MISSION 2014: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Study Questions for Small Group Fellowship – Part 3
Scripture Reading: John 12:23-28; Hebrews 12:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:1-7; 1 Cor. 9:24-27 Recommended Background Reading: Xealots, by Dave Gibbons, pp 99-106
1. Have you ever considered the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim?
A TOURIST is a visitor to a foreign land, who sees new sights, discovers new places, learns interesting facts, takes a lot of photographs and accumulates souvenirs. The tourist returns home the same person as the one who left, save perhaps for some good memories and a broadened mind. The goal is personal entertainment and a satisfying diversion.
A PILGRIM is a sojourner on a sacred journey, who realizes that “this world is not my home,” and sets out for the “Father’s House.” In the midst of the journey, the pilgrim gains insights and discerns new truths about God and about oneself all along the way. The outcome of a pilgrimage will be the transformation that takes place inside the person. The pilgrim will return with an impression imprinted on the soul, rather than in the memory of a digital camera. The goal is encounter with the Divine and transformation.
Tourists merely gaze at the spiritual life and at spiritual places and things as if they were touring a museum, or visiting Disneyland. They take a few curious glances, delve a bit here and there, and hurry on, anxious to move on to the next “experience.” When we live as pilgrims, we savor the present moment. We open ourselves up to the possibility of communion with God – common events become holy, places become sacred, and we enter those sacred places with awe, holy fear and reverence because we discern the Power that dwells there.
Do you tend to walk through life as a tourist … or as a pilgrim? Why, and how so?
2. Consider this description of the Pilgrim Life in Psalm 119:1-8 (The Message): “You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. That’s right – you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set. You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set. Then I’d never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel. I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I’m going to do what you tell me to do; don’t ever walk off and leave me.” What characteristics of the Pilgrim Way strike you here? 3. Eugene Peterson describes true discipleship as “a long obedience in the same direction.” In an age of thirty-second sound-bites, thirty-page abridgments, and micro- wave, smorgasbord spirituality, it is not easy or popular to persevere as obedient disciples and devoted pilgrims. In fact, it is radically counter-cultural. Read the following Scriptures, and then jot down by each passage what we learn here about what it means to live out a long obedience in the same direction . . .
John 12:23-28:
Hebrews 12:1-2:
2 Timothy 2:1-7
1 Corinthians 9:24-27:
When you compare your own life to these examples of obedient, consistent, persevering discipleship, what do you learn? Where are you growing and where are you struggling? How can your group pray for you and encourage you in your Christian pilgrimage?
4. Read John 15:16 and 1 Peter 2:9-12. What difference does it make when we come to understand our life of discipleship as a divine “calling,” a holy vocation … rather than simply my own personal choice or decision to follow Christ? Why is this so vital if we are to fulfill the mission God has given us both personally and corporately?