Instructions: Use these questions, some or all, as you seek to understand how the Biblical story forms your faithful identity. Each Sunday, you will have an opportunity to symbolically share what you have learned by offering your written response as an act of worship.
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses’ encounter with the burning bush is an experience of the divine. Have you ever had a time when you knew that God was present with you? What did that encounter inspire you to do? If someone asked you to explain why you believe that God is real, what would your answer be?
Moses grew up in Egypt where many gods were worshipped, like the other nations of his day. In contrast, Moses’ God is not the god of a particular concern, but without restrictions—“I will be who I will be.” Yet God has also chosen to be limited by a relationship—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Can we find any connections between this revelation of God’s freedom and love and God’s purposes and presence in our own lives?
Notice that the proof of Moses’ call will come after he has succeeded (he will come back to worship God on this mountain). What have you done (or are doing) by faith? How did it turn out?
Luke 13:1-9
Jesus’ questioners look for God’s presence in tragedy and expect to find it in judgment. Is there any other alternative? Why do you think it is easier to speak of and see God’s wrath than to recognize God’s grace?
Is everything that happens God’s will or are there accidents? Jesus definitely leaves open the possibility of divine intervention, although he does not directly answer the question of whether or not God causes suffering. What is your perspective on this question—why do bad things happen?
Jesus’ parable seems to say that God is patient but that there are limits. The Good News about judgment is the message that choices matter and that God cares. What repentance do you think Jesus wanted to see? How might this message of divine patience and needed repentance apply in our own day? What do you think God cares about today?