6.14.20 - A Church of Dam Breakers: Overwhelming Generosity, Part 1 (Kenny Camacho)
SCRIPTURE: John 9
REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
How are you feeling right now? What thoughts, prayers, and convictions have been weighing most heavily on you? What questions do you have?
What “dams” are you currently benefiting from? You might think about culture, education, race, family of origin, financial success--places (in your experience) where lines are drawn between who receives certain benefits or breaks and who doesn’t.
What “dams” have you built yourself? You might think about personal wealth, the neighborhood you live in, your work life or environment--areas of your life where you might be prone to hoarding or excessively “protecting yourself.”
The big idea this week was that taking down a dam is hard: we resist the work by making up half-reasonable excuses for why it’s a bad idea, and when that fails, we tend to kick the can down the road. It’s certainly not work that can be done in a day! What are some of the reasons “dam breaking” has been difficult in your experience?
Talk through the story of the man born blind in John 9. How does it relate to our conversation about dams? What is being “hoarded” here, and why are those in authority so resistant to believing the man’s story about Jesus?
On Sunday, Kenny said that Jesus “dismantles our arrogance” when he says the man’s blindness isn’t about sin at all, but about allowing “the works of God [to] be displayed in him.” What do you think this means?
Kenny also said that receiving generosity creates openness in our lives, as well as the lives of others. How does this connect to our mandate to be “dam breakers”? What should we be looking for as we strive to let God’s overwhelming provision pass not to us but through us, into the lives of others?
Finally, Kenny said that the lesson we learn from the Hetch Hetchy illustration is that dams destroy the valleys upstream. What does this suggest about the danger that faces us if we continue interrupting God’s overwhelming generosity by hoarding things for ourselves?