Hosted by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine and Charlette Preslar, and joined the each week by a special guest, the Faith To Go Podcast highlights themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
by NPR
Questions:
1) Where was there suffering in this story?
2) How did people respond to that suffering?
3) How did the people who were suffering find joy?
4) How did the people in the camp find hope after feeling isolated and left out for so long?
5) What affect did they have on the world after their experience at the camp?
Views and Qs: Grief, Empathy, and Supporting Others
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) Based on her story of her mom's death, what does it mean to grieve?
2) What challenging interactions with others did she have while she was grieving?
3) When have you experienced grief in your life? How did you want people to respond to you in that time?
4) Based on Andie's talk, what does it mean to "empathize" with someone?
5) Where do you see people grieving in the world today? How can you be with them?
Feast and Faith: Holding Both Hope and Pain
For this week’s dinner discussion, we are talking about the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and weeping with Mary and Martha.
Prayer -
Sanctify, O Lord, those whom you have called to the study
and practice of the arts of healing, and to the prevention of
disease and pain. Strengthen them by your life-giving Spirit,
that by their ministries the health of the community may be
promoted and your creation glorified; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Discussion –
In this fifth week of lent we are focusing on the story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead and the ways he responds to the suffering and grief of Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha. In this moment in our history, there are so many people suffering, and so many more people who are grieving for their loved ones who are suffering. At the same time, as Jesus shows us, there is some hope in suffering. Lets explore how we hold these two feelings, both hope and suffering, together without letting go of one or the other in times like these:
Questions:
1) When was a time that you were suffering or grieving the suffering of another?
2) What did that experience feel like emotionally, physically, and spiritually?
3) What changes did that experience bring about in you?
4) Looking back on that time, did something new grow out of that experience of suffering and/or grief?
5) Where do you see hope present in our current season of suffering in the world?
Final Nugget: Saying that there is hope present in suffering, or new life present even in death, does not make the suffering and grieving any less painful. Instead, ask yourself what it might be like to intentionally hold these feeling of both hope and suffering together with one another at the same time. What might be created out of this tension of seeming opposites? What practices can you take on individually or as a family to hold them together?
Stay and Pray: A Devotion for Families at the Close of the Day Each week we feature a way for your family to reflect and pray together. For families with older children this is an at home liturgy for your family to participate in together. It is a daily devotion for families adapted from The Book of Common Prayer.
Before you begin, take a few moments to decide who will read the scripture reading and who will read the collect and closing.
Read the Psalm and Lord's Prayer in unison.
After a moment of silence, begin with the Psalm.
Psalm 130
(read in unison)
1 Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; * let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. 2 If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, * O Lord, who could stand? 3 For there is forgiveness with you; * therefore you shall be feared. 4 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; * in his word is my hope. 5 My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, * more than watchmen for the morning. 6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, * for with the Lord there is mercy; 7 With him there is plenteous redemption, * and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
Gospel
(read by assigned person)
John 11:1-45
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Prayers for Ourselves and For Others (take this time to each offer one person/event that you would like to hold in prayer as well as one thing you are thankful for)
Dear God, tonight I ask your prayers for.......
and I give you thanks for ..........
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
(read in unison)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen
The Collect
(read by assigned person)
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: