd in the next verse?
  • If repentance, at its core, is a change of mind and heart, what things do you think you/we might need to ‘repent’ of?
  • Are there ways we could enact this “great reversal” of who belongs around our tables in tangible ways?

Poetry

Feel free to use this poem as part of your reflection to prepare for communion. You might need to read it slowly several times. 

“Love”
by George Herbert

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back 

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack 

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

 

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

 

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat.

 

Source: George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets  (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978)

 

Music

Communion

The communion table reminds us of the “great reversal’ where the hungry are fed, the sick and hurting are healed, and sinners forgiven. If, as Brian Zahnd says, “grace runs downhill”, then this table is at the bottom of the hill.

With some bread and some juice, serve each other the body and blood of Christ as a sign of the good news we share in Jesus.

Blessing

Close with someone reading the blessing over you all as the candle is blown out.

CapKids Title

Scripture

Read: Luke 5:27-31

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

– NIV

27-28 After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” And he did—walked away from everything and went with him. 29-30 Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religious scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with misfi ts and ‘sinners’?” 31-32 Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”

– The Message

Reflection

Jesus was often a guest at other peoples’ tables. I would expect the God who created the universe to be the One doing the feeding, not the One being fed. But, it’s a tender expression of humility and love to be the guest of another. To receive hospitality is to be like Christ.

Kat Armas writes in her book Abuelita Faith, which is inspired by her own abuelita’s influence on her theological formation, “An abuelita faith calls for the dominant culture to leave its own table and join the marginalized at theirs. The traditional notion of hospitality requires that we be hosts, but an abuelita theology requires we be guests – regular guests at unfamiliar tables with only the motives of listening and learning.” (from Every Sacred Season)

We see how in this story the Pharisees were confused that Jesus would eat with those who society would have labeled as broken, bad, sick or selfish. But sharing a meal with Levi and his friends, to begin a relationship, is exactly how Jesus was able to share God’s unconditional love with people. That kind of love really transforms lives. The invitation was the same no matter if you were a religious leader or a tax collector to believe they are worthy of love and to learn more about the kingdom he promised.

Wonder Questions

  1. Jesus attended a meal with Levi and his tax collector friends. Why would it be important for him or us to share meals with people who are different from him/us?
  2. When have you been invited to share a meal with someone different from you? What did you eat? What did you learn?
  3. Why do you think Jesus shared so many meals with others?
  4. Does God expect us to be perfect when we follow him?
  5. Who did Jesus say he came for?

27-28 After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” And he did—walked away from everything and went with him. 29-30 Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religious scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with misfi ts and ‘sinners’?” 31-32 Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”

– The Message

Activities

Share a Meal

Practice breaking bread with others. We live in a time where it feels like a big ask to invite someone to dinner, but it’s such a unique way we get to share a sacred part of our family and love with others. Don’t overthink or over plan, but extend an invitation to someone to join your family for a meal. Maybe it’s a friend of your child from school, maybe it’s a colleague from work, maybe it’s an elderly neighbor. Don’t wait until you have time to make that perfect meal, or clean your house; be open to having people in your space and see how those invitations start being extended back towards you. Ask your kids who they would want to invite to dinner and you may be surprised to have the perfect guest to invite!

Reverse the Roles, Kids Cook

Parents, how about letting your kids plan and make dinner? Depending on the age of your kids, you can support them in executing a dinner at their ability level. Be open to rolling with it and try to let them have as much freedom in the experience as possible. Encourage them to think about the table, and the meal itself, beyond just the food. Soak in the gift of receiving a meal you didn’t have to cook. Bless the food that has been prepared and enjoy. Reflect on how this experience made you feel as the ones on the receiving end and share that with the kids. Ask them how their experience was.

Resources