6.18.22 - Choosing the Divine Mystery (Kenny Camacho)

SCRIPTURE: Galatians 4.8-5.1

“We may not be rushing to observe Jewish festivals or pursuing adult circumcision… but we are still Galatians. What have we done? We’ve chased certainty and systems of rule-following. We’ve dressed those things up as ‘maturity.’ We’ve allowed the spirits of judgmentalism and legalism those things foster to justify unkindness within us. And when these rigid structures we are relying on inevitably crack–in divisions, in corruption, in scandal–we walk away from our faith because it looks like it has let us down. Would those things have happened if we had held onto the mystery? Would they have happened if we had made our personal trust in the unfolding discovery of God’s love for us and the transforming conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit our top priority, over and above what seemed practical and certain?”

REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Take a moment to try and summarize some of the things we’ve learned about the letter to the Galatians so far: What has stood out to you? What might God be trying to say to us?

  2. So much of this series has been about the temptation to chase certainty in our faith: when have you experienced this temptation? Where has it led you?

  3. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian? 

  4. How can we stay open to the work the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives? What do we have to be willing to give up in order to see it happen? 

  5. What is your personal reason for being a Christian? For being a part of this church?

  6. Kenny asked, “does Revolution exist because there is good work to be done in Annapolis [or] because the Holy Spirit, working freely and unmistakably in each one of us, makes the existence of Revolution inescapable?” What is the difference? How can we be a church more firmly rooted in what the Holy Spirit is doing among us? 

Kenny Camacho