HMBFC ____
Spiritual Formation Kit
DIY Bible study
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Intro
After pondering the Scripture passage for this week's worship gathering, the staff of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community put together this spiritual formation kit for groups and individuals to use.
We hope that it will encourage transformation as you encounter God's voice in fresh ways through the Bible; connection as you talk and pray together; and interaction as the sermons become less of a Sunday morning monologue and more of a week-long community conversation.
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Liturgy
Frame your time together with prayer.
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Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
Follow this link to center your hearts and minds with silence, the responsive prayers, and/or music. Read and discuss this week's passage from Luke instead of the passages suggested by Common Prayer. After discussing the passage with the questions below, close your time with prayer for each other and the benediction.
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This week's text
Read this passage aloud once or twice.
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| | Compare this week's passage to parallel versions in Mark and Matthew. |
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Background Info
Enhance your knowledge with insights from scholar-in-residence Dr. Dan
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There is an ancient Christian text called the Didache, or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which contains the following instruction: “Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays” (8:1). According to this text, which unfortunately identifies Jews as “hypocrites,” ancient Jews and Christians fasted twice a week, or at least they did by the late first century when the Didache was composed. Jews also fasted on the Day of Atonement and on occasions of mourning or repentance.
When Luke 5:35 states, “they will fast in those days,” this appears to refer to the fasting of early Christians, whose practices are reflected in the Didache. However, fasting seems not to have been a central part of Jesus’ ministry. This passage in particular seems to contrast the mournful and repentant fasting of John the Baptist and the Pharisees with the joyous celebration of Jesus and his disciples. You'll find something similar in Luke 7:31–34, where a fasting John the Baptist, who came “neither eating bread nor drinking wine,” stands in contrast to a feasting Jesus, whose opponents label him “a glutton and a drunkard.”
Luke 5:36–39 contains two parables and a proverb, each of which suggests that the new is incompatible with the old. In the parables about the garment and the wineskins it is unclear whether the old or the new is preferable. According to one line of interpretation, that which is new symbolizes the movement initiated by Jesus—the new is better than the old. However, the final proverb, which is unique to Luke (it doesn’t appear in Mark or Matthew’s versions of this story), indicates that old wine is superior to new wine (compare Sirach 9:10). Accordingly, a second line of interpretation sees this closing proverb as providing the key for understanding the preceding parables—the old is better than the new. Which interpretation is right? You decide! |
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Reflection Questions
Guide discussion with these questions or ask your own.
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| 1) Why
do you think John the Baptist’s disciples fasted? Why did the Pharisees
and scribes? Did Jesus want his disciples to fast or not?
2) Compare
what Jesus says here about fasting to what he says about other religious
practices, like tithing or observing the Sabbath. What makes these
disciplines authentically spiritual?
3) Is
Jesus the bridegroom? If so, then what is the wedding? Who is the bride? Who are the
wedding guests? When are “those days?”
4) The
little parables about the cloth and the wine can be challenging to
understand. Everyone agrees that Jesus is saying that the old and new ways
are incompatible. But is he pitting his new way against the old way of the
Pharisees? Or does he mean that his way is more true to the ancient
purposes of God than the innovations of the Pharisees?
5) Have
you ever fasted? How was it meaningful for you? How might it be helpful in
your spiritual journey? How might it be harmful?
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Our Response
Consider how to act on today's insights.
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| 1) We often think about fasting in terms of food. What are other ways we
could fast, and how could that be helpful in our spiritual journeys?
2) Try a fast this week. Report back next week on the experience. |
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Bonus Round
Go deeper this week with further reading and reflection.
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| Fasting for the Lord
In this excerpt from Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster discusses the whys, ways, and hows of fasting.
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Talk about this stuff with other people
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Join a weekly discussion group
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Just contact the leader to get directions.
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