Hosted each week by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine, Maya Little-Sana and Charlette Preslar, the Faith To Go Podcast highlight themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
Questions:
1. How did Jonathan Daniels demonstrate “real love” in the August of 1965?
2. What sort of crossroads and pressures did Jonathan face in his life after high school?
3. What sort of doubts did Jonathan have about moving to Montgomery, Alabama to assist Martin Luther King, Jr.?
4. Is there anything you can do to practice “living theology” in your life?
5. In what ways does Jonathan Daniels live on today?
Views and Qs: How To Be A Good Disciple of Christ
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) What is the primary goal of discipleship?
2) What are the responsibilities of having a relationship with Christ?
3) Compare and contrast the small (but consistent) sacrifices you can make to follow Jesus to big sacrifices that you might be called to make.
4) How are we transformed by being disciples of Christ?
5) What do you feel when you consistently do things that enrich your spiritual life?
Feast and Faith: Giving Things Up
Prayer - The Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.
~Book of Common Prayer 1979, page 833
Discussion (From Ministry to Children)
If you are preparing to make dinner you have to get ready first. You have to look over what is required before you pursue your goals. Here, Jesus is telling people that they have to be prepared to be disciples they have to understand what it means. And what does it mean?
There are things that they might have to set aside for the sake of Christ. Perhaps you can’t practice on the Sunday morning soccer squad, because you have church. Maybe you have to wake up a little earlier in the morning to read the Bible. Maybe they put a dollar into the offering plate instead of purchasing candy. There are smaller and larger methods by which young folks might be called to follow Christ. We are reminded, though, that it is something we need to work at. If you want to follow Jesus, you do need to be disciplined to pray, read the Bible, and follow through.”
1) What things have you had to set aside for the sake of Christ?
2) Which of Jesus’ teachings are easier to follow than others?
3) What are the benefits of following Christ?
4) What are some priorities in our lives?
5) Do we need to re-order some of our priorities to truly follow Christ?
Final nugget: Jesus wants us to check our allegiances and make sure we prioritize following him. There are costs to following Christ; big and small. Jesus warns us that the journey is not easy and that we should evaluate if we are willing to pay the cost to truly follow him.
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 139:1-5, 12-17
Read in Unison
1 Lord, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
4 You press upon me behind and before *
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
12 For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
14 My body was not hidden from you, *
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.
15 Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book; *
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.
16 How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
how great is the sum of them!
17 If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
Luke 14:25-33
Read by Assigned Person
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."
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)
Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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