• Perhaps more than anything else, Christians are known in our culture for being judgmental and hypocritical – two of the very things Jesus condemns in this passages. Why do you think that is?
• All of Chapter 6 could be summed up with the words “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (6:33). How does Jesus’ teaching about seeking God above all else provide a logical foundation for being the kind of people that don’t judge?

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read Matthew 619-34 together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

At the very center of this middle piece of Jesus’ great Sermon we find the chief activity of the people of God: Prayer (v9-18). If the blessing and reward of the Kingdom is God Himself, then there can be no activity that can replace prayer as the chief duty and delight of Kingdom people, for prayer is where we join with God through a conversation of the heart.

The exercise today is to journal a prayer, using the Lord’s prayer as an outline. This is likely how Jesus intended his prayer to be used; as a guideline for our intimate conversations with God. All human concerns are found in this prayer:

• Praise for God’s eternal nature and perfect character,
• A plea for God’s will to come to the circumstances of the world,
• A petition for personal needs,
• A confession of sin and cry for mercy,
• A recognition that we need God’s protection in our lives from temptation and destruction.

Write out a prayer, almost like a diary entry, using these points as an outline. You’ll need at least 20-30 minutes to do this. You can type it out on your computer, use a handwritten journal, or turn it into a song. Whatever you do, make it personal and don’t forget to listen for God’s response being impressed upon your thoughts and feelings.

• Eat together
• Receive communion together (choose a reading from John 6:43-58, or 2 Cor 11:23-26, a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer)
• Read Matthew 6:1-18 together and share your experiences from your exercises this week
• Pray for anyone in need

Also, today we’re having a FALL/HALLOWEEN PARTY! Details below:

• When: Saturday October 31st
• Where: The Hipskinds’ @ 4715 Hartford Drive in Fort Wayne
• Time: 4:30pm till whenever
• What: Soup and caramel apples, games,
• Come dressed up if you want, and bring a side dish or dessert with you.
• Email Amber to RSVP (or call: 260-415-7265, or find Amber Hipskind on Facebook).
• Other:  If anyone wishes to take their kids trick-or-treating you are welcome to do so around our neighborhood… we will have a pinata and other candy for those who wish to stay.

In The Cotton Patch Version, Clarence Jordan translates the Lord’s prayer like this:

Father of us, O Spiritual One
Your name be truly honored.
Your kingdom spread, your will prevail
Through earth, as through the heavens.
Sustaining bread grant us each day.
Forgive our debts as we forgive
The debts of all who cannot pay.
And from confusion keep us clear;
Deliver us from evil’s sway.

Jordan translates the Lord’s prayer as a poem because that is how it appears in the original Greek. As a poem, it took advantage of the ability to communicate deeper meaning through structure, rhythm, and rhyme.

• Take time to write out your own version of the Lord’s prayer in your own way.

By Henry Darger

• Often when we think of ancient Jewish resistance in Jesus’ day, we think of the zealots who were attempting to violently overthrow the Roman ruler-ship. But, there are actually several examples of Jewish non-violent resistance during the time Jesus was teaching these ethics. Here is one example, taken from the writings of Josephus:

As procurator of Judaea, Tiberius sent Pilate, who during the night, secretly and under cover, conveyed to Jerusalem the images of Caesar known as standards. When day dawned this caused great excitement among the Jews; for those who were near were amazed at the sight, which meant that their laws had been trampled on — they do not permit any graven image to be set up in the City — and the angry City mob was joined by a huge influx of people from the country. They rushed off to Pilate in Caesarea, and begged him to remove the standards from Jerusalem and to respect their ancient customs. When Pilate refused, they fell prone all round his house and remained motionless for five days and nights.

The next day Pilate took his seat on the tribunal in the great stadium and summoned the mob on the pretext that he was ready to give them an answer. Instead he gave a pre-arranged signal to the soldiers to surround the Jews in full armour, and the troops formed a ring three deep. The Jews were dumbfounded at the unexpected sight, but Pilate, declaring that he would cut them to pieces unless they accepted the images of Caesar, nodded to the soldiers to bare their swords. At this the Jews as though by agreement fell to the ground in a body and bent their necks, shouting that they were ready to be killed rather than transgress the Law. Amazed at the intensity of their religious fervour, Pilate ordered the standards to be removed from Jerusalem forthwith.”

• Heavier lifting: Explore about others who put Jesus’ teachings into practice in the form of non-violent writing and protest in order to bring about political change: Click to learn about either Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr, Mohandis Ghandi, Vaclev Havel, or Dorothy Day.

A friend told me this story:

One day, a few years ago,  three daughters were jumping up and down in excited anticipation, asking if we could get ice-cream later that night after dinner.

In typical fashion I didn’t say “yes” or “no.” I looked them up and down with a poker face and said, “we’ll see.” Immediately my oldest daughter Savannah pumped her fist and exclaimed, “Yes! We’re getting ice-cream tonight!” I quickly protested: “Hold on, I didn’t say ‘yes,’ I said ‘We’ll see!’” To which she dismissively responded, “Whenever you say ‘maybe’ it always means ‘no,’ but whenever you say ‘we’ll see’ it always means ‘yes.’”

Stunned and speechless, I realized she was right. I had fallen into the unconscious habit of using language to hedge my bets and buy a little wiggle-room to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without really appearing to. Worst of all, my 12 year-old could see right through me.

• When you agree to do something, do you tend to think of it as a rock-solid promise or more of a “maybe” a “probably” or a “we’ll see?”
• How could Christ’s simple straightforward words here be twisted into just another pointless law?
• The issue of wiggling out of commitments in business – as well as personal relationships – is such a serious issue that we often make contracts or elaborate promises to solve it. But how can contract-making and promise-keeping actually become a way to break our commitments?